中英外交翻译中“政治等效”与话语平等辩证关系分析——从马戛尔尼使华到共建“一带一路”(1792-2019)

On “Political Equivalence” and Discourse Equality in Sino-British Diplomatic Translation

本文采用翻译学、国际关系学、历史学等跨学科视角,结合中英外交翻译四大典型案例,系统考察了200多年来中英外交翻译中的话语平等问题。中英外交翻译关系依次经历了马戛尔尼使华时中对英的"不平等翻译"、鸦片战争期间英对中的"不平等翻译"、香港回归谈判过程中中方争取"平等翻译"以及"一带一路"建设中中英双方打造"平等翻译"黄金时代等四个阶段。研究发现,造成外交文本翻译"政治等效/政治不等效"的原因,不仅跟双方的翻译质量有关,还与翻译政策、翻译制度和话语平等问题等文本外因素有关,而话语平等是最大限度实现"政治等效"翻译的重要路径。

This paper systematically examines the discourse equality issue in Sino-British diplomatic translation for more than 200 years through the four typical cases.By analyzing translation mistakes during these four cases,this paper finds that the reasons for the"Political Equivalence"or"Political non-Equivalence"of the translation are not only related to translation quality,but also related to extra-textual factors,such as translation policies,translation systems and discourse equality."Political Equivalence"represents the major principle for the translation of diplomatic discourses while discourse equality exists as a significant approach to"Political Equivalence"to be achieved to the maximum extent.