平实行文显“异质”,精彩阐释藏失误——雷蒙·道森《论语》英译本评析

“Otherness” Displayed Through a Plain Style and Errors Hidden in Insightful Explication:A Critical Review of Raymond Dawson's English Translation of Lunyu

英国汉学家雷蒙·道森的《论语》英译本面向普通读者,语言平实无华。译者尊重原文,在词语翻译、句式翻译和义理阐释等方面均运用了"陌生化"的翻译策略,较为充分地传达了原文的"他性"。同时,在义理方面,道森的《论语》译本中有许多精辟、独到的见解。但遗憾的是,译本存在着为数不少的字义、句式及语义理解方面的误读和误译,较大程度上损伤了译本的整体质量。

The British sinologist Raymond Dawson＇s translation of Lunyu, targeting common readers, is couched in plain English. Holding the original text in reverence, the author employed the translational strategy of defamiliarization, either on the lexical, syntactic or doctrinal level, in order to convey the ＂otherness＂ of the original text. Meanwhile, Dawson has many profound and penetrating insights into the doctrines of Lunyu. Regrettably, Dawson＇s translation contains quite a number of mistranslations, which have greatly discounted the overall quality of the translation.