2011年5月23日 星期一

瘋狂與靈光之間──從〈黃色壁紙〉的校譯工作談起


瘋狂與靈光之間──從〈黃色壁紙〉的校譯工作談起


 
逗點計畫出版美國十九世紀末的女性經典小說〈黃色壁紙〉中譯,譯者為畢業於東華大學創作與英語文學研究所的劉柏廷。逗點邀請我為這篇小說撰寫導讀序,讀過柏廷的中譯之後,忝為譯者碩士論文指導教授,覺得若能提供學生一點協助,校譯應比導讀序來得具體有益。原因是,涉及文學翻譯,尤其是一篇經典作品的翻譯,需要非常嚴謹地進行,譯文必須同時符合學術與藝術的雙重要求。學術上,首先要擇定一恰當的版本;在翻譯之前,除了熟讀原著之外,更應透過對其詮釋沿革的深入研究,加強對作品文本各個可能面相的體會與把握。在實際翻譯的過程中,除了英譯中語意轉化的一般考量之外,更應把小說創作活動過程中所需注重的藝術技巧加以靈活運用,譬如需要講究敘事者的語言調性與敘述律動,活現她的幻覺視景與情緒變化,以及最重要的,如何在譯文中保留原著文本曖昧的多義性,讓被內化的壓制與越界的反抗兩者間並存、僵持、拉扯的張力醞釀於字裡行間。
夏綠蒂.柏金斯.吉爾曼(1860-1935)於1890年完成〈黃色壁紙〉,經過多方努力,於1892年刊載於《新英格蘭雜誌》(New England Magazine),雖曾短暫引起迴響,但漸被遺忘。1973年伊蓮‧赫茲(Elaine Hedge)主持的女性主義出版社(The Feminist Press)重新印行,在女性主義批評推波助瀾之下,旋即入列美國十九世紀女性文學經典,成為大學女性文學、婦女研究,甚至心理諮商必讀教材之一,〈黃色壁紙〉研究蔚為一時顯學。1992年,女性主義出版社由學者凱薩琳.戈登(Catherine Golden)擔綱編輯,彙整與〈黃色壁紙〉研究相關的背景材料和名家詮釋,出版《被拘禁的想像:〈黃色壁紙〉研究彙編》(The Captive Imagination: A Casebook on “The Yellow Wallpaper”);1998年學者茱麗.貝茲.達克(Julie Bates Dock)參考〈黃色壁紙〉手稿和作者生前印行的七種版本,完成校勘本,並附有背景材料和早期評論等:《夏綠蒂.柏金斯.吉爾曼的〈黃色壁紙〉及其出版和接受史:評註本與資料彙編》(Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-paper” and the History of Its Publication and Reception: A critical Edition and Documentary Casebook)。這兩本學術專著是深入了解〈黃色壁紙〉的必讀參考書。我的校譯所採用的版本即為達克教授的校勘本。
作者吉爾曼曾現身說法,指出這篇小說的創作發想與自己的親身經驗有關。1886年,她罹患產後憂鬱症,被安排接受當時醫界推崇的「休息療法」為期三個月,期間完全被禁止動腦寫作,導致精神幾乎崩潰,幸經女性作家友人指點,靠寫作死裡逃生,獲得自我療癒。寫作這篇小說的目的,即在呼籲「具有創意的工作」而非壓制心智活動的「休息療法」才是讓憂鬱獲得紓解的良方。解構學說的流行已讓當代的讀者充分體會作者的意圖並非文本意涵的唯一指標。翻譯〈黃色壁紙〉最大的挑戰,除了對原文語意的精確把握之外,在參酌百家爭鳴的詮釋之後,譯者更應重視如何透過譯文讓讀者體會到原著文本的多重開放性:在以日記體為之的「歇斯底里」書寫背後隱藏著精心架構的女性驚悚小說;在精撰的女性驚悚小說背後則又蠢動著顛覆父權象徵次序的暴烈企圖,游擊於言說與不可言說之間試探女性身體書寫之端倪;甚至有論者力倡原著除了反抗父權文化婚姻制度與醫療體系對女性思想主體的壓制之外,更潛藏著解構性別二分的酷兒想像,而晚近貓學夯盛,女主角晝伏夜出,撕扯壁紙又敏於嗅覺,在爬行中以體液標示版圖的行為表現,更讓凱薩琳.戈登推翻女性主義批評的主流詮釋,認為小說結尾的爬行動作不宜讀成女性自主心智被壓制後退化成獸類的一種隱喻象徵,將敘述者視同於「閣樓中瘋女」的原型人物。相反的,女主角的貓性行為在小說結尾時臻至高峰表現,正是女性自主意識以詭譎莫測的迂迴策略推翻父權體制之達成(參閱 “Making Her Territory: Feline Behavior in ‘The Yellow Wall-paper,’ American Literary Realism, Vol. 40, no.1, 2007年秋季號,1631 )。小說結尾在房間內幽閉爬行的到底是退化成原始獸類的瘋女人,還是推翻宰制正在學習爬行的新生女性?美國國慶日,七月四日出現在小說中,是反諷地映現民主政體的誕生並未對等地捍衛性別平等,還是藉以召喚性別革命之必要與新女性的誕生?什麼樣的譯文容許多重開放文本同時並行?這是我的校譯工作努力的目標。目標是否達成取決於譯文是否容許並帶給讀者開放性閱讀的挑戰與樂趣。譬如小說一開始,敘述者來到整個夏天預計租寓的鄉間莊園,置身在超過百年歷史的廳堂空間,隨即墜入詭魅想像(gothic imagination),透露出她是詭魅小說的愛讀者。此際,由閱讀獲得的替代經驗透過租寓行為身歷其境,她即刻從浪漫的遐思獲得高度歡愉(felicity),她的敘述是在這樣的情緒中展開的。隨著敘述的展開,她從讀者轉化成作者,娛樂性的閱讀一步步翻轉成與驚恐角力的心智探險與抗爭。潛藏在原文表層關於這一機轉的啟動,譯文能有效傳達嗎?
 進行校譯工作時,腦際浮起愛彌麗.狄瑾蓀(Emily Dickinson)寫於1863年的一首詩:

Much Madness is divinest Sense--
To a discerning Eye--
Much Sense-- the starkest Madness--
“Tis the Majority
In this, as all, prevail—
Assent—and you are sane—
Demur-you’re straightway dangerous—
And handled with a Chain--

十足的瘋狂是最最靈光的─
對有眼力辨識的人而言─
十足的理智─才是徹底的瘋狂
多數人的意見
在這檔事上,如同所有的事,當道─
附從─算你腦筋正常─
不以為然─你可是危險人物─
合當以鎖鏈侍候─

顯然,在顛覆父權體制獨尊理性作為正常與異常的判准這件事上,狄瑾蓀是吉爾曼的先行者,其先見更早於二十世紀的解構大師們,包括福寇(Michel Foucault)在內,一百多年。自三十歲起幽居在家,入夜馳筆寫詩,不畏癲狂,狄瑾蓀的原創想像早就掙脫父權鎖鍊,用變化多樣的地景象徵,譬如花園、海潮、地中海、深井、火山、映著紫色夕照的山頭等,書寫女性身體的慾望。吉爾曼小說文本中的敘述者,在心智崩潰的邊緣,一方面將父權宰制內化,成為監視的幫兇,私藏繩索,預備將從壁紙中闖出的女人綑綁起來,一方面又沿著牆腳上緣那條圍繞著房間莫名所以的線條爬行,宛若它是迷途的指引。擺盪在繩索與線條間掙扎著的,正是受困同時也受惠於歇斯底里的女體,要憑藉著越界的想像,將自己的靈魂書寫出來。這一圈圈環繞著房間的線條,是由 “smooches” 連綴成的,根據敘述者的描述,它非常的滑順,像是一再被抹拭過的。“smooch”這個字多義,通常指的是狎吻,在此處,另指污斑或污漬。女性主義批評家瑪麗.雅各卜斯(Mary Jacobus)認為在大書特書黃色的腥味之後,作者採用這隱晦多義的字眼為線條賦形,背後所反映的是:「吉爾曼故事中不可言說的部分─歇斯底里(hysteria)的字源所指涉的女性性器:子宮…同時也反映了1890年代對於女性性慾再現的壓制,特別是對於女性書寫的壓制。」(參閱 “An Unnecessary Maze of Sign-Reading”,輯入The Captive Imagination 28889 )慧黠的吉爾曼以聲東擊西的障眼書寫、看似抽象化了的線條,將女性身體無以名之,卻被父權象徵次序污名化了的歇斯底里動能,委婉表述出來。把鎖鍊轉化為成串的女性身體書寫,與狄瑾蓀隔了近三十年和聲宣告「十足的瘋狂是最最靈光的─」。除了校譯之外,且容我為這條 “smooches” 漬線所隱含的前衛寓意略作上述提點。讀者若對更深入閱讀這篇喚醒女性自主意識卓有貢獻的經典短篇小說感興趣,可參考張小虹教授以女性主義批評結合精神分析與解構思維寫就的論文:〈文本中有女人嗎?──閱讀“黃色壁紙”〉(刊載於19943月出刊之《中外文學》卷2210期,頁5767)。
     譯者劉柏廷愛好寫作,在學期間屢獲東華文學獎。獲得碩士學位之後於技術學院擔任英文講師,授課之餘,致力於創作與文學翻譯,其志可許。在此以精心校譯鼎力相助,願其譯藝經此磨練,更上層樓。



The Yellow Wall-paper Chinese Translation Revision

It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.
  A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of Romantic felicity—but that would be asking too much of fate!
  Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it.
  Else, why should it be let so cheaply?  And why have stood so long untenanted?
  John laughed at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.
  John is practical in the extreme.  He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures.
  John is a physician, and perhaps—(I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind)—perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster.

對約翰和我這樣的尋常人來說,整個夏天都得緊守著這些古老的廳堂,實在是非常罕見。
這是一棟殖民時期宅院,也是代代相傳的地產,我說這房子鬧鬼,還帶有浪漫安逸的氣質——要是命運肯多多幫忙的話!
但我敢說這棟房子實在是古怪異常。
不然為何會賤價出租?為何一直乏人問津呢?
約翰因此嘲笑我,當然吶,在一段婚姻裡,被嘲笑也不是新鮮事了。 
約翰極端務實,他對於信仰毫無耐心,覺得那是迷信造成的強烈恐懼,要是聽到有人討論關於一些看不到、感覺不到、又沒辦法具體講出來的東西,他也會公然表達他的不屑。
約翰是名內科醫師,而可能就是這樣——(我是沒辦法對活生生的人提起這些事情,但這是張死板板的紙,是我心靈上巨大的慰藉——)或許就是這原因讓我無法快點康復。

對約翰和我這尋常人來說,個夏天得以據享一間又一間古色古香的廳堂,可說是罕見的機遇
這是一棟殖民時期,祖傳的家產這房子我說啊有幽魂出沒,引人臻入浪漫奇情的遐思——不過這可是太想入非非了
但我敢拍胸脯說這棟房子鐵定有毛病
不然,為何會賤價出租?為何一直乏人問津?
約翰因此嘲笑我,當然吶,既為人妻,被嘲笑也不是什麼新鮮事。 
約翰極端務實,他對信仰毫無耐心,視迷信為洪水猛獸,要是聽到有人論關於一些看不、感覺不到、又沒辦法用數字具體表述的東西,他也會公然嗤之以鼻
約翰是醫生,而可能就是這樣——(我可不敢對活生生的人提起,但眼前是張無聲無息的紙,容我吐訴心中塊壘——)可能就是這原因讓我無法快康復。

2011年5月2日 星期一

Claudia Hsu's answers to the Mid-Term Take-home Exam

Midterm Take Home Exam

Simple Questions:

1.     
What distinguishes The Yellow Wallpaper from the popular ghost’s story is that there is no real ghost in the story: it is a psychological horror, and the protagonist “creates” the ghost herself; as opposed to popular ghost story, the house is not actually haunted by spirits and the hallucination is not caused by ghosts. On the other hand, it is the protagonist, who is put to practice “the rest cure”, eventually goes mad after being locked up for a period of time. The horror and all the hallucination are generated by the protagonist herself, which makes everything even more creepy as it is all self-created, and on top of all that, when even one’s mind is out of control, it is nearly impossible to save her/him from her/himself; the situation is hopeless and helpless. (5)
2.
  Tom’s role in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn serves as the “foil” of the protagonist Huck. Tom is from a rather comfortable background compared to Huck, and he believes in rules, is fond of codes of conduct, fanciness and does not care about others’ welfare while Huck is a boy of Tom’s age who constantly questions authority and has his own independent thinking. In one word, Tom’s opposite qualities high-light Huck’s various characteristics, and this enables the author to present Huck’s characteristics even more vividly with Tom’s contrast. At the end of the novel, Tom’s revelation of the fact that he has deceived everyone about the death of Miss Watson and her will of freeing Jim two months ago uncovers that Tom’s cruelty is beyond what is originally expected: he treats Black people no differently than the majority of the grown-ups and he uses Jim as a plaything to his “adventure” game, and it means that all the moral crisis, and the social conventions Huck has broken through the journey have all been part of a game. (5+2=7)
3.
  It is not difficult to understand why The Awakening was criticized as “a sordid novel” by Kate Chopin’s contemporaries, even some of the themes can still be criticized in today’s society as it contains social taboos like adultery, especially when it is the wife who commits such crime in this novel. As the title of the novel is “The Awakening”, the focus of the book is not simply a romance but a deep and struggling process of a woman in search of her true self. This book should be considered seriously despite some of the themes are taboos because Kate Chopin spoke out many truths that many of the women of her era were not aware of or could not voice, which include that maternal love may not be every woman’s innate urge, not all women are domestic and can be happy by just being someone’s wife and that women have the ability to arouse their own awareness of various senses and desires. Therefore, to consider many of the other messages included in The Awakening, I think it is not fair and is too limited to simply judge this book in the negative way. (5+2=7)
4.
 The doctors in The Awakening and The Yellow Wallpaper are the opposite of each other. In The Awakening, Doctor Mandelet is described as “bore a reputation for wisdom rather than skill...and was much sought for in matters of consultation.” As to give Edna’s husband suggestions, he seems to be more open-minded and considerate of Edna’s condition than his male contemporaries as he advises Mr. Pontellier to “let your wife alone for a while. Don’t bother her and don’t let her bother you.” In The Yellow Wallpaper, the doctor is the narrator’s husband John and her brother, who, on the other hand, are more of the type of man who believe so much of his own authority, and they regard the narrator’s mental problem as “a slight hysterical tendency” which implies that it all has to do with women’s reproductive systems. On top of all that, the doctors of this story put the narrator to practice “rest cure” which is ultimately absurd and devastating. (5)
5.
  One of my favorite poems by Dickinson is “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?”. I am really fond of the playful tone of this poem, and that it playfully expresses Dickinson’s ideal life: she likes the secluded life instead of being famous. The spiritual privacy of nobody is a luxury for Dickinson that is incomprehensible to the dreary somebody. Furthermore,   
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
Dickinson continues to say that being somebody is being public like a frog, having to keep announcing their names to the crowds like a frog croaking to the swamp. Indeed, Dickinson lived a quiet life when she was alive, having only a few poems published, she was able to live a rather spiritual and private life despite now, after her death, she has long been one of the most time-tested and acclaimed poets of all time. (5)


Essay Question:
1.      Comment on the gender issues in The Awakening:

The Awakening was first published in 1899, and the story reveals many of the Victorian concepts of women’s roles in marriage, motherhood and social expectations to females. Kate Chopin created the heroin Edna as a rebel to the society, instead of condemning her, Chopin on the other hand, let her explore herself and freed her in the end. The gender issues in The Awakening that I am going to mention include women’s role in marriage and motherhood and Edna’s female awakening.
In the very beginning of the novel, the parrot shouts:“Allez vous-en! Allez Vou-en! Sapristi!” which literally in English means: “Go away! Go away! For God’s sake” foreshadows Edna’s desire to break free from the status quo and her marriage. When Edna first appears in the novel, she is described by her husband looking at her “as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered from some damage.” And the first thing Edna is reminded of by her husband is her wedding ring. It is obvious that Edna, in this marriage, is regarded as an object that is owned by her husband instead of a human being. In chapter three, the narration shows how Edna is chained by the marriage and how miserable she is: “She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life” and she feels “an indescribable oppression” and is filled by “a vague anguish”. Like many women of the past, they were treated as object as if they had no personal desires, and were trapped in their marriages whether they were happy or not.
Another gender issue in The Awakening is motherhood. Maternal love is considered to be natural and right for every woman; yet, is maternal love really an innate urge? Kate Chopin also challenges such idea or to be more precisely, she overturned such idea as she wrote: “In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman.” Edna’s friend, Madame Ratignolle is a contrast of Edna, who is a “good woman” based on traditional viewpoints. Madame Ratignolle is fond of sewing, children and domestic life while Edna is the complete opposite. These two roles represent two different types of women, and it represents that women do not just belong to one type, and the existence of women like Edna does not contradict or threaten the existence of characters like Madame Ratignolle; these various types of women can co-exist, and they can get along like Edna and Madame Ratignolle.      
The novel continues with the process of Edna’s awakening. First, a twist occurs after Edna learns how to swim; she learns something new which means she experiences being able to do something outside of the household, and the ocean serves as an imaginary of Edna’s desire and revelation. She later has two extra marital relationships with two other men. In the end of the novel, Edna embraces the ocean, which symbolizes her sense of liberation and the full embrace of her true desire.
In conclusion, the main female character in this novel is presented in a very different way back at that age, and it also explores women’s desire and identity as well as challenges the traditional roles of women, and above all has made this novel one of the earliest books dealing with feminist consciousness. (25)

Total: 54

"Crack-Up" by F. Scott Fitzgerald published in Esquire Feb-Apr 1936

See the full text of the essay published in Esquire, Feburary- April, 1936 at the following website:

http://www.esquire.com/features/the-crack-up

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Full Text of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" by F. Scott Fitzgerald is available at this website:

http://www.readbookonline.net/read/690/10628/

2011年5月1日 星期日

Hemingway on F. Scott Fitzgerald's writing talent

Quoted from Ernest Hemingway on Writing, ed. by Larry W. Phillips, p. 106:

[ F. Scott Fitzgerald's ] talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings.  At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred.  Later he became conscious of his damaged wings and of their construction and he learned to think and could not fly any more because the love of flight was gone and he could not remember when it had been effortless.  excerpted from Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, p. 147.

An Open Course about The History of New York

Visit this website:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=78E65F2E6C63CD76

The Fall of Icarus, two poems (εκΦρέσις ekphresis), one by W. C. Williams and the other by W. H. Auden, inspired by Pieter Brueghel's painting




William Carlos Williams


 
"A Landscape with the Fall of Icarus"

According to Brueghel
when Icarus fell
it was spring

a farmer was ploughing
his field
the whole pageantry

of the year was
awake tingling
near

the edge of the sea
concerned
with itself

sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings' wax

unsignificantly
off the coast
there was

a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning

"一幅呈現伊卡魯斯墜海景象的風景畫"


根據畫家布魯奎爾
伊卡魯斯墜海的時節
正是春天

有個農夫正在耕犁
他的田
萬象競榮

新的一年
甦醒了,乙乙撩人
在跟前

在海陸交接之涯
陶然
自樂

汗流涔涔,陽光炙烈
把翅翼黏蠟
燒溶了

沒什麼了不起的
在岸邊之外
但見

有朵毫不起眼的水花濺開
這正是
伊卡魯斯溺水的現場



W. H. Auden
Musee des Beaux Arts

 
About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.



美術館

刻劃起苦難,他們從未失誤,
古代的大師們:他們體認深切
對於人類的處境;每當苦難臨到的時候
往往其他的人正在吃飯或者開窗或者只是無聊地散步;
往往,當老一輩的人正敬虔地,熱誠地等待
神蹟式的降生,必然的就會有
一群根本毫不在乎的孩童,溜冰戲耍
在森林邊緣的湖水之上:
大師們未曾遺忘
既使最可怕的殉道受難都會有終了的時候
終了在一個角落,某個骯髒的地方
在那兒犬類照舊過著犬類的生活而行刑的人所騎的馬
屁股無邪的靠在樹幹上磨搓。

譬如,在布魯奎爾的名畫伊卡魯斯中,怎麼近旁的每一樣事物儘都
悠閒地規避著災難的現場;犁田的農夫可能
聽到噗通落水的聲音,臨終絕望的呼喊,
但是對他而言這樁失足的事件微不足道;太陽照著
想當然耳地照著皙白的雙足沒入黛綠的
海水中;造價昂貴的精緻船隻必然已經目睹
這件離奇的事,有個男孩從空中墜落,
它必須趕赴某個地方,因此若無其事地繼續航行。