文学翻译研究与外国文学学科建设——吴元迈先生访谈录

Literary Translation Studies and Foreign Literature Courses

吴元迈先生是我国外国文学研究界的著名学者 ,他长期从事文艺理论、俄罗斯文学的研究 ,出版有学术专著多部 ,并主编有多种外国文学教材及经典作家评传丛书等。吴先生对于中国文学与外国文学的关系问题 ,特别是文学翻译的问题有许多独到的、宏观性的思考。最近 ,本刊特约记者高玉在北京就这方面的有关问题对他进行了访谈。

Gao Yu, a journalist of Foreign Literature Studies had an interview with Professor Wu Yuanmai in Beijing on the issues of literary translation. Professor Wu maintains that literary translation stresses on ″belletristic meaning″ and therefore, translation of poems is the most difficult. Translation of literary works and the translated literary works are two different kinds of literature. The greatest difference lies in the ″belletristic meaning″ in each of them. Actually, there are two kinds of translation:. ″shallow translation″ (namely, the translation of foreign text directly into Chinese text) and ″deep translation″ (namely not the translation of the structure and formation, but the translation of real meaning). For him, translation of literature is not of a science but of an art, therefore, it is impossible to be loyal to the original text in literary translation. Therefore, he believes that ″foreign literature″ is a different term from ″world literature″, the latter ought to include ″Chinese literature″.