Source: Chengdu Business Daily 2065438+April 23, 2004
Nowadays, translators who participate in Shakespeare's plays and sonnets are Zhu Shenghao, Liang Shiqiu, Sun Dayu, Bian and Liang. Naturally, these versions have their own characteristics and subtle differences. According to relevant data, Zhu Shenghao and Liang Shiqiu are the most famous translators of Shakespeare's plays, and besides Liang Shiqiu and Zhu Shenghao, Cao Weifeng and Sun Dayu have also translated Shakespeare's works in a planned way.
Zhu Shenghao: Elegant and vivid, disdaining "swearing"
Most of the well-known complete works of Shakespeare are related to Zhu Shenghao. Zhu Shenghao is from Jiaxing, Zhejiang. 1933 After graduating from university, I worked as an English editor in Shanghai World Bookstore.
1in the spring of 936, Zhu Shenghao began to translate the complete works of Shakespeare. In order to make it easier for China readers to read, he broke the English Oxford Edition, which was divided into comedy, tragedy, historical drama and zaju in the order of writing year, and became a system of its own.
Unfortunately, even though he was ambitious, he was driven by a bad era. At that time, it was the stormy and frequent wars in modern China. Zhu Shenghao's translation was destroyed several times, but he persisted. Later, he suffered from lung disease due to overwork and died young at the age of 32. In the last few years of his life, he was still trying to translate the manuscript.
By the time Zhu Shenghao died, he had translated 365,438+0 Shakespeare plays. 1947 In autumn, Shanghai World Bookstore published 27 books. 1954, supplemented by four manuscripts, Shakespeare's plays were published in 12 and 3 1 year.
1978, after comprehensive revision, six historical dramas, sonnets, long poems and miscellaneous poems were supplemented and translated. The Complete Works of Shakespeare was published by People's Literature Publishing House 1 1 and became one of the most classic versions of the complete works of Shakespeare.
Regarding the characteristics of Zhu Shenghao's translation, Hong, president of Zhejiang Shakespeare Research Association, thinks that "the translation is smooth and elegant, the sentences are catchy, and he is good at maintaining the charm of the original, conveying the style of Shakespeare's plays and leaving a hearty memory in our hearts."
There are many classic interpretations in Zhu Shenghao's translation, the most famous of which is the translation of "To be, or not to be". To be or not to be, this is really a genius.
However, in Zhu Shenghao's translation, it seems that he disdains to convey the "verve" of Shakespeare's vulgar words. Scholar Zhu once commented: "Shakespeare's works are full of vulgar and obscene language, especially in his comedies, life is full of fun and recklessness." (Zhu Shenghao) Whether this style of purifying words conforms to the spirit of Shakespeare's plays is debatable, but it shows the translator's good intentions. "
In this way, more people still agree that Zhu Shenghao's translation is the best translation of Shakespeare's plays.
Liang Shiqiu: I added a lot of notes and wrote a preface.
Compared with Zhu Shenghao, Liang Shiqiu is much more famous. He also has a soft spot for Shakespeare. It took him 37 years to translate all Shakespeare's works.
1930, Hu Shi took charge of the Translation Committee of the Board of Directors of China Education and Culture Foundation and organized a large-scale translation plan. One of them is the translation of The Complete Works of Shakespeare, which was originally planned to be undertaken by Wen Yiduo, Xu Zhimo, Ye Gongchao, Chen Xiying and Liang Shiqiu. It is expected to be completed in 5~ 10 years. Finally, this task was carried out by Liang Shiqiu.
Comparing several versions of Shakespeare, we can easily find that Liang's version has the following characteristics: vernacular prose style; Literal translation, faithful to the original; Complete translation, never omit the original. Besides, Liang's translation is unique. The first is to add comments. The original versions of Shakespeare's works are often difficult, with many obscure points, various puns, idioms, slang, allusions and obscene words. Liang Shiqiu not only translated it literally, but also added many notes to help readers understand the original text.
Liang Shiqiu also added a preface before each play. In the preface, the version, writing age, story source, stage history, significance and criticism of the play are discussed. I once commented on Liang's translation: "There are two ways to read Liang's translation, one is to read the translation without reading the original, and the other is to read it with reference to the original. Because of my teaching, I adopted the method of reading after reading to solve my doubts, and I gained something every time. "
Cao Weifeng: Oral Expression of Original Charm
The Complete Works of Shakespeare translated by the famous translator Mr. Cao Weifeng is the earliest collection of Shakespeare's plays published in China. 193 1 or so, he began to translate Shakespeare's plays. Later, while studying in England, he also collected information about Shakespeare's plays purposefully and visited Shakespeare's former residence.
From 1943 to 1945, The Merchant of Venice translated by Cao Weifeng and other plays 1 1 were published by Wentong Bookstore under the total name of The Complete Works of Shakespeare. During his career of translating Shakespeare, * * * translated and published 12 kinds of plays, in addition to a collection of sonnets.
In the specific translation process of Shakespeare's plays, Cao Weifeng advocates translating Shakespeare's plays in colloquial language to express the charm of the original; Stylistically, it is also faithful to the original form, and the method of translating poetry into prose and prose into prose is very popular.
Relevant research experts believe that Mr. Cao Weifeng's translation of Shakespeare's plays has many advantages and highlights, such as: first, it can reproduce the humor of Shakespeare's language; Shakespeare's plays can bridge the cultural differences between China and Britain; It can convey the stylistic features of Shakespeare's plays, and these features also reflect the translator's creativity in the translation process.
Cao Weifeng's translation still has a broad market today. Only in recent years, most of the online discussions about Shakespeare's plays focused on Zhu Shenghao and Liang Shiqiu, and the works of other translators were rarely mentioned.
Sun Dayu: The First Translation of Shakespeare's Poems
Chen Zishan, a scholar of modern literature research, once said: "If you open a history of modern literature in China, Sun Dayu is not as famous as Wen Yiduo and Xu Zhimo, but he is also an important member of the' Crescent School'. His new poetry theory and creative practice are equally excellent ... His Shakespeare translation is also unique, not inferior to Zhu Shenghao and Liang Shiqiu. "
Sun Dayu translated eight Shakespeare's works: King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, A Winter's Tale, The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet. He is the first scholar in China who translated Shakespeare's poems and plays in poetic style.
His translation, based on his own phonological system, uses Chinese pentatonic verse to translate English pentatonic verse, which has unique style and charm. As he translated the sonnet: "Can I compare you to the radiance of early summer? /You are cuter and gentler. /The wind shook the buds of Mayday as quickly as possible. /Xia Meng's good times will become too short ... "
Interestingly, in the next semester of 1933, Sun Dayu received a letter of appointment from Liang Shiqiu to become a professor of foreign languages and offer English literature courses. But later, he and Liang Shiqiu had a sharp contradiction in the method of translating Shakespeare's plays. Liang Shiqiu thought that the translation should be prose-style, while Sun Dayu thought that the translation should be poetic, so they broke up in discord.
Although Sun Dayu didn't translate the complete works of Shakespeare, due to its unique content, he occupies a place in many translations.
In addition, China's "Master of Shakespeare" Fang Ping also presided over the translation of China's first poetic style, The Complete Works of Shakespeare. His translation of Shakespeare's plays is considered as "the translation is closer to the original Shakespeare's plays in tone and language rhythm"
Translation of five complete works
Each has its own style.
To commemorate the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, many domestic publishing houses published translations of Shakespeare's complete works. According to various sources, there are mainly five versions of the complete works of Shakespeare in the Chinese world:
1. 1978 Eleven volumes published by People's Literature Publishing House, with Zhu Shenghao's translation as the main body (and side) revised, supplemented by Zhang Yi;
40 volumes translated by Liang Shiqiu 1967 and published by Taiwan Province Province;
3. 1957 A five-volume edition published by Taiwan Province World Bookstore, with Zhu Shenghao as the main body and the late scholar Yu Erchang as the supplement;
4. Eight volumes translated by Zhu Shenghao (revised by Qiu Kean, He Qishen, Gu, supplemented by Suo, Sun Fali, Liu Bingshan and Gu), published by Yilin Press 1998.
5. The Complete Works of Shakespeare is the first poetic work published by Shanghai Translation Publishing House this year. It was translated by the late translator, and Tu An, Ruan Shen, Zhang Chong, Qin and Tu Youyou participated in the translation work.
In addition, China Youth Publishing House published The Complete Works of Shakespeare's Zhu Shenghao Translation this year, which is the original translation of Shakespeare's Republic of Zhu Shenghao recognized by Zhu Shenghao's descendants. It is pointed out that the previously published Complete Works of Shakespeare translated by Zhu Shenghao has been revised by many people, which is not the true face of Zhu Shenghao's translation. This edition is known as "restoring the literary flavor of the Republic of China, conveying the charm of Shakespeare's original works, and guiding readers to re-recognize the value and contribution of Shakespeare's Zhu translation".
In addition, Nova Publishing House also launched a classic illustrated edition of Shakespeare's complete works this year. Apart from 37 plays, 154 sonnets, two narrative poems and other poems, One Mistake Again is translated into Chinese for the first time according to the most authoritative Ardennes Shakespeare series in Shakespeare circles. The series also contains more than 700 exquisite original illustrations, which were drawn by Sir john gilbert, President of the Royal Watercolor Society in the 9th century/kloc-0, friend of Dickens and authoritative illustrator of his works. This is the first time that China readers have met since the book was published 120 years ago.