《湖心亭看雪》中「霧凇沆碭」怎樣翻譯成英文？

01-07

如題。百度百科：「霧凇沆碭：冰花一片瀰漫。霧，從天上下罩湖面的雲氣。凇，從湖面蒸發的水汽。沆碭，白氣瀰漫的樣子。曾鞏《冬夜即事詩》自註：『齊寒甚，夜氣如霧，凝於水上，旦視如雪，日出飄滿階庭，齊人謂之霧凇。』」

好問題。提供一些思路，希望對題主有啟發。

此句第一個難點在「霧凇」這種自然景觀的所傳達的特殊動靜美感：巨大的湖面寧靜非常，而上有陣陣白霧掠過，一靜一動，以動襯靜。

對這種動靜感寫的最好的是Carl Sandburg。他的詩 Fog 中以貓之腳步寫霧掠過時候的安靜與靈動：

The fog comes on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

若想更直白地寫霧的動態，可以參考Conrad Aiken寫冬霧所用的動詞：

The white fog creeps from the cold sea over the city, over the pale grey tumbled towers, and settles among the roofs, the pale grey walls.

Along damp sinuous streets it crawls, curls like a dream among the motionless trees, and seems to freeze.

The fog slips ghost-like into a thousand rooms, whirls over sleeping faces, spins in an atomy dance round misty street lamps; and blows in cloudy waves over open spaces.

此句的第二個難點在於對「沆碭」色彩、質地的理解。冰湖剔透，霧氣瀰漫，一個清明一個朦朧，這是色彩上的曖昧。湖面寒光砭人肌骨，用詞宜峻峭，而雪霧質地細軟輕薄，又不宜下厲筆刻畫，這是柔與肅的辯證。

對於清澈與迷茫、溫柔與肅殺這種色空之間的幽微感處理的最好的是 Amy Clampitt：

A vagueness comes over everything,

As though proving color and contour alike dispensable:

The lighthouse extinct,

The islands" spruce-tips drunk up like milk in the universal emulsion;

Houses reverting into the lost and forgotten;

Granite subsumed,

A rumor in a mumble of ocean.

尤其是末尾這句，"a rumor in a mumble of ocean"（霧顯霧隱，碎語低吟，流入濤聲），以聲寫色，我格外喜歡。

如果想更直接寫「沆碭」的色彩、質地，還可以參考Emma Lazarus的用詞：

Light silken curtain, colorless and soft,

Dreamlike before me floating! what abides

Behind thy pearly veil"s

Opaque, mysterious woof?

Bring sweet assurance of continuous life

Beyond this silvery cloud.

Fantastic dreams,

Of tissue subtler still

Than the wreathed fog, arise,

And cheat my brain with airy vanishings

And mystic glories of the world beyond.

一點想法，供參考。

Frozen fog enshrouds the misty water,

the sky, the clouds, the mountain, the lake, are all just as white.

霧凇沆碭，天與雲、與山、與水，上下一白。

Crystals scattered. White touched the lake and the mountain; weaving the sky with the cloud.

霧凇沆碭，天與雲與山與水，上下一白。

Winter is coming

古文?白話文?英文不就行了