打造小说开头的可信的译文——基于两篇《老人与海》开头译文的评析

The Making of a Credible Translation of a Fiction Opening——Implications from Analysis of Two Translated Openings in The Old Man and the Sea

任何经典小说都有经典的小说开头。经典的小说开头是小说家辛勤努力的结果,也是小说家写作艺术的体现。要翻译好一部小说,首先就要翻译好小说开头。翻译得好的小说开头措辞准确精当、句子通顺流畅、句式变化多样、段落布局合理,同时也确立了原文的主题,传达了原文的意义、风格和口吻。这样的译文也就是可信的译文。本文分别就张爱玲和余光中各自翻译的《老人与海》的开头进行了评析,并据此提供了自己的译文,目的是强调译者在翻译过程中应尽最大努力提供可信的译文。

Any classical fiction entails a classical opening.A classical opening is the embodiment of a novelist's writing craftsmanship as well as the result of his arduous efforts.The success in translating fiction starts from the success in translating its opening.The successfully-translated fiction opening features firstly accurate and economical wording,smooth sentence construction,sentence pattern variation,and rational paragraph layout,and secondly the establishment of the source text theme and the conveyance of the source text meaning,style and tone.The fiction opening of such kind makes a credible translation.This paper,through analyzing respectively Eileen Chang's and Yu Kuang-chung's translations of the opening in The Old Man and the Sea,proposes a revised translation so as to emphasize the importance of making a credible translation through a translator's utmost efforts.