基于知识建构与话语塑造的概念对译反思——以《史记》里的“中国”英译为例

Reflections on Reciprocal Translatability of Concepts Based on Knowledge Construction and Discourse Shaping:Taking the English Translation of zhongguo中国in Shiji as an Example

现代中国具有鲜明的翻译色彩,其记忆与形象离不开概念译名的承载与塑造。《史记》里不同的“中国”涵义在知识建构与话语塑造下化约为“中国—China”这一在本民族语者那里都认为是天经地义的概念对译,实际上是将历史上复杂的“中国”内涵用一个英译词China予以掩盖,其制造的记忆和刻画的形象使得关于“何以中国”的论述变得更为艰难与迷离。因此,摆脱语言文字层面的翻译穷争,聚焦于作为一种知识建构与话语塑造的对译如何对其他概念进行潜在式记忆消弭与形象重建,反思日用不知的概念对译,进而唤起并建立属于自身谱系与脉络的记忆与形象,为传统与现代的联结作有益补充,为“中国形象”提供记忆的历史谱系与源流,以正视听。

Zhongguo中国in modern times has a distinctive character of translation,and its memory and image are inseparable from the bearing and shaping of conceptual translations.The different denotative meanings of zhongguo in Shiji(Records of the Grand Historian)are reduced to“中国—China”under the construction of knowledge and the shaping of discourse.The reciprocal translatability of“中国—China”which was regarded as natural even by native speakers is actually to cover up the complex connotation of“中国”in history with an equivalent English word of“China”.The memories it creates and the images it portrays make the discourse of“What is zhongguo”more difficult and confusing.This study does not focus on the translation struggle at the linguistic level,but on how translation as a kind of knowledge construction and discourse shaping can potentially eliminate memories and reconstruct images of other concepts.It reflects on the translated concepts unconscious in daily use,so as to arouse and establish memories and images belonging to it's own lineage,to make a beneficial supplement for the connection between tradition and modernity,and to provide a historical genealogy and source of memory for the“image of zhongguo,”so as to set the record straight.