翻译与国家形象重构——以中国叙事的回译为例

翻译作为一种特殊的文化表述方式,在民族或国家形象的建构与发展过程中发挥着不可或缺的作用,但它往往却可能打扰、打乱、打破、甚至颠覆本族、本土文化的"安宁",因而翻译也可以说得上是一种"异族侵犯"行为。如何认识和把握翻译的这个基本属性,采取适当、有效策略,协调、处理好翻译过程中出现的种种问题,是翻译者的根本任务所在。这一描述,适用于对各种不同行走方向的翻译活动的解释,包括对异族形象/文化的内译,也包括对中国形象/中国文化走出去的"外译"和"回译"。本文本着这一理念,围绕"民族/国家形象和身份认同"和"翻译过程中民族/国家形象重构"的基本问题,对将外文书写的中国叙事翻译成中文的"文化回译"现象展开研究。文章通过分析来自日常语际交流,以及基辛格《论中国》与傅高义《邓小平时代》中译本的具体译例,就"文化回译"中是采取"还原式",还是"建构式"/"重构式"策略和其他相关问题,提出作者的基本观点,并由此阐发在"翻译/回译"与"形象建构/重构"问题上的主张。

Translation,as a special form of cultural representation,plays an indispensable role in the process of national image building/reconstruction and development. However,it also often tends to disturb,disrupt,dismantle and even subvert the"peace and stability"of the receiver culture,so much so that it can be labeled as an act of "intrusion of the alien". Clearly,coming to terms with such a translational property and handling problems that may arise in the process of translation effectively and adequately would be a most important task for the translator. This principle applies to all directions in which translation operates,including not only the "foreign to home"and "home to foreign"(i. e. L2 →L1 and L1 →L2) type of translation,but also what could be named "cultural back-translation",whose translational direction may be far more complex than one would imagine. It is this last,specially labeled "cultural back-translation"that the main discussion of the present paper will focus on. Proceeding from an initial analytical appreciation of the fundamental concepts of nation building and the reconstruction of national images through translation,the paper explores such issues as the connotations of the China image as depicted in foreign language-written(e. g.English-written) China narratives,how this image is and can be(re) constructed in and through translation,and how significant its translation into Chinese can be studied as a form of "cultural back-translation". By reflecting on and shedding theoretical insights into these issues,the study hopes to draw research interest in the major features of"cultural back-translation"and how distinctively"cultural back-translation"operates in relation to the general type of translation in the process of image building and reconstruction. To illustrate the arguments of the paper,examples will be drawn from daily intercultural communication practices as well as the Chinese translation of two of the best-known,politically-oriented contemporary China narratives,i. e. Henry Kissinger's On China,and Ezra Vegel's Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China.