母亲节 | 《游子吟》英译6版赏析

游子吟

孟郊

慈母手中线，游子身上衣。
临行密密缝，意恐迟迟归。
谁言寸草心，报得三春晖。

1

For Her Son Who’ll Be Away

for a While

（龚景浩 译）

Needle and thread in doting mother’s hand

Turn out garments for her son out to roam the land.

She puts in more stitches e’en as he leaves

And frets that his homecoming may be moved back.

Who says the tiny inch-tall blade of grass

Can e’er repay the warm sunshine of spring?

2

Song of a Roamer

（许渊冲 译）

The threads a kind mother’s hand,

A gown for her son bound for far-off land.

Sewn stitch by stitch before he leaves,

For fear his return be delayed.

Such kindness as young grass receives,

From the warm sun can’t be repaid.

3

A Roamer’s Song

（徐忠杰 译）

My benevolent mother —

With thread and needle in hand,

Mends the garment I have on.

Ere I leave my native land.

More stitches, ere I take leave,

To hold the seams firm and fast.

As itinerant worker,

To come home I’d be the last.

With what can I repay Ma?

Whatever others may say,

For what she has done for me,

Her, I can never repay.

4

The Wandering Son’s Song

（孙大雨 译）

The thread from my dear mother’s hand,

Was sewn in the clothes of her wandering son.

Forfear of my belated return,

Before my leave they were closely woven.

Who says mine heart like a blade of grass

Could repay her love’s gentle beams of spring sun?

5

A Traveller’s Song

（Witter Bynner 译）

The thread in the hands of a fond-hearted mother,

Makes clothes for the body of her wayward boy;

Carefully she sews and thoroughly she mends,

Dreading the delays that will keep him late from home.

But how much love has the inch-long grass,

For three spring months of the light of the sun?

6

Sung to the Air: “The Wanderer”

（Amy Lowell 译）

Thread from the hands of a doting mother, 

Worked into the clothes of a far-off journeying son. 

Before his departure, were the close, fine stitches set,

Lest haply his return be long delayed.

The heart, the inch-long grass,

Who will contend that either repay,

The gentle brightness of the Third Month of Spring.

（龚景浩译本选自《英译唐诗名作选》，由龚景浩先生选译，其余译本整理自网络。）

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