Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

A Year in the World ( Frances Mayes ) 地球玩一年

這本書有些地方讓作者想起她高中讀的莎士比亞 羅密歐與茱麗葉等



本書有拜訪過的半張世界的地圖 很方便了解相對位置
但是作者對於園藝與語文的豐富知識 會讓我們目不暇給 
 所以即使書名改成有點酷
讀於讀者的要求很大

 譯者一般表現不錯 不過有些地方仍有改善的空間
 譬如說談"英倫三島"
knot garden是專門語

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knot_garden
翻譯成結園 還是不清楚
書中選的Thomas Gray的 Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard 的一段 翻譯還可改善

 
Stanza 11
41. Can storied urn or animated bust  胸像 bust不是雕像
42. Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?  此句過分意繹
43. Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
44. Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
Notes
(1) Storied urn: Vase adorned with pictures telling a story. Urns have sometimes been used to hold the ashes of a cremated body. (2) Bust: sculpture of the head, shoulders, and chest of a human. (3) Storied urn . . . breath? Can the soul (fleeting breath) be called back to the body (mansion) by the urn or bust back? Notice that urn and bust are personifications that call. (4) Can Honour's . . . Death? Can honor (Honour's voice) attributed to the dead person cause that person (silent dust) to come back to life? Can flattering words (Flatt'ry) about the dead person make death more "bearable"? (5) General meaning of stanza: Lines 41-45 continue the idea begun in Lines 37-40. In other words, can any memorials—such as the trophies mentioned in Line 38, the urn and bust mentioned in Line 41, and personifications (honor and flattery) mentioned in Lines 43 and 44—bring a person back to life or make death less final or fearsome?
 http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/ThoGray.html