特定理解基礎(chǔ)上的變通
——第二屆世界中醫(yī)翻譯大賽點(diǎn)評(píng)

文/林巍

此次世界中醫(yī)翻譯大賽，共收到有效參賽譯文近三百份，總體質(zhì)量比上屆有所提高。廣州醫(yī)科大學(xué)基礎(chǔ)部英語(yǔ)教研室教師進(jìn)行了匿名初評(píng)和復(fù)評(píng)，后由世界中醫(yī)藥學(xué)會(huì)聯(lián)合會(huì)翻譯專(zhuān)業(yè)委員會(huì)組織中醫(yī)翻譯專(zhuān)家評(píng)出一、二、三等獎(jiǎng)及優(yōu)秀獎(jiǎng)（獲獎(jiǎng)名單見(jiàn)世界中醫(yī)藥學(xué)會(huì)聯(lián)合會(huì)網(wǎng)站）。

本文擬從“詞語(yǔ)變通”和“行文變通”兩方面，對(duì)此次翻譯大賽譯文作一點(diǎn)評(píng)。

詞語(yǔ)變通

翻譯中首先遇到的是詞語(yǔ)和詞組，在漢英翻譯中，則要在“字詞”與word和phrase之間不斷轉(zhuǎn)換，而它們多有對(duì)等之處。在該文的特定中醫(yī)語(yǔ)境里，一些看似簡(jiǎn)單的詞語(yǔ)亦有多種選擇，需慎重對(duì)待。如，[1]中的“疾病”，參賽者用了disease、sickness、illness、ailment等，似都可以，但分析起來(lái)，disease是有某種特定病因并有可識(shí)別的體征和癥狀的病癥，包括任何軀體畸形或不能正常發(fā)揮的功能，但不包括物理性損傷（盡管后者可導(dǎo)致疾病）。illness主要是指not feeling well，如：The apparent cause of his illness was excessive drinking, but the real cause was his deep grief at his wife’s death.（他生病的表面原因是飲酒過(guò)度，但實(shí)際原因是喪妻之痛。）sickness意為the state of being ill or unhealthy，與illness類(lèi)似。ailment為“小病”（not serious illness）。 相 比 之 下，malady則 為any unwholesome or desperate condition，即更嚴(yán)重的疾病，但現(xiàn)在更常用在社會(huì)方面，指serious problem in society（社會(huì)頑疾）等。然而，此處的“疾病”與前面的“生命”是一個(gè)動(dòng)態(tài)過(guò)程，就“醫(yī)學(xué)”（包括中西醫(yī)）而言，實(shí)則是“治病”的過(guò)程，故宜為treating sickness/diseases 等。

同樣在[1]中，對(duì)“自然科學(xué)”一般都譯成了natural science，固然不錯(cuò)，但在學(xué)術(shù)表述上更多地譯為physical science，如：Mathematics broke away from philosophy and became tied to physical science.（數(shù)學(xué)從哲學(xué)中分出來(lái)而且和自然科學(xué)聯(lián)系在一起。）對(duì)于“一門(mén)綜合學(xué)科”，有的參賽者意識(shí)到了其特殊性，故用了a special discipline、a distinct subject in the academic field等，顯然又過(guò)于“復(fù)雜化”了，不如簡(jiǎn)化為an interdisciplinary practice等。

[2]中的“實(shí)證醫(yī)學(xué)”和“道理醫(yī)學(xué)”是另一問(wèn)題集中點(diǎn)，前者是西醫(yī)已有術(shù)語(yǔ)，后者為中醫(yī)性質(zhì)而造。可參賽者對(duì)于前者亦多有不知，如譯成empirical medicine、technical science、demonstrated medicine等，實(shí)屬不該。對(duì)于后者，則可仁者見(jiàn)仁，但也應(yīng)盡量符合其語(yǔ)境和表述形式，有的如philosophical medicine、Taoist medicine、rational medicine等，在語(yǔ)境上固然“有道理”，但鑒于前面西醫(yī)的evidence-based medicine，此處不妨相應(yīng)譯為reason-based medicine等。

對(duì)于[3]中的“中醫(yī)學(xué)家”，許多參賽者用了the scholar/expert of Chinese doctor，其實(shí)在西方，西醫(yī)被稱(chēng)為orthodox medicine（正統(tǒng)醫(yī)學(xué)），這與其說(shuō)是醫(yī)學(xué)的分類(lèi)，不如說(shuō)是一種社會(huì)文化的認(rèn)知（即為社會(huì)大眾所認(rèn)可），而中醫(yī)屬于alternative medicine (complementary medicine, fringe medicine)，即另類(lèi)醫(yī)學(xué)，或補(bǔ)救醫(yī)學(xué)、替代醫(yī)學(xué)等，界定了西醫(yī)（正統(tǒng)醫(yī)學(xué)）和中醫(yī)（一種另類(lèi)醫(yī)學(xué)），中醫(yī)醫(yī)生可稱(chēng)為doctor of Chinese medicine，而此處更確切的譯法應(yīng)為scholar of TCM。

同段，對(duì)于“甚至用哲學(xué)的語(yǔ)言和規(guī)律來(lái)解釋人體的生理、病理現(xiàn)象”，參賽者譯成Even we use philosophical language and laws to explain physiological and pathological appearances of body、It even interprets physiological and pathological phenomena of human body with language and rules used in philosophical ideas、We explained the physiological and pathological phenomena of human body with the language and guidance of philosophy（其中的下畫(huà)線為作者所加，下同）等，其中都把“規(guī)律”與laws、rules、guidance等自然聯(lián)系起來(lái)，其實(shí)要作具體分析。此處主要指中醫(yī)是一種哲學(xué)性很強(qiáng)的傳統(tǒng)醫(yī)學(xué)，其概念充斥著哲學(xué)的因素，故不妨以TCM explains physiological and pathological phenomena of the human body in philosophical language and patterns/conceptualization來(lái)表述。

在[5]、[6]中，多處涉及“陰陽(yáng)”概念，這可說(shuō)是中醫(yī)哲學(xué)理念的基石。《黃帝內(nèi)經(jīng)·素問(wèn)·上古天真論》述：“人生有形，不離陰陽(yáng)。”“善診者，察色按脈，先別陰陽(yáng)。”因而陰陽(yáng)是對(duì)自然界和事物發(fā)展規(guī)律中相互對(duì)立又相輔相成兩方面的高度概括，這已為英語(yǔ)世界所廣泛熟知。從陰陽(yáng)這一基本性質(zhì)出發(fā)，翻譯中所作出的相應(yīng)變通，盡管各異，但應(yīng)不致相去甚遠(yuǎn)。較為典型的參賽譯文，如將“從陰陽(yáng)則生，逆之則死”譯成“If you follow yin and yang you will be alive; otherwise you will die”“following yin and yang leads you to life; opposing yin and yang results in death”等，固然較為貼近原文，但還可稍加變通，如所“從”的其實(shí)不只是yin、yang，而是其法則（principle）。然而，有的譯成“Human will be alive if complying with the natural laws, or will die”“Men will survive when they are compliant the law of nature, or they are doomed to die”等，則似乎又變通得“過(guò)”了，因yin and yang與natural laws、law of nature畢竟不是一回事。同時(shí)，此處的“生”和“死”也可作些變通，如不妨譯為Obedience to the principle of yin-yang cultivates life and resistance to it speeds up demise等。以此類(lèi)推，[6]中的“陰陽(yáng)交感”“陰陽(yáng)互根”“孤陽(yáng)不生”“孤陰不長(zhǎng)”“重陰必陽(yáng)”“重陽(yáng)必陰”等，其翻譯可能在細(xì)節(jié)上各有不同（如將“交感”譯成communicating，將“互根”譯成as mutual foundation，將“不生”譯成not to breed，將“不長(zhǎng)”譯成not to grow，將“必陽(yáng)”譯成must be yang，將“必陰”譯成has to be yin等），但整體意思仍為“interaction of yin and yang”“mutual rooting of yin and yang”“solitary yang failing to grow, solitary yin failing to increase”“extreme yin turning into yang, extreme yang turning into yin”等，故都屬可接受范疇。

同時(shí)，[5]中的“夫病已成而后藥之”的“藥”不是名詞（medicine、remedy、 drug），而是動(dòng)詞，即curing… with medicine，但在此處，順其句式，又不妨將其變通為名詞medication，將該句譯為Medication after the contraction of illness等。

[7]中的“五臟”屬中醫(yī)用語(yǔ)，有的譯成wu zang、 five zang-organs等，其實(shí)也未嘗不可，但接續(xù)中需有說(shuō)明或注釋?zhuān)纾篢he general name of the heart, liver, spleen, lung and kidney. Each of five Zang organs functions to transform and store essence and qi, but also has its own responsibility and connects with the corresponding limb and sense organ.而若依此體例，后面的“心”“肝”“脾”“肺”“腎”亦應(yīng)先標(biāo)出xin、gan、pi、fei、shen，因這些畢竟是中醫(yī)里的概念，而后再對(duì)應(yīng)其西醫(yī)概念hear、liver、spleen、lungs、kidneys，因二者之間并不完全相等。同時(shí)，此處的“對(duì)等”，也未必是equivalence、equivalent、reciprocity、reciprocal、equity等；考慮到是兩種醫(yī)學(xué)系統(tǒng)間的概念轉(zhuǎn)換，不妨用mutually translatable between the two medical systems。

同理，[9]中的“命門(mén)”則更是一個(gè)典型的中醫(yī)概念，還未在英語(yǔ)世界廣為人知，故最好先以其中文形式（拼音）出現(xiàn)，ming men，再作釋譯，如...which may be understood as “a place where congenital essence is stored, ...”，以收既變且通之效。

同時(shí)，對(duì)于該段中的“元?dú)狻保械淖g成yuan qi、innate energy、essential qi、 the primordial energy等，似都可接受，但參照相關(guān)的漢英中醫(yī)詞典，以primordial qi為宜。至于“真火”，許多人按其字面意思譯成the true fire、the real fire、living energy等，顯然沒(méi)有了解其中醫(yī)里的特定涵義——kidney-yang、the energy of kidney-yang。類(lèi)似的，還有“真水”，kidneyyin、the energy of kidney-yin；“真氣”，the vital qi；“真喘”，dyspnea of excess type；“真意”，pure thoughts等。

至于[8]中對(duì)“心臟”的客觀描述，則屬西醫(yī)范疇，應(yīng)嚴(yán)格遵循其已有英文術(shù)語(yǔ)，特別是“心壁”“心肌”“心內(nèi)膜”“心包”等不可臆造。

行文變通

文章是包括題目的，這個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的事實(shí)似乎并未被每個(gè)參賽者所意識(shí)或重視， 直接體現(xiàn)在對(duì)標(biāo)題的漏譯和誤譯。沒(méi)有標(biāo)題，不成為完整的文章，所以通常在初評(píng)環(huán)節(jié)即被淘汰。而標(biāo)題翻譯的質(zhì)量所以重要，因其直接反映譯者對(duì)于原文的理解，并影響全文。

很多人將標(biāo)題譯成Traditional Chinese Medicine Philosophy、The Philosophy of Chinese Medicine、On the Philosophy of Traditional Chinese Medicine等，若回譯過(guò)去，便是“中醫(yī)的哲學(xué)”，顯然與原文的“哲學(xué)意義上的中醫(yī)”有誤差；而A philosophical Chinese doctor則相去甚遠(yuǎn)；Philosophically Traditional Chinese Medicine有語(yǔ)法問(wèn)題；On Traditional Chinese Medicine from an Aspect of Philosophical Signi ficance不夠簡(jiǎn)練。所以，較為適宜的，為T(mén)he Philosophical Aspect of Traditional Chinese Medicine、Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Philosophical Aspect 、Traditional Chinese Medicine in Its Philosophical Sense等。

在[1]中，“……因?yàn)樵谏图膊∵^(guò)程中，不僅需要健康和病理知識(shí)，而且涉及大量的心理、社會(huì)和文化因素，所以是一門(mén)綜合學(xué)科”，許多參賽譯文采用了這樣的句式：“Because in the process of both life and disease,not only healthy and pathology knowledge are needed, but also refer to a quantity of psychological, social and cultural factors, medicine is a comprehensive discipline.”“In the process of life and disease, it not only needs health and pathological knowledge, but also involves a large number of psychological, social and cultural factors. As a result, medicine is also a comprehensive subject.”且不論其中的語(yǔ)法錯(cuò)誤，就其行文來(lái)講，過(guò)于“零碎”。須知，與中文的“意合”不同，英文重“形合”，即是將句子成分之間用語(yǔ)言形式手段（如連詞、介詞、代詞等）連接起來(lái)，形成完整邏輯關(guān)系，英文定義為：The dependent or subordinate construction or relationship of clauses with connective, for example,“I shall despair if you don’t come”.故對(duì)此需有形合的意識(shí)，要著眼整句、甚至整段，如譯為：Medicine is regarded as a special physical science since the process of living and treating sickness requires not only a knowledge of health and pathology but also involves many psychological, social and cultural factors,resulting in a comprehensive discipline.從而將原意加以整合。

在[2]中，“中西醫(yī)學(xué)的根本屬性是相同的，即治病、防病、救死扶傷，保護(hù)和增進(jìn)人類(lèi)健康，但是在哲學(xué)意義上，二者卻迥然不同。”一句，一般參賽譯文，如“The basic attribute of traditional Chinese and Western Medicine is the same, namely the treatment and prevention of disease, life-saving,protection and promotion of human health, but in the sense of philosophy, the two are very different.”“Both traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine origin from the same root, which is curing diseases, preventing diseases, healing the wounded and rescuing the dying, coupled with protecting and enhancing human’s health. However, in terms of philosophy meanings, traditional Chinese medicine possesses huge differences with western medicine.”，分析起來(lái)，原文強(qiáng)調(diào)兩種醫(yī)學(xué)在“根本屬性”和“哲學(xué)意義”上的不同，但這些譯文卻將此重點(diǎn)埋沒(méi)了。對(duì)此，不妨采用“Fundamentally, …; Philosophically, …”的句式，以突出主題，如：Fundamentally, both Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) and Western Medicine (WM) aim at preventing and curing diseases,protecting and improving people’s health. Philosophically, however, the two medicines are quite different.同時(shí)，值得說(shuō)明的是，當(dāng)Traditional Chinese Medicine和Western Medicine首次出現(xiàn)時(shí)，應(yīng)在后面括弧中加上簡(jiǎn)稱(chēng)(TCM)(WM)，以便下次出現(xiàn)時(shí)使用，從而避免整篇使用全稱(chēng)。

在同段，“……如果說(shuō)，當(dāng)代西醫(yī)是以‘技術(shù)科學(xué)’為基礎(chǔ)和中介的‘實(shí)證醫(yī)學(xué)’，那么中醫(yī)就是以中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)哲學(xué)為主導(dǎo)的‘道理醫(yī)學(xué)’”，對(duì)于其中的銜接部分（下畫(huà)線），很多參賽譯文處理欠佳，如“If we say contemporary WM is evidence-based, builds on technology and science and using them as a medium, then categorically TCM is a ‘reason medicine’ that develops its doctrines on the bedrock of Chinese traditional philosophy.”“Contemporary Western medicine is an empirical medicine that taking technical science as basis and intermediary, while TCM is a theoretical medicine which is dominated by traditional Chinese philosophy.”等，不免顯得冗贅。其實(shí)，不妨使用過(guò)去分詞短語(yǔ)：While modern WM is de fined as “evidence-based” supported and mediated by scienti fic technology, TCM can be called “reason-based” oriented by traditional Chinese philosophy.從而使句子簡(jiǎn)化、通暢。

在[3]中，“我國(guó)古代醫(yī)學(xué)無(wú)論從思想上還是方法上，都緊緊依賴(lài)于哲學(xué)，甚至……”，其中，對(duì)于“依賴(lài)于哲學(xué)”大都順從原文，譯成“… whose tenets and methods are highly dependent on philosophy…”“Ancient Chinese Medicine relies closely on philosophy for thoughts and methodology…”“…our ancient medicine was based closely on philosophy no matter on thoughts or measures”等，其實(shí)不妨使用動(dòng)名詞形式，將狀語(yǔ)提前：“Relying heavily on philosophy in terms of thought and methodology, …”以使句子更加平衡。

在[4]中，對(duì)于“應(yīng)當(dāng)說(shuō)，文化涵蓋了哲學(xué)；哲學(xué)是文化的重要組成部分”，一般譯成“It should be said that culture contains philosophy and philosophy is a signi ficant component part of culture.”“It should be mentioned that culture covers philosophy and philosophy is the signi ficant component of culture.”“It goes without saying that culture covers everything, including philosophy, which reversely stands as an essential part of culture.”等，應(yīng)當(dāng)說(shuō)都是可接受的，但整個(gè)句式，特別是對(duì)“涵蓋”“是”等詞語(yǔ)可有更多推敲，如：We can posit that culture embodies philosophy, which is in fact part of any culture and constitutes one of its essential components.

[5]的“此段論述，與其說(shuō)是醫(yī)學(xué)，在某種意義上，不如說(shuō)是哲學(xué)或安邦治國(guó)之道”，對(duì)于其中的“與其說(shuō)……，不如說(shuō)……”，參賽者一般用了不同的表述，如“This treatise relatively shows the way of philosophy and administration rather than medicine.”“It is more like a discussion about philosophy or the way to govern a country rather than medicine in a sense.”等，都有一定效果，亦有缺陷；其實(shí)，不妨采用“… is not so much… as…or…”的句式，譯為：What this paragraph expounds is actually not so much medicine as philosophy or a way of governing a state.

[6]中，對(duì)“……若不是在中醫(yī)的語(yǔ)境里”，較為典型的譯文，如If takes out of the context of TCM、… if not used in Chinese Traditional Medicine language environment、If they are separated from the TCM context等，顯然是動(dòng)詞上出了問(wèn)題；不妨使用read的被動(dòng)語(yǔ)態(tài)“… if these were not read in the context of TCM”更確切。

[8]中的“尖端向左前下方”，有個(gè)詞序的問(wèn)題，很多參賽者未能很好 把 握， 如 … with its small end pointing to front bottom-left、with the tip pointing to the lower front-left、with its tip toward the front lower left side 等；實(shí)則，中英文里表示方向的詞序，許多情況下是相反的，故不妨譯為：“…with the pointed end (apex) directed downwards, forwards, and to the left.”同時(shí)，“開(kāi)竅于舌”，被許多人譯成tongue is the sense organ of it、the tongue is acting as the window of the heart、it has an ori fice which is the tongue等，似乎都有一定道理，但在目前流行的漢英中醫(yī)教材里，一般譯為opens / opens into/at the heart等。探究起來(lái)，五臟開(kāi)竅之說(shuō)，源自《黃帝內(nèi)經(jīng)》，指五臟與人體官竅有著相對(duì)應(yīng)的關(guān)系，即肝開(kāi)竅于目，心開(kāi)竅于舌，脾開(kāi)竅于口，肺開(kāi)竅于鼻，腎開(kāi)竅于耳及二陰，在英語(yǔ)翻譯實(shí)踐中，逐漸形成了比較穩(wěn)定的表述，故可跟從。同時(shí)，還應(yīng)參照一些中醫(yī)翻譯專(zhuān)家的通常表述，如李照國(guó)、方廷鈺、謝竹藩、朱忠寶等學(xué)者的譯著。

其實(shí)，翻譯中這種詞語(yǔ)和行文的變通，即為某種意義上的translation shifts，其核心仍是“萬(wàn)變不離其宗”。

中醫(yī)翻譯，作為一種特定的醫(yī)學(xué)翻譯，涉及許多歷史、文化、哲學(xué)和社會(huì)知識(shí)，因而使其翻譯體現(xiàn)出特殊的性質(zhì)與技巧。故有志于中醫(yī)翻譯者，需不斷提高相關(guān)素質(zhì)與技能，以取得理想效果。 □