H.B.乔利与《红楼梦》翻译——一位晚清英国外交官的文学英译

H.B.Joly and the Translation of Hong Lou Meng: An English Rendition of Chinese Literature by a British Diplomat in the Late Qing Dynasty

清光绪六年(1880),出身外交背景家庭的乔利通过选拔考试,来到北京英国使馆,以翻译生的身份学习汉语,并通过阅读《红楼梦》以提高汉语学习效率。两年之后,乔利开始了在中国各地领事馆任职的外交生涯。光绪十八、十九年(1892、1893),时任英国驻澳门副领事的乔利翻译出版了两卷本的《红楼梦》(前56回),该译著没有汉学学术背景,而是一种为来华西人提供汉语学习的辅助读本。乔利的翻译策略忠实而又灵活,更能从积极健康的教辅语料角度'净化'原著中低俗淫秽的内容。乔利译本流传至今已有120余年,但是仍然具有重要的文献学、语言学和文学翻译史价值。

In 1880,H.B.Joly,a son of a diplomat’s family,was chosen as an interpreter student to learn Chinese in British embassy in Peking,where he read Hong Lou Meng to improve his Chinese.Two years later,Joly started his diplomatic career in various consulates around China.In 1892 and 1893,Joly,the then vice-consular in Macao,published his two-volume rendition of Hong Lou Meng(the first 56 chapters).Without any sinological background,his translation is a chrestomathy for the westerners in China to acquire Chinese.His rendered text is faithful and flexible;what’s more,he can purify it by removing the vulgar and obscene content from the compiling angle of positive and sound language material.Though Joly’s translated text of Hong Lou Meng has been circulating for more than 120 years,it is still of great significance in bibliography,linguistics and the history of literature translation.