評論
打印
I know my learned professors have found greater riches in the Iliad than I shall ever find; but I am not avaricious. I am content that others should be wiser than I. But with all their wide and comprehensive knowledge, they cannot measure their enjoyment of that splendid epic, nor can I. When I read the finest passages of the Iliad, I am conscious of a soul-sense that lifts me above the narrow, cramping circumstances of my life. My physical limitations are forgotten—my world lies upward, the length and the breadth and the sweep of the heavens are mine!
我很清楚，博學的教授們從《伊利亞特》中發掘的財富要遠勝于我。我并不是個貪婪的人，我甘愿接受別人比我更聰明的現實。但是即使擁有了淵博的知識，他們卻無法揣摩出恢弘史詩所蘊涵的激情。當然，我也揣摩不出來。而當我讀了《伊利亞特》中最精彩的篇章以后，我才有了靈魂升華的感覺——我狹隘逼仄的生命得以釋放，而身體的局限也已被我淡忘。我的世界也在上升，它浩瀚無邊，橫掃過重重天際！
My admiration for the Aeneid is not so great, but it is none the less real. I read it as much as possible without the help of notes or dictionary, and I always like to translate the episodes that please me especially. The word-painting of Virgil is wonderful sometimes; but his gods and men move through the scenes of passion and strife and pity and love like the graceful figures in an Elizabethan mask, whereas in the Iliad they give three leaps and go on singing. Virgil is serene and lovely like a marble Apollo in the moonlight; Homer is a beautiful, animated youth in the full sunlight with the wind in his hair.
我并不十分贊賞《埃涅阿斯紀》這部史詩，但它的真實依然令人動容。在閱讀這部作品的時候，我盡量不去借助字典或注釋的幫忙，而且，我總是喜歡把我特別喜歡的章節翻譯出來。維吉爾的文筆有時的確精彩，但是他筆下的諸神和人類無不游走在激情、沖突、憐憫和情愛之間，就如同伊麗莎白時代化裝舞會中的才子佳人。然而，《伊利亞特》中的神祇和人類則歡呼雀躍，縱情歌唱。維吉爾具有沉靜而迷人的氣質，如同月光之下的一尊阿波羅雕像；而荷馬恰如頭頂烈日、迎風而立的英武青年。
How easy it is to fly on paper wings! From "Greek Heroes" to the Iliad was no day's journey, nor was it altogether pleasant.
在書卷之間展翅飛翔是多么地愜意！從《希臘英雄傳》到《伊利亞特》的旅程并非一朝一夕之功，它也不會帶給你雙倍的快樂。
