中国文学英译絮谈

沙枫

《红楼梦》的两种英译

《红楼梦》这部小说的英译，先后有英人 McHugh 与王际真两人的译本，前者是从德人 Kuhn 的译本转译的。

两部英译本都是节译本，一百二十回的《红楼梦》，前者译成五十回，后者译成六十回。

第一回，前者从“按那石上书云：当日地陷东南，这东南一隅有处曰姑苏”译起。后者译得较全，在“按那石上书云”之前出现的两首诗都译了。

第一首是：

无材可去补苍天，枉入红尘若许年。
此系身前身后事，倩谁记去作奇传？

王际真的英译是：

Without merits that would entitle me to a place in the blue sky,
In vain have I lived in the Red Dust for so many years.
These are the events before my birth and after my death——
Who will transcribe them and give the world my story?

第二首是：

满纸荒唐言，一把辛酸泪！
都云作者痴，谁解其中味？

英译是：

Pages full of unlikely words,
Handfuls of hot, bitter tears.
They call the author a silly fool,
For they know not what he means.

译文是精简的。

第一回中，还有这样一副对联：

“假作真时真亦假，无为有处有还无。”

这一副对联，McHugh 的译本中也有译文（见于第五回），如下：

When seeming is taken for being, being becomes seeming.
Where nothing is taken for something, something becomes nothing.

王际真的英译如下：

When the unreal is taken for the real, then the real becomes unreal.
Where non-existence is taken for existence, then existence becomes non-existence.

你说哪一译法好呢？

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