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《浮生六记》英译阅读与讨论 (一)

2020-03-08刘士聪

英语世界 2020年2期

刘士聪

沈復的《浮生六记》目前有三个译本:

1. Six Chapters of A Floating Life(林语堂译)

2. Six Records of a Floating Life(Translated by Leonard Pratt and Chiang Su-hui)

3. Chapters from a Floating Life(Translated by Shirley M. Black)

“阅读与讨论”文字,中文取自《浮生六记》(淮茗注释,中州古籍出版社,郑州,2010);英译文取自译本3。

阅读讨论《浮生六记》译文Chapters from a Floating Life,也读原文,了解乾隆朝一个普通文人的家庭生活、夫妻的恩爱与不幸,以及他们的艺术审美情趣。我们惊叹沈复古文修养之好,他的文字,不论是《闺房记乐》还是《坎坷记愁》,让人感动,让人同情。关于译文,译者在其译文《前言》里有一段叙述:

In translating the memoirs I havetried first of all to recreate the subtle emotional atmosphere,at once tragic, passionate and gay, which is, in my opinion, the outstanding characteristic of Shen Fus original. I have alsotried to be as meticulous as I could in expressing the exact meaning of the Chinese words,at the same timetrying to approximate the feeling of the authors own way of expressing himself.This is a rather difficult job with languages as different from one another as Chinese and English and I do not know that I have even partially succeeded.

这段文字对我们阅读和理解她的译文很重要,她有如下三种尝试:第一,tried... to recreate the subtle emotional atmosphere;第二,tried to be as meticulous as I could in expressing the exact meaning of the Chinese words;第三,trying to approximate the feeling of the authors own way of expressing himself。阅读译文时应想到译者的这几条意旨,在她的译文里,我们常常看到的不是字词的对译,而是对语义浓缩的文言进行解读,用英语将其内在含义说透,且行文自然流畅,少有翻译腔。这种译法考虑了译文读者,也展示了一个翻译策略,我们不妨称之为“释义”翻译。

在谈到中国文论和中国古典哲学著作中的术语翻译时,宇文所安说,“……其实没有什么最佳的翻译,只有好的解说。任何翻译都对原文有所改变,而且,任何一种传统的核心概念和术语的翻译都存在这个问题;……”1中国古典文学作品,也包括现当代文学作品,有很多叙述和描写的语汇,习惯上可能不叫“术语”,但它们的翻译,宇文所安的“解说”思想也适用。Shirley M. Black在翻译《浮生六记》时似乎就是这样做的,请阅读时留意。

如,在描写陈芸时有这样的文字:

“其形削肩长颈,瘦不露骨,眉弯目秀,顾盼神飞,唯两齿微露,似非佳相。一种缠绵之态,令人之意也消。

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