什么都可以翻譯
傳統意義上,我們所認為的翻譯是把一種語言譯成另一種語言,以被所有的人所認識,所了解。但是這種語言與語言間的轉換,尤其是漢語與其他預言的轉換,我們所認為的只是白話語言的轉換。
但在古老的中國,傳統文化的傳播主要是通過文言文。何謂文言文?著名語言文學家、教育家王力先生在《古代漢語》中指出:“文言是指以先秦口語為基礎而形成的上古漢語書面語言以及后來歷代作家仿古的作品中的語言”。第一個“文”字,是美好的意思。“言”字,是寫、表述、記載等的意思。文言文”的意思就是指“美好的語言文章”也叫做語體文。
而從名字上來看,文言文相對于白話文就是美的,而且文言文包含更多的中國文化。中國的四書五經,《大學》、《中庸》《論文》這些文言文書籍是中國儒家文化的代表。中國的傳統文化應一代代延續,而文化的傳承是每一個人的責任。翻譯家對于文言文的翻譯能讓世界更好的了解中國,了解中國人的謙和敦厚,與人為善,能讓五千年的中國文化生生不息。
《紅樓夢》是中國文學園地百花叢中的一朵奇葩。它塑造了眾多獨特鮮明的人物,是一部不朽的藝術珍品。書中的主要角色,如賈寶玉、林黛玉、薛寶釵、王熙鳳、劉姥姥等都宛如活在我們的心中。可見曹雪芹刻畫人物,功力深邃。
談到曹雪芹的藝術表現才華,不得不聯系到《紅樓夢》的對白寫法。對白寫得活潑生動是人物對比強烈、黑白分明時,更容易在讀者心中產生鮮明的印象,因為對白中所用的字眼和語氣最能表露出人物的神態。
附上大衛·霍克斯譯的《枉凝眉》一首
Hope Betrayed
One was a flower from paradise,
One a pure jade without spot or stain.
If each for the other one was not intended,
Then why in this life did they meet again?
And yet if fate had meant them for each other,
Why was their earthly meeting all in vain?
In vain were all her sighs and tears,
In vain were all his anxious fears:
All,insubstantial,doomed to pass,
As moonlight mirrored in the water
Or flowers reflected in a glass.
How many tears from those poor eyes could flow,
Which every season rained upon her woe?
請欣賞霍克斯在《紅樓夢》英譯本自序中的最后一段感人的話:
"My one abiding principle has been to translate everything-even puns. For although this is ,in the sense I have already indicated, an 'unfinished' novel, it was written (and written) by a great artist with his very life blood. I have therefore assumed that whatever I find in it is there for a purpose and must be dealt with somehow or other, I cannot pretend always to have done so successfully, but if I can convey to the reader even a fraction of the pleasure this Chinese novel given me , I shall not have lived in vain."