汪飛白：遠(yuǎn)航詩海的老水手

徐忠友

風(fēng)和日麗的一天，筆者走進(jìn)了詩歌翻譯家汪飛白先生的家。家中陳設(shè)簡陋：墻是已經(jīng)發(fā)黃的白灰壁，地上鋪的是老款的紅地磚；房中沒有像樣的家具，最好的東西就是他的一臺(tái)筆記本電腦，最多的東西就是靠墻擺放的舊書架，加上許多散亂堆放的裝書的紙板箱。整個(gè)環(huán)境很像堆貨的港口碼頭或船甲板，而他也恰似一位準(zhǔn)備出發(fā)航行的水手。

戎馬生涯不忘文學(xué)情懷

1929年底，汪飛白出生在富有詩情畫意的杭州西子湖畔，他父親是1922年春與應(yīng)修人、潘漠華、馮雪峰共同創(chuàng)辦湖畔詩社的著名詩人汪靜之，母親符竹因也是寫詩和小說的女作家。

汪飛白走上詩歌翻譯之路，與生在詩人之家當(dāng)然有關(guān)聯(lián)。小時(shí)候父親對他作“萬般皆下品，唯有寫詩高”的說教，在他10歲時(shí)就命其“立志當(dāng)詩人”，這話卻使兒子逆反，他暗中發(fā)誓“此生不當(dāng)詩人”。但是飛白在家庭氣氛熏陶下其實(shí)是愛詩的，由于決心不當(dāng)詩人，他對詩的愛好就拐了個(gè)彎，在翻譯介紹外國詩方面發(fā)揮出來了。

依靠廣闊的另類學(xué)識(shí)以及翻譯英文小說磨練出來的英文水平，1947年汪飛白報(bào)考浙大外文系名列前茅，還獲得了全校唯一的一個(gè)“四年學(xué)雜費(fèi)伙食費(fèi)全免”的最高獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金。

中華人民共和國成立初期，飛白響應(yīng)號(hào)召赴北京學(xué)習(xí)俄語，又因蘇聯(lián)援華的軍事專家隨即到達(dá)，解放軍各部急需翻譯，就這樣，他未從浙大畢業(yè)，就開始了長達(dá)30年的戎馬生涯。

之后他的職務(wù)屢經(jīng)變遷，但心中一直懷有濃濃的文學(xué)情懷。1955年起，飛白就開始譯介外國詩歌名著，啟錨駛向了浩瀚詩海。到了1980年，汪飛白終于得以辭去部隊(duì)團(tuán)政委的軍職，以作家身份在杭州大學(xué)中文系任教，開始了自己的破冰之航，并開設(shè)了“世界名詩選講”、“世界詩歌史”、“現(xiàn)代外國詩”等課程。

破冰從哪里開始？飛白選定英國維多利亞時(shí)代詩歌、法國波德萊爾和象征派詩歌、俄國白銀時(shí)代詩歌這三大塊，作為第一批急待翻譯的名著。他日以繼夜地同時(shí)在幾條線上忙碌，他的新譯源源不斷地在刊物上出現(xiàn)，在青年讀者群中掀起了一股熱潮，也推動(dòng)了翻譯界大規(guī)模的譯介工作。

同時(shí)飛白在杭大培養(yǎng)了一批批專業(yè)人才。1989年，兩大卷、135萬字的《詩?！烦霭?，受到全國詩歌界和青年學(xué)生的熱烈歡迎，獲得中國圖書獎(jiǎng)一等獎(jiǎng)，輿論界也從此給了飛白“詩海水手”和“探海者飛白”的昵稱。

由于《詩?！返某晒Γw白應(yīng)邀參加1990年吉隆坡世界詩歌節(jié)。

詩海的麥哲倫環(huán)球之航

1991至1992年，汪飛白在美國爾賽納斯學(xué)院講學(xué)，并在王佐良、袁可嘉兩位前輩學(xué)者大力保舉下，出任國家“八五”出版規(guī)劃重點(diǎn)項(xiàng)目《世界詩庫》的主編。飛白率領(lǐng)著他剛帶出師的一批青年專家——他的一班水手，開始了5年艱巨的環(huán)球之航。

飛白把這次航行比作歷史上的“麥哲倫之航”是有緣由的：如此規(guī)模的詩海環(huán)球航行史無前例，盡管組織了全國的譯詩力量，但要去的許多陌生海域從未探過，無人識(shí)途也找不到海圖，外語資料非常缺乏，許多語種我國又無人能譯，后又遇出版業(yè)大滑坡，簽約承擔(dān)出版的花城出版社陷入糧草斷絕的危境。

有關(guān)部門答應(yīng)給100萬無息貸款來救活這個(gè)項(xiàng)目，但要以趕上1995年第一屆國家圖書獎(jiǎng)評獎(jiǎng)為條件。這迫使本來非常緊張的日程要提前一年完成，作為主編的飛白在趕任務(wù)中眼底出血視力降至0.03，雖然醫(yī)囑停止用眼絕對休息，卻不得不充當(dāng)救險(xiǎn)隊(duì)哪里決口就往哪里填補(bǔ)，剛填補(bǔ)完無人翻譯的古拉丁文這個(gè)大缺口，又要填補(bǔ)古典荷蘭文，還要連夜在電腦排字房里親自作終審和校對。在最后倒計(jì)時(shí)的60個(gè)日夜里，飛白每天工作16小時(shí)，終于完成項(xiàng)目，他為詩海的首次環(huán)球航行由中國人完成而欣慰。

和國外同類書籍相比，如屠岸先生所說，美國詩人學(xué)者多倫主編的《世界詩歌選編》長期風(fēng)行歐美，但其中編入的中國、印度、日本部分，只有少數(shù)古代詩，亞洲、非洲、拉丁美洲各國的近代現(xiàn)代詩一概空缺，歐洲部分也缺了葡萄牙、比利時(shí)、荷蘭、瑞士及東歐諸國的詩，即使是英語詩歌，除英美兩國外，加拿大、澳大利亞、新西蘭等國的詩也全都不見。

而《世界詩庫》則被謝冕贊為“世界詩史的奇觀”，全書10卷800萬字，涉及35個(gè)語種，共計(jì)有130多國1800多位詩人的代表性詩作6400余首20萬行，還有研究評介100萬字，19篇世界各文化區(qū)詩歌的導(dǎo)言。

代表中國譯詩藝術(shù)的成年

1996年汪靜之先生逝世，逝世前對湖畔詩社的名義被人冒用、聲譽(yù)遭到毀壞，感到憂心忡忡。飛白放下自己的研究，集中全力來處理極為糾結(jié)的湖畔詩社的結(jié)束工作。他費(fèi)盡周折，并在巴金、冰心等老作家的支援下，終于保護(hù)了父輩的詩社，把文學(xué)史上的湖畔詩社完整地歸入中國現(xiàn)代文學(xué)史檔案庫。又在湖畔詩社秘書方素平全力協(xié)助下，通過6年努力，編成6卷174萬字的《汪靜之文集》（其中也編入母親符竹因的作品），然后以一年工夫，親手一頁頁排版，直到2006年出版。

飛白用10年光陰，盡責(zé)地當(dāng)了一個(gè)“還債兒子”。

飛白是個(gè)淡泊名利的人，他獲得的獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)有幾十個(gè)，自己卻一點(diǎn)不在意，也說不清。退休后去了云南大學(xué)，不簽聘約不領(lǐng)聘金，每年在杭州、昆明之間像候鳥一樣往返不輟。

帶出近50名研究生后，2009年屆八旬的飛白宣布“再不下課不好意思了”。這時(shí)他連續(xù)工作已滿60年，幾乎干了兩輩子的工作。

81歲時(shí)他送走了最后3名研究生，然后專心著書，特別是要把他在爾賽納斯學(xué)院英文系和在云南大學(xué)外語學(xué)院講授的課程“比較詩學(xué)”和“翻譯學(xué)”的部分講稿翻譯整理出來。這就是飛白近年的兩本重要的專著：《詩海游蹤·中西詩比較講稿》和《譯詩漫筆》，前者是在全球化和多元文化時(shí)代中西詩歌和中西詩學(xué)的對話，后者是對信息型與藝術(shù)型翻譯糾結(jié)的厘清和對譯詩藝術(shù)奧秘的探究。

飛白譯詩理論別樹一幟。早在上世紀(jì)80年代初，他的《譯詩漫筆》系列剛發(fā)表第一篇，就得到前輩詩人卞之琳高度評價(jià)，被譽(yù)為“我國譯詩藝術(shù)的成年”（《譯詩藝術(shù)的成年》，載《讀書》1982年第3期）。從那時(shí)至今30多年，飛白提煉了更多心得，遂以“風(fēng)格譯”為主線，將《譯詩漫筆》系列文章續(xù)成全書。這本論著和已出的《詩海游蹤》一樣很好讀，不僅探幽抉微新論迭出，文筆也風(fēng)華掩映引人入勝。

如把汪飛白主編的《世界詩庫》和《汪靜之文集》計(jì)算在內(nèi)（飛白為它們的付出不亞于專著和譯著），《譯詩漫筆》是飛白的第44本書了，他剛剛出版的第42、43本書，是帶精美插圖的兩卷本英國維多利亞時(shí)代詩選《世界在門外閃光》和《櫻花正值最美時(shí)》，光看書名也很美，不是嗎？

按習(xí)俗說法，今年飛白已八八高齡或曰“米壽”了，但詩海無涯，老水手耽于詩海漂泊樂不知返，絲毫沒有“滿載歸航”的意思。他說不久又要赴云南大學(xué)做研究，繼續(xù)在詩海航行。

Wang Feibai， an 88-year-old translator of poetry， represents a unique dedication to the task of translating world poetry into Chinese. One of the best known works he has published is called The Sea of Poetry. That is why he is so often described as a sailor. His home looks like a home of someone who is ready to set out on a long voyage on the sea any time： the color of the white walls lined with dilapidated bookshelves has been reduced by time to a yellow tone； the floor is paved with old-time reddish bricks； furniture looks outmoded. There are so many books in the house that many of them are packed in cartons. The most modern gadget in his house is a laptop on a desk.

Born in 1929 into a family of poets， Wang Feibai grew up carrying on a mission. His father was Wang Jingzhi， a poet who launched Lakeside Poetry Society in 1922 with some other important poets such as Ying Xiuren， Pan Mohua and Feng Xuefeng. His mother Fu Zhuyin wrote poems and short stories.

Wang Jingzhi made his name by publishing some poems calling for personality liberating. His poems caused a stir among conservatives and he came under attack. Lu Xun， an established writer， stepped up for the young poet and saved his future. Lu Xun encouraged Wang Jingzhi to continue to write poems and learn from foreign poets. Wang Jingzhi left home to study English in Shanghai， but his study aborted when his family went broke due to business failure. Though the father Wang Jingzhi failed in reading poems from overseas， his son Wang Feibai picked up the mission and was determined to complete it.

In 1947， the 18-year-old junior enrolled himself into Zhejiang University as a foreign language major. He was the only one who won a four-year full scholarship that year in the whole university. As the Peoples Republic was being launched and the Soviet Union was to send experts to help China rebuild itself， Russian interpreters were in great demand. Wang answered the call and went to Beijing to study Russian at a crash course. He was one of the 50 picked from the Russian Language Department of China Renmin University to serve as translators/interpreters. As the Russians he worked with were military advisors， Wang joined the PLA to go with them， thus started his 30-year service in the army.

Wang Feibai began translating poems while he was serving in the army. The time he had for his lifelong mission was bits and pieces. With a tight and heavy workload， he squeezed time whenever possible. He followed a routine： He read a few stanzas of an original poem before he left for work. While riding in a jeep， he did translation in his mind. Whenever he had spare time， he jotted down the translation.

This way， he published translations over years. In 1980， he retired from the military and came back to teach in Hangzhou University， which became part of Zhejiang University in 1998.

Now he had all the time in the world to do translation. He focused on the English Victorian poems， French Impressionist poems and Russian silver-age poems. He worked day and night. His translations appeared in literary magazines， launching a reading mania among young readers and making waves in the circle of translators. Pretty soon， a large number of foreign poems were translated into Chinese.

Wang Feibai started an unheard-of graduate course called “World Poetry” in Hangzhou University. In 1989， the scripts he used for the lectures at the course were published into a two-volume anthology called The Sea of Poetry， eagerly embraced by poets and students across the country. Since then， he has been known as the sailor on the sea of poetry. The anthology won a top place in China Book Prize.

In 1992， he was recommended to head an ambitious poetry project called A Collection of World Poetry. The project had almost failed before Wang came onto the scene. Many translators had been engaged； foreign poems and reference books were not adequately available； in the case of not-widely-used languages， there were no qualified translators at all. As the publishing industry went into a nationwide recession， Huacheng Press， which was the project contractor， didnt have funds to continue with the project. Guangdong Provincial Government offered a no-interest loan of 1 million yuan to salvage the project on the condition that the collection must be published before a deadline so that it would qualify for the 1995 national book prize.

Wang Feibai took over. He and his team worked hard. They ran against clock. In the countdown of the last 60 days， Wang worked 16 hours and slept 5 hours a day. The ten-volume collection came out in time. It holds over 6，400 poems in 35 languages by 1，800 poets picked from 130 countries， in addition to a full range of reviews and 19 introductions. Some scholars said the collection was a miracle. It presents a comprehensive read of world poetry to Chinese readers.

Wang retired in 2009 at the age of 80 on the grounds that he felt embarrassed not to retire. In 2010， he saw off the last three postgraduates he had supervised. Altogether he supervised about 50 postgraduates before he retired from the university.

Now Wang Feibai focuses upon writing more books. He has published 44 books on poetry and translation. He is indeed a tireless sailor on the sea of poetry.