严复译必求“雅”翻译考论

On the Motivation of Yan Fu's Pursuit of Elegancy in His Translation

对于严复的翻译,学界一般考察其翻译理论主张,即信达雅,或者考察其翻译中所出现的中西不协调现象,并针对英文原文与译文具体考察之。但对于严复译文求"雅"的动机却少有考论,不对这种译必求雅的动机进行考察,就难以全面评价严复的翻译。在翻译实践中,严复利用本土的文言译介外来思想,雅训的古文笔法充分表现出其译著的"古文学"性来。严复在翻译中,力求信、达、雅———其实,更确切地说是,出于阅读对象的设定,雅才是严复翻译的最高要求,而信与达,只是一种翻译理想,其实在其翻译中未必能实现。

In the academic research of Yan Fu＇s translation, scholars generally examine his claim in translation theory faithfulness, expressiveness and elegancy, or examine the incongruity in his translation as compared with the original version. Few researches have been done on the motivation of his pursuit of elegancy. In the absence of this kind of researches, it is difficult to fully evaluate his translation. Yan Fu employed ancient Chinese to translate and introduce foreign ideas, which is moti- vated by his targeting of readers.