《中國現代詩選》的編譯研究

Abstract

第一部英文中國新詩選譯本——Modern Chinese Poetry《中國現代詩選》（以下簡稱《詩選》），1936年由Duckworth公司在英國出版。這部選譯本是由三零年代擔任北京大學英文教授的英國詩人Harold Acton，和其學生兼當時北京文壇新銳陳世驤於北京編譯的，而它還受到當時北京年輕現代派詩人卞之琳、李廣田和林庚的直接影響與協助。論文主要目的為描述與分析《詩選》及其編譯過程。 在訴求推廣與傳播中國新詩的大原則下，本文好奇《詩選》編譯者更深層的編譯意圖與動機究竟為何，還有編譯者具體編輯與翻譯行為是如何反映與實現這些意圖與動機。因此產生的問題是：《詩選》是由何種人以何種思想或文學背景以及以何種過程編譯的？編譯者試圖透過《詩選》來推廣一個什麼樣的中國新詩形象？還有，編譯者如何使得此推廣策略成功，即透過何種方式來吸引西方讀者閱讀和接受《詩選》及其所包含的中國新詩形象？ 為了回答以上問題，本論文二、三、四章探討：一、《詩選》編譯者、其詩學觀以及其當時社交關係，還有《詩選》編譯過程的背景；二、《詩選》詩人、詩歌篩選以及選集安排過程所透露出的篩選偏向與所建立的中國新詩形象，及這些偏向和形象與《詩選》編譯者和《詩選》編譯背景的關聯所在；以及三、《詩選》翻譯過程和譯文所呈現出的具體翻譯目標與策略，還有這些目標和策略與《詩選》編譯者，他們篩選、安排過程，以及他們推廣篩選、安排過程所建立的新詩形象的關聯所在。 藉由第一手資料的耙梳研究，本文發現：一、無論他們的詩學觀是在何處培養的，《詩選》主要編譯者Harold Acton和陳世驤的詩學概念，皆引起他們對中國現代派（與其中北京現代派）詩人和詩歌的興趣，亦將他們與現代派詩歌寫作意識清楚連接起來，而北京現代派詩人甚至直接參與《詩選》的編譯過程；二、《詩選》詩人、詩歌篩選和選集安排過程透露出上列文人詩學和社交方面的關聯，使得《詩選》呈現出一種清楚的現代派偏向，甚至暗示Acton、陳世驤和其它《詩選》編譯者「重寫」中國新詩概況，以傳播一種現代派式形象；而三、為吸引西方讀者，而更加推廣《詩選》及其所包含的現代派式形象，Acton、陳世驤及其他協助他們翻譯過程的詩人，顯示出為了西方讀者閱讀便利或詩歌閱讀習慣而改寫《詩選》文章和詩歌譯文的意圖與目標。 透過對上述三章的綜合檢視，筆者還探討《詩選》篩選和翻譯兩種過程的關聯，斷定《詩選》編譯者的翻譯策略不僅可視為其篩選和選集安排過程某一程度的延伸，是試圖更加推廣《詩選》及其所包含之現代派式形象的重要方式，其還因牽涉到對《詩選》評介文章和詩歌譯文的「重寫」，而顯示出與篩選和選集安排某種程度的矛盾，透露出經過篩選、安排與翻譯之後，《詩選》事實上是一個「重寫」的「重寫」，其所創造的是一個由現代派式風格和西方閱讀習慣，尤其是西方詩歌閱讀習慣所介入的特殊中國新詩形象。 最後論文並呈現1936年出版後的《詩選》及其所創造的特殊新詩形象，對世界，尤其對西方世界所具有的影響及重要性，提醒我們《詩選》除能作為三零年代中西文人和詩學概念互相接觸及影響所留下來的文學遺產外，亦可視為顯示西方人透過何種詩歌形象來初識和瞭解中國新詩的歷史紀錄。

The first English anthology of vernacular Chinese verse—Modern Chinese Poetry—was published in England in 1936 by Duckworth Publishing Company. The anthology was compiled and translated by Harold Acton, an English poet teaching at Beijing University in the 1930s, and one of his students, who was also an up-and-comer on the Beijing literary scene, Chen Shih-hsiang. Three young Beijing modernists, Bian Zhilin, Li Guangtian, and Lin Geng, directly influenced and assisted in the compilation and translation of the anthology. In this thesis, the author’s main concern is to discover the motivations and intentions behind the creation of Modern Chinese Poetry, as well as the ways in which editorial and translational behaviors were used to reflect and realize these motivations and intentions. In order to achieve these goals, the author seeks to answer the following questions: What were the intellectual and literary backgrounds of the editors of Modern Chinese Poetry, and by what specific process was the anthology developed and completed? What image of vernacular Chinese poetry were the editors trying to create in the anthology? And finally, how did the editors increase their chances of successfully promoting this image to the West—in other words, how did the editors encourage a Western audience to read and accept their anthology and the image of vernacular poetry created within it? In order to answer these questions, the second, third, and fourth chapters of the thesis explore the following: 1) the backgrounds of the editors of Modern Chinese Poetry, with a specific focus on their poetic theories and social relationships during the 1930s, and the background of the compilation and translation of the anthology; 2) specific tendencies evinced in the selection of poets and poems as well as the overall organization of Modern Chinese Poetry, the image of vernacular Chinese poetry developed consequent to these selection tendencies, and the relationship between this image of vernacular Chinese poetry and the editors and background of the work; 3) the specific translational goals and strategies revealed in Modern Chinese Poetry, and the connections between these goals and strategies and the editors of the anthology, their selection process, and attempts to promote the image of Chinese poetry developed during the selection process. Through the collection and organization of firsthand sources, the author’s main discoveries as explored within the above three chapters are as follows: 1) Regardless of where their personal poetics were formed, specific ideas about poetry held by the main editors of Modern Chinese Poetry, Harold Acton and Chen Shih-hsiang, attracted both men to the Chinese modernist group and bore close resemblance to Chinese modernist poetics. Furthermore, some Beijing modernist poets even directly participated in the compilation and translation of the anthology. 2) The selection and organization of Modern Chinese Poetry reveals the influence of these similar poetics and intertwining social relationships. The anthology evinces a clear modernist inclination, suggesting that Acton, Chen, and other editors of Modern Chinese Poetry “re-wrote” the overall situation of vernacular Chinese poetry at the time in order to develop and disseminate a modernist image for Chinese verse. 3) In order to attract a Western audience, and more completely promote their anthology and the modernist poetic image contained within, the editors of Modern Chinese Poetry reveal an inclination toward altering or reshaping translations of articles and poems in the anthology in order to better suit the reading habits or poetic expectations of their Western readers. After assessing these three discoveries as an integrated whole, the author also makes an investigation into the relationship between the selection and translation processes contained within Modern Chinese Poetry. In this investigation it is determined that although the translations undertaken within the work can be seen as an extension of the selection process because they represent an attempt to promote the anthology and the poetic image created within it, due to the fact that the translations are also tantamount to a “re-writing” of the articles and poems chosen for the anthology, they also come into conflict with the selection process. This demonstrates that during the course of selection and translation, Modern Chinese Poetry actually became a “re-writing” of a “re-writing,” and it created a unique image of vernacular Chinese poetry mediated not only by Chinese modernist poetics, but also by Western reading habits, especially Western reading habits for poetry. In the conclusion of the thesis, the author also tackles the problem of reception, attempting to show the influence that Modern Chinese Poetry and the unique image of vernacular Chinese poetry created within it had on the Western world. In this way we are reminded that aside from its place as a literary artifact, which preserves the interactions between Chinese and Western poetics and literati during the 1930s, Modern Chinese Poetry can also be viewed as a historical record of the ways in which Westerners first came to know and understand Chinese poetry in the vernacular.