Sexual Innuendos and Chinese Translations of Shakespeare's Double Entendre: the Cases of Liang Shih-chiu, Chu Sheng-hao, and Fang Ping

Shakespeare’s double entendre or bawdy puns are an important feature of his dramatic language. In examining Chinese translations of Shakespeare’s plays, the bard’s double entendre thus becomes a touchstone in testing the quality of those translations. In rendering Shakespeare’s plays into Chinese, it is a challenge a translator can scarcely sidestep. Without a solid study and resourceful language skill, misinterpretations and mistakes in translation are inevitable. Ambience and atmosphere of the times are changing, so are Shakespeare studies, editing, and publishing, which, too, have changed with the times. Today, in terms of their glosses and annotation, the prevailing Shakespeare texts, edited by British and American scholars, have differed considerably from those published some six decades ago. The paper, therefore, would like to inquire if the Chinese translations of Shakespeare available in Taiwan have cleverly reproduced the ingenuity and fun of Shakespearean texts in this regard. Accordingly, the paper would examine if those translations can do Shakespeare’s original justice by having reproduced adroitly, if not necessarily accurately and faithfully, their Chinese renditions; and, if the available Chinese renditions did justice to Shakespeare’s double entendre, especially his sexual puns, in the hands of three different translators (such as Liang Shih-chiu, Chu Sheng-hao, and Fang Ping). The essay will also compare and evaluate, if necessary, various renditions of the same instances discussed and explored.

關鍵字

innuendos ； double entendre ； Shakespeare studies ； annotations ； renditions

並列摘要

莎劇的猥褻雙關語是莎士比亞戲劇語言的重要特色。莎劇中譯者對於莎劇文本的理解與掌握，在面臨猥褻雙關語的挑戰與考驗時，毫無閃躲與迴避的空間。審視莎劇中譯時，猥褻雙關語堪稱得上是檢驗莎劇翻譯的試金石。倘若沒有下足功夫，用對巧思，錯譯自是在所難免。時代的氣息與氛圍，時刻都在發生變化，莎士比亞研究和出版也一直在蛻變當中。近數十年來，在莎劇的版本、校勘、研究與註釋方面，較諸半個多世紀前所編輯出版的莎劇文本，已有顯著的不同。本文因而嘗試以莎劇中猥褻雙關語的詮釋與翻譯作為檢視對象，從三方面進行探討：首先，想探究的是：台灣現有的三套莎劇中譯，是否能巧妙再現莎士比亞文本在這方面的巧思與趣味？其次，如果譯文無法做到準確與忠實，這些莎劇中譯是否仍能以中文巧妙再現莎劇雙關語的趣味？而藉由仔細而深入的研究、比對和分析，本文試圖探討三套莎劇中譯的譯者（梁實秋、朱生豪與方平），對莎劇中同一猥褻雙關語的翻譯或處理的方式。