《离骚》英译史视阈下的宇文所安译文初探

A preliminary study on Stephen Owen's translation of Li Sao: A historical perspective

19世纪末以来,《离骚》英译本不断出现,其中以霍克斯、伯顿、宇文所安的译文影响较大。通过将宇文所安译文置于《离骚》英译史的大背景下,与霍克斯、伯顿译文的对比,来探讨其特色和成就。宇文所安的译文是民族性和世界性的辩证统一。对于独具汉民族特色的骚体,宇文所安创造性地运用"半诗体"、破折号、标点空缺以及精心选择的语词,最大限度地再现原文的文体特点,同时勾联并存了东方的哀怨美与西方的悲剧美;在陌生化内涵的翻译上,宇文所安译文体现了译者对源文化中的宗教意识和悲剧精神的深刻理解,对男女两性政治隐喻手法的准确把握。宇文所安的译文是其"世界诗歌"理念的实践,考虑到了多元语言文化的差异性、意义的开放性和传播的有效性,对中国的典籍翻译有积极的指导意义。

Since the 19th century, there have been appearing continuously translations of Li Sao. Among all the translators of this classic, David Hawkes, Burton Watson, and Stephen Owen are the most influential ones. The present essay, by comparing Stephen Owen’s version of Li Sao with the other two by David Hawkes and Burton Watson, explores Stephen Owen’s artistic achievement. Stephen Owen’s translation of Li Sao is a dialectical unity, keeping a delicate balance between nationality and universality. As for the unique genre “saoti”, Stephen Owen creatively employs“hemistiches”, dash, absence of punctuation, and delicate word selection, representing the stylistic features of the source to the most extent and combining Chinese sad sense of beauty with western tragic one. When it comes to defamiliarizing connotations, Owen’s translation reflects his deep understanding of religious and tragic conceptions embedded in the Chinese culture as well as his skillful grasp of the political connotations of love metaphors. Diversity of languages and cultures, openness of interpretation and communicative availability are all taken into consideration in his translation. In a word, his translation is a practice of his conception of “World Poetry”, and thus is significantly valuable to the translation career of Chinese classics.