所以卞之琳到底翻译了什么……

艾略特的这篇文章非常有名，也非常重要，长期以来中文里也只有这一个翻译。我一直觉得卞之琳翻译的莎士比亚悲剧非常好，一直也以为卞之琳翻译的艾略特是靠谱的，但是今天想起来翻阅这篇文章，本着我去核对原文的恶习，我发现了好像有点不对劲……

在英文著述中我们不常说起传统，虽然有时候也用它的名字来惋惜它的缺乏。我们无从讲到“这种传统”或“一种传统”；至多不过用形容词来说某人的诗是“传统的”，或甚至“太传统化了”。这种字眼恐怕根本就不常见，除非在贬责一类的语句中。不然的话，也是用来表示一种浮泛的称许，而言外对于所称许的作品不过认作一件有趣的考古学的复制品而已。你几乎无法用传统这个字眼叫英国人听来觉得顺耳，如果没有轻松地提到令人放心的考古学的话。

当然在我们对已往或现在作家的鉴赏中，这个名词不会出现。每个国家，每个民族，不但有自己的创作的也有自己的批评的气质；但对于自己批评习惯的短处与局限性甚至于比自己创作天才的短处与局限性更容易忘掉。

核对原文如下：

In English writing we seldom speak of tradition, though we occasionally apply its name in deploring its absence. We cannot refer to “the tradition” or to “a tradition”; at most, we employ the adjective in saying that the poetry of So-and-so is “traditional” or even “too traditional.” Seldom, perhaps, does the word appear except in a phrase of censure. If otherwise, it is vaguely approbative, with the implication, as to the work approved, of some pleasing archaeological reconstruction. You can hardly make the word agreeable to English ears without this comfortable reference to the reassuring science of archaeology.

Certainly the word is not likely to appear in our appreciations of living or dead writers. Every nation, every race, has not only its own creative, but its own critical turn of mind; and is even more oblivious of the shortcomings and limitations of its critical habits than of those of its creative genius.

我一直对卞之琳充满着信任，但是第一段话我就有点绷不住了，第一句话只能说翻得不大好，its name直译成“它的名字”有点够呛。应当是：尽管我们有时也会提起这个字眼，通常是为了惋惜它的缺席/尽管我们哀悼“传统”的缺席的时候会用这个词。

下面两句考古学的试着翻译的话：如果是赞扬性质的，那也是很模糊的，而且隐含着被表扬的作品是一件令人舒适的考古性质的重建。你很难这个词让英国人听着舒服，如果不带上一点令人安心的考古科学的意味不可。——我觉得这里卞之琳应该基本没读懂，而且艾略特连用了三个pleasing, reassuaring, comfortable，显然是在嘲讽英国人的那种自满的complaicency。

下面的那句oblivious显然是“没有意识到”“没有觉察”，怎么会翻译成“更容易忘掉”的？

下面一段：We dwell with satisfaction upon the poet’s difference from his predecessors, especially his immediate predecessors; we endeavour to find something that can be isolated in order to be enjoyed. Whereas if we approach a poet without this prejudice we shall often find that not only the best, but the most individual parts of his work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality most vigorously.

我们很满意地谈论诗人和他前辈的异点，尤其是和他前一辈的异点，我们竭力想挑出可以独立的地方来欣赏。实在呢，假如我们研究一个诗人，撇开了偏见，我们却常常会看出：他的作品中，不仅最好的部分，就是最个人的部分，也是他的前辈诗人最有力地表明他们的不朽的地方。

不谈翻译得多硬了，显然this prejudice指的是上文的一句，这个prejudice甚至也只是比喻。