冯 铁 斯洛伐克布拉迪斯拉发考门斯基大学
Findeisen, Raoul, Comenius University in Bratislava
原文Original
Intellectual History through the Looking-Glass: Aspects of Translating Chinese Literature into German
Translation is, beyond doubt, not only the King’s Way of interliterary reception, but also the core activity and driving force in the development of Sinology outside China. Yet in order to avoid a simplistic and positivist trap of conceiving any history of translation as a gradual development towards a potentially comprehensive understanding of one given literary tradition in another language, it is necessary to study its history in the context of its environment, i.e. the receiving literary community. This is, evidently, also true for the history of translating Chinese literature into German.
Leaving aside the much-discussed origin of Goethe’s concept of ‘world literature’ inspired by translations (second-hand translations, to be sure) from traditional Chinese novels, I shall concentrate on one particular episode in this translation history: During the first three decades of the 20th century, the German translation of Chinese classics was significantly entwined with a wide range of translations and adaptations from Tang poetry, the latter frequently prepared by poets and translators without knowledge of Chinese, but nonetheless strikingly influential in the Expressionist movement in poetry. This period, roughly beginning with Gu Hongming’s (辜鸿铭) (1857–1928) Lunyu (论语) translation of 1898 and ending with the death of the famed missionary-translator Richard Wilhelm (尉礼贤) (1873–1930), culminates in the general Western intellectual crisis after World War I in which not only traditional Chinese ideas were considered a possible resource of salvation, but poetic techniques proved to turn into a literary inspiration——both not only in the German speaking countries, as testified by a great number of secondhand translations from Chinese literature produced in the aftermath of the War. This paper will examine the most significant aspects of this period, taking up, among others, some ideas put down by Eugene C. Ouyang (欧阳桢) in his Transparent Eye (《透明之眼》, 1993).
译文Translation
管窥思想史：中国文学的德语翻译问题
毋庸置疑，翻译不仅是不同文学间彼此接受的“王道”，也是汉学在海外发展的核心活动及推动力。如果将翻译史看作是用一种语言逐渐理解另一种语言的文学传统的过程，那就很难跳出简单化和实证化的窠臼。因此，我们有必要在其环境和语境下研究翻译史，也就是要考虑文学的受众。事实上，中国文学的德语翻译史亦是如此。
歌德的“世界文学”概念源自在中国传统小说的翻译（确切地说是二次翻译）中获得的灵感，这一点已经被广泛讨论，我在这里暂且不谈。我将集中讨论翻译史上一个特别的时间段：二十世纪的头三十年。在这个时期，对中国经典的德语翻译主要限于大范围地翻译和编译唐诗。这些编译者（其中有些是诗人）往往对中文不甚了解，但他们的译作仍对诗歌中的表现主义运动产生了深远影响。这一时期大致可以从辜鸿铭（1857-1928）在1898年翻译《论语》算起，至著名的传教士翻译家尉礼贤（Richard Wilhelm, 1873-1930）去世而结束，并于第一次世界大战后西方思想陷入普遍危机时达到高潮。那时，不仅翻译中国思想被认为是精神拯救的可行之道，而且引入中国诗歌技巧也成为文学灵感的新来源。这两点都不只局限于德语国家，这可以为战后大量出现的中国文学作品转译所证明。本文将撷取各家研究所长，讨论这一时期的最为重要的问题，其中一些观点来自欧阳桢（Eugene C. Ouyang）的作品《透明之眼》（1993）。