翻譯即重寫：從《孽子》到《水晶男孩》

Abstract

《孽子》為台灣作家白先勇迄今唯一出版的長篇小說作品，1983年出版後，由於以男同性戀為題材，轟動了當時的文壇，並且因此被視為華人同志文學的先驅。白先勇曾表示，撰寫《孽子》乃是欲以「華人的角度」探討同性戀之議題，且《孽子》之主題為「父子關係」。因此，《孽子》不僅僅是描繪了台北1970年代社會底層的男同性戀群像，更深刻描繪了在華人傳統文化下，身為同性戀的兒子與父親的親情與衝突，並延伸至同性戀的個人與整個社會的衝突。小說中，家庭、社會所容不下的男同志青少年們在台北新公園組建了自己的社群，並從事性交易，他們所建立的同性關係，包含與師傅楊教頭的關係，以及與恩客的關係，都被描寫成了擬父子關係，可視為華人傳統家庭關係的衍生結構。另外，白先勇也描寫了社會的恐同氛圍，書中大眾對於男同性戀的想像，還只停留在現代化以前的中國文學作品中對於男男關係的描繪，大眾對男同性戀之過時刻板印象可以從小說中許多古典文學典故之運用看出；而在小說中，宗教思想也成為了重要的元素，藉由佛教輪迴與救贖之概念，融合道教與民間信仰，呈現故事中的生命觀。《孽子》不單單僅是一本同性戀文學作品，更是一本描寫「人」的小說，其英語譯本《Crystal Boys》由葛浩文（Howard Goldblatt）所譯，在1990年由Gay Sunshine Press出版。對於翻譯，葛浩文表示改寫是不可避免的手法。自1990年代開始，翻譯研究逐漸由探討翻譯之忠實性，到研究翻譯過程中的操縱手法，提出「翻譯即重寫」之概念。本研究藉由討論「孽子」這個書名與整部作品的關聯性，分析葛浩文將其轉譯成「Crystal Boys」所造成的男同志意象重塑，並以此為基礎，深入觀察葛浩文在《Crystal Boys》當中採用的翻譯策略，分析在《Crystal Boys》當中，葛浩文是如何再現白先勇在原著當中呈現之宗教精神，台北70年代社會中的男同志意象及其同性關係、華人傳統文化下的父子衝突與社會大眾對男同志的擬古式想像，並企圖進一步探討，葛浩文在《Crystal Boys》的再現，如何改變了《孽子》這部作品。

Abstract Niezi is the only full-length novel by Taiwanese writer Bai Xianyong. Published in 1983, with male homosexuals as the subject, Niezi created a sensation in the literary world then and is seen as the pioneer of Chinese homosexual literature. Bai has indicated that his aim of writing Niezi is to probe into the issue of homosexuality “from a Chinese perspective” and that theme of Niezi is “father-son relationships.” Thus, Niezi not only portrays the image of the underprivileged male homosexuals in Taipei in the 1970s, but the work has also probed into the father-son relationships and conflicts in the Chinese traditional culture, as well as the conflicts between the homosexual individuals and the Taiwanese society. In the novel, the gay teenagers, unacceptable by their families and the society, construct their own community in the Taipei New Park, and engage in prostitution. The same-sex relationships they build, including the relationship with their mentor Yang and their relationships with their sponsors, are described as quasi father-son relationships, which can be regarded as an extension of the traditional Chinese familial structure. Also, Bai has depicted the homophobic atmosphere in the society, where the public’s imagination of male homosexuals is still based on the depiction of male-male relations in pre-modern Chinese literature, which can be discerned by Chinese classic literary allusions used in the novel. On the other hand, religious belief is also a significant element in the fiction. With the concept of reincarnation and karma in Buddhism, integrated with the belief of Taoism and Chinese folk religion, the concept of life in Niezi is presented. Niezi is not merely a gay novel but also a fiction that writes about “human being.” The English translation of Niezi, titled Crystal Boys, by Howard Goldblatt was published in 1990 by Gay Sunshine Press. Goldblatt has indicated that rewriting is inevitable in translation. Since the 1990s, the focus of Translation Studies has gradually shifted from the debates on faithfulness to the examination of manipulative strategies in the process of translation and proposed an idea of translation as rewriting. The study discusses the correlation between the story of Niezi and its title and analyzes how the image of the male homosexuals are re-made with the translation of the title from “niezi” to “crystal boys” by Goldblatt. Further, the study examines the translation strategies deployed by Goldblatt in Crystal Boys and scrutinizes Goldblatt’s re-presentation of the image of male homosexuals in Taipei in 1970s, the father-son conflicts in the traditional Chinese culture, and the public’s imagination of male homosexuals on the basis of the pre-modern Chinese literary works. It is in the interest of this study to investigate how Niezi is transformed in Crystal Boys through Goldblatt’s re-presentation.