沈晓华， 刘 昕

(中南民族大学外语学院， 武汉 430074)

世界卫生组织(WHO)关于“虚实”的标准化译名deficiency and excess契合与病证相关的“虚实”表述，并不具有普遍适用性。而中医典籍英译中的“虚实”就涉及包括病证在内的多个层面的涵义。

1 与空间相关之“虚实”

从“虚实”的词源可知，古人对于两词的认知基于物体在一定范围内有无的空间概念。具象的空间画面是“虚实”在描述物体时获得的首个衍生义项，而中医典籍关于五脏六腑运化功能的论述就涉及“虚实”的空间概念。

例1 ：六腑者，传化物而不藏，故实而不能满也。所以然者，水谷入口，则胃实而肠虚；食下，则肠实而胃虚(《素问·五脏别论篇》)。

译文1: The so-called Six Fu-Organs only transport and transform food and will not store it up. That is why they are always Shi (to be filled up) but not Man (full). This is due to the fact that when food is taken into the stomach, the stomach is full, but the intestines are empty. When the food is transported downwards, the intestines are full but the stomach is empty[1]150.

译文2: The six fu organs receive the food and digest, absorb, and transport it, passing it on. They are often full, but still do not store. Food enters the mouth and proceeds to the stomach. The stomach is now full, but the intestines are empty. The foodstuff passes down, filling the intestines. Now the stomach is empty[2]46.

分析：此句是《黄帝内经》关于六腑传化功能的论述。六腑的特点即文中所说：实而不能满，这与六腑均为中空腔体的构造有关。因内质中空，六腑在消化过程中“传化物而不藏”，即六腑虽会被水谷精微所填充，但不会长时间使其贮藏于腔内，因而不会因水谷精微累积而维持“满”的状态。译文1用拼音加文内注释译“实”为Shi (to be filled up)，体现“被填充”的动态过程，而“满”则译为full，即静态的充满之意。但译文1在其后的“胃实而肠虚”及“肠实而胃虚”中却选择表静态的full来译“实”，与filled up不相一致，且与之前“满”的译词相同：既然“实”和“满”在此句中各有分别，均用full来译二者实为不妥。从原文“实”与“虚”并立而论的情况看，译者大概是想用full体现出与empty的相对关系，但却疏忽了前后译文矛盾的问题。译文2的“实”也选用了full和fill两个词，但却不译“满”字，转而改变原文结构，将“不藏”(do not store)置于句末，与“实”相对。……