蔡廷干赠司徒雷登的一首英文悼亡诗考析

Analysis of an English Mourning Poem Presented to John Leighton Stuart by Tsai Ting Kan

北大馆藏司徒雷登文献中发现了一篇题为"因为你已长逝"的英文诗稿,经考证,其为清末儒将、民国政要蔡廷干为悼念1901年去世的夫人所作,1926年知悉司徒雷登夫人去世,蔡廷干又将诗稿赠于司徒雷登以表慰问.该诗既符合中国传统悼亡诗的范式,也受英美挽歌的影响,其题名亦与拜伦的名篇《你已长逝》几近相同.这首悼亡诗是蔡廷干英诗创作的早期作品,其重视格律、追求音韵整齐的特点一直延续到其晚年成书的代表作《唐诗英韵》中.

An English poem manuscript entitled“For thou Art Dead”was found in the documents of Dr.John Leighton Stuart in the library of Peking University.It was confirmed through textual research that it was composed by Tsai Ting Kan,a General in late Qing Dynasty as well as politician of the Republic of China,in memory of his wife who died in 1901.In 1926,he learned of Mrs.Stuart’s death and gave the poem to Dr.Stuart as a token of condolence.This poem is not only in line with the paradigm of Chinese traditional mourning poetry,but also bears the influence of the English and American elegy.It’s title is almost the same as Byron’s famous poem“And Thou Art Dead”.This poem is an early work of Tsai’s poems which attaches great importance to metrics,and pursues the characteristics of neat rhyme,and is the representative poem of his work Chinese Poetry in English Rhymes of later years.