煮字疗饥

今晚随手翻开《英华沉浮录》，看到了《惦记不识字的汪大娘》这一篇，文章结尾处是一大段堪称翻译典范的中英对照：

我常常想起 George Gissing《四季零墨》里的一段话：“今之男女，煮字以疗饥者多不胜数，实则得以靠此维生者万中无一。此辈中人或因别无他技而舞文弄墨，或因惯见文人一行自立门户、风光无穷而效颦操觚，不惜乞哀告怜，举债度日，终至进退维谷，悔之晚矣，不知如何是好？区区一生命途多舛，回首前尘，深感鼓励晚辈以文谋生，简直罪过。”

（Innumerable are the men and women now writing for bread, who have not the least chance of finding in such work a permanent livelihood. They took to writing because they knew not what else to do, or because the literary calling tempted them by its independence and its dazzling prices. They will hang on to the squalid profession, their earnings eked out by begging and borrowing, until it is too late for them to do anything else - and what then? With a lifetime of dread experience behind me, I say that he who encourages any young man or woman to look for his living to 'literature', commits no less than a crime.）

George Gissing（乔治·吉辛）是十九世纪英国小说家。他的小说远没有他的散文有名。最后的自传性散文集《The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft》通常被译作《四季随笔》，董桥这里将之译为《四季零墨》就很有一种古旧的韵味。文中将“writing for bread”译作“煮字疗饥”更是神来之笔——我大概只会把它翻译成“以写作谋生”，然后碰到后面的“livelihood”就不得不又要重复一遍“谋生”。翻译最考验的其实是一个人的母语水平。

这一段翻译将英文原文里的自负和酸楚表露无遗，既符合那个时代的文人身份又没有翻译腔。董桥的英文理解力和中文的遣词造句功力真叫人佩服。

能将文人的英文翻译出文人的味道，这非需一个文人不可。每每读到这样的翻译，我就想，也许机器文学时代还不会那么快到来。