“灼灼百朵红 戋戋五束素”——白居易《秦中吟买花》英译赏析
帝城春欲暮，喧喧车马度。
共道牡丹时，相随买花去。
贵贱无常价，酬直看花数：
灼灼百朵红，戋戋五束素。
上张幄幕庇，旁织笆篱护。
水洒复泥封，移来色如故。
家家习为俗，人人迷不悟。
有一田舍翁，偶来买花处。
低头独长叹，此叹无人喻：
一丛深色花，十户中人赋！
Arthur Waley阿瑟韦利的英文翻译
THE FLOWER MARKET
买花
In the Royal City spring is almost over:
Tinkle, tinkle—the coaches and horsemen pass.
帝城春欲暮，喧喧车马度。
We tell each other “This is the peony season”:
And follow with the crowd that goes to the Flower Market.
共道牡丹时，相随买花去。
“Cheap and dear—no uniform price:
The cost of the plant depends on the number of blossoms.
贵贱无常价，酬直看花数：
For the fine flower,—a hundred pieces of damask:
For the cheap flower,—five bits of silk.
灼灼百朵红，戋戋五束素。Damask, a firm lustrous fabric (as of linen, cotton, silk, or rayon) made with flat patterns in a satin weave on a plain-woven ground on jacquard looms, 锦缎。这里译者明显是理解错了。据田南池先生在一篇著作中的解析，“戋戋”形容众多的样子，一束是五匹，“灼灼百朵红，戋戋五束素”指的是一株开了百朵的牡丹花，居然卖到了25匹帛的价钱。在《卖炭翁》的英译中，Arthur Waley 把“半匹红绡” 翻译为Half a piece of red silk，所以类似的这句可译为A pot of a hundred red followers, equals to the costs of 25 pieces of white silks.(trans. by Yan Weiji)
Above is spread an awning to protect them:
Around is woven a wattle-fence to screen them.
上张幄幕庇，旁织笆篱护。
If you sprinkle water and cover the roots with mud,
When they are transplanted, they will not lose their beauty.”
水洒复泥封，移来色如故。
Each household thoughtlessly follows the custom,
Man by man, no one realizing.
家家习为俗，人人迷不悟。
There happened to be an old farm labourer
Who came by chance that way.
有一田舍翁，偶来买花处。
He bowed his head and sighed a deep sigh:
But this sigh nobody understood.
低头独长叹，此叹无人喻：
He was thinking, “A cluster of deep-red flowers
Would pay the taxes of ten poor houses.”
一丛深色花，十户中人赋！