To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die, to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep, perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. There's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of th'unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of?
开篇这句话在片中出现过两次。第一次是莎士比亚企图自杀的场景,他以崩溃的状态站在码头边缘,嘴中念出或者说正在创作这句台词。在那一刻,这句话的含义实际上更接近卞之琳的"活下去还是不活",或者傅光明的"是活着,还是死去",带着更直白的生死抉择感。但考虑到哲学层面的深度和观众对这句话的熟悉程度,我最终还是沿用了朱生豪先生的"生存还是毁灭"。这个译法在中文里几乎已经成了"To be, or not to be"的代名词,这种认知惯性本身就是一种力量。
第三,"The pangs of despised love"我最终译为"心碎的羞辱",这里有一个具体的镜头考虑。朗读这段话时,莎士比亚正在后台痛苦哭泣,当他听到这句话时哭得更厉害了。结合剧情,这里的爱情之痛并非只是字面上被爱情背叛的苦,同时也承载着丧子、失去心爱的人的悲痛,电影赋予了这句话双重含义。为了同时容纳这两层意思,我选择了"心碎的羞辱"这个相对模糊的表述,让两种解读都有落脚的空间。