中国志怪小说的叙事重构:以卫三畏英译《聊斋志异》为例

The Reconstruction of Narratives in Chinese Supernatural Fiction:A Case Study of Samuel Wells Williams's Translation of Liao Zhai

卫三畏是最早将《聊斋志异》中的部分故事译介到英语世界的西方汉学家之一。本文探讨其散见于《中国总论》《拾级大成》以及《中国丛报》中的选译故事对中国志怪小说的叙事重构,并指出卫氏的翻译策略主要表现为文学文本的宗教化处理、直译形式下的意译改编,以及选译策略下的主题重构。其翻译策略有深刻的历史与现实原因:一方面,卫氏无视中西方读者对同一故事主题阐释视角的差异,从词语的选择、叙事视角的转换,以及情节的删减来引导读者的价值判断;另一方面,他的传教士身份使得其译本被贯注了很强的宗教价值导向,在某种程度上是对原文的叙事重构,以期证明在中国传教的可行性、必然性及迫切性。

Samuel Wells Williams is one of the earliest Sinologists who translated Strange Tales of Liao Zhai into English. This essay explores the reconstruction of narratives in the selected stories of translation by Williams in The Middle Kingdom, Easy Lessons in Chinese and Chinese Repository. It argues that Williams＇ strategy of translation includes re- ligious treatment of literary texts, free translation under the form of literal translation, and thematic reconstruction via selected translation. His choice of translation strategy has pro- found historical and practical reasons. On the one hand, Williams ignored the differences on interpretations of the same story between Chinese and Western readers, and he injected significant subjective interpretation in respects of the choice of words, the transformation of narrative perspective, and the deletion of plots. On the other hand, his identity as a mis- sionary endows his translation of stories with strong religious orientation, making them a narrative reconstruction of the source text to prove the feasibility, necessity and urgency of the missionary work in China.