重塑孟德斯鸠:严复译著《法意》序言《孟德斯鸠列传》研究

Paratext as a Site of Creative Intervention:A Re-examination of the"Preface"to Yan Fu's Translation of The Spiritof Laws

翻译副文本在反映译者翻译动机和思想主张等方面具有重要价值。本文聚焦严复八大译著之一《法意》的序言《孟德斯鸠列传》这一学术译著副文本,研究发现这篇看似客观的人物传记实为译者严复基于英文底本的一种改写。在清末特殊的改革语境中,译者严复基于自身的政治立场和学术主张,运用多种翻译策略对英文底本进行改写,不仅实现了译序宣传译著的功能,同时传递出对于革命的审慎态度,并蕴藏着译者自身的性情与追求。这篇译序是身为译者和思想家的严复在当时中国的历史语境下对孟德斯鸠形象的再创造。

As the"Preface"to Fayi-Yan Fu's Chinese translation of The Spirit of Laws-vividly shows,paratexts could perform significant functions in scholarly translation.Titled Mengdesijiu Liezhuan(孟德斯鸠列传/"Montesquieu:A Personal Biography"),the"Preface"turns out to be at once a rendition of the preface to the English source text for Yan Fu's Chinese version and a site of creative intervention in the context of the translation.By adopting various translation strategies,not only did Yan Fu realize a preface's function to promote reading of the book,he also conveyed,through a rewritten preface,his own reservations about the then on-going revolutionary movement and affirmed his stance and position toward life in general and scholarly pursuit in particular.