鲁迅·《答客诮》英译

无情未必真豪杰，怜子如何不丈夫。 <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

知否兴风狂啸者，回眸时看小于菟。

 

一九三二年

 

A Riposte to a Friend

Lu Xun

 

Does a true hero have to be heartless?

Surely a real man may love his young son.

Even the roaring, wind-raising tiger

Turns back to look at his own tiny cubs.

 

1932

 

（W.F. F. Jenner 译）

 

Answer to Someone’s Sarcastic Remark

Lu Hsun

 

Without affection he may not be a man among men.

Should he be less than a man if he has a son he adores¹?

Notice the tiger,² who raises a blast when he roars,

Turns to his cubs with a tender glance every now and then.

 

1. This line alludes to an episode in the Warring States period, in which the Queen Mother of Chao, when discussing with Ch’u Che, a statement at the court, the future of each other’s young son, said jokingly to him, “Should a great man also dote on his son?” It implies that according to tradition a man should be stern and strict with his son and hold back tender feelings. Here Lu Hsun questions such an unnatural attitude of a father toward his own child. 

2. In ancient Ch’u dialect, a tiger was called wu-t’u instead of the regular Chinese term hu.

 

（David Y. Ch’en 译）

 

A Rejoinder to Somebody’s Mockery¹

December 31^st, 1932

Lu Xun

 

A cold-blooded man isn’t perhaps of heroic making,

But why is he less manly for loving his fondling?

Don’t you know the King of the Jungle² who starts the wind awhirling,

Many a time and oft it looks back at its yearling?

 

1. Lu Xun wrote the humorous poem in denfence of his son Zhou Haiyin whom he loved dearly.

2. “King of the Jungle” refers to the tiger.

 

（吴钧陶 译）

 

Reply to a Friend’s Irony

December 31, 1932

Lu Hsun

 

Not exactly all heartless men are real heroes,

Why are those with a tender love for their kids no true men?

Don’t you know the fierce tiger roaring with the wind

Would cast back loving glances at its cub now and then?

 

（黄新渠 译）