什么都可以翻译
传统意义上,我们所认为的翻译是把一种语言译成另一种语言,以被所有的人所认识,所了解。但是这种语言与语言间的转换,尤其是汉语与其他预言的转换,我们所认为的只是白话语言的转换。
但在古老的中国,传统文化的传播主要是通过文言文。何谓文言文?著名语言文学家、教育家王力先生在《古代汉语》中指出:“文言是指以先秦口语为基础而形成的上古汉语书面语言以及后来历代作家仿古的作品中的语言”。第一个“文”字,是美好的意思。“言”字,是写、表述、记载等的意思。文言文”的意思就是指“美好的语言文章”也叫做语体文。
而从名字上来看,文言文相对于白话文就是美的,而且文言文包含更多的中国文化。中国的四书五经,《大学》、《中庸》《论文》这些文言文书籍是中国儒家文化的代表。中国的传统文化应一代代延续,而文化的传承是每一个人的责任。翻译家对于文言文的翻译能让世界更好的了解中国,了解中国人的谦和敦厚,与人为善,能让五千年的中国文化生生不息。
《红楼梦》是中国文学园地百花丛中的一朵奇葩。它塑造了众多独特鲜明的人物,是一部不朽的艺术珍品。书中的主要角色,如贾宝玉、林黛玉、薛宝钗、王熙凤、刘姥姥等都宛如活在我们的心中。可见曹雪芹刻画人物,功力深邃。
谈到曹雪芹的艺术表现才华,不得不联系到《红楼梦》的对白写法。对白写得活泼生动是人物对比强烈、黑白分明时,更容易在读者心中产生鲜明的印象,因为对白中所用的字眼和语气最能表露出人物的神态。
附上大卫·霍克斯译的《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?
请欣赏霍克斯在《红楼梦》英译本自序中的最后一段感人的话:
"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."