嘛~这种名篇当然有名人翻译了~
译文1为张培基译,选自张培基译注,1999年,《英译中国现代散文选》(汉英对照),上海:上海外语教育出版社。
译文2为刘士聪译,选自乔萍、翟淑蓉、宋洪玮编著,1999年,《散文佳作108篇》(汉英/英汉对照),南京:译林出版社。
译文1
Wild Grass
There is a story which goes like this:
Someone asked,”What has the greatest strength on earth? ”The answers varied. Some said,”The elephant.”Some said,”The lion.”Some said jokingly,”The fierce-browed guardian gods to Buddha.” But nobody of course could tell how strong the guardian gods were supposed to be.
All the answers turned out to be wide of the mark. The mightiest thing on earth is the seed of a plant. The great strength which a seed is capable of is simply matchless. Here goes another story:
The bones forming a human skull are so tightly and perfectly fit together that all physiologists or anatomists, hard as they try, are powerless to take them apart without damaging them. It so happened that, at the suggestion of someone, some seeds of a plant were placed inside a human skull awaiting dissection before heat and moisture were applied to cause them to grow. Once they started to grow, they let loose a terrific force to separate all the skull bones, leaving each of them intact. This would have been impossible with any mechanical power under the sun. See, how powerful the seeds of a plant can be!
This story may be somewhat too unusual for you to understand. Well, have you ever seen the growth of a bamboo shoot? Or the growth of tender grass from under a heap of rubble or rocks? Seeking sunlight and survial, the young plant will labour tenaciously through twists and turns to bring itself to the surface of the ground no matter how heavy the rocks overhead may be or how narrow the opening between them. While striking its roots deep into the soil, the young plant pushes its new shoots aboveground. The irresistable strength it can muster is such as to overturn any rock in its way. See, how powerful a seed can be!
Though nobody descibes the little grass as a “husky”, yet its herculean strength is unrivalled. It is the force of life invisible to the naked eye. It will display itself as long as there is life. The rock is utterly helpless before this force----a force that will forever remain militant, a force that is resilient and can take temporary setbacks calmly, a force that is tenacity itself and will never give up until the goal is reached.
When a seed falls under debris instead of on fertile soil, it never sighs in despair because to meet with obstruction means to temper itself. Indomitable is the grass that begins its very life with a tough struggle. It is only fit and proper that the proud grass should be jeering at the potted flowers in a glass house.
译文2
Wild Grass
There is a story which goes like this:
Someone asked, “What is the most powerful thing in the world?”
There was a variety of answers.
“Elephant,” someone said.
“Lion,” another said.
“Buddha’s guardian warrior,” still another said half-jokingly. As to how powerful the Buddha’s guardian warrior was, no one was sure.
In fact none of the answers was correct. The most powerful thing in the world is the seed of plants. The force displayed by a seed is simply incomparable. Here goes another story:
The bones of a human skull are so tightly and firmly joined that no physiologist and anatomist had succeeded in taking them apart whatever means they tried. Then someone invented a method. He put some seeds of a plant in the skull to be dissected and provided the necessary temperature and moisture to make them germinate. Once the seeds germinated, they manifested a terrible force with which he succeeded in opening up the human skull that had failed to be opened even by mechanical means. This story tells us how powerful the seeds of plants can be.
You may think this is too unusual a story to be grasped by the common mind. Well, have you ever seen how the bamboo shoots grow? Have you ever seen how frail young grass grow out from under debris and rubble? In order to get the sunshine and bring its will to grow into play, no matter how heavy the rocks are and how narrow the space between the rocks, it will wind its way up irresistibly, its roots drilling downward and its sprouts shooting upward. This is an irresistible force. Any rock lying in its way will be overturned. This again shows how powerful a seed can be.
Though the little grass have never been said to be herculean, the power it shows is matchless in the world. It is an invisible force of life. So long as there is life, the force will show itself. The rock above it is not heavy enough to prevent it from growing because it is a force that keeps growing over a period of time, because it is an elastic force that can shrink and expand, because it is a tenacious force that will not stop growing until it is grown.
The seed does not choose to fall on fertile land but among debris. If it is filled with life, it is never pessimistic or sad, for it is tempered by resistance and pressure. The grass that fights its way out since the moment it is born can be called “strong” and ”tenacious”; only the grass that fights its way up since its birth has the right to laugh with justified pride at the potted plants in glassed green houses.
参考资料:张培基译注《英译中国现代散文选》上海外语教育出版社;刘士聪译,《散文佳作108篇》译林出版社