译者意识形态复杂性下的汉译“昭雪伸冤”

The Complexity of the Translator’s Ideological Makeup and the Peculiar Rendition of an Opium War-related Diplomatic Document

以往史学界与译学界都认为《巴麦尊照会》首句中汉译“昭雪伸冤”为“错译”。本文以史证译,通过检视“错译”之源及再梳史料,试图说明此汉译乃译者意识形态复杂性产物,即译者受到其认同的意识形态影响所做出的确当性选择,而这种复杂性或可表征为观念底层的“天朝观”。本文的拓展意义在于深度而全面地考量译者行为背后的多种意识形态操控,有益于今时之人对历史译文做出确当性评价。

While it has long been a scholarly consensus that a key phrase in Lord Palmerston's Letter to the Minister of the Emperor of China--"to demand from The Emperor satisfaction and redress"--was erroneously rendered in the Chinese version of the official correspondence,not much interest has been generated in what had caused the mistranslation.This paper,by taking a close look at what has led scholars to concur about the"error",and by taking the historical circumstances concerned into consideration as well,comes to the conclusion that what had caused the error is above all the complexity of the translator's ideological constitution,especially his internalization of the concept of the Celestial Empire.This discovery highlights the importance in translation studies of paying more attention to ideological manipulation behind the behavior of translators.