翻译赞助人角色之社会学再思考——以狄平子对黄茂林《坛经》英译的赞助为例

Reconsideration of the Role of Patrons from the Perspective of Sociology: Exemplified by Dih Ping Tsze 's Patronage of the Translation of The Platform Sutra

受勒菲弗尔翻译操纵论的影响,人们一般强调赞助人对译者的制约,视赞助人为否定译者主体的力量。狄平子对历史上《坛经》第一次英译的赞助,产生了一个高质量译本,造就了优秀的佛经译者黄茂林,并让中国佛教开始借助翻译在世界获取话语权。以翻译社会学理论研究此案例,可知当翻译赞助人提供资金并委托或发起翻译活动时,其角色更有帮助者的一面:赞助人协调资本,将译者及翻译场域纳入自己的专业场域,在扩大自己所属机构权力的同时,帮助释放翻译生产力。

Influenced by the manipulation theory put forward by Andrew Lefevere,researchers pay too much attention to the constraint patronage imposed on translators,taking patrons as a negative power imposed on translators＇ subjectivity. Dih Ping Tsze＇s patronage of the first English translation of The Platform Sutra produced a high-quality work,brought up the excellent translator Wong Mou-lam,and marked the beginning of Chinese Buddhism＇s obtaining discourse power by translation. Investigated from the perspective of translation sociology,the case shows that,if he both initiates and finances a translation project,a patron is no less constructive than obstructive： he incorporates capital to recruit the translator and translation field to his own field,enhancing the productivity of translation as he empowers the institution he belongs to.