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译作赏析
• 披着滴落的露珠， 天空灿烂，白日的行程就要结束； 穿过玫瑰色的遥远空际， 你往何方把孤单的前程追逐？ 看你远远飞翔而无计可施， 捕鸟人的眼光徒劳眷顾； 满天红霞把你映衬， 暗黑的身影飘飘飞舞。 你是在寻找开阔的大河之滨， 还是波浪拍岸的水草之湖？ 或者潮水冲刷的海滩， 那里的巨浪奔腾起伏？
To a Waterfowl
by William Cullen Bryant
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Whither, 'midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue Thy solitary way? Vainly the fowler's eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, As, darkly painted on the crimson sky, Thy figure floats along. Seek'st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, Or where the rocking billows rise and sink On the chafed ocean side? There is a Power whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,-The desert and illimitable air,-Lone wandering, but not lost.
2.4 Main works
• Discourse on the Life, Character and Writings of Gulian Crommelin Verplanck (English) (as Author) • Letters of a Traveller Notes of Things Seen in Europe and America (English) (as Author) • The Little People of the Snow (English) (as Author) • Poems (English) (as Author) • Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant Household Edition (English) (as Author)
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从一地又到一地， 天空无垠，你的飞翔从无迟误； 愿引领你的向导把我引领， 孤单的长路中迈开永不偏离的脚步。
2.1 Youth and Education
• Bryant was born on November 3, 1794,He was the second son of Peter Bryant, a doctor and later a state legislator, and Sarah Snell. His maternal ancestry traces back to passengers on the Mayflower; his father's, to colonists who arrived about a dozen years later. Bryant and his family moved to a new home when he was two mestead, his boyhood home, is now a museum. After just two years at Williams College, he studied law in Worthington and Bridgewater in Massachusetts, and he was admitted to the bar in 1815. He then began practicing law in nearby Plainfield, walking the seven miles from Cummington every day. On one of these walks, in December 1815, he noticed a single bird flying on the horizon; the sight moved him enough to write "To a Waterfowl".
3.1 Summary
• The narrator questions where the waterfowl is going. He questions his motives for flying. He warns the waterfowl that he could possibly find danger, traveling alone. But, this waterfowl is not alone. He knows that the waterfowl is being led by some Power（神秘主义mysticism）. As the waterfowl reaches out of the narrator's sight, the narrator reflects on God's guidance in his own life. The narrator is sure that God has led this waterfowl, and that the waterfowl had faith in the narrator. Now, the narrator's faith is strengthened. He knows that God is guiding him as well. • As the narrator sees God directing the waterfowl, the narrator is reminded of God's guidance in his own life. Through his observance in nature, the narrator is reconnected with his faith in God.
To a Waterfowl By William Cullen Bryant
• All day thy wings have fann'd At that far height, the cold thin atmosphere: Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, Though the dark night is near. And soon that toil shall end, Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest, And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend Soon o'er thy sheltered nest. Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given, And shall not soon depart. He, who, from zone to zone, Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone, Will lead my steps aright.
2.3 Critical response
• Matthew Arnold praised it as "the best short poem in the language", and the poet and critic Richard Wilbur has described it as "America's first flawless poem".
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你成天翕动翅膀，
疲乏中你不肯降落舒适的大地， 即使黑夜即将紧闭它的帷幕。
致水鸟 吕志鲁译
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你很快就会结束这样的劳苦， 你即将找到你夏天的住处； 休息中呼唤自己的伙伴， 芦苇也会躬身把你的窝巢遮护。 你的身躯全被吞没， 天堂深渊里，你踪影全无； 然而你的启迪深深留在我的心底，
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有上苍把你关照， 在无路的海岸为你指路－－ 在荒漠和无边的空际， 你孤单的飘荡不致迷途。
2.2 Composition and publication history
• The inspiration for the poem occurred in December 1815 when Bryant, then 21, was walking from Cummington to Plainfield to look for a place to settle as a lawyer. The duck, flying across the sunset, seemed to Bryant as solitary a soul as himself, inspiring him to write the poem that evening. • "To a Waterfowl" was first published in the North American Review in Volume 6, Issue 18, March 1818. It was later published in the collection Poems in 1821.