(图片：作者像)

悠闲人生 

    （威廉.享利.戴维斯）

这会是怎样的人生？假使终日繁忙

总是无暇停留欣赏

当绿荫重重，我们却顾不上

驻足观看，如牛羊般悠然闲望

当穿过树林，我们却顾不上

看那松鼠，将坚果在草丛中深藏

当晴空万里，我们却顾不上

看那溪流，如夜空的星河泛着一片金光

当佳人相逢，我们却顾不上

回望步履轻盈，渐远的倩影直教人心魂跌宕

当笑靥初现，我们却顾不上

等待红唇轻启，共一对明眸容颜绽放

这是多么枯燥的人生！假使终日繁忙

总是无暇停留欣赏

                                         （草译于浦东20070908凌晨三点）

原文：

Leisure

            by William Henry Davies

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.


No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.


No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.


A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

William Henry Davies (1871 - September 26, 1940), was a Welsh poet and writer. He spent most of his life as a tramp in the United States and United Kingdom, but became known as one of the most popular poets of his time.

He was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, in Wales, where his father died when he was two years old. His mother then abandoned him and his siblings when she remarried, leaving them to be brought up by their grandparents.

He was a difficult and somewhat delinquent young man, and after failing to settle as an apprentice, took casual work and travelled. The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp (1908) is an account of his times in the USA 1893 - '99, during which he lived as a vagrant. He lost a leg while jumping a train in Canada, and wore a wooden leg.

He returned to England, living a rough life in London in particular. His first book of poetry, in 1905, was the beginning of success and a growing reputation; he drew extensively on his experiences with the seamier side for material. By the time of his prominent place in the Edward Marsh Georgian poetry series, he was an established figure. He is generally best known for two lines from his poem, Leisure:

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

He married in 1923 Helen Payne, his junior by three decades; his frank and often disturbing account of his life before and after meeting her by chance in the Edgware Road near Marble Arch was only published in 1980 after her death in 1979. They lived quietly and happily in Sussex and Gloucestershire.

译者言：

    历数更，草稿终成，勉强可读，暂此作罢，且待来日深看细改。此处先记下劳动的过程，以供日后参考。

    诗人生活之艰，奔波之倦，于诗中昭然可见。通读之久（并不抱背诵之目的，只求入其境，虽各人各时所感不同）竟忽入此境。全诗仅十四行竟反复用了七处 no time ,与牛羊、溪流、绿枝、树林、佳人等众闲逸之像共垒，读着读着，想着想着，心中烦燥、厌倦之意丛生。于是动笔开译。起初字意相扣，词句间秩序反复，逐行而定，待成一半，然至三段，犹不好译，韵脚难求，读之索无味，颇是闹心。至此返读原诗，来回踱度，曾想以古体式齐句译之（如生之为何？其日碌碌，哈等日后再以此试译），但想今晚已不可能，苦闷了好久。终觉得要以自己的想法去译。

    记得有人说，诗就是在翻译中失去的东西，因此，以后我是否该这样去尝试，在意译的基础上，由情绪去译诗，先现原诗之境，而后译由境生。这样做，我想尽可能的挽回诗境。写作技巧中有通感之法，写诗，读诗，译诗，唯求得共鸣，而求共鸣莫过于造境，更何况诗有境然后有好诗，在难以扣词对译时若以通境译之，取其意境，或优于直译其词，读之无味。而且这样，能增加译诗的情趣，不致于苦闷之极。

                                                         （2007-09-08 04:15）