用歌谣体译介中国的创世神话

Translating ancient Chinese mythology in ballad metre

本文把英诗中的歌谣体作为一种译诗形式进行探讨。认为歌谣体是介绍中国文化的一种可行形式。文章分析了歌谣体的特点和使用歌谣体译诗的理由,并指出了用歌谣体译诗的具体做法:坚持以四行诗节为主,突出歌谣特点;在节律和用韵上放宽要求,力求自然;适当引入变化;使用形象化语言、简朴而富感情色彩的语句和语体;非关键性细节不必译出;模仿英诗名篇的某些做法等。

The ballad can be a form in translating Chinese poetry into English. The author's attempts include; employing the quatrain as the principal stanzaic form but allowing some flexibility in metre and rhyme; natural speech flow; enhancement of dramatic effects through colloquialism and terse but figurative language loaded with emotion; necessary omission of unnecessary details; modeling on well-known pieces of English poetry in such measures as poetical inversion, archaism, dialects, repetition, internal rhyme, parallelism and borrowing of words or ready-made words or phrases.