譯咖的日常：班雅民與信息障礙

The Imparted Task of the Translator: Walter Benjmain and Information Walls

廖朝陽(Chaoyang Liao)

《譒》 3期 (2021/10) Pp. 1-29

摘要

近年翻譯論述、文化論述跟隨大環境的全球化思維，常假設信息、文化內容可以無障礙流動。班雅民的翻譯論述雖然源自左派「進步」傳統，相關研究卻也常想像理論可以自由移動，與多變的實作現場脫鉤。班氏的名作〈譯家的職責〉的確有貶抑信息傳遞，認為理論不須處理信息的說法，不僅常被解讀為主張直譯，也似乎認可理論可以逢山開路，自行其是，但班氏論述的整體方向其實可以有不同的解讀。文中標舉意義以「生續」為本，正點出有死續才能成立生續，所以翻譯不可能取消語言障礙，理論也只能尋找「穿牆通道」而不追求破牆。翻譯的語言障礙通常稱做「不可譯性」，但班雅民認為不可譯才是「可譯性」的命責所在。徳、日雙語作家多和田葉子與台灣作家賴香吟的翻譯者小說都點出翻譯的命責化：當技術能力或技術考量發展到臨界點而觸及障礙，職責可能轉為命責，放大翻譯者的語言能力而壓縮其他能力，把翻譯者變成「譯咖」。這時翻譯者的內在能力通過「穿牆通道」呼應命責的外勢，激起對牆外的嚮往，但也可能像班雅民推崇的赫德林或多和田的主角那樣，被原文「關門」。這是翻譯者特別熟悉的，信息障礙的險境。近年神經網路機器翻譯的發展也以依詞不依句呼應穿牆「詞理」，讓我們可以把班氏的穿牆論連結到史提格萊所理解的當代工技，由另一個角度來探討數位科技危局由毒轉藥的可能性。

關鍵字

班雅民 ； 多和田葉子 ； 賴香吟 ； 直譯 ； 生續 ； 詞理 ； 穿牆通道

並列摘要

Framed by a globalizing world, much of recent discourse on translation and other cultural topics seems to assume the reality of unimpeded flows of information. In particular, Walter Benjamin's theorization of translation has been subject to a universalizing imaginary that decouples the sameness of theory from the vagaries of practice. There are indeed places in Benjamin's classic ＂Task of the Translator＂ that deprecate used translation and seem to confirm not only the aloofness of ＂literal rendering＂ but the ease of theory to replicate itself as practice. The overall stance of the essay, however, points to a different reading. The appeal to the Fortleben of texts, in particular, posits the dependence of continued life on its possible discontinuation, implying that translation cannot work without the walls of language, that theory cannot move except through ＂arcades in the wall.＂ In translation, language walls are usually perceived as ＂untranslatability,＂ which Benjamin inverts into ＂translatability,＂ defined by ethical calls to seek the impossible. Such ＂imparted＂ calls are instanced by the protagonists of Tawada Yoko's and Lai Hsiang-yin's novellas about translation: both are translators proficient enough to feel the presence of the walls and to be attracted to the outside. Their ethically imparted task creates an imbalance in their lives, turning them into mere translating agents who sometimes fail to have words reassembled on the other side of the wall. It is perhaps not accidental that current models of neural network machine translation confirm the primacy of such Wörtlichkeit by using words rather than sentences to form informational arcades, pointing to the need to reread Benjamin to reclaim the usefulness of his theorization, not only to reconnect theory to practice but to situate translational intelligence in the context of contemporary technics, seen by Bernard Stiegler as an endgame in dire need of curative transition to translatability.

並列關鍵字

Walter Benjamin ； Tawada Yoko ； Lai Hsiang-yin ； literal translation ； Fortleben ； Wörtlichkeit ； arcade in the wall