为什么再一次翻译《论语》?

Why Do I Translate the Lunyu Again?

作为“四书”之一的中国先秦典籍《论语》,曾一度被翻译成各种西方语言。德国汉学家叶翰在其《论语》德文新译本出版之际,阐明了再次翻译《论语》的重要原因。中国经学注疏传统中本就遗留下一些关于《论语》的训诂难题,耶稣会士的早期译本又受到了基督教哲学和西方文化思维的影响,导致汉语术语的译文无法呈现其在原始语境中的丰富内涵;早期《论语》译本还涉及多种西方语言,致使当代读者难以从历史语源学的视角正确理解译文的语义。以“德”为例,找到一种全新的译文以适用于所有原始语境绝非易事,试图在同一个译本中兼容不同的译文更是难上加难。此外,尚有一些以往被忽略的问题有待探讨:第一个是早期经典文本与《论语》之间的文本互涉所呈现出的历史背景问题,第二个是《论语》篇章结构的编排之下隐藏的完整叙事脉络,第三个是《论语》篇题与孔子人生经历、哲学命题之间的微妙联系。

The Chinese classic Lunyu,one of the so-called Four Books,has been translated into many foreign languages.When the German Sinologist,Hans van Ess,published his new German translation,he also gave some reasons for translating the Lunyu again.Firstly,there were many unsolved exegetical problems in traditional Chinese learning.The early translations made by Jesuits were in some respects influenced by Christian ideas and Western culture,so that their translation of Chinese terminology did not always reflect the original meaning but later stages of Chinese tradition.Secondly,when rendering important terms into Western languages modern translators have often used an established terminology that does not always reflect the meaning that these terms had in ancient China.For example,rendering de as“virtue”,as is usually done in translations into English in many contexts does not fit.Thirdly,previous translations often neglected the historical context and textual parallels in other ancient texts than the Lunyu.They were furthermore not interested in the narrative that is hidden behind the Lunyu's textual arrangement and in subtle connections between the chapter titles of the Lunyu,the content of the chapters,and the experiences Confucius made in his lifetimes and also his philosophical propositions.