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How Words and Pictures Work in the Translation of Maurice Sendak's Picture Books
比較分析莫里士．桑塔克中英文版本圖畫書裡的圖文關係
摘要
Chinese versions of foreign picture books have been for decades a staple segment of the children's book market in Taiwan, but academic interest in translating picture books for children has only started to emerge in recent years. A picture book, unlike common literary works characterized by verbal language, is best understood in light of the interaction between the words and pictures in the book. A translator of a picture book is thus faced with a challenging and significant task, that is, the task of deciding whether the visual can be translated or whether the visual should be referred back to when translating. By looking at the translation theories developed by Liang Lin and other scholars in Taiwan, we suggest in the first part of the paper that the prevailing concept in children's literature in Taiwan, i.e., the art of plain language, was underlined by the common assumptions toward childhood, and that word-and-picture interactions should be considered in the translation of a picture book. In the second part of the paper, we follow Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott's categorization of word-and-picture interactions in picture books and examine Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, and Outside Over There. In addition, we concentrate on the relationship between words and pictures and how that relationship influences translators' strategies. Through a comparative analysis of both the English and Chinese versions of Sendak's books, we indicate the noticeable changes in the word-and-picture interaction in the translated picture books. Those changes imply that the Chinese-language translations per se are different versions from their source texts, and that a translated picture book inevitably embodies a translator's assumptions toward children as well as a translator's understanding of the word-and-picture relationship in picture books.
並列摘要
自二十世紀後半葉迄今，台灣的圖畫書一直是以翻譯作品為主流。但是，直到最近幾年圖畫書的翻譯才逐漸受到學術界的注意和討論。不同於傳統以文字表述為主的文學形式，圖畫書是以文字和圖畫二種語言媒介（有時甚至只有圖像語言）共同表陳講述故事。翻譯者在面對圖畫書時，應否處理或如何處理這種同時包含圖像和文字的文學藝術形式成為一個棘手卻重要的課題。本文旨在透過莫里士．桑塔克（Maurice Sendak）的中、英文版本圖畫書，了解圖畫書在翻譯後圖文關係的變化。本文首先檢視近幾年臺灣學界關於兒童翻譯圖畫書的重要觀點，主要為林良和其他學者所提出之相關翻譯理論和對兒童的預設，以期開展本土圖畫書翻譯的理論範疇。接著，本文以桑塔克的三本作品：《野獸國》、《廚房之夜狂想曲》、《在那遙遠的地方》為例，採用瑪莉亞．尼可拉亞娃（Maria Nikolajeva）和凱洛．史考特（Carole Scott）所歸納的圖文關係分類，比較分析上述三部作品，並討論英文原作與中文譯作裡圖文關係顯著改變的部份，討論其圖文關係對翻譯的影響。尼可拉亞娃和史考特的圖文關係分類則針對圖畫書的語言特質，提出具體且有效的詞彙描繪圖文關係。根據她們的分類架構，研究結果進一步證實了圖畫書本身的圖文關係並非一成不變。而且，在文字語言與圖像語言的層面，因應文字的改變，翻譯圖畫書與原文版本裡的圖文關係也隨之改變。因此，本文建議，檢視翻譯圖畫書時，應考量譯者對孩童的預設以及譯者對書中圖文關係的理解和詮釋。