《白蛇传》英译

脍炙人口的传统京剧《白蛇传》讲的是传自明朝的故事。白蛇精与毒蛇精化作美女来到人间。白蛇精与一位书生相爱并生一子。禅师法海认为他们的结合违反传统婚姻，伤风败俗，他气急败坏。于是他派神兵神将前来捉拿白蛇精，交将她镇压在一座塔下面。后来，青蛇精在深山中修炼，习武多年，终于砸烂了那座塔，救出白蛇精。至此，白蛇精与丈夫、儿子又得团聚。在《白》剧中，蛇被赋予了崇高的人性。<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The White Snake

The White Snake, one of the most popular traditional Beijing operas, is based on a story handed down from Ming Dynasty (1368~1644). White Snake Spirit and Green Snake Spirit metamorphosed themselves into two beautiful girls and ventured into the human world. White Snake fell in love with a young scholar and gave birth to a son. Fahai, a Buddhist monk, regarded their union as a violation of the conventions regarding marriage and an example of moral degeneration. Much enraged, he sent officers and soldiers from the heaven, who captured White Snake, and using magical powers he himself incarcerated her underneath a pagoda. For many years afterwards, Green Snake hid herself in deep mountains and gave herself rigorous spiritual and martial arts training. In the end she succeeded in toppling the pagoda and rescued her mistress. Now White Snake was reunited with her husband and son.

The snake in the opera is endowed with the noble character of human nature.