Enhancing Translator Imaginative Capacity Through the Appreciation of the Arts

透過藝術賞析以增進譯者想像力

張忠安(Chang, Chung-An)

《譒》 3期 (2021/10) Pp. 31-56

摘要

Translation does not merely concern itself with the practice of meaning transfer between languages but also with the way in which translators imagine other minds. The ability to imagine and ascertain the psyche and thoughts of others is vital to translation competence and should be developed in courses on translator training. This essay puts forth the argument that a translator's imaginative capacity can be trained and enhanced through an appreciation of the arts. Kant's aesthetic judgment is an exemplary principle for the appreciation of the arts owing to its construction of the philosophical and theoretical foundation behind which one's imaginative faculty can be put into practice. A key concept behind Kantian aesthetic judgment deals with how a work of art, though created with an artist's specific purpose and intention in mind, presents itself as a product of nature unconstrained by rules. To accomplish this effect, an artist must harness the genius by which nature becomes the rule of art. Nature, however, as construed by the artist and articulated by Baudelaire, manifests itself as a translated nature, interpreted by means of the artist's own impressions. So, when a viewer, in turn, interprets a work of art, this becomes a retranslation of a translation. The viewer's interpretation/translation of the work is an all the more daunting hermeneutic task owing to the fact that the artist, imbued with genius, possesses aesthetic ideas beyond his/her present conceptual understanding which, when involved in the process of creating the piece of art, obscure to the artist just how the piece is produced. Nonetheless, such an exercise is an extremely effective way to practice one's imagination. It is also an efficient way to develop one's visualization capability, which is an important ability that would trigger creativity in the process of translation. To this end, as an illustrative demonstration, a drill in the appreciation of a painting as a work of art has been suggested. In all, through the aesthetic appreciation of the arts, we not only become more imaginative in the evaluation of another's artwork, but also more caring in the apprehension of another's mind, which is an indispensable attribute for the human translator in this age of technological hegemony.

關鍵字

art ； imagination ； nature ； visualization ； Kantian aesthetics ； Charles Baudelaire

並列摘要

翻譯不僅僅只關注語際間的語意傳遞，也重視譯者如何能想像他人的心理。這種能想像並獲知他人心靈及思維的能力，是一個不可或缺的翻譯知能，應於翻譯培訓課程中培養。本文認為譯者的想像力可透過藝術賞析來習練並提升。進行藝術賞析時，康德的審美判斷力為觀者習練想像力奠定了哲學及理論的基礎，具有典範意義。一個重要的康德審美判斷力概念，即在探討一件藝術作品雖然是由藝術家依特定的目的及意圖而作，卻不受限於這些規則，而能以自然之物自現。要能成此自然之物，藝術家需握有天才，而自然即是透過此天才而賦予藝術律則。然而，由藝術家所理解及由波特萊爾所述的自然，已轉化成為藝術家將自身感知詮釋與翻譯後的自然。因此，當觀者詮釋一件藝術作品時，此過程即成為翻譯的再翻譯。由於富有天才的藝術家，於創作藝術作品的過程時，擁有的審美理念將超出當前概念知性的範圍，因此藝術家將不知此作品產生之緣由。究此，詮釋／翻譯一件藝術作品，即是一項艱鉅的詮釋任務。儘管如此，此活動卻是習練想像力的有效之法，也能有效地培養視覺化能力，而此視覺化能力能誘發翻譯過程中的創意思維。為能達此目的，本文以繪畫藝術作品賞析做為一個示範範例。整體而言，透過藝術賞析，不僅使我們於鑑賞他人作品時更有想像力，同時也更能體會他人內心的感受，而此種感受是譯者在科技霸權時代不可或缺的素質。

並列關鍵字

藝術 ； 想像力 ； 自然 ； 視覺化 ； 康德美學 ； 夏爾．波特萊爾