Revisiting Qian Zhongshu's Huajing and Its English Translations/Interpretations

重探錢鍾書的「化境」及其英文翻譯／詮釋

This paper revisits Qian Zhongshu's translation concept of huajing and its English translations and interpretations. Under the impact of Western-centered approaches to translation studies, the rich and organic resources coming out of Chinese theorizing on translation have often been ignored or sidelined as being irrelevant to current translation problems. In this environment of neglect, the theoretical potential of Qian's huajing concept seems to have been overlooked. The issue becomes even more problematic when this translation-based concept is rendered into a Western language. Given the complexity of this esoteric and philosophical term, huajing has been rendered variously into English as ''the ultimate of transmutation,'' ''the ideal stage of sublimity,'' ''the realm of transformation'' and ''the state of total transformation,'' as well as (via its direct transliteration) ''huajing.'' Here we see the difficulty of understanding, interpreting, gaining access to this translation-based term and concept within an English context. The present study accordingly provides an analysis of Qian's account of huajing and its English translations and interpretations so as to critique these renditions. A more explicit discussion of these English translations, and of the concept of huajing, may therefore not only better enable us to appreciate Qian's conceptualization of translation, but may also pave the way for further research on this crucial and complex conceptual term in an English context. We can also better respond to the call from international academia for the reconceptualization of translation by broadening the scope of its definition via the inspiration provided by this non-Western perspective.

本篇論文重探錢鍾書的「化境」翻譯觀，並探討其英文翻譯及詮釋。受到西方譯論為中心的衝擊，中國翻譯概念中豐富及有機的資源經常被輕忽及漠視，認為其無助於因應當前的翻譯問題。在此學術環境下，錢鍾書的化境翻譯觀所具有的理論潛能，似乎已被忽略。而將此翻譯觀譯成西方語言時，其理論的詮釋更是一個問題。「化境」因其晦澀及哲思上的複雜性，因而被翻譯成諸多英文語詞，例如the ultimate of transmutation、the ideal stage of sublimity、the realm of transformation、the state of total transformation， 以及直接音譯的huajing|多樣的詮釋版本顯示出此翻譯觀在英文語境內有理解與詮釋上的困難。本文將分析錢鍾書自身對化境翻譯觀的論述並探討現有的英文翻譯及詮釋，對各「化境」的英文翻譯做出評論。透過細部的探討，不僅使我們更加了解錢鍾書的翻譯思維，也有利於日後於英語語境中對此重要及複雜的概念詞做更深入的研究，更可呼應國際翻譯學界想藉由非西方的翻譯論述，擴展翻譯概念及定義的想法。