审美范畴的深度翻译--以《世说新语》中“远”的翻译为例

Thick Translation of Aesthetic Concepts:Taking the Aesthetic Concept yuan in Shi Shuo Xin Yu as an Example

“远”是中国美学中最重要的审美范畴之一。《世说新语》中含有许多诸如“玄远”“清远”等审美表达。基于“远”范畴的研究成果,梳理其审美内涵,分析评价汉学家马瑞志《世说新语》英译本中对“远”字词语的翻译。分析表明,译者所采用的逐字译有助于保留“远”字词语的审美术语地位,从而促进其概念化。基于穆哈维提出的多层次深度翻译模式,对马译“远”的审美范畴进行评价并提供翻译参照,以增加审美范畴文化阐释的厚度。

yuan(远)is one of the most important aesthetic concepts in Chinese aesthetics.There are a number of yuan-related expressions in Shi Shuo Xin Yu by Liu Yiqing of the Southern Dynasties(420-589),such as xuanyuan(玄远),qingyuan(清远),etc.On the basis of previous studies of yuan,this paper summarizes the aesthetic meanings of this concept,and evaluates the translation of it in A New Account of Tales of the World,the English version of Shi Shuo Xin Yu by the sinologist Ma Ruizhi.The paper believes that the word-for-word translation adopted by the translator helps preserve yuan’s status as an aesthetic term and thus facilitates its conceptualization.To illustrate the thickness of aesthetic concepts’cultural interpretation,this paper attempts to apply Muhawi’s idea about“thick translation”to the critical analysis of Ma Ruizhi’s translation of the yuan-related expressions.