An Inkwash Painting①
Guo Moruo
The sea was a ghastly② dark blue.The gentle waves licking at the shore gave forth a humming sound like that of fish in shoals.
All that foreboded③ a storm.
I walked towards the sandy beach carrying my lunch-box and then sat inside a fishing boat moored at the seashore.
What an insipid and dreary scene!I opened the lunch-box only④ to have it covered up again.
Looking back, I caught sight of a lonely crematorium looming⑤ out of a pine wood. Its towering red-brick chimney was giving off⑥ wisps of greyish smoke.
翻译:
《水墨画》郭沫若
天空一片灰暗,没有丝毫的日光。
海水的蓝色浓得惊人,舐岸的微波吐出群鱼喋嗡的声韵。
这是暴风雨欲来时的先兆。
海中的岛屿和乌木的雕刻一样静凝着了。
我携着中食的饭匣向沙岸上走来,在一只泊系着的渔舟里面坐着。
一种淡白无味的凄凉的情趣——我把饭匣打开,又闭上了。
回头望见松原里的一座孤寂的火葬场。红砖砌成的高耸的烟囱口上,冒出了一笔灰白色的飘忽的轻烟……
注解:
① “水墨画”还可翻译为An Ink-Wash Painting
②ghastly的意思是“可怕的”,但兼有“不正常”的含义。
③ “先兆”也可译为foretold,但不如foreboded确切,因后者一般都针对不好的事物。
④only(用在不定式前)往往作“结果却”或“却又”解。
⑤用looming代替standing等能较好地表达“赫然耸立”的含义。
⑥to give off是成语,意同to send out,to emit等。