A Traveling Salesman in Beijing: Global Cultures Translated Through Theatre

亞瑟米勒的《推銷員之死》在付梓問世六十年後，在大多數的美國人心中，它還是生動地道出美國人真實的生活情況與他們所關注的事物。但是，這部作品除了它的流傳性之外，更值得注意的是，它也告訴我們戲劇作爲一種溝通橋樑與超越文化及種族隔閡的不平凡力量。就在「文化大革命」結束的後幾年，亞瑟米勒被邀請至北京去執導自己的劇本。這項邀請是來自於兩位在中國戲劇上的傑出人物：劇作家曹禺以及演員英若誠。有趣的是，他們兩位在1978 年與米勒碰面。這個舞臺劇作品在北京人民藝術學院演出長達數個月，接著開始全國的巡迴演出，以電視劇播出告終。後來在北京又以原班人馬再度搬上舞臺演出。由於米勒本身不會中文，因此英若誠不但將此劇翻譯成中文，也擔綱演出其中的推銷員一角－威利•羅曼，除此之外，他更是亞瑟米勒與其他演員之間的翻譯者。我們該如何去說明《推銷員之死》此劇所帶來的驚人成就，特別是在中國文化這種明顯與1940年的布魯克林文化以及北京八零年代早期文化不相容的現象呢？這種不平凡的全球化之翻譯現象正是本文所要探討的重點。

關鍵字

亞瑟•米勒；推銷員之死；推銷員在北京；文化翻譯

並列摘要

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949), sixty years after it was written, remains remarkably alive and is the work most Americans feel speaks directly to their lives and concerns today. But more remarkable than the play’s durability in the United States is what it tells us about the remarkable power of theatre to bridge and transcend cultural and ethnic boundaries. In 1983, just a few short years after the end of the Cultural Revolution, Miller was invited to direct his play in Beijing. The invitation came from two Chinese theatre luminaries, playwright Cao Yu, and actor Ying Ruocheng, who met Miller in 1978. The production was performed at the Beijing People's Art Theatre, and ran several months, after which it embarked on a national tour culminating in a televised production. Afterwards, it was re-mounted in Beijing with its original cast. Since Miller spoke no Chinese, the play was translated into Chinese by Ying Ruocheng, who also played the part of Miller's salesman, Willy Loman, and served as Miller's interlocutor when he spoke to the cast. How do we account for this play's spectacular success in a culture so apparently alien to that of 1940s Brooklyn as that of Beijing in the early 80s? This act of remarkable global translation is the subject of the present essay.