英譯藍博洲《幌馬車之歌》

Abstract

人類透過記敘文來理解這個世界，記敘文成為我們定義世界以及其中人事物的工具。就記敘文的本質而言，內容可以是極為私人的故事，亦或是描寫一個族群所認同的訊息與生活領域。本文旨在探討如何將此類文體翻譯成另一個語言，以及翻譯過程所將面對的語言、文化和個人情感等難題。此次研究的文本為作家藍博洲所撰寫的幌馬車之歌，為一本兼具社會寫實與抒情性質的記敘文作品。抒情的部分在於描寫白色恐怖（民國三十八年至七十六年間）時期，人民無故人間蒸發的故事；寫實的部分則為本書於民國七十六年解嚴後一年首次發行時，提供台灣讀者一個完全不同的角度，迥異於政府針對白色恐怖事件所提出的官方說法（或甚至避而不談。本次翻譯的是藍博洲於民國八十年撰寫的幌馬車之歌，而不是民國九十三年出版的版本，考量的因素為前者較易為西方讀者所接受。然而，從譯者的觀點來看，翻譯此版本時需針對某些部分加以修改，包含文本脈絡、內容與寫作風格。藉由翻譯技巧中的增譯法和省譯法來處理上述問題，期能創作出文法與語法流暢的譯文，精準呈現文章脈絡，讓西方讀者享受閱讀過程。本論文分為四個部分，第一章為序論，說明該書與作者之背景，以及選翻此書的緣由。第二章探討幌馬車之歌在台灣和國外的接受度；第三章則著重於翻譯過程，討論翻譯時所遭遇的問題與解決方法。最後一章為本論文之結論，並提出後續研究相關的議題。附錄則為此次翻譯幌馬車之歌的譯文。

Narratives are the stories that we tell ourselves about the world, serving as a tool by which we define the world and those in it. As such, narratives can be both intensely personal, or large enough in message and scope to be shared by an entire people. How to translate such a medium into the language of another culture and what problems—linguistic, cultural, personal—are faced during the actual translation process shall serves as the basis for this thesis. The book chosen is Lan Bozhou’s (藍博洲) Huang mache zhi ge 幌馬車之歌 (Song of the Covered Wagon) which stands as both a personal and social narrative. Personal in the sense that it tells the story of one of the many Taiwanese to disappear during the period of White Terror (1949 to 1987) and social in the sense that the initial publication, coming one year after the lifting of martial law in 1987, offered its Taiwanese readers a competing narrative to the orthodox and government-supported narrative (or lack thereof) concerning events during the White Terror. I have chosen Lan Bozhou’s older 1991 version as opposed to his 2004 edition in belief that 1991 edition has a better chance to be accepted by Western readers. However, there are many areas in which, as a translator, I felt changes to the 1991 text were necessary. These areas can be broken down into questions of context, content, and style. By using addition or deletion translation strategies within these three areas, I strove to create a story in translation that was grammatically and idiomatically fluent, as well as contextually clear. The outline of the thesis shall be as follows: Chapter One shall serve as an introduction. Included shall be background information on the book and its author, as well as a discussion into why I have chosen Song of the Covered Wagon to serve as my translation project. Chapter Two shall discuss the reception to Song of the Covered Wagon—both in Taiwan and abroad. Chapter Three shall focus on my personal translation of Song of the Covered Wagon. Questions, problems, and their solutions regarding my translation of this narrative will be discussed. Finally, Chapter Four will be a summery and offer topics for further research. Following, in the addendum, will be my English translation of Song of the Covered Wagon.