【英詩精選中譯100首】自序
（更正版在这里：
http://www.backchina.com/blog/358517/article-242650.html ）
在2015年的8月初，我收到前越華作家潘宙先生寄来的新書【烽火越南】，沒想到這本带“火”的書成了我認識越華资深作家謝振煜先生並和他合作翻译的導“火”線。去年夏季的一天，我在網上搜索有關我父母親的家鄉，我的出生地----越南的資料的时候，驚喜地發現潘宙先生的著作【烽火越南】。在還沒有收到潘先生的書之前我就在网上閱讀了他写的其他故事，發表在世界日報上的【紅毛丹】和在尋聲詩社网站上的一些作品。後來潘先生介紹我上臉書, 加入 “黃應泉文友寫作室”。 这个写作室茂林修竹，群賢畢至，其中就有越華作家，詩人謝振煜先生。 與謝先生的交流是一件愉快的事情，他博學多才，風趣幽默，也讓我這個在越南北方出生，在中國學了10年中文的人汗顏，我很敬佩他的中文修养，他的翻譯成就，他的作品，文字風格處處流露幽默，博學的特质和人格魅力。
我是自2013年開始翻譯和創作的，翻譯的作品包括古今詩詞，現代小說，古典散文，中外笑話等中英互譯，詩詞习作多為中英雙語。谢先生建議我翻譯世界著名英詩，所以在2015年的9月中旬我開始了本書的翻譯工作。 我從
http://www.poemhunter.com上選了21位著名英語詩人的作品，一共１００首詩作為翻譯的原始材料，其中有一部分是我以前曾經翻譯過的。這本書收錄的詩人有：瑪雅•安琪羅（Maya Angelou）, 玛格丽特·阿特伍德(Margaret Atwood), 威廉•布萊克(William Blake), 喬治•戈登•拜倫(George Gordon Byron), 倫納德•諾曼•科恩(Leonard Cohen)， 埃米莉·狄更生(Emily Dickson), 羅伯特•弗羅斯特(Robert Frost), 蘭斯頓•休斯(Langston Hughes), 泰德•庫瑟(Ted Kooser), 愛德娜•聖文森•米蕾(Edna St.Vincent Millay), 克恩•奈斯比特（Kenn Nesbitt）, 艾茲拉•龐德 （Ezra Pound）, 愛德格•愛倫•坡(Edgar Allan Poe), 傑克•普魯斯基( Jack Prelutsky), 約翰•麥克雷(John McCrae), 卡爾•桑德堡(Carl Sandburg), 華萊士•斯蒂文斯(Wallace Stevens), 謝爾•西爾弗斯坦(Shel Silverstein), 莎拉·蒂斯黛爾(Sara Teasdale), 沃爾特•惠特曼(Walt Whiteman) 和威廉•巴特勒•葉芝（William Butler Yeats）。（作者的排名是根據姓氏開頭的第一個字母排序的）。
本書詩歌的內容包羅愛情觀點，生活哲學，表達美好願望，追溯自身的歷史，抒發對和平的嚮往，表達對田園生活的熱愛，还有校園幽默等等，譬如愛德娜•聖文森•米蕾（Edna St. Vincent Millay）的【愛不是一切】(Love Is Not All), 卡爾•桑德堡（Carl Sandburg） 的【年輕的海】 （Young Sea），蘭斯頓•休斯(Langston Hughes) 的【黑人說河流】（The Negro Speaks Of Rivers），羅伯特•弗羅斯特（Robber Frost） 的【牧場】（The Pasture），約翰•麥克雷(John McCrae)的【在佛蘭德斯的田野上】（In Flanders Fields），克恩•奈斯比特（ Kenn Nesbitt ）的【我老師吃了我的作業】（My Teacher Ate My Homework）等等。
讀者在遊走在西方的愛情，生活哲學之間的同時，也感受美式的田園生活，又會為幽默的童詩忍俊不禁。 本書每一個作者的詩選2到10首不等，中英對照，並附有作者的中英對照簡介。 我力求準確，傳神，渾然地翻譯出原詩的意，形，和韻的美，帶領讀者進入前所未有的西方文學殿堂，感受西方的語言和文化魅力。
在翻譯的過程中我獲得美國徐英才老師的一些建議幫助，特此致謝。 徐英才老師的著作有：【唐宋八大家散文精選(漢英對照)】，【英譯中國當代美文選(漢英對照)】和【英譯中國經典散文選】等。 唐宋八大家散文精選(漢英對照)】，【英譯中國當代美文選(漢英對照)】是在中國國家主席習近平先生在2015年9月份訪美期間贈送給美國林肯中學圖書館的外教教材，也是國內高校的古典文學翻譯研究生入學考試指定讀物。 我追求的正是徐英才老师提倡的準確，傳神，渾然的三個翻譯原則。感謝謝振煜先生的邀請和合作，感謝他提攜晚輩不遺餘力, 對後進的支援和鼓勵的態度。因為時間有限，如有錯漏的地方希望讀者能諒解。
劉小曼 Jan 14, 2016
Preface
( A Selection From Top 500 Poems In English)
In the beginning of August, 2015, I received a copy of the Vietnam At War by the former Chinese Vietnamese writer, Mr Pan Zhou, and later it turned out to be the connection for me to know about Mr. Xue Zhenyu, a senior Chinese writer and poet in Vietnam. One day last summer, while I searched in the Internet, looking for historical information about my parents' hometown, also my birth place ----Vietnam, I surprisingly found the book, War At Vietnam by Mr. Pan, which later on impressed me a lot. So before I received his book I could not wait to read his other works published in Worldjournal.com and his blog where I read his stories such as Rambutan and A Mixed Race Child and some prose and poems.
Mr. Pan then introduced me to "Huang Yingquan Writing Workshop" on Facebook. This is a great writing workshop with members from all over the world, and most of them are Chinese originally from Vietnam, who are good at writing prose, novels, poetry and calligraphy and so on. One of the members I met there is Mr. Xue Zhenyu, who now is living in Vietnam. Talking with Mr. Xue is a pleasant thing to do. Mr. Xue is an accomplished writer, very knowledgeable, and has a good sense of humor. I am impressed by his witty and humorous writings, his great personality, personal charisma and accomplishment in translation.
I started to write and translate in 2013. I focused on poetry from ancient times and works by contemporary poets, modern novels, classic essays, jokes, lyrics etc., between Chinese and English. Most of the time I write poems in both English and Chinese. My two translation works, The Dancing Lady On The Street by Minglu Zeng, a Chinese writer from the States, and Talking About Finland by Tangfu, a Chinese writer from Finland were published in Guwahatian, an overseas Electronic journal:
http://guwahatian.guwahaticity.in/Vol2_Issue9/talesofmind_article2.php http://guwahatian.guwahaticity.in/Vol2_Issue9/insidebox_article1.php
Mr. Xue suggested that I should translate famous English poems into Chinese, so I began to put my heart into working on this book from mid-September, 2015. I searched poems from
http://www.poemhunter.com, and selected 100 pieces by 21 renowned poets as original translation materials for this book. I had previously translated some of those poems. Poets in this book include: Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood, William Blake, George Gordon Byron, Leonard Cohen, Emily Dickson, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Ted Kooser, Edna St.Vincent Millay, Kenn Nesbitt, Ezra Pound, Edgar Allan Poe, Jack Prelutsky, John McCrae, Carl Sandburg, Wallace Stevens, Shel Silverstein, Sara Teasdale, Walt Whiteman, and William Butler Yeats. (Each poet is listed alphabetically by last name )
Contents of these poems include views of love, philosophy of life, aspirations, tracing back one's own history, good wishes for peace, love of American rural life, and campus humor, such as Love Is Not All by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Young Sea by Carl Sandburg, The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes, The Pasture by Robert Frost, In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, and My Teacher Ate My Homework by Kenn Nesbitt's and so on.
Readers will learn western views of love and philosophy of life, experience the American rural life, and at the same time, will enjoy the campus humor by bursting into laughter when reading those children's poems. In this book, I selected two to ten poems for each poet for the translation, all are accompanied by the author's bilingual introduction. I did my best to be accurate, vivid and natural when translating the meaning, beauty and the rhyme of each poem into Chinese, trying to lead the reader into the unprecedented western literary world, to explore the charm of English language and western culture.
During the process of translating this book, I received suggestions from Mr. Xu Yingcai, a professor from the States. Professor Xu' books include: A Selection From the Eight Great Prose Masters of The Tang And Song Dynasties, Selected Works Of Contemporary Chinese Prose, and The translation of Chinese Classical Prose. In September, 2015, A Selection From the Eight Great Prose Masters of The Tang And Song Dynasties and Selected Works Of Contemporary Chinese Prose were given to Lincoln High School by the President of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Xi Jingping, as gifts for learning translation, Chinese culture and language, they are also designated materials for students in China to take the entrance exam of the post-graduate study of classical literature translation. I have been influenced and inspired by the translation principles promoted by Mr. Xu, which are: accuracy, vividness and naturalness. I am grateful for the invitation from Mr. Xue and the opportunity of working together with him. I appreciate his attitude of helping and encouraging younger people to contribute into the translation field. Nevertheless, due to time limits, please accept my sincerest apologies for any mistakes I may make in this book, and I thank you in advance for your time!
Liu Xiaoman Jan. 14， 2016
My Profound Enlightenment of Poetry
One day a few years ago I chatted with one of my Canadian friends. I asked her if she was interested in poems. She said that she had read many novels and stories, but poems indeed are not her cup of tea. Anyway she then told me that she likes some traditional nursery rhymes and lullabies and some limericks as well.
She then taught me the following well-known two lined poem which I believe to be my significant poetry learning experience, my profound enlightenment education in my English poetry learning/ writing life. Based on my friend, they go like this:
"Here I sit broken hearted,
spent a penny and only farted. "
Just like many places around the world today, decades ago in Canada you needed to pay to use a public toilet. Ever since, I started to become very interested in English poems.
Liu Xiaoman
