《怀旧》的三个英译本 (第2/2页)
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（1）I knew that, having failed to generate a son by the age of twenty, Yaozong had hurriedly acquired three concubines.It was around this time that my teacher became a staunch defender of Mencius's dictum that there were three ways of betraying a parent—of which dying without descendants was the vilest—and promptly invested thirty-one pieces of gold in a wife for himself.His excessive respect for Yaozong was presumably down to the younger man's virtuosic show of filial virtue.
（2）Wang had told me that Yaozong's father had met the Long Hairs：he had flung himself on to the ground and begged for his life, knocking a big red lump up on his forehead.But he managed to stay alive, at least—and ingratiated himself by running a kitchen to keep them fed, turning a healthy profit on the proceeds.After the Long Hairs were defeated, he managed to get away from them and return to Wushi, where he gradually succeeded in becoming comfortably off.Yaozong's current plan—of winning them over with a single square meal—was nothing to his father's ingenuity.
蓝译确实做到了踵事增华，后出转精。此外蓝译还有一个特点（如果不是缺点）：凡是翻译人物年龄时都减去一岁。如耀宗“二十一岁无子”到了蓝氏笔下就成了“二十岁无子”（failed to generate a son by the age of twenty），蓝氏这样做的理由是中国人计算年龄时往往都用虚岁，而西方人则用实际岁数。
可惜蓝诗玲译本问世时，莱尔已经去世（2005年）而无缘得见了。莱尔在翻译《怀旧》时曾参考过冯余声的译本，这是笔者所知到目前为止唯一由中国人完成的译本（杨宪益夫妇翻译了全部《呐喊》和《彷徨》，但没有译过《怀旧》），发表于民国上海的英文刊物《天下》（T'ien Hsia Monthly）第6卷第2期（1938年2月）。由于母语并非英语，冯译略显刻板。就准确性来看，冯译基本做到了“信”，但也存在一处严重的错误，有意思的是，他犯错的地方正是莱尔的第一个错误所在：
I tried to find out the reason, and learned that Yiu Chung had bought three concubines when he was twenty-one, under the pretext of wanting a male child.To justify Yiu Chung's actions Mr.Baldhead had quoted Confucius' saying, “Of the three crimes against filial piety, not having a son comes first.” Because of that, Yiu Chung had given Mr.Baldhead the sum of thirty-one dollars as a present, and with this Mr.Baldhead had also bought a concubine for himself.So his courtesy to Yiu Chung was due to the latter's friendly gift.
这里冯余声也把“三十一金”看成是秃先生所接受的耀宗的馈赠，至于说因为这份大礼秃先生因而敬重耀宗（his courtesy to Yiu Chung was due to the latter's friendly gift）固然照顾到了译文的逻辑，但却不符合原文的意思，原文说得很清楚，“优礼之故，自因耀宗纯孝”。可以推测，莱尔在这段话上的翻译错误很可能受到了冯译的影响。但需要立刻指出的是，冯译在上文所引的第二段上没有犯任何错误，他准确地翻译出了耀宗“其父”的故事，没有把“其父”错认作王翁的父亲。所以在这后一段的翻译上，莱尔应该对其错误负完全的责任。
关于冯余声的生平，《鲁迅大辞典》（人民文学出版社2009年版）有这样的记录：“冯余声，又作冯余生，广东人，中国左翼作家联盟成员。1931年，他将鲁迅的《野草》译成英文，曾致函请求作序并索取照片。鲁迅于同年11月6日‘回冯余声信并英文译本《野草》小序一篇，往日照相两枚。’后来他将译稿卖给商务印书馆，毁于上海‘一·二八’战火（鲁迅1933年11月5日致姚克信），将序文编入《二心集》。”在现有的这份记录之上，我们应该增加一句：“他是《怀旧》最早的英译者。”
原载《鲁迅研究月刊》2014年第3期
