《中国文学艺术精华》:“异语书写”与“无本回译”

“Non-native Language Writing”and“Textless Back Translation”in Essentials of Chinese Literary Art

20世纪70年代末,刘若愚在美国出版了Essentials of Chinese Literary Art(《中国文学艺术精华》)。此书秉持“纯文学观”,采用文体分类的编写体例,全面、概括地介绍了从《诗经》直至20世纪70年代的中国文学(含台湾地区文学),在中国文学史“异语书写”的链条上成为关键的一环。刘若愚在编写中国文学史时,充分考虑西方读者的接受情况,对文学经典的选择与国内同中有异,采用中西文学比较法,达到了向西方读者传播中国文学的目的。中文本译者在“无本回译”时既有得当的处理,也出现了一些错误和遗漏。

In the late 1970s,James J.Y.Liu published Essentials of Chinese Literature Art in the United States.This book adheres to the concept of“pure literature”and adopts the writing style classification approach,comprehensively and generally introducing Chinese literature from The Book of Songs to the 1970s,also including Taiwan literature.It has become a key link in the chain of“non-native language writing”in the history of Chinese literature.When writing the history of Chinese literature,James J.Y.Liu fully considered the acceptance of Western readers,chose literary classics that were slightly different from those in China,adopted the method of comparing Chinese and Western literature,achieving the goal of spreading Chinese literature to Western readers.The Chinese text translator has both appropriate handling and some errors and omissions in the process of translating.