從德國浪漫主義看班雅明〈譯者天職〉

Abstract

班雅明〈譯者天職〉一文，原屬翻譯理論的範疇，不過，對於相關領域也多有啟發，也流傳甚廣，例如文學批評的德曼，解構主義的德里達，後殖民理論的尼南亞納（Niranjana）等都有專文引述這篇文章。本文則從翻譯理論的角度切入，嘗試更進一步瞭解「譯者天職」的文本。在解釋的過程中，特別引用德國浪漫時期的人文思想，來前後闡明班雅明該文的內涵：審視諸如「翻譯的等級」「為誰而譯」「可譯性」「後繼生命與純語言」「原文與譯文的關係」「翻譯與文學批評」「忠實與自由」「字譯」等概念。\\r我們會發現，班雅明該文乃是針對某特殊文體而闡述的翻譯理論，可以稱之為「宗教─神秘類」的文體。例如聖經以及其他宗教經典翻譯應該屬於這一類。因此在一般的翻譯文體分類，例如文學翻譯以及實用翻譯之外，應該加上神秘文類的翻譯理論，而班雅明該文即為其中之佼佼者。如果分清楚不同翻譯文體，具有不同目標與標準，將有助於全球化的和睦共融。

Walter Benjamin’s article ‘The Task of the Translator’ belongs to the most read essays in the translation theories and beyond. However, it’s particular way of seeing translation doesn’t get along with the common view of translation. This paper attempts to understand Benjamin’s article in the background of German Romanticism, especially some ideas of Friedrich Schlegel and Novalis can help us to see the connection between Benjamin and Romanticism. We tried to explain concepts like ‘Translatability’ ‘Faithful and free translation’ ‘Translation and Literature Criticism’ ‘After life and pure language’ ‘Word-to-Word Translation’ etc. Benjamin’s article shows us that he has one special type of text in mind: that of religious-sacred text like Holy Scripture. That’s the reason why the aim of translation as well as the way how to translate a text in Benjamin’s article is so different from those of literature translation and pragmatic translation. If we know how to distinguish the different types of translated texts, we will do justice to a more objective translation assessment.