英語世界文摘:《浮生六記》英譯閱讀與討論（三）

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《浮生六記》英譯閱讀與討論（三）

文/劉士聰

【背景】余笑曰：“初不料陳淑珍乃李青蓮知已?！笔|笑曰：“妾尚有啟蒙師白樂天先生，時感于懷，未嘗稍釋。”余曰：“何謂也?”蕓曰：“彼非作《琵琶行》者耶？”

【原文】余笑曰：“異哉！李太白是知己，白樂天是啟蒙師，余適字三白，為卿婿，卿與‘白’字何其有緣耶？”蕓笑曰：“白字有緣，將來恐白字連篇耳（吳音呼別字為白字）?！毕嗯c大笑。（第21頁）

【譯文】“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 Po’s), am yourhusband. Your destiny seems linked to the character of ‘po’.”

“If ‘po’ characters are my fate,” Yuen smiled, “I’m 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)

【簡評】陳蕓死后，沈復曾說，“及余家居，惟以文字相辨析而已”。夫妻二人在家時常一起談論詩文，這段文字寫了他們夫妻生活的一個側面，風趣、幽默。譯者依據原文亦步亦趨地譯，巧妙處理了文中的“白”字，譯出了原文的詼諧。

然后是“有緣”，一個說 your destiny，一個說 my fate，一起一應，銜接自然。

譯者的翻譯技巧值得我們揣摩。

【原文】余性爽直，落拓不羈；蕓若腐儒，迂拘多禮。偶為之整袖，必連聲道“得罪”；或遞巾授扇，必起身來接。（第22頁）

【譯文】I am naturally straightforward and easy-going, unhampered by conven-tion; but Yuen, like a pedantic old Confucian scholar, firmly believed in propriety andceremony, 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, “I’m so sorry to trouble you. I’m 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)

【簡評】“余性爽直，落拓不羈”，譯文“I am naturally straightforward and easy-going, unhampered by convention; ...”把原文所包含的意思幾乎都說了。“爽直”，譯作 straightforward，表示人品性格時，意為 honest and frank（The New Oxford Dictionary of English《新牛津英語詞典》）?！奥渫亍保冬F(xiàn)代漢語詞典》解釋為“豪邁，不拘束”，也即“落拓不羈”，譯文用了easy-going和unhampered by convention。easy-going 意為 relaxed and tolerant in approach and manner，也是一種瀟灑的表現(xiàn)。雖然句子形式不同，但原文意思表達得準確無誤。

這正是譯者在譯文“序言”里聲明所遵循的一個原則：I have also tried to be as meticulous as I could in expressing the exact meaning of the Chinese words.

“迂拘多禮”的譯文從兩個方面作解釋：firmly believed in propriety andceremony，相信行為舉止和禮儀；insisted on observing many old-fashioned formalities in our daily life，遵守生活中的老規(guī)矩。

這種譯法也涉及語言風格，即譯文風格與原文風格有別。用今日英語翻譯中國古代文言文，譯文難以做到與原文敘述風格保持一致。文言文言簡意賅，信息量大，與英語在句法結構上的差別很大；英譯文一方面要擴充信息，在難尋形式的對應時，要以完整的英語句式重寫原文，再考慮思維方式的因素，敘事風格難以趨同。重要的是在兼顧達意的同時，盡量在表達方式上體現(xiàn)一種簡潔、統(tǒng)一的行文風格。

【背景】婚后，沈復遵父親意志，離家赴杭州趙省齋先生門下學習。

【原文】居三月，如十年之隔。蕓雖時有書來，必兩問一答，半多勉勵詞，余皆浮套語，心殊怏怏。每當風生竹院，月上蕉窗，對景懷人，夢魂顛倒。（第19頁）

【譯文】The next three months, as I dragged my way through them, felt like ten years of unendurable separation. Letters from Yuen arrived regularly enough, although for two of mine I received only one in reply; but of these, half were filled with words of caution or encouragement, the rest with mere frivolous conventionalities.Sadness and dejection filled my heart. Every time the wind rustled the bamboos inmy courtyard or the moon silvered the leaves of the banana trees beside my window, I remembered other moons and other nights until my soul became entranced with an unreal world of dreams and fancies. (p. 11)

【簡評】“居三月,如十年之隔”，這在中文里比較流行，說法各異，意思相同，不同譯者也會給出不同譯文。此處的“The next three months, as I dragged my way through them, felt like ten years of unendurable separation”，體現(xiàn)了譯者要盡量把中文確切意思譯出來的宗旨，原文意思說得充分，因而有厚重感。

“風生竹院，月上蕉窗”，詩一般的語言。首先是“竹院”和“蕉窗”，怎么翻譯，如何落筆，怎么用英語寫得既合乎實際又富有詩意。譯者將“竹院”寫作 the bamboos in my courtyard——院里的竹子，將“蕉窗”寫作 the banana trees beside my window——窗旁的蕉樹，這樣理解是合理的，用英語這樣處理意思清楚，行文也自然。rustled 和 silvered 兩個動詞用得好：前者讓我們看見搖曳的竹枝，聽見竹葉的窸窣作響；后者讓我們看見蕉葉上的斑駁月光。此般情景，讓只身在外的沈復越發(fā)感到孤獨，越發(fā)思念家中的愛妻。

譯文成功描繪了院中的景色，也映襯了作者當時的心情。