中国作家协会主管

文学与翻译

“文学与翻译”是一个很大的题目，很难在我与韩静博士的这个时间有限的对话中详细讨论。我只想就我从事澳大利亚文学翻译30多年来的感受，和韩静博士对话，同时想借此机会谈一谈我对中国文学如何走向世界的粗浅看法，与大家分享。

一、我在翻译澳大利亚文学过程中遇到的困难和挑战

我是从上世纪八十年代初期开始走上澳大利亚文学翻译道路的。那时候，国内译介的澳大利亚文学作品不多，我自己对澳大利亚文学也知之甚少，没有和澳大利亚作家有过任何接触，更没有踏上过那块遥远而又陌生的土地。而文学翻译因为也属文学创作（即使是再创作），对译者就有相似于对作者的要求。那就是都要非常熟悉你所创作或再创作的对象。如果说作家创作的源泉是生活，文学翻译者“再创作”的源泉就是原著。因此，正如作家只有在生活中摸爬滚打，熟悉作品中每一个人物的思想感情、行为方式、历史渊源、生存背景，才能写出好小说一样，翻译者也只有像作家一样熟悉眼前这本原著包含的风土人情、文化历史、社会生活，才能奉献出好的译品。而我初涉澳大利亚文学翻译这一领域的时候，面临的最大挑战就是这种“不熟悉”、“没生活”。举个简单的例子，澳大利亚著名作家亨利·劳森的短篇小说The Drover’s Wife，我曾经依据自己的生活经验，不假思索翻译成《牧羊人的妻子》。等我对澳大利亚人的生活习惯、生产方式有了更多的了解，才发现这是错译，正确的翻译应该是《赶牲口人的妻子》。再举个简单的例子，英国植物学家华莱士在南回归线以南画了一条线，后人把它叫做华莱士线。华莱士线南边的飞禽走兽、花草树木和北半球有很大不同。如果我们不身临其境，光凭想象，胡编乱造，就很难把那些奇花异兽准确地呈现给中国读者。bottle brush就很典型。这种花的形状和瓶刷子毫无二致，像我这种北方长大的人绝对想象不出花会长成这样。所以最初在澳大利亚文学作品中看到这个词的时候，百思不得其解。1988年，我有幸在澳大利亚著名作家、诗人罗德尼·霍尔（Rodney Hall）家住了半个月。他的家面对南太平洋、背靠原始森林。他每天带我到森林里转悠，告诉我不同种类的桉树，不同鸟儿的叫声，袋鼠藏身的蚁冢，鸸鹋栖息的沙丘，等等，等等。这次较长时间近距离地接触澳大利亚的大自然使我受益无穷，为我后来翻译澳大利亚文学作品解决了许多难题。

三十多年来，作为一个文学翻译工作者，我很幸运，因为我结识了许多澳大利亚作家，和他们建立了深厚的友谊。这种友谊对我的翻译有巨大的帮助。比如在座的周思先生，我们相识相知已经快30年。我先后翻译过他四本小说。翻译过程中，每每遇到困难，就向他求教，避免了许多错误。但是作为译者，你翻译的书的作者不可能个个都是你熟悉的朋友。而且即使是朋友，有许多东西，如果不是你内心的领悟，光凭一问一答，也还是无法从根本上解决问题。我在翻译亚历克西斯·赖特（Alexis Wright）的《卡彭塔利亚湾》（Carpentaria）的时候，就遇到新的更大的挑战。作为一个自己也写过将近二十年小说的文学翻译工作者，这本书的纯文学性和新颖的创作手法以及这种手法所表现出的艺术魅力，无疑是我喜欢它的原因之一。而它植根于澳大利亚原住民生活沃土之上，把古老的传说、神话以及原住民信奉的“梦幻时代”的原始图腾和现实生活的种种矛盾糅合在一起，描绘出一幅幅难得一见、色彩瑰丽的画卷，更让我叹为观止！然而，从翻译的角度看，正是它的纯文学性、正是它新颖的创作手法、正是它的“难得一见”、“色彩瑰丽”，给我竖起一道道屏障。

亚历克西斯·赖特似乎预料到我将遇到的困难。她说：“我写这本书的时候，并没有梦想谁会读它，我只是想写一个告慰祖宗亡灵的故事，尽管心旌荡漾的时候，也曾希望世界各地的人都能阅读和理解它。但我并没有想到，那就意味着需要有人把它翻译成别的文字。更没有想到，要把这本书里那么多原住民的方言土语以及表现我的家乡卡彭塔利亚湾的风土人情、反映我的同胞的世界观的文字翻译成另外一种语言是何等艰难！”

她说的没错儿。这本书真的有“那么多原住民的方言土语”！这是它的特色之一，无可回避。但是，所谓“方言土语”毕竟是形式和表面的东西。我可以把它们积攒起来，隔一段时间去向作者请教，弄清那些话是什么意思。像查字典一样，虽然费事，但并不难。真正困难的是，她所说的“卡彭塔利亚湾的风土人情”，是“反映我的同胞的世界观的文字”，特别是他们古老的传说和神话、他们部落间由来已久的矛盾和现实生活中的冲突！面对这一道道难题，我仿佛走进一片沼泽，步履艰难。然而，千难万险，也还得向前跋涉。正式翻译前，我先大量阅读关于澳大利亚原住民文化、历史、宗教、艺术、风俗、习惯的书。其中一本是澳大利亚最著名的“沙漠艺术家”—— 原住民吉米·派克（Jimmy Pike）的传记《沙漠之子》（In the Desert , Jimmy Pike as a Boy）。我还向画家周小平先生请教。他是惟一在澳大利亚土著人部落中生活多年，熟悉他们的语言、社会结构、风土人情，并且用相机和画笔记录下他们生存状态的华人艺术家。我没有机会像他那样去澳大利亚原住民聚居区“深入生活”，只能通过他和他的作品，积累一些“间接经验”。渐渐地，我从周小平用几十年的心血和汗水描绘的一幅幅土著人的生活画面中，看清了我要开掘的《卡彭塔利亚湾》这座“矿山”的“矿脉”。沿着这些脉络往前走，我发现原住民生活的地方到处都是故事。每一眼水井，每一块岩石都是故事中的“人物”。就连沙丘和树木也有许多传奇。了解了这些，亚历克西斯·赖特笔下的蛇神、海怪、鱼群、鹦鹉、巨浪滔天的大海、拔地而起的龙卷风都在我的眼里变得那么鲜活、那么生动，都成了一种象征，都充满生命的活力。而与之血肉相连的故事中的人物，也骤然间变得栩栩如生，跃然纸上。他们一个个走到我的面前，开始用心灵和我对话。只有这时，我才懂得了他们的喜怒哀乐、爱恨情仇；我才走进他们的内心世界，听到灵魂的声音。换句话说，也只有这时，我才具备了翻译这本洋洋洒洒四十万言的长篇小说的能力。

我花了两年多的时间翻译《卡彭塔利亚湾》，书译得不能说好，但从中学到了许多有用的东西：一是对澳大利亚原住民有了更多的了解，二是对文学翻译本身有了更深刻的理解。

二、下面，我想借此机会谈一谈我对中国文学如何走向世界的粗浅看法。

从近代起，外国的汉学家、中国的有识之士，都为传播中华文明、中国文学做出巨大的贡献。他们艰苦劳动的成果也使得中国文学对外国读者、外国作家产生了一定的影响。在座的周思（Nicholas Jose）先生在为我翻译的《红线》（The Red Thread）撰写的前言中就说，他因早年在牛津大学读书时读到林语堂翻译的《浮生六记》，而喜欢上中国文学。他写的《红线》就是在《浮生六记》的基础上，加以想象而写成的一部反映中澳两国青年一代友好交往的小说。贯穿全篇的“红线”就是《浮生六记》中沈复与芸相濡以沫的爱情故事。堪称中澳文学交融的典范。

但是，毋庸讳言，中国文学的“走出去“和外国文学的”走进来“相比，不成比例。其中的原因很多。鉴于这个话题不是今天我与韩静博士对话的主旨，暂且不表。我想说的是，为适应社会的发展，我们现在大力提倡中国文学走向世界。这当然是值得我们每一个文学工作者为之欢呼雀跃的事情。但是在这个把中国文学推向世界的大潮中，我隐隐约约感到一丝忧虑。那就是翻译质量堪忧。稍微的疏忽和不慎，都会影响我们的作品和作家的形象。比如我最近看到2016年12月美国某出版集团出版的一本《微型小说集》就有一些令人遗憾的不足。仅举一例，译者在翻译一篇小说时，把“临走时，他留下一偶语：‘泥佛不渡水，金佛不渡炉，木佛不渡火，真佛内里坐’。”简单地翻译成“When he was about to leave, he left a message, ‘True Budda lives nowhere but in your heart.’.”还原成汉语，就是“他临走时留言：‘真佛只在你心中’。”缺失得太多。如果翻译成 ：The clay Budda stays away from the river, the golden one away from burner, the wooden one away from fire, but the real one stays in my heart.也许稍微好一点。

那么，什么样的译者才有资格担当起“走出去”的重任。许多人寄希望于汉学家。满腔热情、热爱中华文化的汉学家无疑是一支需要我们依靠的力量。但是汉学家也会有其局限性。比如赛珍珠，她生在中国、长在中国，还写过一本反映中国农村生活的小说《大地》（Good Earth）。但她翻译的《水浒》也漏洞百出。比如：她把“三四个筛酒的酒保都手忙脚乱，搬东搬西。”翻译成：But the serving men were so busy, their hands and feet were all in confusion, and they were moving things here and there, east and west.译者显然对中国人喜欢说的“东西”，不甚了了。其实翻译成：The waiters were very busy, bringing first one thing and then another.  就很达意了。还有一句“如今江湖上歹人多”，翻译成 In these days, there are men ——evil men by river and the lake.译者对我们所说的“江湖”的意思也不明了。

我举这些例子绝无贬损译者之意，我只是想说译介中国文学这副担子不轻。无论汉学家还是中国学者在挑起这副重担的时候，都必须对中国文化背景有深刻的了解，并且是能十分娴熟地使用外语进行创作的文学工作者。我最近拜读了韩静博士翻译的叶辛的长篇小说《孽债》。我觉得是一本难得的优秀译作。韩静因为了解中国的国情，所以她能把“献了青春献终身，献了终身献儿孙”这样极具时代感的话准确地翻译成：Dedicating your youth to socialism leads to dedicating your entire life, and dedicating your entire life means dedicating your children and your grand children to the cause.她能把颇具中国特色的“被誉为三朵金花”翻译成“They were known as The Three Beauties”而不是“The Three Golden Flowers”。能把“发发嗲”这样的俗语恰到好处地翻译成“He knew Mei liked him to cuddle and cares her.”能把外国读者难解其意的“上海的政策是‘两丁抽一’”翻译成the policy in Shanghai was ‘one out of two’.If there were two boys in a family, one had to go to countryside.”对上世纪60年代中国不了解的译者很难能做出这样的翻译和解释。由此可见，时代需要韩静博士这样的学者担负起中国文学走出去的重任。我们也祝愿韩静将后翻译出更多、更优秀的作品。

最后我特别想强调的一点就是，汉学家也好，中国学者也罢，在翻译介绍中国文学作品的时候，都不能以外国读者不熟悉、不了解、看不懂某一作品的时代背景、文化内涵为借口，就肆无忌惮地删节、修改中文原著。翻译的功能之一，恰恰就是要把别的民族不熟悉的东西，包括所谓时代背景、文化内涵，介绍给他们。背离这一原则，就是对翻译的背叛。我接触的国外的出版社和作者没有一个人允许译者肆意删改他们的作品，为什么我们的作家，我们的作品走出国门时就要遭到这种不公平的待遇？把中国文学推向世界是具有战略性的长期任务，不能一蹴而就，不能急于求成。这是需要我们世世代代走下去的伟大事业。作为文学翻译工作者应该肩负这一崇高的历史使命，抓住机遇，迎接挑战，让我们的作家、让我们的作品，有尊严地走向世界。

我就讲这么多，谢谢大家！

Literature and Translation

Li Yao

“Literature and translation” is a rather vast topic, which could hardly be elaborated during the limited time of this dialogue between Dr. Han Jing and me. On this occasion, I would like to discuss with Dr. Han Jing my experience of translating works of Australian literature in the past thirty-odd years, and also share with you my views on introducing Chinese literature to the world.

I.Difficulties and challenges of translating Australian literature 

I started to translate Australian literature in the early 1980s, when only a few translated Australian literary works could yet be found in China. My understanding of this literature was very limited, and I had neither communicated with any Australian writers, nor travelled to that strange and distant land. However, as a kind of literary creation (or recreation), literary translation imposes a similar requirement on translators as on writers, which is that they should possess a deep understanding of the object of their creation or recreation. If life is the source of a writer’s creation, then the original work is the source of a literary translator’s recreation. A good story can only be produced when the writer, through his explorations of life, has gained a deep understanding of the thoughts, emotions, ways of behaving, past experiences, and living backgrounds of each character; likewise, a good translation can be created only when the translator has a thorough knowledge of the customs, culture, history, and social life present in the original work. However, as I began my career as a translator of Australian literature, the biggest challenge I faced was that I was not “familiar” with the content of these works, and had no relevant “life experience”. For example, I once translated the title of The Drover’s Wife, a short story by the famous Australian writer Henry Lawson, as《牧羊人的妻子》(literally, The Shepherd’s Wife) by relying on my own life experience, without further consideration. But I found it to be a mistranslation after I grew more familiar with Australian living habits and systems of production, and understood the appropriate title should be 《赶牲口人的妻子》 (literally, The Wife of the Man Who Droves the Livestock). As another example, the Wallace Line, a faunal boundary line to the south of the Tropic of Capricorn, was drawn by the British botanist Alfred Russel Wallace. Animals and plants on the south side of the Wallace Line are markedly different from those in the Northern Hemisphere. It is therefore difficult for Chinese translators to present these exotic animals and plants to Chinese readers by imagination and storytelling, when one cannot see these things oneself. Callistemon (Bottle brush) is a good example. People like me, living in Northern China, can hardly imagine a flower that looks just like a bottle brush, and I was so confused when I first saw this flower name in an Australian literary work. Later, in 1988, I had the honor of staying for half a month at the renowned Australian writer and poet Rodney Hall’s home, which faces the South Pacific and has its back to a primeval forest. He showed me around the forest every day and introduced many interesting things to me, such as various eucalypti, the warbles of different birds, anthills where kangaroos hide, and sand dunes populated by emus. This relatively long stay enabled me to get closer to nature and life in Australia, and helped me resolve many difficulties in my subsequent translations of Australian literature.

During the past three decades, as a literary translator, I have been fortunate to get acquainted and make friends with many Australian writers who have offered me great support in my translation. Mr. Nicholas Jose is one of them, and he is present here today. We have known each other for nearly 30 years, during which I have translated four novels of his. In the process of translation, I asked him for help when difficulties occurred, and his answers kept my translation clear of many mistakes. But in fact, it is impossible for translators to be friends with the writers of all the books they translate. Even if they are, many issues still cannot be fundamentally solved only by questions and answers, and what really matters is the translator’s comprehension. For instance, translating Carpentaria (《卡彭塔利亚湾》), by Alexis Wright, has posed new and bigger challenges for me. As a literary translator who has also been writing novels for nearly 20 years, I was attracted to the pure literariness and new creation methods, as well as the artistic appeal of these new methods employed in Carpentaria. Rooted in the land where Australian aborigines live, this book is full of rare and splendid scenes illustrating the contradictions between the primitive totems worshiped by local aborigines, as well as their ancient legends and myths, and real life, which I found truly wonderful. Nonetheless, in terms of translation, it was precisely this pure literariness, these new creation methods, and these “rare” and “splendid” scenes that proved to be major obstacles. 

It seems that Alexis Wright had already thought of the difficulties I would meet. She said, “I just wanted to write a story to pay respect to our ancestors. I had no extravagant hope that this book would attract a considerable number of readers, although I still expected people around the world could read and understand it when I wrote and immersed in it. But I was unaware of the difficulties in translating it into other languages, as it is an arduous task to express the dialects of aborigines, customs of my hometown Carpentaria, as well as the world view of my compatriots into another language.”

She is right. One of the characteristics of this book is indeed that it contains various aboriginal dialects, which must inevitably be translated. However, all in all, translating these dialects is a matter of simple formal transformation, as one can list these expressions and occasionally ask the writer for their meaning, which is like querying a dictionary, troublesome but not difficult. The real difficulties lie in translating the content of the customs of Carpentaria and the world view of the writer’s compatriots, especially their ancient legends and myths, as well as the protracted conflicts within the tribe and their clashes with real life. And I had to forge ahead in the swamp of these difficulties. Before translating, I had read a great deal of books on the culture, history, religion, art, customs, and habits of Australian aborigines, among which In the Desert: Jimmy Pike as a Boy (《沙漠之子》), the biography of Jimmy Pike, Australia’ s most famous aboriginal artist. In addition, I also consulted the painter Zhou Xiaoping, the only Chinese artist who lived among Australian aboriginal tribes for many years, and captured the aboriginal life on his camera and with his paintbrush. Therefore, he knows much about the languages, social structure, and customs of Australian aborigines. As I had no chance to live with Australian aborigines and engage in any in-depth exploration of their life, I could only gain some indirect experience from Mr. Zhou Xiaoping and his works. Gradually, thanks to the paintings of Australian aboriginal life that Zhou Xiaoping created by the sweat of his brow, through decades of effort, I found the right path to follow in translating Carpentaria. In this process, I found that the land where aborigines live is full of stories. Each rock and well act as the “characters” of certain stories, and even sand dunes and trees have witnessed legends. Having understood this, I found that the Great Serpent, sea monsters, fish, parrots, heavy seas and violent tornados in Alexis Wright’s book became vivid symbols to me, full of vitality, and characters closely related to those vivid symbols in the story became lifelike at once. I started to approach them and engage in heartfelt conversations with them. By then, I finally understood their spectrum of emotions, their loves and hates; I entered their inner world, and listened to their soul. In other words, by then I was finally capable and ready to translate this magnificent novel of around 400 thousand words.

It took me over two years to translate Carpentaria. Although my translation still has room for improvement, I have learned much from it: first, I have grown more familiar about Australian aborigines, and second, I have gained further understanding of literary translation.

II.A few simple observations on the way to introduce Chinese literature to the world

Since the modern times began in China, foreign sinologists and insightful Chinese have made great contributions to the spread of Chinese civilization and literature, and their considerable efforts have also granted Chinese literature a certain influence among foreign readers and writers. Mr. Nicholas Jose wrote in the preface to my translation of The Red Thread (《红线》) that he has loved Chinese literature since he read Lin Yutang’s translation of《浮生六记》 (Six Chapters of a Floating Life) when he studied at the University of Oxford in his early years. His work The Red Thread, based on Six Chapters of a Floating Life and peppered with the fruits of the author’s imagination, is a novel describing the friendship between Chinese and Australian youths. The “red thread” running through the whole book is the profound love story between Shen Fu and Yun that is found in Six Chapters of a Floating Life. The Red Thread can be viewed as a model of literary exchange between China and Australia.

However, as we all know, there are far less Chinese literary works being introduced to the world than foreign works being translated into Chinese, for several reasons that I will not further discuss here. What I want to express is that as we strongly promote Chinese literature abroad to accompany the development of our society, which certainly is a pleasant thing for everyone working in the literary field, I feel a little worried about the issue of translation quality, because even the slightest carelessness may degrade the image of our works and writers. Recently, I found some regrettable deficiencies in a “flash fiction” anthology published in December 2016 by a publishing group in the United States. Here is an example. The translator simply translated the sentence “临走时，他留下一偶语：‘泥佛不渡水，金佛不渡炉，木佛不渡火，真佛内里坐’。” in a story into “When he was about to leave, he left a message, ‘True Buddha lives nowhere but in your heart.’.” The translated sentence only means “他临走时留言：‘真佛只在你心中’。” if we translate it back to Chinese, and we can see that much of the original content is missing. Instead, translating this passage as “The clay Buddha stays away from the river, the golden one away from burner, the wooden one away from fire, but the real one stays in my heart” may be a better version.

So, who is qualified to translate and introduce Chinese literature to the world? In many people’s view, the answer is Sinologists. There is no doubt that Sinologists who are full-hearted devotees of Chinese culture are reliable contributors to the translation of Chinese literary works; nevertheless, they also have their limitations. For example, Pearl S. Buck, who was born and grew up in China, and wrote The Good Earth—a novel depicting life in rural China—still made some mistakes in her translation of Water Margin. For instance, she translated the sentence “三四个筛酒的酒保都手忙脚乱，搬东搬西” as “But the serving men were so busy, their hands and feet were all in confusion, and they were moving things here and there, east and west”. Obviously, she did not know much about the meaning of “东西”, which is commonly spoken by Chinese people. This sentence can be translated as “The waiters were very busy, bringing first one thing and then another”, which conveys the original meaning better. Another example is the sentence “如今江湖上歹人多”, which she mistranslated as “In these days, there are men—evil men by river and the lake,” for she did not understand the meaning of “江湖”。

By mentioning these examples, I do not mean to disparage those translators—only to emphasize how difficult it is to translate Chinese literature. To do so, Sinologists and Chinese scholars should all have an intimate knowledge of Chinese culture, as well as be skilled at creating literature in a foreign language. Recently, I read Dr. Han Jing’s translation of the novel《孽债》 (Educated Youth) by Ye Xin, which I think is an excellent translation. Thanks to her knowledge of the national conditions of China, she was able to carefully preserve a strong sense of the times and to convey Chinese characteristics in carrying out her translation work. For example, “献了青春献终身，献了终身献儿孙” was translated as “Dedicating your youth to socialism leads to dedicating your entire life, and dedicating your entire life means dedicating your children and your grandchildren to the cause”, and “被誉为三朵金花” was translated as “They were known as The Three Beauties” instead of “The Three Golden Flowers”. Sayings like “发发嗲” was appropriately turned into “He knew Mei liked him to cuddle and caress her”. She also explained to foreign readers expressions like “上海的政策是‘两丁抽一’”, which she translated as “the policy in Shanghai was ‘one out of two’. If there were two boys in a family, one had to go to countryside.” Such precise translation and explanations could be difficult for other translators without the knowledge of conditions of China in the 1960s. Therefore, scholars like Dr. Han Jing can shoulder the task of translating and introducing Chinese literature to the international stage. I wish Dr. Han Jing many more excellent translations.

In conclusion, I want to point out that no one, including sinologists and Chinese scholars, may arbitrarily delete or change the original content under the pretext that foreign readers are unfamiliar with it, and cannot understand the historical background or the cultural connotations of Chinese literature. One of the missions and principles of translators is precisely to convey to people of another nation the information unknown to them, such as historical backgrounds and cultural connotations. To deviate from this principle is to betray one’s mission as a translator. No foreign publishing houses and writers I know allow translators to delete or change their works at will. Why do Chinese writers have to accept such an unfair treatment when their works are promoted abroad? It is a long-term strategic task to present Chinese literature on the world stage, which cannot be accomplished one fell swoop. It is a great cause to which people from several generations must devote themselves. Faced with this challenge, literary translators should remain committed to this historic mission, and grasp this opportunity to introduce Chinese writers and their works to the world in a dignified way.

This is all I want to say. Thank you!