约而意显 文而不越——重读支谦《法句经序》

Rereading Zhi Qian's Preface to Chinese Version of Dharmapade

《法句经序》是我国第一篇文本尚存的翻译理论文章,但国内学者在阐释该序时,通常都低估了这篇译序的理论价值。在重读《法句经序》后提出,该序至少还有三重意义值得强调。该序表明我国译者在公元三世纪初期就已经自觉地开始了翻译研究;该序触及了翻译理论的核心问题,即后来纽马克所说的“翻译理论的核心是翻译问题”,而“翻译的主要问题从来就是直译意译的问题”;该序说明直译意译从来都是共生共存、互补互彰的。《法句经序》所蕴含的理论意义值得我们进一步挖掘。

＂The Preface to Chinese Version of Dharmapade＂ gave birth to Chinese translation theory. Though later Chinese scholars found what he discussed was a source of Yan Fu＇ s Three-Character Criteria of translation, they have still undervalued his academic views. This study revaluates Zhi Qian＇ s theory with concrete evidence and comes to the conclusions that this preface advanced more than a thousand years ago what Newmark proposed in his A Textbook of Translation, namely ＂The heart of translation theory is translation problems＂ and ＂The central problem of translating has always been whether to translate literally or freely＂, and that literal translation and free translation are inseparable twins that were born at the same time and will coexist and supply mutual nourishment forever.