《一言至七言诗·茶》英译本的“传神达意”

"Conveying the Meaning in its Full Flavor" in Translating Pagoda-like Poem Tea

茶诗英译对于中国古典诗歌以及茶文化的传播常能起到画龙点睛的作用。该文根据翻译家汪榕培先生提出的“传神达意”典籍诗歌英译的总标准,选取《一言至七言诗·茶》现有英译本作为分析文本,分析此译本“传神达意”方法。此诗颇有特点,为唐代元稹所作一首以茶为题、摹状而吟的宝塔诗。翻译此诗的难点之一,在于如何实现达意的同时保持原作形神的独特风味。通过分析探讨,可以看出“形之传神”为此译本亮点,在“形”“意”难以两全的情况下,不妨以“形之传神”补偿“达意”局限,以形塑神,以神带意;用深层含义努力补偿表层含义,剥丝去茧,重现内蕴。

The translation of tea poems is often of great significance to the appreciation of Chinese classical poetry and tea culture overseas. Mr. Wang Rongpei proposed a great idea in translating Chinese classical poetry into English, "conveying the meaning in its full flavor" of the original work and a good translation should reach this criterion. In this paper, the English translation of a classic tea poem Pagoda-like Poem Tea using this as a guiding principle is analyzed.This poem was created by Yuan Zhen in the Tang Dynasty taking the shape of a pagoda and tea as its title and theme.The original poem has given great attention to its form, where lie both the most important aspect of the poem, and the challenge to its translation. Through the analysis of the original work and its versions, it could be concluded that "realizing the full flavor via its form" is a highlight of the translation, which could compensate the limitation of "conveying the meaning". Besides, deep meaning could compensate the limitation of surface meaning, conveying the hidden implication.