無緣得見的譯本： 許章真譯印《現代印度小說選》

The Translation Yet to Come: Some Reflections on Xu's Rendering of Modern Indian Short Stories

許章真的翻譯事業圍繞在中亞與印度文學，儘管產量有限，但其翻譯實踐 的背後蘊含強烈的文化企圖。本文將探討《現代印度小說選》翻譯相關問題。 無論從選材到策略，此間皆帶有濃烈主體意識，驅策譯者思想者，與其所屬特 定時空背景息息相關，其中潛藏的文化焦慮往往托情譯文，此為本文討論之 一。許氏譯介印度文學，卻不得不透過英語為中道，將轉譯作為一種權宜之 計，希望來日以原文繼續譯介印度文學，但由於譯者早逝，此構想並未付諸實 踐。源文對於翻譯的影響不言可喻，儘管無緣得見許氏心中理想的直譯本，藉 由對「新」譯本提問，或許對既有的「舊」譯轉譯問題另有一番啟發，此乃本 文討論之二。

Xu Zhang-zhen's translations were generally focused on Indian texts and topics. Although cut short by his early death, what Xu does leave behind is in fact a cultural project that deserves more attention. This paper uses his Modern Indian Short Stories as an example to examine the translator's “subjectivity” not just as we see this in his choice of works, but also in his strategies in rendering them. The translator's work, as this paper shows, is influenced by the political conditions and the social context of his day, and thus reflects a sense of cultural anxiety which he expressed through the medium of translation. It would seem paradoxical that his translations of Indian literature used English as the vehicular language, since he tried to overturn the undeniable influence of English through this translation project. Of course, he did also plan to master Hindi or Urdu for the purposes of further translation work, a dream that was unrealized. Xu's reservations about indirect translation still serve as food for thought. Given the fact that a direct translation is deemed to be a more intuitive encounter between the SL (Indian languages) and the TL (Chinese), would Xu's translation, the one we will never see, offer more insight? Here, the existing translation will be employed to probe the new one that is never to come