平安夜在尔湾观摩了一场大教堂里的圣诞歌会，带有真正宗教色彩的圣诞节我也是第一次过。
我想到了儿子学期末的写作课考试，题目是写一篇文艺评论。他写了关于安魂曲的翻译，也是关于宗教。
一个亚洲理工男，高中里写作文都是老大难，一进大学突然要写西方宗教与拉丁文的翻译，你说吓人不吓人。
我撇了一眼题目就知道完蛋了，恨不得替他写。
结果，人家花了三天时间，分别在安娜堡的酒店里、底特律的机场里、3万英尺的飞机上、凤凰城的餐厅里，卡着deadline改了一百八十遍，终于把作文交了。
我心想：儿大不由娘，是时候让他尝一尝写作不及格的滋味了。
结果前两天考试成绩出来，作文总分是A+。
这回我可不困了，我倒要看看这家伙到底写了点啥，能让英语写作老师给了他一个满分。
实不相瞒，这篇文章我拿着英汉词典都看不懂，因为里面还有拉丁文。
我觉得吧，作为一个搞写作的中年妇女，对儿子这篇文章我也不敢指手画脚，因为要想指点他，我首先得跟他一样花四个星期去了解拉丁文不同版本的安魂曲的注解，再花两个礼拜去把诗经看一遍，才能明白他到底在写什么。
看来，儿大确实是不由娘，因为娘不在身边人家更容易开窍，而且，迟到的开窍也是开窍，虽然以前他写作文不咋地，但是，现在可能还是不咋地。
不过，虽然不咋地，但也许学校考察的不是作文本身，而是那个过程。
美本的通识教育，让学生需要阅读大量资料，查找，研究，思考，再给出观点，这是很磨人的。
我想这个A+并不是因为这篇文章真的写得特别好，而是因为老师看到了他的查找，研究，思考全过程。
一个亚洲理工男，用心写了一篇文艺评论，不管遣词造句是否高级，也不论语法和结构是否完美，写作呈现的是研究和洞悉的过程，这个过程就值得一个A+。
为了凑字数，下面我贴出儿子的原文（可以直接跳到后面看中文翻译）。
Translating the Latin Requiem
Requiem is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the souls of the deceased. Written in Latin, it is an important liturgical poem that reflects the relation between the live and dead as well as human and the God. When preparing for the concert of Verdi’s Requiem, I watched the video recording of this work with subtitles in Chinese, my native language. Then I read the English translation of the same text on the UMS program. Although I do not understand Latin, I have taken the French course in this semester, which enables me to decode the syntax and meaning in Latin a bit clearer than in the scope of English.
Therefore, as a foreigner with background of several languages, I am naturally intrigued by the translation of Requiem in context of my culture. I want to present a glance of the charm of Chinese to western readers through the lens of translation. Despite the huge differences between Latin and Chinese, certain literature tradition and translation backgrounds in China bridge the linguistical gap, enabling religious communication between eastern and western cultures.
Undeniably, translating the text of Requiem into another language presents great challenges due to the syntactic structures and phonological qualities of Latin. Here, syntax refers to the grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence, and phonology means the study of sounds in language. For example, the line ‘Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine’ means ‘Give them eternal rest, O Lord’. The adjective ‘aeternam’ (eternal) is placed after the word it is modifying, ‘requiem’; and the entire object (eternal rest) precedes the verb ‘dona’ (give). Such kinds of inversion play an important role in creating the holy atmosphere of this text. If this sentence begins with ‘dona’, the tone would lack humility, as this line is the supplication to God.
Another example is ‘quia pius es’, meaning ‘for you are merciful’. Actually, there is no word meaning ‘you’ in this line, but this information is implied because the word ‘es’ is the second person conjugation of ‘to be’. Similar pattern can be found in French, where different conjugations correspond to different persons. But this complicated conjugation system is not easy to understand for non-romance language speakers.
What’s more, the intricate vocabulary system of Latin makes it extra challenging to render while maintaining original tone and meaning. For example, both ‘saeclum’ and ‘mundus’ mean ‘world’, but with very subtle difference in context. And the most critical problem is about the religious words such as ‘Domine Jesu Christe’. They incorporate deep cultural and historical backgrounds, which makes it almost impossible to find their equivalents in other languages. It is heavy work to introduce these concepts to people in non-Catholic worlds.
However, thanks to the deep cultural background and the expertise of translators in China, it is possible to render Requiem into Chinese in an authentic manner. In certain aspects, Chinese may even surprisingly do better than European languages. For one, in Requiem, syllable count plays an essential role in maintaining musicality, which is also an important focus in traditional Chinese poetry. Many verses in Requiem have eight syllables in each line, such as ‘Dies irae dies illa’. While in The Book of Songs, the earliest collection of poems of China, each line carries two four-character phrases, which is almost identical with the phonology in Requiem. In a well-known song in the book, the poem goes, ‘Guān guān jū jiū, zài hé zhī zhōu…’. Here is the translation of an excerpt of this verse.
The fishhawks sing gwan-gwan
On sandbars of the stream.
Gentle maiden, pure and fair,
Fit pair for a prince.
Watercress grows here and there,
Right and left we gather it.
Gentle maiden, pure and fair,
Wanted waking and sleep.
The use of repetition is another similarity between Latin and Chinese poetry that we can discover from the song above. In successive stanzas, some lines and phrases are repeated verbatim, like ‘Gentle maiden, pure and fair’. Similarly, the line ‘Requiem aeternam dona eis’ also appears multiple times. What’s more, besides the repeated parts, certain phrases vary from stanza to stanza. In the song above, the lines after ‘Gentle maiden’ change as the poem develops, depicting the increasing desire of the prince to chase the maiden. This pattern is also shown in verses like Agnus Dei.
Agnus Dei,
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
Dona eis requiem.
Agnus Dei,
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
Dona eis requiem sempiternam.
Lamb of God,
You who take away the sins of the world,
Grant them rest.
Lamb of God,
You who take away the sins of the world,
Grant them eternal rest.
The second stanza just repeats, adding one word ‘eternal’, thus expressing the emotion of supplicants. Therefore, I can feel an amazing sense of familiarity when reading the Latin Requiem, as the literature tradition lying beneath this ancient hymn echoes with the cultural backgrounds of mine.
The tradition in translation also helps Chinese people understand the theological concepts better. In Chinese, there is a special group of paroles and methods of translation dedicated to the religious language. I remember that feeling when I took a glance of the Holy Bible in childhood. In the Genesis it goes, ‘And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.’ The first sentence is rendered into two four character words, matching the musicality of ancient Chinese, thus establishing the epic style of the Bible. Since the earth was also void in Chinese legend, this narration seems very natural and authentic for me. Then, I was attracted by the second sentence, where ‘Spirit’ is literally translated into a single character without further explanation. In modern Chinese, two-character nouns are preferred because they clarify and articulate the meaning, while single-character words are common in ancient Chinese for simplicity. Therefore, a gap of age appears in this sentence, indicating the mystery of the God. I couldn’t help marvel at such smooth, seamless translating method that brings readers into the religious world unconsciously. It is this sophisticated mastering of Chinese literature tradition that promotes the understanding of the religion. As a result, most people in China are familiar with religious names like Jesus and Maria. Even though many are nonreligious and do not know the stories in the Bible, they have learnt to respect foreign religions because of the beautiful localization of western religion. And this can help a lot in translation of religion-related literature works like Requiem.
Retrospectively, I find the Chinese translation of the Latin Requiem exhibiting the advantages mentioned above really well in certain aspects. The titles of the chapters are rendered the most beautifully. For example, Introitus, the name of the first verse, is translated into a three-character word, ‘Jìn táng yǒng’, which literally means ‘The song of entering the hall’. Other title names are also rendered in three characters, neat and elegant, which fully represents the ability of expression of Chinese. Meanwhile, there is still space of improvement for the translation of main text. Currently there is no standard Chinese version of the poem, and the Chinese subtitles in some videos were badly-written. Sentences such as ‘Place me in your right hand’ is literally rendered in plain language, lacking the sense of holy, as well as the necessary explanation of what right hand implies. I look forward to a version rendered by professional translators that is as authentic as the Chinese Bible.
Why is the translation of religious text important? Given that Catholics are minorities in China, and even in western countries there are fewer and fewer believers nowadays, does Requiem still matter? My answer is yes. I believe that religion plays a key role in mutual communication between cultures, just like arts and literature. It does not really matter whether people believe in the religion; instead, it is important whether people are inclusive towards religions. In a healthy social atmosphere, people do not hold rejection or hatred to foreign religions just because they differ from the world view of local culture. People are curious of different religions, willing to explore various systems of viewing this world. And in order to intrigue people, it is crucial that translators do a good job tailoring the religion to local culture. Imagine the Bible rendered into Chinese without those brilliant translation techniques. Lacking the epic and holy style, people would probably see the book as a poorly-written fiction novel and treat Catholicism as heresy.
Moreover, studying foreign cultures deepens one’s understanding of their own civilization. It is after we have seen various worldviews that we become able to recognize the special characteristics in our culture, thus finding the place of ourselves in this world. For Chinese citizens, being exposed to Catholicism or any other religions helps them broaden the horizons. They can take advantage of the essence from both foreign religion and local wisdom, such as Buddhist and Confucianism. In a word, multi-religion experience enriches one as a person on this planet.
In conclusion, Chinese boasts a healthy soil for religion-related translating, making elegant translation of Requiem perfectly possible. Translators should provide the public with a more professional version of this work in Chinese. By focusing on translating the Latin Requiem, we are not only discussing a linguistic and literature issue, but also promoting the intercultural communication that enriches every one of us. The words of Chinese scholar Fei Xiaotong about the beauty of cultures perfectly depicts our hope. ‘Every form of beauty has its uniqueness; precious is to appreciate other forms of beauty with openness. If beauty represents itself with diversity and integrity, the world will be blessed with harmony and unity.’
下面是中文翻译（可以直接跳到最后看结束语）：
《安魂曲》是天主教会为安息逝者灵魂而举行的弥撒。它以拉丁文写成，是一首重要的礼仪诗歌，反映了生者与逝者、人与上帝之间的关系。在准备威尔第《安魂曲》音乐会时，我观看了带中文字幕的演出录像。随后，我又阅读了演出节目单上同一文本的英文译文。虽然我不懂拉丁文，但这学期选修的法语课程，让我对其句法和意义的理解比仅凭英语时略清晰一些。
因此，作为一个具备多语言背景的外语学习者，我自然对《安魂曲》在我自身文化语境中的翻译产生了浓厚兴趣。我希望通过翻译的透镜，向西方读者展现一丝中文的魅力。尽管拉丁文与中文差异巨大，但中国特定的文学传统与翻译背景，能够弥合语言间的鸿沟，促成东西方文化间的宗教交流。
不可否认，由于拉丁文的句法结构和语音特质，将其翻译成另一种语言面临着巨大挑战。此处，句法指句中词语的语法排列，语音则指语言中的声音研究。例如，“Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine”意为“求主赐予他们永恒的安息”。形容词“aeternam”（永恒的）置于其所修饰的名词“requiem”（安息）之后；而整个宾语（永恒的安息）又位于动词“dona”（赐予）之前。这类倒装结构对营造经文的神圣氛围至关重要。若此句以“dona”开头，其语气将缺乏谦卑感，而这正是对上帝的恳求。
另一例是“quia pius es”，意为“因你是仁慈的”。实际上，此行并无表示“你”的词汇，此信息是通过动词“es”（是）的第二人称变位隐含的。类似的模式在法语中亦可见到，其不同的动词变位对应不同人称。但对于非罗曼语系的使用者而言，这种复杂的变位系统不易理解。
此外，拉丁文错综复杂的词汇体系，使得在保持原有风格和意义的同时进行翻译尤为困难。例如，“saeclum”与“mundus”皆意为“世界”，但在语境中存在细微差别。最关键的问题还在于诸如“Domine Jesu Christe”（主耶稣基督）之类的宗教词汇。它们承载着深厚的文化和历史背景，几乎无法在其他语言中找到完全对等的表达。将这些概念介绍给非天主教世界的人们，是一项艰巨的工作。
然而，得益于中国深厚的文化底蕴和译者的专业素养，将《安魂曲》地道地译为中文是可能的。在某些方面，中文甚至可能出乎意料地比欧洲语言做得更好。其一，在《安魂曲》中，音节计数对保持音乐性至关重要，而这同样是中国古典诗歌的重要关注点。《安魂曲》中许多诗行每行有八个音节，如“Dies irae dies illa”（震怒之日）。而在中国最早的诗歌总集《诗经》中，每行常由两个四字短语构成，这与《安魂曲》的音韵特点几乎一致。如《诗经》中著名的《关雎》：“关关雎鸠，在河之洲……”以下是该诗一段的英译：
关关雎鸠，在河之洲。
窈窕淑女，君子好逑。
参差荇菜，左右流之。
窈窕淑女，寤寐求之。
运用重复是拉丁文与中文诗歌的另一相似之处，从上诗可见一斑。在连续的诗节中，某些诗行和短语会逐字重复，如“窈窕贤淑女子”。同样，“Requiem aeternam dona eis”（赐予他们永恒的安息）也多次出现。此外，除了重复部分，某些短语在各节间又有变化。上诗中，“窈窕淑女”之后的诗句随诗意发展而变化，描绘了君子追求淑女日益增长的情思。这种模式在《羔羊经》等经文也有所体现：
天主羔羊，除免世罪者，求赐他们安息。
天主羔羊，除免世罪者，求赐他们永恒的安息。
第二节仅重复前节，唯增“永恒的”一词，从而表达了祈求者的情感。因此，当我阅读拉丁文《安魂曲》时，能感受到一种奇妙的熟悉感，因为这首古老圣歌之下流淌的文学传统，与我自身的文化背景产生了共鸣。
翻译的传统也有助于中国人更好地理解神学概念。中文中存在一套专门用于宗教语言的独特词汇和翻译方法。我仍记得童年时初次瞥见《圣经》的感觉。在《创世记》中，经文写道：“地是空虚混沌，渊面黑暗；神的灵运行在水面上。”首句被译为两个四字词，契合古汉语的音韵美感，从而确立了《圣经》的史诗风格。因中国神话中亦有天地混沌之说，此叙述对我而言显得自然而贴切。接着，我被第二句吸引，其中“灵”字采用单字直译，未加额外解释。现代汉语偏好双字名词以明晰意义，而古汉语为求简练则常用单字。因此，此句中出现了一种时代距离感，暗示了上帝的神秘。
我不禁赞叹如此流畅、不着痕迹的译法，能将读者不知不觉带入宗教世界。正是这种对中文文学传统的精深掌握，促进了人们对宗教的理解。因此，大多数中国人对耶稣、玛利亚等宗教名称并不陌生。尽管许多人并无宗教信仰，也不熟悉《圣经》故事，但因西方宗教优美的本土化译介，他们学会了尊重外来宗教。这对翻译《安魂曲》这类宗教文学作品大有裨益。
回顾之下，我发现拉丁文《安魂曲》的中文译本在某些方面确实很好地展现了上述优势。各章节标题的翻译尤为精美。例如，第一首诗歌的名称“Introitus”被译为三字“进堂咏”，字面意为“进入圣堂之歌”。其他标题亦多用三字译出，整齐典雅，充分体现了中文的表达能力。同时，主体经文的翻译仍有改进空间。目前该诗歌尚无标准的中文译本，一些视频中的中文字幕也欠佳。例如，“将我置于你的右手”这样的句子仅以平白语言直译，缺乏神圣感，也未能对“右手”的隐含意义进行必要解释。我期待能有由专业译者呈现的、如同中文《圣经》那般地道的译本。
为何宗教文本的翻译如此重要？鉴于天主教徒在中国属于少数群体，即便在西方国家，如今信徒也越来越少，《安魂曲》是否依然重要？我的答案是肯定的。我相信，宗教与艺术和文学一样，在跨文化交流中扮演着关键角色。人们是否信仰该宗教并非核心；重要的是人们是否对宗教持有包容态度。在健康的社会氛围中，人们不会仅仅因为外来宗教与本土文化的世界观不同，就对其抱持排斥或敌意。人们会对不同的宗教感到好奇，愿意探索各种看待世界的体系。而要激发这种兴趣，译者能否出色地将宗教内容融入当地文化至关重要。试想，若《圣经》的中译未曾运用那些精妙的翻译技巧，缺乏史诗般的神圣风格，人们或许只会将其视为一部拙劣的小说，并将天主教视为异端。
此外，研习外来文化能深化人们对自身文明的理解。正是在见识了多样的世界观之后，我们才更能辨识自身文化的独特之处，从而找到自己在这个世界上的位置。对于中国民众而言，接触天主教或其他任何宗教，都有助于拓宽视野。他们可以汲取外来宗教与本土智慧（如佛教和儒家思想）的精华。总之，多元的宗教体验能丰富一个人作为地球居民的生命内涵。
综上所述，中文拥有适宜宗教翻译的丰厚土壤，使《安魂曲》的优美翻译成为可能。译者应为公众提供更专业的中文译本。通过聚焦拉丁文《安魂曲》的翻译，我们不仅在探讨一个语言与文学的议题，更是在推动丰富我们每个人的跨文化交流。中国学者费孝通先生关于文化之美的论述，恰如其分地描绘了我们的期望：“各美其美，美人之美，美美与共，天下大同。”
是不是直接跳到这里了？别说英文版了，中文版都看着费劲是吧？我也是。
所以，大家的娃现在作文水平你看不上也不用着急，等他开窍了，写出来的东西哪怕全是汉字你也看不懂的，迟到的开窍也是开窍。我老公40了还没开窍，我也不急。
热门跟贴