揭开“纯语言”的神学面纱——重读本雅明的《译者的任务》

Remove the Theological Veil from "Pure Language":Rereading Walter Benjamin's The Task of the Translator

在《译者的任务》一文中,本雅明对完成翻译任务的论述交织着科学和神学两种不同的视角。科学的视角是:译者必须有能力把源语中的象征变成被象征,然后用目标语把被象征还原为象征。神学的视角是:译者必须有能力从源语进入"纯语言"的境界,然后用自己的语言去释放被另一种语言的咒符困住的"纯语言",从而让"纯语言"通过译作折射出原作。由于中西文化裂差,他的神学表述令许多中国学者感到神秘而晦涩,然而其科学表述使我们有可能揭开罩在"纯语言"上的那层神学面纱。

In his discourse upon the task of the translator, Benjamin interweaves a scientific view with a theological perception. The former expounds that the translator must have capacity to turn the symbolizing into the symbolized in the original language, and then to turn the symbolized back to the symbolizing in his own language. The latter elaborates that the translator must have capacity to go into the stratum of pure language, and then to release in his own language the pure language which is under the spell of another, thereby to allow the pure language, through the medium of the translation, to shine upon the original. Because of the cultural chasm between east and west, the key word, pure language, in Benjamin＇s theological expression seems mysterious and ambiguous to many Chinese scholars and students, yet his scientific exposition gives us sufficient reason and possibility to remove the theological veil from pure language.