中国文学英译絮谈

沙枫

“大有大的难处”

有一篇评论《红楼梦》的文章，题目是《大有大的难处》。文章是这样开头的：

《红楼梦》第六回写刘姥姥来到荣国府。王熙凤觉察出她是来借钱的，就抢先诉苦：“谁家有什么？不过也是个空架子。”她恐怕刘姥姥不信，又继续叹了一回苦经：“况是我近来接着管些事，这些亲戚们又都不大知道。二则外头看着虽是烈烈轰轰的，殊不知大有大的难处，说与人也未必信罢。”

“大有大的难处”，这真是一语道破了贾府的没落趋势和困境••••••

“大有大的难处”，英文怎译呢？

翻了《红楼梦》的两本英译本，McHugh 根本没有翻译第六回中“刘姥姥一进荣国府”这一部分。王际真是翻译了这一部分了，也翻译了王熙凤讲的话了，不过，偏偏就漏译了“大有大的难处”这一句。

王际真把王熙凤上述讲的一番话，译成如下：

Besides, I have been taking care of things lately. You must appreciate the fact that although we seem prosperous, actually it is not at all easy for us to manage. That is the truth, though few would believe it."

“外头看着虽是烈烈轰轰的”译作“Although we seem prosperous”，是译得简明的。可惜没有翻译“大有大的难处”。

牛津大学教授 Hawkes 新译的《红楼梦》，译文是很详尽的，他译了《红楼梦》前二十六回，就用了篇幅四百七十九页。原著为二百六十八页。而王际真节译《红楼梦》前二十六回，只用了篇幅二百一十五页，McHugh 则用了二百零八页。

凤姐所说的“大有大的难处”，这句话，王际真和 McHugh 都没有翻译，Hawkes 却译了，而且译得不错。

凤姐的这一段话，Hawkes 的译文如下：

And since I took over the management of the household, I find there are quite a lot of relations that I don't even know about. And then again, of course, though we may look thriving enough from the outside, people don't realize that being a big establishment like ours carries it own difficulties. They won't believe it if you tell them, but it is true.

译文是忠实详尽而且易懂，译得不错。