葉君健與《安徒生童話(huà)》

世界文學(xué)名著《安徒生童話(huà)》傳入我國(guó)已經(jīng)80多年了。早在1919年，周作人就在《新青年》雜志當(dāng)年1月號(hào)上譯載了安徒生著名的童話(huà)《賣(mài)火柴的小女孩》；1942年，北京新潮社出版了林蘭、張近芬合譯的《旅伴》：在這之后，又先后出版過(guò)茅盾、鄭振鐸、趙景深、顧均正、陳敬容等多人翻譯的安徒生童話(huà)中的不同篇目。不過(guò)，上述這些譯文都是從英文或日文轉(zhuǎn)譯的，而我國(guó)著名翻譯家葉君健自50年代初開(kāi)始陸續(xù)從丹麥文直接翻譯《安徒生童話(huà)》單篇，并于1955年合起來(lái)出版了選集并于1983年出版了全集。

建國(guó)以來(lái)在各種《安徒生童話(huà)》譯本中，可以說(shuō)影響最大、評(píng)價(jià)最高、版本、版次和印數(shù)最多的當(dāng)屬葉君健的譯本。這個(gè)譯本以其高質(zhì)量的譯文，不僅在中國(guó)受到廣泛的好評(píng)與歡迎，而且在丹麥也備受稱(chēng)贊，葉君健還因?yàn)榉g這部作品榮獲丹麥女王瑪加麗特二世授予的“丹麥國(guó)旗勛章”。因?yàn)榘餐缴苍鴺s獲過(guò)這個(gè)勛章，所以這樣一來(lái)，安徒生與葉君健就成為作者與譯者因同樣的作品獲得同樣勛章的唯一先例，并在世界文壇留下了一樁佳話(huà)。

關(guān)于葉君健榮獲勛章的由來(lái)，他在1992年2月3日給我的信中曾簡(jiǎn)要做了介紹。信中特別提到丹麥許多家報(bào)紙對(duì)葉君健的中譯本給予了極高的評(píng)價(jià)，認(rèn)為在《安徒生童話(huà)》80多種文字的譯本中，中譯本“是水平最高的譯本”，因?yàn)椤爸挥兄袊?guó)的譯本把安徒生當(dāng)做一個(gè)偉大作家和詩(shī)人來(lái)介紹給讀者，保持了作者的詩(shī)情、幽默感和生動(dòng)活潑的形象化語(yǔ)言”。譯林出版社在出版葉君健的《安徒生童話(huà)選集》之前，作為出版者，我再次細(xì)讀了他的譯本，深感丹麥媒體的評(píng)論非常準(zhǔn)確中肯。我深切感到葉譯本與眾不同之處，就在于他把安徒生融人于童話(huà)中的“詩(shī)情”完美地譯出來(lái)了，這是非常難能可貴的。

葉君健在給我的信中還說(shuō)：“世界任何國(guó)家的安徒生譯者，都沒(méi)有獲得過(guò)丹麥的獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)。我在丹麥訪(fǎng)問(wèn)時(shí)，丹麥文化部長(zhǎng)也這樣說(shuō)?！比~君健何以會(huì)獲得如此殊榮呢?

這得先從《安徒生童話(huà)》的藝術(shù)特色談起。安徒生所寫(xiě)的童話(huà)，不像以往的許多童話(huà)多是民間故事整理出來(lái)的，安徒生寫(xiě)童話(huà)之前已經(jīng)是個(gè)作家，他是根據(jù)自己的社會(huì)實(shí)踐及對(duì)生活的感受進(jìn)行了童話(huà)的創(chuàng)作，他的童話(huà)不僅寫(xiě)給孩子看，也給大人看。在安徒生童話(huà)中，作者懷著滿(mǎn)腔熱情表達(dá)對(duì)人間的愛(ài)、對(duì)人的尊嚴(yán)及人類(lèi)進(jìn)步的贊頌，在他的筆下即使是反面人物也往往蠢得可愛(ài)，虛榮得可愛(ài)，使人們?cè)诨形虺錾婆c惡、美與丑，這種體現(xiàn)在歌頌中的“詩(shī)情”和內(nèi)在美，用葉君健的話(huà)來(lái)說(shuō)那是安徒生童話(huà)的“靈魂”。

再?gòu)娜~君健的譯本看，他也真正領(lǐng)會(huì)到這個(gè)“靈魂”。記得1983年春葉君健應(yīng)邀南下蘇州出席首屆全國(guó)英語(yǔ)翻譯征文比賽的評(píng)委會(huì)，晚上聊天中我問(wèn)他：“世界文學(xué)名著那么多，您怎么想起花那么多的精力去譯安徒生童話(huà)?”他說(shuō)：“安徒生父母是鞋匠和洗衣工，從小家境貧寒沒(méi)受過(guò)正規(guī)教育，但他對(duì)文學(xué)有一顆赤誠(chéng)和執(zhí)著的心；我也是出身寒門(mén)，走上文學(xué)道路也經(jīng)歷了艱難坎坷的歷程，類(lèi)似的身世，使我在讀安徒生作品時(shí)，仿佛能較容易地體察出他觀(guān)察社會(huì)及生活的那種感受。當(dāng)然，真正吸引我的還是那些童話(huà)的藝術(shù)感染力。安徒生童話(huà)既有美麗的幻想，更有深邃的內(nèi)涵；他運(yùn)用童話(huà)的形式，同情窮人，頌揚(yáng)勞動(dòng)，并不失夸張地揭露上層社會(huì)的丑惡及陋習(xí)，使人們?cè)诳嘈χ挟a(chǎn)生聯(lián)想。如1844年發(fā)表的《丑小鴨》，深含寓意地昭示人們：受到歧視、訕笑、凌辱的丑小鴨，原來(lái)是最美、最善良的天鵝，安徒生童話(huà)中總是洋溢著一種浪漫主義的詩(shī)情！正是這種幻想童話(huà)、道德諷刺、詩(shī)歌語(yǔ)言三者結(jié)合的詩(shī)情，激起了我的共鳴及喜愛(ài)，促使我下決心去研究和翻譯?！边@一席話(huà)，當(dāng)年聽(tīng)來(lái)并不怎么在意，如今回想起來(lái)，恰好為葉君健所以能成功翻譯《安徒生童話(huà)》做了很好的注釋。

葉君健在翻譯中強(qiáng)調(diào)譯者對(duì)原著的“再解釋”，他沒(méi)有局限于把安徒生當(dāng)作只是講故事的人，而是把他當(dāng)作一位詩(shī)人、哲學(xué)家，并在“再解釋”中解讀出蘊(yùn)含在童話(huà)中的“詩(shī)情”，又憑借他對(duì)安徒生思想及藝術(shù)的系統(tǒng)研究以及自己扎實(shí)的中外文功底，終于能在中譯本中再現(xiàn)了原著的這種“詩(shī)情”。葉君健曾說(shuō)過(guò)：“我一進(jìn)入安徒生童話(huà)人物的生活和感情中去，我的感情也就立時(shí)活躍起來(lái)?！?/p>

（選自李景端著《與名家零距離》）

Translator and Anderson's Fairy Tales

By Li Jingduan

It was more than 80 years ago that the famous fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson (1805-1875) were first translated into Chinese. The first tale was The Little Match Girl translated by Zhou Zuoren and published in 1911. Many more were translated by prominent writers and translators and published in the following decades. However， all these were rendered into Chinese either from English or from Japanese. It was not until the early 1950s that Ye Junjian (1914-1999)， a preeminent writer and translator， translated Anderson's fairy tales directly from Danish. In 1955， Ye published his first selection of the Danish author's fairy tales. In 1983 a complete collection of Anderson's fairy tales， all translated directly from Danish by Ye over decades， was published in China.

Of all the Chinese translations of Anderson's fairy tales， Ye's works have been most popular and influential and have seen most reprints. His high-quality translations are not only well received in China but also highly appreciated in Denmark. In 1988， Ye was awarded the Order of the Dannebrog by the Danish Queen， making him the only translator in the world who shared the honor with the author for the same masterpieces.

Some Danish critics commented that Ye's translations were the best of the translations of Anderson's fairy tales in more than 80 languages the world over. Ye was the only translator of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tales that ever won the Order of the Dannebrog.

Why was Ye so exceptionally credited?

I chatted with Ye one night in the spring of 1983 when he worked as a juror for a nationwide English translation contest. I asked him why he had chosen Anderson's fairy tales of all the world literary masterpieces. He explained that he felt close to Anderson partly because they both had a similar poverty-stricken family background. Anderson's father was a shoemaker and his mother a garment washer. Though without proper school education， Anderson loved literature and pursued it with heart and soul. Ye also came from a poor family and experienced difficulties in pursuing his dream of writing and translating. The similar family background and life experience enabled Ye to understand Anderson with relative ease. What really attracted the young Chinese was the artistic charm and inspiration in the Danish author's works. These tales express both beautiful dreams and profound morals. They sympathize with the poor， sing of work， and satire the defects and scandals of the upper classes. These tales radiated a romantic spirit in the eyes of Ye. Inspired by the dreams， moral satire and the poetic language of Anderson's fairy tales， Ye devoted himself to translating Anderson's works in a unique style.

Ye's translation focused on the reinterpretation of the original works. He never thought of the author merely as a storyteller. In Ye's eyes， the master was a poet and a philosopher， so he endeavored to release the poetic charm in the fairy tales through reinterpretation. Based on his profound knowledge and understanding of the Danish author's art and thought as well as his own profound linguistic expertise， Ye successfully and vividly recreated Anderson's original poetic charm in the Chinese versions.

(Translated by David)