刘士聪

【背景】余笑曰：“初不料陈淑珍乃李青莲知已。”芸笑曰：“妾尚有启蒙师白乐天先生，时感于怀，未尝稍释。”余曰：“何谓也？”芸曰：“彼非作《琵琶行》者耶？”

【原文】余笑曰：“异哉！李太白是知己，白乐天是启蒙师，余适字三白，为卿婿，卿与‘白字何其有缘耶？”芸笑曰：“白字有缘，将来恐白字连篇耳（吴音呼别字为白字）。”相与大笑。（第21页）

【译文】“How very strange！” I laughed. “Li Po is your bosom friend; Po Chu-yi， your first teacher， and I， with the literary name San-po （Three Pos）， am your husband. Your destiny seems linked to the character of ‘po.”

“If ‘po characters are my fate，” Yuen smiled， “Im afraid there will always be ‘po characters in my poems.” （In Soochow we call incorrectly written characters “po” characters.） Finding this very funny， we both burst out laughing. （p. 14）

【简评】陈芸死后，沈复曾说，“及余家居，惟以文字相辨析而已”。夫妻二人在家时常一起谈论诗文，这段文字写了他们夫妻生活的一个侧面，风趣、幽默。

译者依据原文亦步亦趋地译，巧妙处理了文中的“白”字，译出了原文的诙谐。

然后是“有缘”，一个说your destiny，一个说my fate，一起一应，衔接自然。译者的翻译技巧值得我们揣摩。

【原文】余性爽直，落拓不羁;芸若腐儒，迂拘多礼。偶为之整袖，必连声道“得罪”;或递巾授扇，必起身来接。（第22页）

【译文】I am naturally straightforward and easy-going， unhampered by conven-tion; but Yuen， like a pedantic old Confucian scholar， firmly believed in propriety and ceremony， and insisted on observing many old-fashioned formalities in our daily life. Whenever I helped her into a robe or adjusted a sleeve for her she would murmur repeatedly， “Im so sorry to trouble you. Im so sorry to trouble you.” If I brought her a handkerchief or a fan she would insist on rising to receive it from me. （pp. 14-15）

【簡评】“余性爽直，落拓不羁”，译文“I am naturally straightforward and easy-going， unhampered by convention; ...”把原文所包含的意思几乎都说了。“爽直”，译作straightforward，表示人品性格时，意为honest and frank（The New Oxford Dictionary of English《新牛津英语词典》）。“落拓”，《现代汉语词典》解释为“豪迈，不拘束”，也即“落拓不羁”，译文用了easy-going和unhampered by convention。easy-going意为relaxed and tolerant in approach and manner，也是一种潇洒的表现。虽然句子形式不同，但原文意思表达得准确无误。

这正是译者在译文“序言”里声明所遵循的一个原则：I have also tried to be as meticulous as I could in expressing the exact meaning of the Chinese words.

“迂拘多礼”的译文从两个方面作解释：firmly believed in propriety and ceremony，相信行为举止和礼仪;insisted on observing many old-fashioned formalities in our daily life，遵守生活中的老规矩。

这种译法也涉及语言风格，即译文风格与原文风格有别。用今日英语翻译中国古代文言文，译文难以做到与原文叙述风格保持一致。……