論郝玉青英譯《射鵰英雄傳》前九回

距《鹿鼎記》英譯，即閔福德（John Minford）主筆之The Deer and the Cauldron ( Oxford Press, 1999) 出版已二十年。相較譯介《鹿鼎記》之出版社及譯者均來自學術界，A Hero Born: Legends of the Condor Heroes Book 1則由本身亦從事出版經紀的郝玉青（Anna Holmwood）及商業出版社MacLehose Press擔綱。本文即分析2018年初次正式英譯出版的《射鵰英雄傳》前九回之翻譯現象。武俠小說為1950-70年代香港回歸前產物，當時通俗武俠小說雖廣受歡迎，卻飽受主流批判，金庸作品初成之時係處邊緣。然因流傳甚廣，影響深刻，駸駸然有進入主流文學殿堂之勢，1980年後其價值也終得學術某程度之肯認，已漸由邊緣往中心移動。本文假設這次譯介係金庸武俠再次企圖進入主流英語世界，由邊緣推向中心的二度嘗試。 A Hero Born簡明流暢，堪稱流利易讀，市場反應不惡，但其中缺憾約可歸納為三。首先，版本選擇失當，逕採最新之版本。第二，對武俠文類以及偏文言的語句認識未臻深刻，解讀武俠成規套語時容易出錯。第三，過度追求保存中文形式，執意直譯文學典故反使譯文出現瑕疵，成效不彰；刻意使用簡短的詞彙也使風格類於青少年小說，不似原作。

關鍵字

金庸；武俠小說；射鵰英雄傳；翻譯

並列摘要

The novels of Jin Yong (1924-2018) have long been a favorite of Chinese readers worldwide. Indeed, it is fair to say that he has been the most popular Chinese author for the last 50 years. The few English translations of his works that have appeared, however, have not enjoyed nearly the same level of popularity among English readers. Using Anna Holmwood’s 2018 translation of Shediao Yingxiong Zhuan (射鵰英雄傳) as an example, which she renders as A Hero Born: Legends of the Condor Heroes Volume 1, this thesis explores some of the reasons for Jin Yong’s lack of popularity in the English-speaking world. It finds that English translations of Jin Yong’s works are faced with two main types of obstacles. The first can be characterized as extrinsic to Jin Yong: the Chinese language, culture, and history that are found in his works are an enormous challenge for any translator. Even the genre in which he writes, wuxia (武俠；novels of martial arts and chivalry), is absent in the West; and thus many terms and ideas that Chinese readers take for granted have to be painstakingly introduced to his new foreign readers. The second obstacle is intrinsic to Jin Yong: his novels, especially the revised editions, are sometimes too heavily laden with historical and cultural details; not to translate these details can destroy the atmosphere and style of his work, but to translate them can easily ruin the flow of the narrative. It is hoped that the findings of the present work can help to make future translations of Jin Yong more appealing to a wider readership.