爱德华·李尔②

爱德华·李尔(Edward Lear，1812—1888)以写nonsense poems出名。这里的nonsense poems在中文里很不好翻译，翻作“无意识的诗”固然不对，翻作“打油诗”、“滑稽诗”也不十分恰当，姑且译作“谐趣诗”吧。我从前有过一本他的The Book of Nonsense，在抗日战争中跟别的一些书一块儿丢了。十多年前在旧书店里买到一本企鹅丛书版的《爱德华·李尔传》，作者戴维森(Angus Davidson)，剑桥大学出身，翻译过几本意大利小说。他写这本《李尔传》，参考了李尔本人的部分日记和大量书信，写得相当详细。这本《李尔传》是1938年出版的。查15版的《不列颠百科全书》，李尔的标准传记是1968年出版的Vivian Noakes写的《爱德华·李尔：一个漫游者的一生》。
　　李尔的祖先是丹麦人，姓Lфr，他祖父迁居英国，把姓的拼写法改了，就跟莎士比亚剧本里的李尔王同姓了。他的父亲是个股票商，在爱德华13岁的时候，他父亲破产入狱，4年以后还清债务被释放，迁居乡下，不久就死了。爱德华他们弟兄姊妹共有19人，有几个没长大。他大姐安妮比他大21岁，一辈子没结婚，爱德华是她一手带大的，名为姐弟，无异母子。李尔中年以后，旅居国外的时候为多，两星期给姐姐一封信，讲他的生活，他的见闻，他的病痛，从未间断。
　　Edward Lear (12 May 1812 - 29 January 1888) was an artist, illustrator and writer known for his nonsensical poetry and his limericks, a form which he popularised. He was born in Highgate, a suburb of London, the 20th child of his parents and raised by his eldest sister, Ann, twenty-one years his senior. At the age of fifteen, he and his sister had to leave the family home and set up house together. He started work as a serious illustrator and his first publication, at the age of 19, was Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots in 1830. His paintings were well received and he was favorably compared with Audubon. Throughout his life he continued to paint seriously. He had a lifelong ambition to illustrate Tennysons poems; near the end of his life a volume with a small number of illustrations was published, but his vision for the work was never realised.
　　The Owl and the Pussy Cat
　　a poem by Edward Lear
　　The Owl and the Pussy Cat went to sea
　　In a beautiful pea-green boat,
　　They took some honey, and plenty of money
　　Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
　　The Owl looked up to the stars above,
　　And sang to a small guitar,
　　O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,
　　What a beautiful Pussy you are,
　　You are,
　　You are!
　　What a beautiful Pussy you are!
　　Pussy said to the Owl, You elegant fowl!
　　How charmingly sweet you sing!
　　O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
　　But what shall we do for a ring?
　　They sailed away, for a year and a day,
　　To the land where the Bong-tree grows
　　And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
　　With a ring at the end of his nose,
　　His nose,
　　His nose,
　　With a ring at the end of his nose.
　　Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
　　Your ring? Said the Piggy, I will.
　　So they took it away, and were married next day
　　By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
　　They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
　　Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
　　And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
　　They danced by the light of the moon,
　　The moon,
　　The moon,
　　They danced by the light of the moon.