中譯童妮．摩理森《寵兒》的職責

The Task of Translating Toni Morrison’s Beloved into Chinese

本論文在探索中譯童妮．摩理森《寵兒》的艱辛過程之際，將援引班雅民在〈譯者的職責〉中所表達的翻譯概念及德希達在〈巴別塔〉中的相關闡釋為架構。明知翻譯這本難懂的小說本身極具挑戰性，為什麼我當初會答應呢？論文首先省思個人所經歷的心理掙扎和接受挑戰的全部理由。第二部分的子標題為「做為負責任的摩理森譯者」，旨在檢視擔任摩理森小說，尤其是《寵兒》的好譯者，須具備哪些先決條件？第三部分為本論文的重點所在，主要析論個人在中譯這本摩理森名著時所遭遇的種種困難及解決之道：從小說的中文書名（《寵兒》）開始討論，接著分析小說的敘述風格和語調、聖經典故、口述和聽覺特性、詩意的散文和歌詞、對話、口語和文字遊戲（雙關語）。不過，在語言上最讓我傷腦筋的是翻譯小說第二部分的幾章內心獨白，特別是透過寵兒的「中間航程」意識流所呈現的那一章。論文第三部分最後反思翻譯中所遭遇的種種文化差異和障礙，第四部分（結論）提出有關翻譯的技巧和藝術的一些觀察，同時將翻譯用作隱喻，藉以提出我的「救贖的」翻譯行為和摩理森書寫《寵兒》之間的關聯。

In exploring the tough process of translating Toni Morrison’s Beloved into Chinese, the paper will be framed by Walter Benjamin’s notion of translation as expressed in his famous 1923 essay “The Task of the Translator” and Jacques Derrida’s related exposition in “Des Tours de Babel.” Since I am fully aware that translating this difficult novel is highly challenging, why, then, did I agree to undertake the task? The paper begins by examining the psychic struggles I underwent and the rationale involved before I finally accepted the challenge. Subtitled “To Be a Responsible Morrison Translator,” the second section investigates what I believe to be the prerequisites of a good translator of Morrison’s novels in general and of Beloved in particular. In the third section, which constitutes the principal focus of my paper, I will explore the problems I encountered while rendering Morrison’s most well-known novel into Chinese and how I came to solve them. Starting with the choice of a Chinese title, I proceed to analyze the novel’s narrative style and tone, its biblical allusions, its oral and aural quality, its poetic prose and songs, its dialogues, colloquialisms and word-play. But the hardest linguistic nut for me to crack was translating the various interior monologues in Part Two, especially the chapter narrated through Beloved’s “Middle Passage” stream of consciousness. While I conclude the main section with a reflection of the cultural differences and barriers, in the final section I will put forth a number of observations concerning the craft and art of translation while using translation metaphorically to propound the correlation of my “redemptive” act of translation with Morrison’s writing of Beloved.