关键的“误译”和有意的“误读”

Key "Mistranslation" and Purposeful "Misreading"

林纾在翻译Uncle Tom’s cabin时,看似好像留下了三种关键性的"误译",即同名异译、删减基督教和增润"吁天",塑造了一个内涵完全不同于原著的汤姆形象。然而,这并非缘于通常所谓林纾不通外文造成的败笔,而是深思熟虑的有意"误读":为唤醒同胞而有意曲笔为之。事实上,中国近代小说翻译最初以思想启蒙为动力,同时受社会传统文化的制约,迎合当时接受者阅读习惯和情趣,包含了大量改制创作成分。不过,国人在翻译外国小说的同时,对西方文学从隔膜走向了解,逐渐通过选择、引进、吸纳,革新了中国小说,进而萌育了现代翻译观念。

In his translated version of Uncle Tom's cabin,Lin Shu seemed to leave three critical mistranslations including translating the same names in different ways,deleting and reducing Christianity and refining title translation 'yutian'.By this he created a new image of Tom different from the original work.However,we should deem that it is not faulty expressions but purposeful 'misreading',and that Lin adopted this kind of purposeful mistranslation in order to awake Chinese at that time.Actually,propelled by ideological enlightenment and restricted by social traditional culture,Lin Shu had to change and rewrite some parts of original versions to fulfill readers' reading habits and appreciations at that era.Nevertheless,he also gradually understood foreign literatures and innovated Chinese fictions through selection,adoption and absorption,which cultivated modern translation conception consequently.