沈从文小说语言风格的英译再现——美国翻译家、汉学家金介甫教授访谈录

On the English Representation of the Linguistic Style of Shen Congwen’s Stories:An Interview with Jeffrey C.Kinkley,a Translator and Sinologist

在中国现代文坛,沈从文小说的语言风格独树一帜,沈从文因此享誉世界,却也因此被认定为汉语世界最难翻译的小说家之一。金介甫(Jeffrey C.Kinkley)是美国著名的沈从文研究专家,也是沈从文小说的主要英译者,对沈从文小说的英译有着丰富经验和独到见解。笔者从沈从文被英译的小说中挑选出偏离语言常规的六种变异修辞现象作为沈从文小说语言风格英译再现的考察参数,在访谈中,就其翻译策略与再现效果逐一与金介甫教授展开深入探讨。金介甫教授指出:对于英语母语译者而言,变异修辞手法的识别与再现难度较大,但依然应当努力尝试去实现,然而当风格再现这一目标与译文的流畅性与自然度以及文学性发生冲突时,则不应以牺牲后者为代价保全前者。

Shen Congwen’s stories boast a unique linguistic style,which sets him apart from other writers in modern Chinese literary scene and earns him both international acclaim as well as a reputation as one of the most difficult Chinese writers to translate.Jeffrey C.Kinkley,a distinguished American expert in Shen Congwen studies and one of the world’s foremost English translators of Shen’s stories,has rich experience in and insightful views on the English translation of Shen’s works.The author of the present interview first singles out six deviated rhetorical language use recurrent in Shen’s different stories to be used as parameters for the study of how the linguistic style of Shen’s stories is represented in English translations and then hold an in-depth discussion with Professor Kinkley on their translation strategies and the resulting effects.He points out that deviated rhetorical language usage is not readily recognizable for Anglophone translators and not easy to represent,but still it is worth the effort.Critical as the representation of the linguistic style of the ST is,it is inadvisable to achieve the goal at the cost of sacrificing the fluency,naturalness as well as literariness of the target text.