"An hour before daybreak Dinarzade awoke, and exclaimed, as she had promised, 'My dear sister, if you are not asleep, tell me I pray you, before the sun rises, one of your charming stories. It is the last time that I shall have the pleasure of hearing you.' Scheherazade did not answer her sister, but turned to the Sultan. 'Will your highness permit me to do as my sister asks?' said she. 'Willingly,'he answered. So Scheherazade began."
--from THE ARABIAN NIGHTS
--from THE ARABIAN NIGHTS
The most famous of all story collections, The Arabian Nights, also known as The Book of the Thousand and One Nights, is beloved around the world. Composed of Persian, Arabic, Greek, Indian, and other sources that accumulated over hundreds of years, these fabulous stories-within-stories have long fired readers’ imaginations with an enchanted world of flying carpets, magic lamps, genies, demons, magicians and sorceresses, carnivorous giants, and bloodthirsty bandits. Translation has played a key role in the formation of The Arabian Nights as we know it, making it far more prominent in the West than it has ever been in the Arab world. Westerners’ first discovery of some of the tales in the early eighteenth century sparked a feverish thirst for more, which led to compilations that freely adapted, reconfigured, and even added to the originals. The resulting love affair with the art, architecture, literature, cuisine, and culture of the East significantly remapped the European literary landscape. Editor Wen-chin Ouyang has compiled a carefully chosen selection from influential English translations, showcasing the strengths of different translators, including Richard Burton, Edward Lane, Jonathan Scott, and John Payne. Here are Shahrazad, Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin, Ali Baba, and many more, in the most readable and enjoyable versions available. READ more here: http://knopfdoubleday.com/book/235936/the-arabian-nights/
《天方夜譚》原名《一千零一夜》，是一部阿拉伯民間故事集，內有各種神話、傳說、趣聞、掌故、寓言、格言及詩歌；其中人物包括帝王將相、販夫走卒、乞丐盜 賊，其至仙妖鬼怪。這些膾炙人口的故事反映了中古時代阿拉作的風土人情，且蘊含著豐富的人生哲理。本書選錄的一百段出自近八十個大小故事，大部分為一般選 本所沒有，精彩異常，寓意深刻。這些滄海遺珠，更能反映原書的真貌。
一套上下兩冊，由上海商務印書館發行，1906出版民國十四年 (1925) 再版的奚若譯《天方夜譚》，下面是版權頁部分：台灣商務1971年有人人文庫版
「奚若是伍光建的筆名之一」 (錯誤 應是 奚伯緩 參考http://www.wretch.cc/blog/aliangStudio/21667484)
1971年的有人人文庫版。 有一篇《序》寫於1924 引了傅斯年的話，更大力引用胡適的 《五十年來之中國文學》。可是沒寫柞者名字。
-----伍光健
我初讀浮華世界是伍光健的譯本 臺灣商務萬有文庫薈要(還有拿破崙日記等) 楊宓的是很多年以後才知道的
胡適之先生晚年懷念 伍光健先生的譯筆 寫信給香港友人希望幫忙搜集他年青時讀過的俠隱記等書
伍光健（1860-1943）用白話文譯外國小說，生動傳神，令人耳目一新，是翻譯文學史上首例，他對翻譯提出的見解，對後來的翻譯文學產生重要影響。
伍光健（1867-1943）清末及民國政要。廣東新會人。北洋水師學堂畢業，後留學英國。曾任清政府海軍得顧問、軍樞司司長等職。辛亥革命後，歷任南京臨時政府財政部顧問、鹽務署參事、復旦大學教授等。 1943年6月10日在上海病逝。
生平譯著
俠隱記（長篇小說）法國大仲馬著，1907，商務
續俠隱記（長篇小說）法國大仲馬著，1907，商務
法宮秘史前編（長篇小說）法國大仲馬著，1908，商務
法宮秘史後編（長篇小說）法國大仲馬著，1908，商務
霸術（長篇小說）意大利馬基雅弗里著，1925，商務
勞苦世界（長篇小說）英國狄更斯著，1926，商務
大偉人威立特傳（長篇小說）英國斐爾丁著，1926，商務
克闌弗（長篇小說）英國加斯刻爾夫人著，1927，商務
約瑟·安德魯傳（長篇小說）英國斐爾丁著，1926，商務
法國大革命史馬德愣著，1928，商務
英國史 麥考萊著，1928，商務
杜巴利伯爵夫人外傳（長篇小說）英國無名氏著，1928，商務
泰西進步概論（論著）英國馬爾文著，1929，商務
造謠學校（劇本）英國謝立丹著，1929，新月
詭姻緣（劇本）英國戈德史密史著，1929，新月
狹路冤家（長篇小說，即《呼嘯山莊》）英國勃朗特著，1930，華通書局
人之悟性論（今譯《人性論》（論著）英國休謨著，1930，商務
列寧與甘地（論著）奧地利孚勒普密勒著，1931，華通書局
斐克多牧師傳（長篇小說）英國戈德斯密斯著，1931，商務
債票投機史（論著）摩特藍著，1931，神州
俾斯麥（傳記）路馬著，1931，商務
飯後哲學（論著）美國若德著，1931，商務
浮華世界（長篇小說，·即《名利場》）美國薩克雷著，1931，商務
洛雪小姐遊學記（長篇小說）英國勃郎特著，1932，商務
倫理學（論著） 斯賓諾莎著， 1933，商務
狐之神通（據歌德詩所改故事）1933，商務
拿破崙日記 1934，商務
孤女飄零記（長篇小說，即《簡·愛》）英國勃朗特著，1935，商務
聖水（短篇小說集）法國大仲馬著，1941，啟明
三個火槍手（長篇小說）法國大仲馬著，1957，上海少兒
一個王后的秘密（小說）英國奧本海姆張，1985，湖南人民
一六O四年英國革命史法國基佐著，1985，商務
伍光建翻譯遺稿 1980，人文
伍光健（1867--1943），廣東新會人，字昭，筆名君朔。清光緒十三年（1887）畢業於天津北洋水師學堂，後留學英國格林威治海軍學校和倫敦大學。光緒十八年回國，任教育部諮議、海軍處顧問。民國後，歷任北京政府財政部顧問、鹽務署參事。後棄官譯書。譯有大仲馬的《俠隱記》、費爾丁的《大偉人威立特傳》、薩克雷的《浮華世界》、《簡·愛》等。
----
《天方夜譚》胡鳴天譯，台北；大中國，1971再版。162頁
多部英文
http://www.wollamshram.ca/1001/index.htm
| The Thousand Nights and a Night |
| "...But when it was midnight Shahrázád awoke and signalled to her sister Dunyázád who sat up and said, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, recite to us some new story, delightsome and delectable wherewith to while away the waking hours of our latter night." "With joy and goodly gree," answered Shahrázád, "if this pious and auspicious King permit me." "Tell on," quoth the King who chanced to be sleepless and restless and therefore was pleased with the prospect of hearing her story." |
One Thousand and One Nights (Arabic: كتاب ألف ليلة وليلة Kitāb alf laylah wa-laylah) is a collection of West and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English language edition (1706), which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights' Entertainment.[1]
The work was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central, South Asia and North Africa. The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and literature. In particular, many tales were originally folk stories from the Caliphate era, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian workHazār Afsān (Persian: هزار افسان, lit. A Thousand Tales) which in turn relied partly on Indian elements.[2]
What is common throughout all the editions of the Nights is the initial frame story of the ruler Shahryār (from Persian: شهريار, meaning "king" or "sovereign") and his wife Scheherazade (from Persian: شهرزاد, possibly meaning "of noble lineage"[3]) and the framing device incorporated throughout the tales themselves. The stories proceed from this original tale; some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord. Some editions contain only a few hundred nights, while others include 1,001 or more. The bulk of the text is in prose, although verse is occasionally used to express heightened emotion, and for songs and riddles. Most of the poems are single couplets or quatrains, although some are longer.
Some of the stories of The Nights, particularly "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor", while almost certainly genuine Middle Eastern folk tales, were not part of The Nights in Arabic versions, but were added into the collection by Antoine Galland and other European translators.[4]
《天方夜譚一百段 》
初版日期：1997年【編譯者簡介】
張信威 深圳大學英語系教授、翻譯家、辭書編纂者、堔圳市外國語言學會會長，曾任美國威斯康辛大學客座教授和英國倫敦大學訪問學者。出版著作有十多種，包括《朗文英漢雙解多功能分類詞典》、《李爾王注釋》及《新編高級英語》等等。
高為煇，曾任吉林大竹孚教授及蘇州城建環保學院教授，現深圳萬國語言與翻釋中心主任。