論中國性的操縱——以龐德《華夏集》為例

龐德是二十世紀舉足輕重卻備受爭議的詩人，他對歐美文壇現代詩的發展有深遠的影響。龐德翻譯了許多源自不同文化背景的文學作品，其畢生創作中有為數可觀的翻譯作品。事實上，外國作品的異質性讓龐德得以實驗新的詩歌風格，因此翻譯某種程度而言可謂形塑了龐德的文學觀。《華夏集》可說是龐德最受矚目的翻譯作品，正因為龐德的翻譯不忠於中文原文，使本詩集受到正反兩極的評價。本文並不會著墨於「忠實」（或信達雅的「信」）一詞之傳統意涵，因為龐德在創作《華夏集》時對中文不甚瞭解，且必須仰賴漢學家費諾羅沙的筆記進行翻譯，若將《華夏集》中的語法錯誤全部歸咎於龐德實無太大意義。本文將針對意象的呈現，對《華夏集》與其中文原作進行比較與對照，以一窺當時牽制龐德翻譯的文學與意識形態論述。龐德在寫作《華夏集》時，正扮演著意象主義與漩渦主義的幕後推手，書中俯拾可見的鮮明意象在時序上與上述文學運動是相符的。經過文本比對分析，筆者發現《華夏集》的詩作經常悖離原文所呈現的中國意象，尤其是當這些意象與龐德的文學觀相左時，差異更為明顯。《華夏集》與其中文原作所展現的中國性差異呼應了薩伊德的東方主義理論，而龐德對中國意象的挪用則可能對中國性的主體性造成威脅。本文旨在探究龐德如何刻意操縱中國性，並進一步揭示操縱中國性背後的動機。藉由檢視《華夏集》從原文到譯文的意象轉變，本文希冀能從新的觀點切入龐德翻譯時所據之詩學論述，並試圖處理理解與再現異質他者的棘手議題。

關鍵字

龐德；華夏集；中國性；翻譯；操縱；東方主義

並列摘要

A seminal yet much disputed literary figure of the 20th century, Ezra Pound has had a great influence on the development of modern poetry. Translations of literary works from different cultural backgrounds constitute a large proportion of Pound’s oeuvre. Indeed, Pound’s poetics is to some degree shaped by his translation activity, for the heterogeneity in the foreign works allows him to experiment with new poetic styles. Among all of Pound’s translations, Cathay has perhaps received the most attention, as it is both acclaimed and criticized for being unfaithful to the original Chinese poems. The term “faithfulness” will not be used in its conventional sense here, for it seems rather futile to blame Pound for the linguistic errors in Cathay, because he had little knowledge about the Chinese language during the time he translated the poems, and had to rely on Ernest Fenollosa’s notes for reference. Instead, comparisons and contrasts between the images in the original poems and Pound’s translations will be conducted to probe into the literary and ideological discourses that dictate Pound’s translation of Cathay. The vivid imageries that permeate Cathay are chronologically related to Pound’s advocacy of Imagism and Vorticism. A cross-textual analysis reveals that the Chinese images depicted in Cathay often deviate from the source texts, especially when they are at odds with Pound’s poetics. The discrepancies of Chineseness between Cathay and the original poems echo with Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism, and Pound’s appropriation of Chinese images may pose threats to the subjectivity of Chineseness. It is in the interest of this study to investigate how Pound deliberately manipulates Chineseness, and to further disclose the motives behind this manipulation. By examining how the images in the original poems are transformed in Cathay, it is hoped that this study can not only shed new light on the poetic discourse in which Pound’s translation activity is embedded, but also attempt to address the thorny issue of perceiving and representing the alien Other.