Chinese Translation of Sylvia Plath's "Ariel"
by JMTMD


Ariel

Stasis in darkness.
Then the substanceless blue
Pour of tor and distances.

God's lioness,
How one we grow,
Pivot of heels and knees!-The furrow

Splits and passes, sister to
The brown arc
Of the neck I cannot catch,

Nigger-eye
Berries cast dark
Hooks-

Black sweet blood mouthfuls,
Shadows.
Something else

Hauls me through air-
Thighs, hair;
Flakes from my heels.

White
Godiva, I unpeel-
Dead hands, dead stringencies.

And now I
Foam to wheat, a glitter of seas.
The child's cry

Melts in the wall.
And I
Am the arrow,

The dew that flies
Suicidal, at one with the drive
Into the red

Eye, the cauldron of morning.


<<BY>>
　


雷峰


膠著黑暗
後而無形之藍
傾瀉而過的山岩與距離

上帝的母獅子
我們合和為一
足跟與膝頭　犁溝

一一斷裂閃過
我無法抓住
姐妹棕色的弧頸

黑眼漿果拋來暗鉤
一口口黑甜的血
魔影幢幢

另物挾我於風
大腿　髮絲　
與我剝落的足屑

白娘子　
我正蛻化
殭死的手　殭死的枷鎖

我
沫化為麥穗　金光閃爍的海洋
兒女的哭聲　

溶入牆壁
我
正是飛箭

露珠
捨命的
濺入火紅之眼

我　黎明的熔爐




One of my favorite American poets is Sylvia Plath. I was first introduced to her work while I was a high school student in Chickasha, Oklahoma in 1967. I am always curious why a conservative rural high school accepted and taught "modern" poetry by a controversial poet, barely four years after her untimely death. Nevertheless, I am forever grateful of the literary exposure I received in that school over forty years ago.

Since then I have read a number of Chinese translations of Plath's work on the internet. Unfortunately, none seems satisfactory. Most of them are translations of words, rather than the poem. Indeed, poetry can seldom be translated. Often, the feeling is lost in the translation. The translator not only needs to be proficient in both languages, but more importantly, needs to have a good grasp of the cultures involved. Sometimes, I feel translating a good poem is more difficult than creating one. There are poems that defy translation. "Ariel" may be one of them. However, I am willing to give my best shot at it.

The title "雷峰" comes from the Legend of the Snakes. The White Snake, 白素貞,imprisoned under the 雷峰 pagoda, parallels Ariel, the enslaved spirit of Shakespeare's Tempest. I thought the correspondence of 白娘子 and "White Godiva" especially appropriate and culturally equivalent. Afterall, Sylvia Plath was writing about her struggle with the constraints of womanhood and the stringencies as a mother, wife, and as a daughter. Similarly, the White Snake strives to break the barrier between Gods and mortals.

The last stanza is most difficult to translate, as the poet implies "Eye" as "I", and "morning" as "mourning." I do not have a solution to this riddle. The only way, as I see it, is to use separate words for "Eye", but the problem remains with "morning", because the emotions of mourning and sadness is lost in the translation.



Chinese Translation Copyright: JMTMD