翻译学院院长平洪向Robinson赠送礼品

“‘仁’是难以翻译的”

　　Robinson认为，“仁”是难以翻译的。因为英语中没有哪个现成的表达，既可以传达出语言本身的意义，又可以涵盖文化、哲学所投射的每一个细微含义。所以翻译只能无限接近原语，而非百分之百的对等。

　　他回顾了认可度最高的两种翻译：benevolent/benevolence及humanity / humane(ness)。而benevolence不是“仁”的充分翻译，这在David Collie 的译句“He who outrages the benevolence proper to his nature，is called a robber” (“贼人者谓之贼”)便可见一斑。因为benevolence指的是个体的心理状态，即一种慈善之心，无法成为愤怒仇恨的对象。而且，这个词的色彩不够强烈。

　　在汉语里，“不仁”对应的翻译是cruelty，ruthlessness以及coercion，而非non-benevolence。不仁者在孟子看来无异于禽兽。可见如果人性中缺少了“仁”，便会导致人的残忍暴戾。而如果少的是慈善之心，并不一定会造成道德上的沦陷。另外，这个词局限于个体，而非集体。至于humanity，它的词义模糊，既可以指人性（the quality of being human），也可以指人道(the quality of being humane)，而且忽略了人与人之间的情感联系。他更认同Jeffrey Ritchie 的 “co-humanity”和James Behuniak的“associated humanity”。

Robinson慷慨激昂演讲

“仁”是什么？

　　仁也者，人也。仁也者，心也。

　　意译是翻译的核心， 对“仁”的完整理解至关重要。Robison的解读是：“仁”是一种集体情感（collective feeling, group feeling or shared feeling）。确切的说是同感同情、推己及人的关切。个体能体会他人的苦乐，将自己与世界联系起来，这样一来人与人也就变得息息相关。

　　他在反思“仁政”的翻译“benevolent government”时，提出了自己的看法：“仁政”与其说是道德层面的，不如说是指治国之道。君主实行的仁政体现在体恤民生。基于此，Robison将仁政翻译成“fellow-feeling government”或“‘can’t bear other people’s suffering’ government”。当然，他也表示，具体用哪一种翻译要视具体的语境而定。

附：Douglas Robinson教授简介

　　Douglas Robinson is a critical theorist interested in human communication as grounded in human social interaction, and specifically as circulated pragmatically through literature, rhetoric, and translation. His “somatic” and “performative” theories of communication have broken new ground in literary studies (Ring Lardner and the Other, Oxford UP, 2002, Estrangement and the Somatics of Literature: Tolstoy, Shklovsky, Brecht, Johns Hopkins UP, 2008), linguistics (Performative Linguistics, Routledge, 2003, and Introducing Performative Pragmatics, Routledge, 2006), and translation studies (The Translators Turn, Johns Hopkins UP, 1991, Translation and Taboo, Northern Illinois UP, 1996, What Is Translation?, Kent State UP, 1997, Becoming a Translator, Routledge, 1997, Translation and Empire, St. Jerome, 1997, Western Translation Theory from Herodotus to Nietzsche, St. Jerome, 1997, and Who Translates?, SUNY P, 2001). His most recent work is in the philosophy of mind/body and cognitive science, especially on the extended body-becoming-mind (extended affect>conation>cognition).

　　A native of the United States, Douglas Robinson has lived in Finland for a total of fourteen years, taking three university degrees there and serving as a lecturer in English at the University of Jyväskylä (1975-1981) and a professor of American language and literature (1983-1987) and of Finnish-English Translation Theory and Practice (1987-1989) at the University of Tampere. During his 21 years (1989-2010) as professor of English at the University of Mississippi, he also spent two years in Voronezh, Russia, and five months in Spain; the last three years at Ole Miss he was Director of First-Year Writing. His 1983 Ph.D. is from the University of Washington, Seattle.