中国科技经济新闻数据库 教育
2015年21期 289 《红字》的三种中文译本比较
陈溢璐
上海外国语大学，上海 200122
摘要：《红字》是霍桑的代表作，是美国文学发展史上第一部象征主义小说。《红字》以耻辱的红字为中心线索，通过女主人公所受的不公正待遇，揭露了社会的不公、宗教的偏见、狭隘的伪善。作者大量运用想象和象征的手法，借助外部世界环境来加以表现人物的内心世界和道德精神状态。译文的精准在翻译中起到了决定性的重要，本文比较了三种译本下对于主人公心理变化细致的描述的不同运用，以提高我们的翻译实践能力。 关键词：情感修辞；中译本；心理描述 中图分类号：H315.9 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1671-5861（2015）21-0289-02
1 作者及故事简介
The Scarlet Letter is considered as the masterpiece
of Nathaniel Hawthorne.By reading the novel，the Arthur
revealed a 17th century’s authentic life in America，
especially focused on a woman’s misery experience，
which led readers to be personally on the scene，vivid
and sad.He revealed not only the actress’s miserable
and painful life but also described a cold and rigid
social situation that the actress lived.He exposed the
hypocritical morality，fraudulent religion，which had
been veiled under “normal” society.
The story took place in a Puritan village.The
actress in the book called Hester Prynne，who was
punished seriously due to her adultery.The Scarlet
Letter “A” represented her act of adultery and a
symbol of her punishment.She was alone in the village，
with a missing husband.However，she was pregnant，hided
all clues about the father and her affair.Several years
later，she passed a tough life with her daughter and
her lover，Dimmesdale，was always embarrassed about the
“Adultery” and didn’t confess to the others.Finally，
Dimmesdale confessed his sin and ended his life，Hester
fled away and came back years later.After her death，
her tombstone was decorated with a letter "A"，for
Hester and Dimmesdale.
2 三种译本的比对
The Scarlet Letter was introduced in our country
years before and had published in several Chinese
translations as well.Hereby，I would compare three
versions of them.One of them is translated by Yao
Naiqiang（姚乃强），another is Hu Yunheng（胡允桓）’s，
and the last one is Fang Huawen（方华文）’s.
The first two of them are notable，they give a full
reproduction of the original，whereas each has its own
distinctive characteristics and also has its own pro
and cons.Today，we’re focusing on the emotions’
translation of the three versions.
2.1 对主人公情感描述的译本比对
“While this passed，Hester Prynne…still with a
fixed gaze towards the stranger；so fixed a gaze，that，
at moments of intense absorption，all other objects in
the visible world seemed to vanish，leaving only him and her…with the hot，midday sun burning down upon her
face and lighting up its shame”
The paragraph expresses the Hester’s feeling when
she met her husband in an embarrassment situation，
who was shamed by public.
Yao’s version：在此期间，海丝特·白兰一直站在台
上…她盯得那么专注，以致完全入了神…仿佛世间万物全都
消失了，只留下他和她两个人…此时，烈日当空，强烈的阳
光烧灼着她的面庞，点燃起了她脸上的羞愧。
Fang’s version：在这期间，赫斯特·普林立在台上…
她的目光是那样专注，有时想得出了神，世界上所有的东西
都似乎消失了，只剩下他们俩…中午灼热的阳光火辣辣照在
她脸上，令她的耻辱更加醒目。
Hu’s version：在这段时间里，海丝特·白兰一直站
在高台上…她的视界内的一切目标全都从他眼前消失了，只
剩下了他和她两个人…炎炎的午日烧灼着她的面孔，照亮了
脸上的耻辱。
In the paragraph，when Hester suddenly saw her
husband，“still with a fixed…only him and her”，
which indicated that she wanted to clarify that the
person was her husband or not，that she would be so
surprised at what really happened.The application of
the word “vanish” was extremely vivid.I prefer when
Yao implied “完全入了神”，as if the time had stopped
when Hester saw the man.While Fang’s applied “想得
出了神”，which the paragraph seems to be distorted，
the sentence could not link to the passage，meanwhile
Hu’s description“她的视界…消失了”wasn’t
authentic at all.
Secondly，the phrase ”with the hot…shame”
increased Hester’s embarrassment.The application of
“burning” would be perfect which is underlined
“shame”.I prefer “烧灼” due to the perfect
description and the extent of strong effect with the
sunlight，the sunlight in Fang’s translation would be
so normal and to some extent，so gentle.
In the paragraph，it’s obvious that preciseness
plays a very crucial role in translation，if we use an
inaccurate description or an unrelated word with no
relation to the paragraph，it would change the meaning
of the original.
“The stigma gone，Hester heaved a long，deep sigh，
in which the burden of shame and anguish departed from 教育前沿
290 2015年21期 her spirit.O exquisite relief！She had not known the
weight until she felt the freedom！By another impulse，
she took off the formal cap that confined her hair，
and down it fell upon her shoulders… All at once，
as with a sudden smile of heaven，forth burst the
sunshine，pouring a very flood into the obscure forest，
gladdening each green leaf，transmuting the yellow
fallen ones to gold，and gleaming adown the gray trunks
of the solemn trees.The objects that had made a shadow
hitherto，embodied the brightness now.
The paragraph described a happily Hester，who had
been burdened earlier.She was relief without any
concern；the author applied a strong contrast between
her emotion and the environment.
Yao’s version：海丝特扔掉了那个耻辱的标记之后，
深深地舒了一口气，她的精神摆脱了耻辱和苦闷的重压…接
着，她又一次受到冲动，摘下那顶表示习俗的束发帽…一瞬
间，天空射出万道霞光，犹如苍天绽开了笑脸，向阴暗的森
林，泻下一片阳光，使每一张绿叶欣欣向荣，枯黄的落叶变
得金光灿灿，连灰暗肃穆的树干也闪出亮光。
Fang’s version；摘掉那耻辱的标记后，赫斯特深深
感叹了一声，她的精神随即摆脱了耻辱和痛苦的重压…随着
另一阵冲动，她取下头上规规整整的束发小帽…顿时，苍天
绽开了微笑，太阳光芒四射，照亮了朦胧的森林，给片片绿
叶带来了欢乐，把枯黄的落叶染成金色，是灰蒙蒙、阴沉沉
的树干也闪闪发光。
Hu’s version：海丝特除掉那耻辱的标记之后，深深
长叹了一声，她的精神随即摆脱了耻辱和苦闷的重荷…随着
另一阵冲动，她摘下了那顶束发的正正经经的帽子…突然之
间，天空似乎一下子绽开了微笑，立时阳光四射，将灿烂的
光芒洒向朦胧的森林，使片片绿叶都兴高采烈，把所有枯黄
的落叶染成金色，连肃穆的树干的灰色树干也闪闪发光。
The beginning of the paragraph，the author
described Hester’s emotion，in the following part，
changes of environment.The author described how her
feel when she took off all her burden，“The stigma
gone…shoulders，” the freedom of Hester would be so
burden and so hard，only a stigma and a formal cap could
be so harsh for her to take off these years.The author
applied a metaphor to express her feelings；even a
stigma and a formal cap were both signals what reflected
her burden in her life.In comparison of three version，the Yao’s is the best，because his translation is the
most precise，“扔掉…重压。” and “摘下…束发
帽”.Both “重压” and “表示习俗的束发帽” would lead
readers to feel how burden Hester had been encountered，
while when the other translate the cap，they use “正
正经经的帽子” and “规规整整的束发小帽”，which
couldn’t express what really burdened her.
Secondly，as we refer to the paragraph” All at
once…now.” It was an environment description，which
affected by the character’s emotion.Due to her
happiness，the sunshine warmed the obscured forest；
the bright took place of the darkness，even the gray
trunks of the solemn trees turned into gleaming.Still，
the Yao’s version has a perfect translation in using
these words，the translation should fit for both the
original paragraph and the corresponding language，
such as “pouring”，”gladdening”，” transmuting the
yellow fallen ones to gold”，“gleaming”，he
translates into “泻下一片阳光”，“欣欣向荣”，”金
光灿灿”，”闪出亮光”，from the translation”一瞬间…
出亮光”.It would be better than the others’.When the
other authors translate，they use “给绿叶带来了欢乐
/使绿叶都兴高采烈” to describe how flourish the
leaves are，whereas Yao’s “欣欣向荣” is not only
vividly but also happily；Or “把落叶染成金色”
compares with “金光灿灿”.Yao’s using much easier
and much more understanding to let readers feel how
happily Hester was.
3 结束语
Overall，when we translate a paragraph，we should
consider not only translating the meaning of word，
but also translating the paragraph much more precise
in order to fit the core of paragraph.The Hu’s
translation would be the best，since he would consider
how to express the original precisely into translation.
We have plenty of classic novels to read and feel，
keep it origin in the corresponding language is always
a crucial part.It would be still a mountain to climb.
参考文献
[1]王霁.黄译《红字》译本中的译者行为——以编译行为为
例[J].江苏外语教学研究，2012（2）：71-73.
