诗学的钳制:苏曼殊文学翻译变脸考辨

The Constraints of Poetics and the Reshaping of the Original in Su Manshu’s Literary Translation

近代文学家、翻译家、高僧苏曼殊以翻译英国浪漫派诗歌和印度文学作品、首译雨果小说《悲惨世界》垂名于中国文学翻译史,但其译作较之于原作的"变脸"致使不少学者以非历史化的视角将其翻译视为反面教材。本文从"诗学钳制、操控翻译"的文化角度出发,以苏译英国浪漫派诗歌和《悲惨世界》为主要研究对象,客观描写了译者如何通过语体和视角改变、"豪杰译"模式对原作风貌进行重塑,论证了译者积极、能动地为顺应译入语主流诗学而采取上述文化翻译之举。古今中外,为译入语主流诗学改写原文的现象有极大共似性,诗学的相异决定了改写的不可避免性,从而也决定了翻译研究中诗学因素的不可忽视性。

Su Manshu,an early 20th-century man of letters,translator and monk,occupies a special position in China's history of literary translation with his pioneering translations of English Romantic poetry,Indian literary works,and even Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.As a translator,he was wont to change the ST's linguistic style,literary form and narrative perspective,adopting what is known as the method of"heroic translation."While such an approach has caused some scholars to set his translation up as a negative example,this paper argues that from a cultural theory-informed perspective,the dominant poetics would necessarily restrain and manipulate translation,and Su's reshaping of the original must therefore be seen as essentially his dynamic adaption to the target language's received mode of poetics,justified as an act of cultural translation.By subjecting Su's renditions of English Romantic poetry and Les Miserables to a close re-examination,the paper further argues that since the poetics governing the production of ST necessarily differs from that governing the production of TT,rewriting in literary translation is unavoidable,and a focus on poetics in translation studies is hence called for.