In Search of the Source Version of Su Manshu`s Can Shehui: An Intertextual Study

Abstract

蘇曼殊（1884-1918）的外語能力頗負盛名，其1903年的報紙連載譯文《慘社會》（後於1904年發行的單行本改為《慘世界》）所根據的底本語言為何，在學界有諸多揣測，主張譯自雨果（VictorHugo，1802-1885）的法文原著、英譯本、或日譯本的學者皆有。這些說法，多以蘇氏的語言背景或當時的歷史脈絡為判斷依據，雖然各有道理，但至今尚無定論。另外，雖然《慘世界》是根據《慘社會》修訂增補而成，但因《慘世界》涉及最後三餘章的譯者爭議，需另外為文處理，故本文僅以《慘社會》為研究對象，為解決其底本的爭議，本文進行跨語言、跨文本的比較，將中譯本與可能的日文、英文、法文版本交叉比對，釐清彼此傳承關係，最後確定蘇氏的《慘社會》是譯自英文，很可能是威爾伯（Charles E. Wilbour，1833-1896）的版本。

Su Manshu (蘇曼殊, 1884-1918) was known for his foreign language abilities. The source version of his 1903 newspaper serial Can Shehui (慘社會), which was reprinted separately as Can Shijie (慘世界) in 1904, has sparked many critical conjectures: some claim it was translated directly from Victor Hugo`s (1802-1885) original Les Misérables, some believe it was rendered from an English version, and still some speculate it was based on a Japanese text. These judgments are mostly based on the biographical, historical or linguistic information of Su. While each is convincing in its own reasoning, the answer to the question has remained inconclusive. Besides, although Can Shijie is a revised and supplementary version of Can Shehui, the former entails the disputed issue of translatorship for the additional three-odd chapters, and thus should be dealt with in a separate paper. Focused on Can Shehui only, the present paper attempts to trace the source of the Chinese translation by conducting an interlingual, intertextual comparison. After juxtaposing the Chinese text with possible Japanese, English and French versions and examining their relationships, this paper contrives to establish that Can Shehui is rendered from an English version, most probably from Charles E. Wilbour`s (1833-1896) translation.