以“易”解译:译解之中 “道器” 的诗学释义

Towards a Dao/Qi Poetics of Translation

以“易道”说译道,即“易理翻译论”,为翻译研究对民族经典的一种回望。翻译的“诚”、可译性、风格转译等,皆可从《周易》“道器”思想里找到翻译心法的本土原型起点。翻译的“诚”不只止于文本的外在形态,更在于内质思想心性的回返,即并非对“器”之信,是对“道”之信;而摆脱可译与否的两难困境的方法,是把语言作为“得意之器”,弃小言求大言,超越语言既定形貌去无限亲近那个无法陈述的“道”:人、物、情的互顾、会通与合一,进而所构筑的文本自由化的思想空间,最终达成译文新的言说统一。面对文本风格的转译,惟有将“以同而异”视为目标,追求译文与原作风格的“道”同而非“器”同。这便是译事所欲还原的“初一念之本心”。

This paper proposes that the conceptual pair of dao(道,the way or the guide)and qi(器,utensils)from the ancient Chinese classic Zhouyi(The Book of Changes)be applied to the theorization of translation,for from such an act a daolqi poetics of translation would result,shedding new light on core questions in translation studies,such as how to be faithful,what is translatable and what not,or what is the appropriate style.Within the framework of such a poetics,the translator should strive to be faithful not just to the qi,i.e..the literal expression,of the source text but also to its dao,i.e.,its underlying essential meaning.In the light of Zhouyi,translation thus means to use language as a carrier for both the literal and the between-the-lines meaning of source text,which renders possible a new way of representing the source text in the translated version and justifies a multitude of stylistically variable target texts that convey nonetheless the same essential meaning of the original.