拆除主幹，拼湊片段──論《斐洲遊記》對於施登萊Through the Dark Continent的重構

Dismantling the Backbone, Putting the Pieces Back Together: Translating Henry Stanley's Through the Dark Continent into Chinese

一八七四年，《紐約先驅報》記者施登萊深入非洲內陸尋找尼羅河源頭，寫成Through the Dark Continent（《穿越黑暗大陸》）。該書中譯本《三洲遊記》自一八八三至一八八八年連載於《益聞錄》，一九○○年由《匯報》館出版單行本時易名《斐洲遊記》，成為中國較早的非洲傳記譯本，勾勒非洲內陸歷史地理與風土民俗，反映彼時作者在歐、美、日等參照視野中開拓「非洲」新天地的意圖。本文先勾勒此一譯本如何在上海文化界發生的脈絡，且釐清譯者身分與版本差異。接而，就翻譯而言，《斐洲遊記》比起二十世紀初的各種「意譯」著作，出現更大的轉向幅度。譯者按照自身的視域，選擇性保留／刪除原著內容，又加入中國文學傳統與西方現代知識。本文提出「拆除主幹，拼湊片段」的詮釋架構，展現十九世紀末中國譯著的翻譯手法。就「拆除主幹」而言，觀察譯者如何虛構人物視角，重新演述，刪除／凸顯特定內容，使得「尋找尼羅河源頭」的主旨變為更符合譯者接受視野的「採風問俗」？就「拼湊片段」而言，討論譯者如何逸出原著範圍，層層錯疊不同脈絡的片段內容，表達晚清文人對於抒情、知識與敘事的追求？如此研究，將可反映晚清譯者對於彼時「非洲傳記」此一新鮮題材的翻譯與接受方式，豐富晚清文學的研究視野。

In 1874, Henry Stanley, a reporter for the New York Herald, traveled to Africa in search of the sources of the Nile River, an experience that he would later recount in his bestselling work Through the Dark Continent (1878). Between 1883 and 1888, a Chinese translation of this work, entitled Travels in Three Continents, was published in serial format in the Yi Wen Lu, a publication of the Shanghai Church. The Huibao publishing company also issued a translation of the work in book form in 1900, this time with the title African Travels. Stanley’s work is one of the earliest books on Africa translated into the Chinese language. It depicts the history, geography, and customs of that continent, and contrasts the wide-open vistas of Africa with the more confined spaces that the author had encountered in Europe, America, and Japan. The present study begins by describing how Through the Dark Continent came to be published in Shanghai. It also looks at the lives of the various translators of the work, and examines the differences between the two Chinese translations. It then shows that even when compared with other translations that appeared in China in the early twentieth century, African Travels was a relatively ＂free＂ translation. The translators changed the source text as they saw fit, at times adding new bits of information having to do with traditional Chinese culture or modern Western knowledge. In the view of this paper, this translation style can be described as ＂dismantling the backbone of the text, and putting the pieces back together.＂ As far as ＂dismantling the backbone＂ is concerned, this paper notes how the Chinese translation invented a new point of view for the narrator, and how the original theme of searching for the sources of the Nile was replaced in the translation by a description of the habits and customs of various African peoples. As to ＂putting the pieces back together,＂ the paper examines how the translators escaped the confines of the source text to add new information that was of interest to its intended readers. It is hoped that this paper can enlarge the scope of our understanding of late Qing dynasty literature.