Rhyme and Meter: An English Translation of Caiwei 采薇 from Shijing 詩經 with Stylistic Considerations

押韻與韻律－考量「文體」之《詩經．采薇》英譯

陳致宏(Chih-hong Rudy Chen)

《翻譯學研究集刊》 21輯 (2018/07) Pp. 79-102

摘要

This paper attempts at the stylistic translation of the poem Caiwei 采薇 from the Shijing 詩經, achieved through the lyrical arrangements for the sake of - most importantly, rhyme and meter - as well as musicality, verse length, word choice and careful calculation and arrangement of syllable count patterning. Numerous rhetorical devices such as balanced patterning and syntactic parallelism are employed. This is to achieve a sense of plain nobleness, in consideration that the Shijing is mainly written in a simple yet solemn style with folk overtones. Effort has been put in this translation to preserve the stylistic elements of the source text as much as possible. For instance, the re-creation of reduplicates, overlapping rhyme schemes and incremental repetition are preserved when translating from ancient Chinese to modern English, in order to allow the non-Chinese readership to appreciate the ancient Chinese poem in its most genuine appearance. It is hoped that these stylistic attempts are successfully achieved to overcome the loss of culture-specific stylistic elements during translation. This translation attempts to maximally preserve balance and parallelism in the original text through regulated word patterning, and rhyming and rhythmic proclivity aimed at preserving the plain nobleness and naturalness in Shijing translation, the carrier of emotional impact.

關鍵字

Shijing ； Caiwei ； meter ； rhyme ； parallelism ； balance ； comparative stylistics and translation

並列摘要

本文從《詩經．采薇》之文體翻譯中，透過詞句編排，重點考慮押韻（rhyme）與韻律（meter），以及音樂性（musicality）、韻長（verse length），並透過字詞選擇、計算與編排音節計數格式（syllable count patterning），試圖於英譯中最大限度保留中文原文之文體元素。由於《詩經》主要以樸素而莊重的文體撰成，並帶有民間色彩，本文翻譯採用眾多修辭手段，例如對仗格式（balanced patterning）與句法排比（syntactic parallelism）等，同時表現出一種平實的高貴感。例如，從文言文譯入現代英語時，進行疊字（reduplicates）、疊韻（overlapping rhyme schemes）與疊詠體（incremental repetition）的重現，目的在於呈現真實的文體容貌，使非中文讀者得以欣賞中國古詩。本文期盼此文體翻譯實驗，能克服中英翻譯過程中之文化特有（culture-specific）的文體元素損失。透過字詞格式的編排，本文翻譯試圖最大限度地保留原文中的排比和對仗，以及押韻和詩體韻律傾向（rhythmic proclivity），旨在《詩經》翻譯中保留原文的高貴和自然，達到抒情效果。

並列關鍵字

《詩經》 ； 〈采薇〉 ； 韻律 ； 押韻 ； 排比 ； 對仗 ； 比較文體學與翻譯

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