领悟翻译的艺术与境界 可以从这本书开始

前几天我们分享了思果先生的《译道探微》

今天我们开始分享另一本关于翻译的书——由毛荣贵和廖晟老师合著的《译心译意》。

这本书是“翻译茶座”系列的第八本，也是我非常喜欢的一本。

记得早年浏览这本书，就被一篇文章的标题吸引了——《真正的艺术家》。仔细一看，才发现这英语散文的作者居然是著名的国际主义战士白求恩大夫。中国人对他的了解主要来自毛泽东的那篇《纪念白求恩》，但很少有人知道这位加拿大的杰出外科医生同时也是一位杰出的散文家。

这篇 The True Artist（真正的艺术家）全文只有189个单词，但思想深邃、文笔优美，读完令人回味无穷，反复再读几遍依然兴趣盎然。可以说，这篇文章代表了英文写作的极高水准，值得珍藏。下面我们来欣赏一下原文：

The True Artist——Norman BethuneThe true artist lets himself go. He is natural. He swims easily in the stream of his own temperament. He listens to himself. He respects himself.He comes into the light of every-day like a great leviathan of the deep, breaking the smooth surface of accepted things, gay, serious, sportive. His appetite for life is enormous. He enters eagerly into the life of man, all men. He becomes all men in himself.The function of the artist is to disturb. His duty is to arouse the sleepers, to shake the complacent pillars of the world. He reminds the world of its dark ancestry, shows the world its present, and points the way to its new birth. He is at once the product and preceptor of his time. After his passage we are troubled and made unsure of our too-easily-accepted realities. He makes uneasy the static, the set and the still. In a world terrified of change, he preaches revolution — the principle of life. He is an agitator, a disturber of the peace — quick, impatient, positive, restless and disquieting. He is the creative spirit working in the soul of man.

这篇文章有很多短句，使得无论是默读还是朗读都具有鲜明的节奏感。我特别喜欢第三段开头的两句话：The function of the artist is to disturb. His duty is to arouse the sleepers, to shake the complacent pillars of the world. 是不是有点毛姆的既视感~~~

对于这样一篇充满艺术气息的文章，该如何翻译成汉语呢？

我们来看看怎样理解作者的遣词造句，以及怎样把这篇佳作翻译成中文。

在《译心译意》这本书中，编者给出了一些重点句子的解读思路，摘录如下：

【短文的第一段，五个短句一字排开，视角不同，却直探真正艺术家的“天马行空”般的内心世界和人格魅力。尤其是第三句：He swim easily in the stream of his own temperament.作者文笔游刃，句子开头写道：He swims easily in the stream 不料，作者笔锋陡转，在介词of后面竟然接用了宾语his own temperament!这的swim，又巧妙地与第二段中的breaking the smooth surface of accepted things 在喻体上暗合，文脉清澈流畅。最让人叫绝的是文章的第三段。“真正的艺术家”是作者笔下的先知先觉，他对历史的进步，社会的发展以及人类的觉醒发挥了不可估量的作用。尤其是以下一句，读后让人肃然，令人回味：After his passage, we are troubled and made unsure of our too-easily-accepted realities. He makes uneasy the static, the set and the still.】

《译心译意》挑出的第三段这两句话不但值得回味，从英语的角度也值得研究

比如这个动态感极强的passage，一个词顶几个词的troubled，还有the static, the set, the still表达出的各种类别。另外，有一个很值得注意的语法点，就是第二句话的语序，作者为什么不用 He makes sth. uneasy，而要把sth.(the static, the set and the still)后置，把uneasy提前呢？其实，这就是英语中极为常见，也非常实用的“尾重原则”在起作用。

我提醒大家注意作者使用的尾重原则（end-weight / end-focous），这一种“形式美”的体现，而很多中国老师也会要求学生在写作的时候避免“头重脚轻”。在这篇短短的文章里，多次出现了“尾重”的处理手法，大家在理解的时候要留意，比如：

He enters eagerly into the life of man, all men.He is at once the product and preceptor of his time.He makes uneasy the static, the set and the still.

下面，我们再欣赏一遍原文：

The true artist lets himself go. He is natural. He swims easily in the stream of his own temperament. He listens to himself. He respects himself.He comes into the light of every-day like a great leviathan of the deep, breaking the smooth surface of accepted things, gay, serious, sportive. His appetite for life is enormous. He enters eagerly into the life of man, all men. He becomes all men in himself.The function of the artist is to disturb. His duty is to arouse the sleepers, to shake the complacent pillars of the world. He reminds the world of its dark ancestry, shows the world its present, and points the way to its new birth. He is at once the product and preceptor of his time. After his passage, we are troubled and made unsure of our too-easily-accepted realities. He makes uneasy the static, the set and the still. In a world terrified of change, he preaches revolution — the principle of life. He is an agitator, a disturber of the peace — quick, impatient, positive, restless and disquieting. He is the creative spirit working in the soul of man.

最后，附上《译心译意》这本书的编者（经过修改学生译文之后）给出的参考译文：

真正的艺术家狂放不羁。他自由自在，悠然自得地在自己个性的川流中畅游。他倾自我，尊重自我。他以深海巨鲸的姿态，浮现在日常生活的阳光下，打破人们习以为常的平静生活的洋面，轻松愉快、严肃认真、嬉笑自若。他酷爱生活，拥抱生活。他渴望与各种人物同命运，共呼吸。他成了所有人的化身。艺术家的职责就是要惊世骇俗，唤醒沉睡的人们，震撼那些自鸣得意的社会中坚。他提醒世人不要忘记在黑暗中摸索的往昔岁月，向他们昭示当今世界，并为他们指引新生的道路。他既是时代的产儿，也是时代的先锋。在他亮相之后，人们始感困惑，开始对那些本来深信不疑的事物产生了怀疑。他令静止、固定、僵死的一切开始躁动起来。在一个惧怕变革的世界里，他公开宣扬，变革乃是生活之本。他是一个鼓动家，一个打破平静生活的人物 ---- 聪颖敏捷、充满渴望、坚定果断、不知疲倦和引发不安。他是活跃于人类灵魂中富有创造力的精灵。

关于语言转换的局限与差异，我们可以看看其中《翻译与思维方式辨》这篇文章

有几段话和例子具有很强的参考性，值得收入笔记，摘录如下：

【操汉语的人可能认为某些信息是不言而喻的前提，无须在语言上表现出来；但操英语的人却可能认为有必要在语言上表现出来，甚至加以强调。相反，操英语的人认为不必在语言上表现出来的前提，操汉语的人却可能认为必须在语言上表达清楚……要理解间接言语行为，听话人首先要了解说话人的字面用意，即句子本身所表达的言外之力，然后从字面用意再推断出其间接用意，即句子间接表达的言外之意。因此对言外之意的理解和翻译亦需借助发散性思维和灵感思维来加以解码和再编码。6）I want to see the back of him. 此句话的表面语义学意义是“我想要看到他的背影。”表达间接言语行为的句子，习惯上是不能按其“字面用意”理解的。发散思维的变通特征告诉我们：人走离开时看到的才是背影。只想看背影，不想看到正面，言外之意是不想见到他，其语用含义是：我希望他滚蛋。7）He is no wiser than his brother. no wiser 不等于 not wiser，含有强调之意，其结构意义为：他决不比他弟弟聪明到哪里去。根据结构语境的话语预设推断，采用逆向思维解码，话语者的真正用意是指：他和他弟弟一样笨。8）You might have been more careful. 话语者使用虚拟语气，本身就是一种语用策略，此例的表层意义是：你本应该更细心些。话语的深层语境含义则是一种委婉的责备：你怎么那么不小心呢？………………发散性思维，其实就是求异思维，译者如善于将其运用于翻译实践中，能有效地解决语义学意义和语用学意义的差异造成的翻译解码和再编码问题，使翻译的思维层次、语义层次和审美层次的对等转换得意顺利实现。】

在“美文选粹欣赏”一章中，编者为读者呈现了优秀诗歌译作的典范

其中首选的是美国诗人罗伯特·弗罗斯特（Robert Frost）的名诗 The Road Not Taken，中文译名为《未选之路》。这首诗是他的诗集 Mountain Interval 的第一首，也是颇具争议的一首。

下面是这首诗的原文：

The Road Not TakenRobert FrostTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood,and I—I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.

我们都知道翻译诗歌的难度，忠于原文则损失形态，顾及语言则损失内容，总之无法两全。编者推荐了张剑老师的译文，并且点评说：

【此译的成功在于：在所谓“形式意义”上更胜原诗一筹。而且，非常完整地保留了原诗的风格意义和形象意义……其末段尤其突出。】

下面我附上书中给出的译文：

未选之路张剑 译林中两路分，可惜难兼行。游子久伫立，极目望一径。蜿蜒复曲折，隐于丛林中。我选另一途，合理亦公正。草密人迹罕，正待人通行。足迹踏过处，两路皆相同。两路林中伸，落叶无人踪。他日选另路，深知路无穷。我疑从今后，能否转回程。多少年之后，谈起长叹息。林中两路分，一路人迹稀。我独选此路，境遇亦相异。