红楼药方杨—霍译:语用翻译观

Yang & Yang’s and Hawkes’ Translation of the Medicine Prescription in The Story of the Stone:A Pragma-translatological Approach

本文对比和讨论了《红楼梦》中唯一一付中药方的杨宪益—霍克斯两种英译,发现杨译是求信的异化法,倾向于拉丁文译法;霍译是求达的归化法,倾向于同属植物的英文名。就该书中医片段的翻译而言,在不偏离药理、药剂和译理的前提下,译者应突显相关强交际的语义值和文化值,以彰显中华文化特色。关于该药方的翻译,语用翻译观建议采用杨—霍方式的折中法:1)拉丁语+英语注解;2)拼音+拉丁语+英语注解;3)拼音+英语+拉丁语注解;或者4)拼音+英语注解——择一二而从之,以统一的译风求信而不失文学可读性。

This is a comparative study of Yang & Yang’s and Hawkes’ translation of the integral medicinal prescription in The Story of the Stone. It is seen that Y&Y’s is foreignisation that seeks for fidelity by liberal use of Latin words, while Hawkes’ is domestication striving for readability by way of English names of the same genus. It is maintained that as far as the translation of the novel’s prescription is concerned, a translator, without deviating from pharmacology and translation principles, is supposed to highlight the semantic and cultural values embodied in "strong communication", as well as demonstrate the China-specific culture in the Source Text. Under pragma-translatological scrutiny, we suggest a "middle way" between Y&Y and Hawkes, resulting in option for one or two of these: 1) Latin + English annotation, 2) Pinyin + Latin + English annotation, 3) Pinyin + English + Latin annotation, or 4) Pinyin + English Annotation - to ensure fidelity without sacrifice of literary readability.