(中英)现代散文:杜鹃 The Cuckoo

The Cuckoo

杜　鹃

◎ Guo Moruo

◎　郭沫若

The cuckoo, the spirit of my native place Sichuan, is probably holding a higher place in Chinese literature than any other bird.

杜鹃，敝同乡的魂①，在文学上所占的地位，恐怕任何鸟都比不上。

The mere mention of this bird will arouse in our hearts a great deal of poetic feeling.

我们一提起杜鹃，心头眼底便好像有说不尽的诗意②。

To begin with, she is the incarnation of the legendary king of ancient Sichuan named Wang Di. She has come to be known sometimes as an ill-fated beauty and sometimes as a patriot concerned over the fate of the nation. Her call is full of longings for home; she loiters about the mountains crying and spitting up blood⑩. She is pathetic, sad, pure and sincere ... She is in the eyes of all a symbol of love, which seems to have become a national feeling.

它本身不用说，已经是望帝③的化身了。有时又被认为薄命的佳人，忧国的志士；声是满腹乡思，血是遍山踯躅④；可怜，哀惋，纯洁，至诚……在人们的心目中成为了爱的象征。这爱的象征似乎已经成为了民族的感情。

And this feeling has gone beyond the national boundary to affect most of the eastern countries. In Japan, for example, the cuckoo is holding a position in literature by no means lower than in China.

而且，这种感情还超越了民族的范围，东方诸国大都受到了感染。例如日本，杜鹃在文学上所占的地位，并不亚于中国。

Nevertheless, all that is a typical instance of undeserved reputation.

然而，这实在是名实不符⑤的一个最大的例证。

The cuckoo is a grayish-brown bird with none too beautiful feathers. She is characteristically domineering and cruel.

杜鹃是一种灰黑色⑥的鸟，毛羽并不美，它的习性专横而残忍。

She doesn't build her own nest, nor does she hatch or feed her young. During the breeding season, she deposits her eggs in the nests of orioles for them to hatch and rear. A baby cuckoo is bigger in size than a baby oriol, and, when full grown, bigger even than the mother oriol. After she is hatched, she often pushes the baby oriol out of the nest, leaving the poor chick to cry and die of hunger and cold so that she may have the mother oriol's care all to herself. The mother bird, however, being treated unfairly without her knowledge, continues laboriously to feed the baby cuckoo who is bigger than herself. The tragic spectacle is such as to arouse great indignation and draw tears of sympathy!

杜鹃是不营巢的，也不孵卵哺雏。到了生殖季节，产卵在莺巢中，让莺替它孵卵哺雏。雏鹃比雏莺大，到将长成时，甚且比母莺还大。鹃雏孵化出来之后，每将莺雏挤出巢外，任它啼饥号寒而死，它自己独霸着母莺的哺育⑦。莺受鹃欺而不自知，辛辛苦苦地哺育着比自己还大的鹃雏：真是一件令人不平、令人流泪的情景。

Hence I believe that the cuckoo can best serve as a model of those who win popularity by dishonest means. But the cuckoo is not to blame. A cuckoo is a cuckoo. She has never asked people to call her a beauty or a patriot.

想到了这些实际，便觉得杜鹃这种鸟大可以作为欺世盗名者的标本了。然而，杜鹃不能任其咎。杜鹃就只是杜鹃，它并不曾要求人把它认为佳人、志士。

Man is no wiser than the oriol. Many act on their own personal imagination regardless of the reality of things.

人的智慧和莺也相差不远⑧，全凭主观意象而不顾实际，这样的例证多的是。

Therefore, we do see, both in history and at present, numerous cuckoo-like men sponging off their compatriots. What about in the future? The oriol can't give an answer, but man should and can.

因此，过去和现在都有无数的人面杜鹃被人哺育着⑨。将来会怎样呢？莺虽然不能解答这个问题，人是应该解答而且能够解答的。

《杜鹃》是郭沫若写于1937年1月13日的一篇散文。作者凭借对杜鹃的精细观察，从描述该鸟在中国文学上所占突出地位开始，转而揭示它的可憎习性，托物喻志，意味明显，深入浅出。