《吉訶德》書中詩歌的探討

Ideology and Translation: A New Perspective on the Chinese Translations of English Poetry before 1919

詩歌翻譯本是異質詩學體系間最具審美特質的文學交互活動的產物，由於文學奠基於那賴以安身立命的文化政治因素，在翻譯過程中就會像現代翻譯研究表明的那樣：它必然會受制於譯者的詩學觀和意識形態等因素，外國文學的傳譯在經歷了譯者的筆端後，必然會受到某種程度的變形和改寫。這種經重寫而誕生的翻譯作品，又將在新的文化語境中散發出新的文化威懾力量。以這種理念來審視中國近代早期的英詩漢譯活動，就會發現眾譯家由於受到當時主流意識形態的影響，在翻譯中會表現出種種操縱現象，也就是從早期譯者普遍持有的那種世界文化中心主義心態，到後來文學革命運動中試圖引進西方文學形式，達到改進主體文學體系和啟迪民智的目的，由此也制約著翻譯中的選材和歸化式翻譯策略的擇取，這樣就使那旨在「言志」的詩藝活動演進成重在「載道」的異質文化間交互活動。

Is translation inspired or proscribed by certain ideological motivations or constraints? Do these ideological factors also function in poetry translation? If they do, then how do they constrain the translators in the process of translating poetry? This paper uses the polysystem approach to address the above questions through the study of the Chinese translations of English poetry before 1919. Modern translation studies have it that translation is a rewriting of an original text. All rewritings, whatever their intention, reflect a certain ideology and a poetics and as such manipulate literature to function in a given society in a given way. The present study examines how the early Chinese translators were manipulated by a certain ideology in the production of poetry translations. It depicts the self-centeredness in the state of mind of the translators in the host culture, and the role of patronage through the case study of certain individuals and institutions. It also investigates the selection of source text and adequate translational strategies used by the early translators. A detailed analysis of the early translations shows how they vary between the ever-changing norms of acceptability and adequacy to serve the conflicting ideological and poetic interests of two different systems. Finally, it explains how rewriting, under the constraints of certain ideology, has turned an aesthetic and poetic endeavor, born of the emotions, to be an instructive and didactic cultural transmission.