翻譯與回譯具臺灣性的「天生的翻譯小說」：以吳茗秀《三郎》與楊小娜《綠島》及其華譯本為例

Abstract

吳茗秀的《三郎》與楊小娜的《綠島》皆為以台灣為背景的小說，前者故事發生於1943至1962年，而後者則從1947年延伸至2002年，歷史背景及時間跨度皆相近。這兩本英語小說的原文可視為一種給英語讀者的「譯文」(target text)，而其華語翻譯版則是一種「無本回譯」(textless back translation)。本研究以沃蔻薇姿 (Rebecca L. Walkowitz) 的《生來就經過翻譯：世界文學時代的當代小說》(Born Translated: The Contemporary Novel in an Age of World Literature) 為主要框架，搭配王宏印教授提出之「無本回譯」，檢視兩本小說的英語原文及華語譯文如何處理「台灣性」(Taiwanese-ness)以及多語性 (Multilingualism) 社會所帶來的翻譯挑戰。研究發現，作者傾向於將原文中的文化主題用解釋性文字呈現，有時也直接插入搭配了翻譯的台語、日語音譯凸顯小說所使用的語言與其中文化地理位置的距離；譯文則發現「文化∕歷史迷宮」(Cultural/Historical Labyrinth)現象，指的是譯者還原作者的翻譯時因諸多因素而有所誤差。此類作品在台灣書市及翻譯研究皆尚不多見，期望本研究除了豐富學術研究的面向，也能為相關作品的譯者提供翻譯策略靈感。

Julie Wu’s The Third Son and Shawna Yang Ryan’s Green Island are both novels set in Taiwan. The former takes place from 1943 to 1962, while the latter stretches from 1947 to 2002, sharing a similar historical background and time span. The source texts of the two novels written in English can be regarded as target texts, while the Mandarin translations are back translations. This study takes Rebecca L. Walkowitz’s Born to Translate: Born Translated: The Contemporary Novel in an Age of World Literature as the main framework to examine how the source texts and target texts of the two novels deal with “Taiwanese-ness,” and the translation challenges posed by the multilingualism nature of Taiwan’s society. The results show that the authors tend to use explanatory text to present cultural topics in source texts. Sometimes they also insert Taiwanese and Japanese transliteration coupled with its translation, highlighting the distance between the language used to write the novels and the cultural and geographical background of the story. The target texts saw “Cultural/Historical Labyrinth” which refers to the translator’s error when reversing the author’s translation. Such works are rarely seen in Taiwan’s market, thus lacking related translation studies. It is hoped that this study will enrich academic research and provide translation strategy inspiration for translators of related works.