2017年翻译考试英语高级口译材料：《世说新语》
王子猷居山阴，夜大雪，眠觉，开室命酌酒。四望皎然，因起彷徨，咏左思《招隐诗》。忽忆戴安道。时戴在剡，即便夜乘小船就之。经宿方至，造门不前而返。人问其故，王曰：“吾本乘兴而行，兴尽而返，何必见戴!”
刘义庆《世说新语》
【参考译文】
A Visit on a Snowy Night
Wang Ziyou (?-ca. 386) lived in Shan Yin. One night while it was snowing heavily, he got up from his bed, opened the door, and told his servant to bring some wine. Looking outside, he found that everything within sight was covered by a shimmering layer of snow. Feeling a little restless, he paced up and down his room, reciting the “Ode to the Recluse” by Zuo Si. Suddenly his friend Dai Andao, who lived in Shan, came to his mind. He decided to pay him a visit by boat that very night. On reaching Dai’s doorsteps, he ordered the boatman to return home, without disembarking to see his friend.
Somebody, puzzled by this act, asked Wang Ziyou the reason for his behavior. He replied, “I set out in high spirits, and returned after a thoroughly enjoyable trip. Why bother to go in to see Dai?”
Liu Yiqing (403-444)
Shi Shuo Xin Yu (New Accounts of Old Episodes)
(马家驹 译)
While Wang Hui-chih was living in Shan-yin, one night there was a heavy fall of snow. Waking from sleep, he opened the panels of his room, and, ordering wine, drank to shining whiteness all about him. Then he got up and started to pace back and forth, humming Tso Ssu’s poem, “Summons to Retired Gentleman (Chao yin-shih). All at once he remembered Tai K’uei, who was living at the time in Shan (south of shan-yin). On the spur of the moment he set out by night in a small boat to visit him. The whole night had passed before he finally arrived. When he reached Tai’s gat he turned back without going in.
When someone asked his reason, Wang replied, “I originally went on the strength of an impulse, and when the impulse was spent I turned back. Why was it necessary to see Tai?”
