《天下月刊》与邵洵美、项美丽译本《边城》

T’ien Hsia Monthly and the Translation of Border Town by Shao Xunmei and Emily Hahn

1936年,致力于向西方介绍中国文化的英文期刊《天下月刊》登载了邵洵美、项美丽合译的沈从文小说《边城》。这一刊发是《天下月刊》基于与沈从文在中西文化交流观念上的契合以及对《边城》所塑造的优美健康之中国形象的认可,以实践刊物中西文化平等交流、提振中国文化形象的办刊理想。译者邵洵美基于自身"新月派"文学观念和保持民族特性的翻译理念,在翻译中采取了较为灵活的翻译策略,既忠实地保留了小说的原貌,也较大程度地保留了源语言的文化特点和主体地位。《天下月刊》刊载邵、项英译本《边城》所关涉的"中国形象"及翻译中文化主体性等问题,为今天我们重新思考在世界文学交往中重塑中国文化自信提供了有益的启示。

In 1936, Shao Xunmei(Sinmay Zau) and Emily Hahn’s translation of Shen Congwen’s novel Border Town was published in T’ien Hsia Monthly, an English journal dedicated to introducing Chinese culture to the West. The reason why this journal published the translation lies in the agreement of its concept of China-West cultural exchanges with Shen’s, and its recognition of the healthy and beauteous image of China portrayed in the novel. The publication of the translation helped to achieve its aim of carrying out equal ChinaWest cultural communication and boosting the cultural image of China. Shao translated this novel based on his Cresent School literary ideas and the translation view that a translation needs to preserve the national characteristics. By adopting a more flexible translation strategy, he not only rendered the style of the original faithfully, but also kept the features and principal status of the source text culture. The image of China and the cultural subjectivity in translation involved in the publication of the translation are enlightening us to rethink about how to re-acquire Chinese cultural confidence in the backdrop of world literature communication.