日治時期譯者陳清忠的台語翻譯實踐

Translator Tân Chheng-tiong’s Taiwanese Translation Practice during the Japanese Colonial Period

自1970年代以降，翻譯研究逐漸以一門獨立學門興起，譯者作為翻譯活動的核心角色，其重要性不僅早為學者注意到，並且近來也有更多以譯者研究作為主要框架的分析。台灣的翻譯研究雖然比歐美起步較晚，但也已取得不少成果。不過，台語翻譯以及相關譯者研究仍是較少被觸及的議題。本文研究的譯者陳清忠，是少數在日治時期以白話字將外國文學翻譯為台語的譯者，且服務的對象是具有台語白話字閱讀能力的台灣人。本研究首先藉由分析教會公報和《芥菜子》報，量化統計台語翻譯文章的類型與趨勢，以凸顯陳清忠翻譯實踐上的獨特性。此外，本研究也選取陳清忠的翻譯作品以語言學視角分析其翻譯策略。
我們與前人研究一致發現陳清忠以台語翻譯了眾多的西方文學。而經由量化分析發現，與同時期教會中其他譯者相比，陳清忠的台語翻譯實踐是長期的系統性行為，凸顯他在日治時期作為台語專業譯者的獨特性。透過針對其翻譯文本的質性分析發現，他的翻譯策略靈活，既忠於原意，且根據台語及在地文化進行適當調整，呈現出功能上的動態對等。
本文認為，陳清忠是台語翻譯文學的先驅，對他的譯者以及翻譯策略研究增添了對日治時期台語翻譯現象的了解，也增加對台灣文學整體理解的視角。

Since the 1970s, translation studies has gradually emerged as an independent discipline. As the central agent in translation, the importance of the translator has long been recognized by scholars; more recently, a growing number of studies have adopted translator studies as their primary analytical framework. Although translation studies in Taiwan began later than in Europe and the United States, it has nevertheless produced substantial scholarship. However, Taiwanese-language translation and related translator studies remain relatively underexplored topics. The translator examined in this study, Tân Chheng-tiong, was one of the few figures during the Japanese colonial period who translated foreign literature into Taiwanese using Pe̍h-ōe-jī, and his target readership were those with literacy in this writing system. This study first analyzes the Taiwan Church News and the newspaper Mustard Seed (Kòa-chhài-chí), employing quantitative methods to examine the types and trends of Taiwanese translation texts, thereby highlighting the distinctiveness of Tân Chheng-tiong’s translation practice. In addition, it selects Tân Chheng-tiong’s translated works for analysis from a linguistic perspective in order to examine his translation strategies.
Consistent with previous studies, this study finds that Tân Chheng-tiong translated a substantial number of Western literary works into Taiwanese. Moreover, quantitative analysis showed that, compared with other translators active in church publications during the same period, Tân Chheng-tiong’s translation practice was sustained over time and exhibited a high degree of systematic consistency, underscoring his distinctiveness as a professional Taiwanese translator in the Japanese colonial period. Qualitative analysis of his translated texts reveals that his strategies were flexible: he remained faithful to the original texts and made appropriate adjustments to suit Taiwanese and local culture, thereby exhibiting functional dynamic equivalence.
This study argues that Tân Chheng-tiong was a pioneer of Taiwanese translated literature. Examining his role as a translator and his translation strategies deepens our understanding of Taiwanese translation phenomena in the Japanese colonial period and broadens the perspective from which Taiwanese literature as a whole can be understood.