翻译美学视角下《牡丹亭》的审美再现——以Cyril Birch译本和汪榕培译本为例

论文总字数：31745字

摘 要

《牡丹亭》是中国伟大的戏剧家汤显祖创作的最著名的传奇，是中国戏剧史上的一朵奇葩，问世四百年来在中国的戏曲舞台上久演不衰。目前，《牡丹亭》已译成若干英文版本。西方主流翻译研究朝着跨学科与宏观方向发展，其核心是关注翻译本质问题的探讨。因此，翻译审美也开始趋向本质的审美。然而，中国文化对翻译则讲究“信达雅”。因此如何将汤显祖的作品“信达雅”地翻译出来，既能体现中国文化的原汁原味又能符合外国人的审美是很值得我们去研究的。

目前出版的两部最知名的《牡丹亭》译本是2014年8月汪榕培的《汤显祖戏剧全集(英文版)》和1980年Cyril Birch的译本，两个译本各具特色，但又有明显的东西方翻译差别。如何分析这两个译本的审美再现是本文关注的重点。

本研究主要通过对《牡丹亭》的两英译本的对比研究，结合翻译美学中审美再现的一般规律理论指导，比较和发现两个译本中的不同点，并提取两个译本的优点，进而总结出中国古典戏曲《牡丹亭》的翻译在翻译美学视角下的审美再现情况；同时也为后人欲翻译中国古典戏曲提供借鉴，具有深刻的研究意义。

通过采用比较分析的研究方法，本文将两个译本中具有代表性的相关翻译选出作为例证，根据翻译美学理论审美再现的一般规律：理解→转化→加工比较不同点，分析其优点和不足，并得出以下结论：

1.Birch的译本忠实于原文，尽量保留了源语中的意象和文化理解，不去破坏源语中的美感和其独特的异国风调。

2.汪榕培的译本旨在传神达意，尽量消除语言文化障碍，结合读者文化群进行翻译，语言相对简单易懂，便于读者理解，译文的感染力较强。

关键词：翻译美学理论；《牡丹亭》英译本；汪榕培；Cyril Birch

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ⅰ

Abstract ⅱ

摘要 ⅲ

Table of Contents ⅳ

Chapter One Introduction 1

Chapter Two Literature Review 2

2.1 Previous Studies on Translation Aesthetics 2

2.1.1 Previous Studies on Translation Aesthetics Abroad 2

2.1.2 Previous Studies on Translation Aesthetics at Home 3

2.2 Previous Studies on the Two English Versions of The Peony Pavilion 4

2.2.1 Previous Studies on Cyril Birch's Translation of The Peony Pavilion 4

2.2.2 Previous Studies on Wang Rongpei's Translation of The Peony Pavilion 5

2.3 Limitations of Previous Studies 6

Chapter Three A Contrastive Study of Aesthetic Representation between the Two English Versions of The Peony Pavilion 7

3.1 Differences between the Two English Versions from the General Law of Aesthetic Representation 7

3.1.1 Comprehension 7

3.1.2 Transformation 8

3.1.3 Improvement 9

3.1.3.1 Basic Structuring 9

3.1.3.2 Refinement 10

3.2 Beauty of the Two English Versions from the Perspective of Translation Aesthetics 11

3.2.1 Beauty of Words 11

3.2.2 Beauty of Sentences 12

3.2.3 Beauty of Artistic Conception 13

Chapter Four Conclusion 14

References 15

Chapter One Introduction

With the abundant cultural communications between China and the west, more and more Chinese cultural works with Chinese characteristics need to be introduced to the world. One of them is Chinese classical dramas. October 2015, Xi Jinping, the chairman proposed that, China’s Ming Dynasty playwright Tang Xianzu is known as "Shakespeare in the East", whose dramas The Peony Pavilion, The Purple Hairpin, Record of Southern Bough and Record of Handan are well-known. Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare died in the same year 1616. And 2016 is the 400th anniversary of their death. In order to promote the cultural communications and deepen mutual understanding, the two countries can jointly commemorate these two masters of literature (Wang R.P. 2000).

Furthermore, Shakespeare's literary status is unshakable, but China's great playwright Tang Xianzu’s international visibility is far below the former. I hope to take the opportunity of commemorating the 400th anniversary of Tang Xianzu's death to cherish the memory of the "Chinese Shakespeare", and also provide a reference for future generations to translate Chinese classical dramas.

By now, the influential version overseas of The Peony Pavilion was created in 1980 by an American Sinologist, Cyril Birch. He was born in England and studied Chinese in University of London. Birch, as the author of a number of books and articles on traditional Chinese fiction and drama as well as modern Chinese literature, he devoted almost all his life to Chinese literature translation. In 2014, the newest translation version by Wang Rongpei has been published in his The Complete Dramatic Works of Tang Xianzu. Professor Wang is a famous educator, translator and lexicologist in China. After almost 20 years’ efforts, he finally published The Complete Dramatic Works of Tang Xianzu and made a great hit at NY Art Book Fair in 2015.

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Previous Studies on Translation Aesthetics

In western philosophy, the idea of the aesthetic developed from the idea of taste and beauty. The theory about aesthetics can date back to the German Enlightenment thinkers in the 18th century. In ancient Chinese culture there are also a lot of researches on the aesthetic consciousness. In the book "Translation Aesthetics", Mao Ronggui reviewed the long history of Chinese translation theory, and concluded that the theory of Chinese traditional translation is based on the theory of aesthetics.

2.1.1 Previous Studies on Translation Aesthetics Abroad

According to the research on translational history, the seed of western translational theory firstly relied on philosophy-aesthetics to grow (Mao Ronggui 2005). From all the advocacies like the “beauty of rhetoric” advocated by the famous Roman philosopher Cicero for the literary translation to later translator Jerome’s “natural beauty”, translation theorist Tytler’s “beauty” of faithfulness, and Gachechiladze’s “artistic beauty” (Monday 2010), it can be found that the aesthetic thought has been contained in translation theories for a long time. During the twenty years after 1990s, in western countries Shirley Chew and Alistair published the book titled Translating Life: Studies in Translational Aesthetics (1999), which is a very important book in the western field of aesthetic translation.

2.1.2 Previous Studies on Translation Aesthetics at Home

Contemporary Chinese translation aesthetics theory originates from the traditional Chinese translation theory. The translation mechanism and function of it uses the basic theory of modern aesthetics and structural framework to explain things. Aesthetic combination is the typical characteristics of Chinese traditional translation theories, translation researchers tend to use traditional Chinese aesthetic standard as the main principle of translation studies. At the end of Qing Dynasty, the society was in chaos, people with lofty ideas kept looking for new ways to save the country in distress. In 1894, Ma Jianzhong (1840-1900), wrote to the Qing government (Li Y.Q. 2014) to call for new study by the way of translating and advocate to cooperate with the reformist political party. In his book, Ma discussed about good translation aesthetic ideas and stressed that the importance of translation is to ascertain the intention of the original text. Ma Jianzhong’s point of views on proposing translation aesthetics is very much in line with the scholars at that time and has quite enlightening effects.

In 1898, Yan Fu, in the translation of the publication Evolution and Ethics by Thomas Henry Huxley (Wen J. and Li P.J. 2001) said "Faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance are basic principles in translation". Since then, "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance" has been the standard of translation classical Chinese and has great influence on the Chinese traditional translation. In fact, faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance are three aesthetic propositions. In order to achieve the "faithfulness", Yan Fu then put forward the "expressiveness", which means the fluency in translation. The most important and difficult point of this translation principle is "elegance". In Chinese classical art aesthetics, the proposition of "elegance" as the opposite of "vulgar" appeared very early, so the Chinese traditional aesthetic principles of “elegance” can be understood according to the dialectical logic.

Fu Lei’s translation theory emphasizes on the similarity of “spirit” rather than “form”. It mainly includes two meanings: one is the meaning of "spirit", "spirit" refers to the "charm". It is a kind of spirit reflecting the inherent spirit of life; secondly is that “form” is not of little importance in translation. In another word, it must be pointed out that, in artistic expression, the form is related to the formative beauty.

2.2 Previous Studies on the Two English Versions of The Peony Pavilion

2.2.1 Previous Studies on Cyril Birch’s Translation of The Peony Pavilion

Birch’s translation version has made a great contribution to the world and is very popular and influential in western countries. Thanks to it, the west set off a burst of "Peony Pavilion" hot in the late 1990s (Bell R.T. 2001). Between 1960 and 1991(Tang X.Z. 2005), his translation of The Peony Pavilion is the earliest English version of this drama. This published translation immediately got widely recognized in the Western Sinology in 1981, which was awarded for the outstanding academic works. Brich has said that translation is a kind of adventure on purpose, and it is in the process of creativity and accuracy that maintains a delicate balance. Birch tries to retain the source language in the metaphor of the image, not to destroy the beauty of the source language and the unique flavor of the exotic works.

Birch’s version is now the most popular western translation of The Peony Pavilion, and it is famous for its fluent and idiomatic language in the world. Birch’s translation is extremely meticulous, and to faithfully reproduce the original cultural connotation, he adopts free translation of the original names. In addition, another notable feature of Birch’s version is that he abandoned the traditional meter and rhyme, instead, he used the form of free verse to translate the lyrics and poetry parts. The advantage and disadvantage are obvious: the advantage is that, without restrictions of meter and rhyme, the language is more fluent and natural; the disadvantage is that, the abandoned meter and rhyme will to some degree damage the original beauty of phonology and the ups and downs of the rhythm. In general, Birch’s version is more of a faithful translation, but a few places have understanding errors because the translator is not a Chinese person. Overall speaking, Birch’s version is successful. The Peony Pavilion can be introduced to the world and cause a surge of "Peony Pavilion" boom, Birch’s efforts cannot be neglected.

2.2.2 Previous Studies on Wang Rongpei’s Translation of The Peony Pavilion

In 2014, the English translation version of The Poeny Pavilion was published by Professor Wang Rongpei in his The Complete Dramatic Works of Tang Xianzu. Due to his profound knowledge of literature and translation skills, Professor Wang Rongpei’s translation of The Peony Pavilion is not only fluent and smooth in language, but also the story background of the translation is accurate and vivid. Thus the readers are as if in proximity to the reality of story, the value of the work is then fully manifested.

Mr. Wang is very keen and serious to the translation of The Peony Pavilion. To better understand The Peony Pavilion, Mr. Wang has been very concerned about the situations at home and abroad, and he took time to conduct a series of related “Peony Pavilion" translation studies. In addition, Mr. Wang also personally travelled to Tang Xianzu's hometown of Linchuan to conduct on-site investigations. Mr. Wang’s profound translation skills, culture background information, and serious attitude to the work make his version a great hit at NY Art Book Fair in 2015.

Mr. Wang’s translation of The Peony Pavilion emphasizes on "vivid expression", to a great extent Wang’s version creatively reproduces the style of the original story. In the process of translation, Mr. Wang uses plain English to translate the granular dialogue or monologue part for English readers to understand. He tries to maintain the original images, or to avoid sacrificing the original images by replacing them in corresponding English expressions. In addition, compared with Birch’s version, Mr. Wang takes different strategies in the translation of The Peony Pavilion in lyrics and poems. Mr. Wang uses the traditional English metrical poems and rhymes to translate the lyrics and verses, creatively reproduce the original phonology and the beauty of rhythm.

2.3 Limitations of Previous Studies

The language differences can sometimes lead to some misleading information of the target text. So in translation practice, the expression of the relation between the theme and the context must be taken into account. Present study has not fully elaborated Birch’s translation strategies, which is the charm of his translation; for Wang Rongpei's version, its skills of application to the interpretation of the metaphor are seldom described by any literature, but all of which are without further discussion. Another point is that almost no reference to the readability of the two versions appears in the literature. The aims of translation are to help the readers to appreciate the literary works, so the translation should not place the language barriers that will eliminate readers’ interest in reading. Only a few literature mentions Wang Rongpei's efforts in his translation to remove the barriers, but it has not been thoroughly explored.

Chapter Three A Contrastive Study of Aesthetic Representation between the Two English Versions of The Peony Pavilion

3.1 Differences between the Two English Versions from the General Rule of Aesthetic Representation

3.1.1 Comprehension

Example 1“（柳梦梅）因何错爱小生至此？（杜丽娘）爱的你一品人才。”

Wang’s version: （Liu Mengmei）but am I indeed worthy of your love?（Du Liniang）I love you because you are the man of men.

Birch’s version：（LIU）How can I be worthy of such love?（BRIDAL）You are distinguished above all.

Example 2“呀，试期过了。文字可进呈么？”

Wang’s version：Alas, the examination is over, but may I present my essay?

Birch’s version：Ha, the examinations are over! Have the papers been submitted?

Case 1 is from scene 32 "Vowing between Man and Ghost", Liu Mengmei asked Du Liniang why she loves him, Wang’s version uses “because” with the “why” echoes, prominent “talent” for this reason, which is more convenient in understanding the scene. Example 2 is from scene 41 “Late for the Examination”, Liu Mengmei hands over her papers when the exam ended early. Wang Rongpei uses “but” not only highlighted the relationship between the “hand” and “trial period”, but also can make the audience feel better about the fate of Liu Mengmei, the language is more expressive. In contrast to Birch’s version, it seems that there are some of the semantic and emotional coherence, which is more of written language features, thus the performance is slightly worse.

3.1.2 Transformation

In the process of translation, due to the differences exist in source language culture and the target language culture, there must be many misinterpretations in translation works. To avoid the misinterpretations concerning the culture in the target language, which would result in the distortion of the original text, translators need not only pay attention to the conversion of the original language, but also should adapt to the translation attitude of seeing the language culture as a whole system. To pay attention to the bilingual cultural connotation of the transformation of The Peony Pavilion in the original works with rich meanings in Chinese culture, words and expressions with culture information can be found everywhere, here we focus on “莲步鲤庭趋”:

“添眉翠, 摇佩珠, 绣屏中生成士女园。莲步鲤庭趋, 儒门旧家数。”

Cyril Birch’s version(Wang H. 2014):

Brows limned black with emerald sheen,

pendants swaying at waist,

pictured beauty steps as from broader screen.

Lotus feet in tripping measure

set long ago as mark of reverence

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