George Gissing -- Shakespeare's Island 汉译

    Today I have read The Tempest ...
    Among the many reasons which make me glad to have been born in England, one of the first is that I read Shakespeare in my mother tongue. If I try to imagine myself as one who cannot know him face to face, who hears him only speaking from afar, and that in accents which only through the labouring intelligence can touch the living soul, there comes upon me a sense of chill discouragement, of dreary deprivation. I am wont to think that I can read Homer, and assuredly, if any man enjoys him, it is I; but can I for a moment dream that Homer yields me all his music, that his word is to me as to him who walked by the Hellenic shore when Hellas lived? I know that there reaches me across the vast of time no more than a faint and broken echo; I know that it would be fainter still, but for its blending with those memories of youth which are as a glimmer of the world's primeval glory. Let every land have joy of its poet; for the poet is the land itself, all its greatness and its sweetness, all that incommunicable heritage for which men live and die. As I close the book, love and reverence possess me. Whether does my full heart turn to the great enchanter, or to the island upon which he has laid his spell? I know not. I cannot think of them apart. In the love and reverence awakened by that voice of voices, Shakespeare and England are but one.

王宏印 译:

莎士比亚之岛
乔治•吉辛

    今天我读完了《暴风雨》……
    我很庆幸自己出生在英格兰，在众多的理由之中首要的理由之一是，我用我的母语阅读莎士比亚。要是我想象自己不能面对面地去认识他，只能听他从遥远的地方讲话，而且是用一种费解的口音讲话，我将会感到心灰意冷，也会因为被剥夺了一种权利而感到沮丧。我常这样想，我能阅读荷马，而且可以肯定地说，要是有谁欣赏荷马的作品，那就是我；可是，我能梦想领悟他所有的音乐吗？我能像那些在古希腊海滩上漫步的古希腊人那样理解他诗篇的每一个字吗？我知道，越过广袤的时空传到我耳际的不过是一个微弱的、断断续续的回声；我知道，若不是这回声融汇着世界远古时代荣光火花的青春记忆，这微弱的回声还会更加微弱。让每个国度都为它的诗人而感到欣慰吧；因为诗人就是这国度本身，就是它的伟大和温馨所在，就是人们置生死于不顾而要继承的只可意会而不可言传的遗产。当我合上书时，心中充满了爱和崇敬。我的心事转向这位伟大的魔法师，还是转向他施过魔法的岛屿？我不知道。我无法将他们分开。在那伟大的声音所唤起的爱和崇敬之中，莎士比亚和英格兰已经融为一体。