论诗歌翻译中的文化交流——评《长恨歌》的两种译本

Cultural Communication in Poetic Translation——A Comment on Two Versions of Everlasting Regret

诗歌是民族语言的精粹,凝聚着丰富的文化内涵,因而诗歌翻译既是一项跨语言,也是一项跨文化的交际活动。诗歌所涉及的文化有表、中、深三层之分。在文化表层,全人类共性远远大于个性,因而翻译方法以横向移植为主。在文化中层,两种文化可能会出现文化并行或空缺现象,翻译应该着力于沟通。在文化深层,不同文化之间存在着隔离现象,主要表现为语言的隔离和心理的隔离,在这一层面翻译所面临的难度较大,译者首先应对此有所认识,然后灵活应对,以便跨越文化鸿沟。

As the cream of a nation's language, poetry teems with abundant cultural connotations. In this sense, poetic translation is not only a bilingual, but also a cross-cultural activity. Cultural phenomena involved in poetry can be graded at three levels---the surface, middle and deep levels. At the surface level, owing to the generalities between humans of all nations, the translator will hardly encounter much difficulty when he transfers directly from the source language to the target language. At the middle level, sometimes cultural phenomena run parallel to each other or other times there is a gap between them, which makes it necessary for the translator to aim at cultural communication. At the deep level, more often than not, the SL culture and the TL culture may be isolated from each other either linguistically or psychologically. While translating at this level, the translator should strive to bridge the cultural gap by developing a sharp cultural awareness and taking flexible measures.