纳西英雄之名的翻译:从民族文学到世界文学

Translating Naxi Hero's Names: From Ethnic to World Literature

在少数民族文学中,人名的翻译是塑造民族认同的重要环节。此文结合翻译理论,探讨人名翻译的难点。文章的核心在于分析纳西族后洪荒始祖崇忍利恩(纳西拼音为Coqsseileel’ee,国际音标为)名字的不同翻译版本。中英两种语言的翻译传统皆有言及,译名的规范统一更是讨论的重要目标之一。少数民族的民族英雄之名不仅是语音序列,更是满载待传的含蓄意义,只有在翻译时将这种意义尽量完整地传递入目的语,方能保护和弘扬少数民族文化。

In ethnic minority literature,the translation of names plays an important role in shaping ethnic identity. The names of an ethnic group's folk heroes,in this case the Naxi hero Coqsseileel'ee( in Naxi pinyin),or( in International Phonetic Alphabet),are not just sound sequences,but are also full of implicit meaning that needs to be transferred. Only when this meaning is conveyed can we protect ethnic culture in translation.Ⅰ. Translating names The translation of names has provided a rich vein of material for translation scholars to mine over the past few decades,but when we are dealing with the folklore of ethnic minorities,the translation of names is not just a simple diversion: as has just been stated,it is a task where a group's entire identity and culture are at stake. As Newmark( 1988) has said,when it comes to names infolk tales,'nationality is important',and care must,therefore,be taken with translation. Nevertheless,it has been put forward that names do not need translating. For example,Anthony Pym tells us'proper names are untranslatable simply because they do not have to be translated '( 2004,92).Working between languages of similar orthographies,this most reductive approach may be possible,if not perhaps the most appropriate strategy to use. When faced with completely different orthographies however,such as those we must navigate when moving between Naxi,English and Chinese,translation of names simply must occur.Transliteration is,in Wellisch's words,employed for 'representing the characters( letters or signs) of one alphabet by those of another,in principle letter by letter ' while transcription is used for the 'operation of representing elements of a language,either sounds or signs,however they may be written originally,in any other written system of letter or sound signs'( 1975,x). Because there is some overlap,I will simply use the term'transcription'when referring to Naxi-Chinese and Naxi-English,but transliteration for Chinese-English( generally pinyin).In the Chinese tradition,this transcription is seen as separate from translation; it is a kind of non-translation. But,the truth of the matter is that even in transcription something has been translated; the sounds have been reformulated into Chinese. It is a translation of sorts – of phonemes.Paradoxically,in modern translation theory,even non-translation,or 'zero translation ' becomes a form or strategy of translation. So,transcription must also be seen as a strategy of translation from this inclusive viewpoint.In English-speaking cultures, names have been traditionally considered to be phonological sequences; labels that are arbitrarily linked with that which they signify,in which case their phonology plays the dominant role. The alternative view is tosee names as definite descriptors,and thus,laden with semantic information. Names in many cultures are full of both semantic and semiotic significance.That is to say that they do not simply possess a lexical meaning,but are socio-political signifiers in their own right. Like all units of language,they are Saussurean signs- they unite a concept( the named) and a sound image( the name). But this semiotic significance is prominent for Naxi names,and not because the Naxi Dongba script itself is one of visual signs,each character possessing a number of potential signifieds. In Naxi,names are historically indicative of tribal and familial associations. They are not just phonological markers,so,names not only refer to the named,but also carry an extra semantic and anthropological load.However,semantics is not all we have to consider,for if names are terms which refer to individuals,then the sounds of a name should also be considered of primary importance in naming. It is logical then that a translator must consider phonology as a necessary component when translating names. But how can we translate meaning that is carried in sound into another language with a completely different phonology?When dealing with the translation of a proper noun,we are left with the old dyad of translation studies: we can either bring the reader to the text,by retaining the phonology of the source text with a pronunciation gloss or transposed orthography,or we can bring the text to the reader,by adapting or re-creating the name in the phonological norms of the target language. This would involve the creation of a new name in the target language based upon the nearest phonological equivalents. However,it runs the risk of losing any semantic signifiers,or indeed creating unwanted target language associations.I will be focusing on the translation of the Naxi name,Coqsseileel'ee,the legendary postdiluvian ancestor of the Naxi people. Coqsseileel'ee is the paragon of Naxi manhood and the father of the Naxi people,the first man,a Naxi Adam and Noah rolled into one,and as such he is key to their selfidentity. Coqsseileel'ee is most often represented in the logographic Dongba script as a man with an elephant's head( see below). The elephant is used phonetically for the first syllable of the name,.It is the job of the translator to translate not just the name,but the person who fills that patronymic substitute. In Chinese translations,as we shall discover,we have almost arbitrary naming practices by translators assigning essentially empty names that are not filled by any people,real or imagined.Naxi scholar He Jiren has provided a direct translation of the four Naxi syllables in the name: 'best among men'( both and mean 'person ', means 'species /kind'and means 'goodness / virtue ',i. e.[he who is]good [among]the species of man).He tells of the legend surrounding Coqsseileel'ee,quoting a famous passage from the Naxi literature in which Coqsseileel'ee boasts of his prowess: 'I am descended from the nine brothers who split the heavens and the seven sisters who cracked the earth; I can chew three ox's legs in my mouth without choking; I can consume three vats of noodles without gagging! The whole great river could flow into my mouth,and I would not feel bloated; the tall mountains could be placed in my arms,and I would not feel weighed down. I am of the race that cannot be cut by any knife,or flattened by any hammer! ' In Naxi legend, Coqsseileel'ee is,then,seen as the paragon of human capability,and the literal meaning of his name reflects this.The name,in terms of its literal meaning,and in terms of its genealogical signification,serves as a metonym for the Naxi race as a whole– and it is therefore a crucial element to be considered in translation.Ⅱ. Chinese Translations Although there are standard translations for English names into Chinese,provided by such official reference guides as Names of the World's Peoples( 世界人名翻译大辞典); no such standards exist for Naxi names in Chinese. The closest we come to an official Chinese rendering of this Naxi name would be the state-sanctioned reference work Dictionary of Chinese Ethnohistoric Characters( 中国民族史人物辞典),published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,which provides two entries for Coqsseileel'ee: Chongren li'en 崇忍利恩 as the main entry,and Congren li'en 从忍利恩as an alternate spelling.Unfortunately,one alternate spelling is just the tip of this particular nominal iceberg,for the name is translated in many different ways across the literature. The famous translator Yan Fu once remarked that coming up with an acceptable translation of a name was worth a month or so of pondering( 一名之立,旬月踯躅),and we can see in one particular Chinese scholar's translations of the results of what must also have been several months,if not years,of thought.In the modern era,among the first generation of Chinese scholars to publish extensively on the Naxi was Li Lin-Tsan. In his Translations and Annotation of Mo-so Classics( 么些经典译注),first written as a compilation of six translated volumes in1946 and later re-published as an expanded compilation of nine volumes in 1977,Li uses two different transcriptions: in the translation of the story The Origin of Divination( 占 卜 起 源 的 故 事)( translated in February 1946),the name of the Naxi post-flood ancestor is transcribed into Chinese as Cuoruo li'en 错 若 利 恩. In The Story of the Flood( translated in June 1946),the name is transcribed as Cuore li'en 搓熱利恩. The two different transcriptions offered by Li are similar enough in pronunciation,the first character changing from fourth tone cuo- 'mistake'to first tone cuo 'to rub with the hands ',possibly avoiding negative connotations associated with the former,although sacrificing the tonal similarity between the Naxi low tone and the Chinese low falling tone.A few years prior,Li published a dictionary of the Naxi 'pictographic ' characters that included entries for the name,for which there is no Chinese translation given,merely the IPA pronunciation. Interestingly,in even later editions a Chinese equivalent different to his two earlier formulations is provided: Chongren li'en 崇忍利恩,a transcription that seems to have gained much cachet in Chinese literature over the past few decades. In this transcription,the final two syllables remain unchanged,but the first two seem to have become even further removed from the phonology of the original Naxi.In the later literature,we are bombarded with yet more differing translations,as if each translator feels it their duty to create a new version of the name; a rite of passage for all would-be Naxi scholars. A synchronic picture of how translations of the name have changed over time reveals a certain trend worth noting. We can see a move away from phonological translation to an act of re-naming,creating a mix of phonological and semantic markers different,yet related,to the original Naxi name. In essence,the Chinese translators have shaped the translations of the Naxi name into a name at once 'foreign-sounding'but still rich in semantic content,as befits the Chinese tradition.A review of both scholarly works and the translated literature reveals no less than seventeen different Chinese translations of the Naxi,and this figure discounts the va-riants with appended syllables. Obviously this multiplicity of Chinese translations of the same name is not the desired situation. If Naxi literature is to ever be accepted into the canons of world literature,then surely there must be some agreement as to what names we should call its greatest heroes.Ⅲ. English translations Translation in Naxiology poses a further problem in that it is a field with diverging oriental and occidental traditions. In translation, each Naxi name is,in essence,being pulled in two separate directions.Translators who are working into English may not be able to read or speak Naxi,and in such situations they will most likely make use of Chinese language texts( especially when they are translating Chinese texts concerning the Naxi). If a translator is translating Naxi names from a Chinese language text and has limited knowledge of Naxi language or culture,the target text ends up with pinyin transliterations of the Chinese phonetic translations: essentially what I would term 'second-level transcriptions',ones that have been passed through two languages.Romanisation has long been the preferred option for translation of proper names from Chinese into English,in keeping with the emphasis on the sound sequence of names in the English-speaking world. The famous botanist and explorer Joseph Rock was the first scholar to devise a complete system of romanisation for Naxi( his rather arcane formulation is 'Ts' o-z-llü-ghügh'). However,there does exist another system of romanisation for Naxi:that of official Naxi pinyin. Naxi pinyin is a useful tool for translators for two main reasons: it has concrete,officially-sanctioned orthography; and it is easy to type and does not include any 'strange 'characters. An implicitly important reason is that it was developed by Naxi scholars( albeit at the behest of the central Chinese government),for the Naxi themselves to use. Thus,it can be considered as a relatively homegrown part of their own culture. Rock's romanisation,on the other hand,was developed for his own research purposes and was subsequently appropriated by Western scholars—show it to the average Naxi and they will have no idea what the letters mean. We must standardize translations of names if the source culture has any hope of being presented in translation as part of a whole literary tradition. What are we to make of the many different heroes of the Chinese versions?While Naxi pinyin effectively transfers the phonology of the original( as long as the reader understands how to read Naxi pinyin, of course,making explanatory notes a necessity),the meaning of the name is lost in translation. Would a more satisfactory explanation- and,harking back to oral theory- be to provide a semantic epithet,a Parryian oral-formula,to re-introduce some of the lost redundancy?In the case of Coqsseileel'ee,the semantic associations of his name are implicit,if not completely understood by the source language listener. A tactic for making explicit to the target language reader what is implicit would be to use noun-epithet formulations alongside the name,as in Greek oral tradition 'swift-footed Achilles '. When we use a noun-epithet formula,the character as he or she exists in the whole tradition is summoned into the mind. His entire mythic presence is recreated in the epithet. Hence,by using a formulation such as 'Coqsseileel'ee,first and best among men'we can try to explain the character's mythic importance in terms of the textual tradition- by adding in some of the symbols that come together to create the name.Ⅳ. Summary All the issues raised in the translation of Naxi names are not just mildly diverting questions of translation practice and theory. The entire meaningof the Naxi texts,and by extension the identity of the Naxi people,is at stake with the translation of these proper nouns. I believe that we cannot find the 'character'of Coqsseileel'ee in the corpus of translated Naxi texts,because there is no one same proper noun to attract the linguistic signs that belong to him( e. g. his manliness,or his kindliness). The proper name is a linguistic form of reminiscence,but we simply cannot recall who or what he means as a character if his name keeps changing. So we are brought back to the holy grail of standardization,of using one proper noun. With the use of Naxi pinyin,which uses the Latin alphabet,standardization in English translation of Naxi names would appear to be eminently achievable.But if we are to translate into Chinese orthography,no such convenience is afforded to us. Rather than endlessly exercising our imagination and skill as translators to create ever-new renditions of the Naxi name,perhaps the more responsible,intertextual approach would be to canonise the most prevalent,oft-recurring rendition in the currently translated literature. By settling on a name,we are settling on a character,and the character and mythology of the Naxi people as a whole. Thus the intertextuali-ty of the oral Naxi traditions is preserved,and a way forward to world literature is opened.