[For funsies - Chinese translation 英译中] Miri it is while sumer ilast - 尽兴吧，趁夏日尚存

England - Anon. 1225
英国 - 无名氏，1225年 （十三世纪乐谱）

Performers:
Ensemble Belladonna:
Miriam Andersén (voice & harp), Rebecca Bain (voice & fiddle), Susanne Ansorg (fiddle & rebec)


【Middle English - 中古英语】

Miri it is while sumer ilast with fugheles song,
oc nu neheth windes blast and weder strong.
ei ei what this niht is long.
and ich with wel michel wrong,
soregh and murn and fast.

【Modern English - 现代英语】

Merry it is while summer lasts with the song of birds;
but now draws near the wind's blast and harsh weather.

Alas, Alas! How long this night is! 

And it does to me much wrong, 

Sorrow and mourn and fast.

【中文翻译】

尽兴吧，趁夏日与鸟鸣尚存。

如今逼近的是强风的摧残与天气的严酷。

呜呼，呜呼，这夜晚可多长！

而我被施予诸多冤屈，

只能哀愁、悲恸、挨饿。

***

Translator's note / 译者笔录：

Nope, you have not read the title of the post, nor the title of the blog wrong. I just thought of shaking things up a little, doing something just for fun while my usual work is still in progress (there's probably more than five of them, with varying degrees of completion, some I'm just about to wrap up).

But hey, it's my blog, so I get to have fun with it.

Truth be told I do love both Chinese and English cultures (and many other more - if only I had the time and energy to learn more about them all). The more medieval/ancient the better in many cases. So I guess I see this as a cultural-exchange of sorts. Plus, it's been so long since I wrote anything in Chinese. I wanted to see if my language skills have gone rusty. The regular stuff will resume (fingers crossed - I hope it won't drag too long!) but I have a mind to try novel things from time to time.


对，没看错，我这就是来个反向操作，从中译英到英译中。觉得太久没有用中文书写了，想再试试。我反正就是冲着个好玩。而且，我也挺喜欢世界各国不同的历史文化，这首英国中世纪留下来的歌不单让我们更了解当代背景民情（这是真实的史料啊），我觉得歌手诠释得也挺好听。

这首是在英国现已出土文物中最早的世俗歌曲。大概是描写农民在夏转秋冬后生活的窘迫。夏天丰衣足食，鸟语花香；入冬后要是秋收差，大家过苦日子。这乐谱其实找到的也只是一张不完整的纸片，夹在一本不相关的书里，才侥幸得以保存。至于这是不是歌曲的完整版，我们尚无从考证。

我这翻译也不是从中古英语直译，而是参考了不同人的白话/现代英语译文，凑着出来的。那句 “and it does to me much wrong” 尤其不太好翻译。就当作是一次实验吧！

话说图中小哥你被人拿个大钥匙戳真的不介意吗？¯\_(ツ)_/¯



References / 参考:
Description of the Youtube video
https://earlymusicmuse.com/mirie-it-is-while-sumer-ilast/