《紅樓夢》作為中國文學的代表作能夠走向世界，為西方讀者所了解，主要歸功于四位譯者：大衛(wèi)·霍克斯、約翰·閔福德和楊憲益、戴乃迭。前兩位是師生兼翁婿，后兩位則是夫妻。這兩對組合分別于上世紀七、八十年代將《紅樓夢》譯成英文，讓外國讀者能夠走進大觀園，一窺這座奇?zhèn)ス妍惖奈膶W寶庫。

大衛(wèi)·霍克斯【圖片來源：www.cuhk.edu.hk】

　　霍克斯是英國人，漢學家，1948年-1951年曾就讀于北京大學，回國后任教于牛津大學中文系。1970年，霍克斯開始翻譯《紅樓夢》。這是一項開天辟地的工程，為此，霍克斯辭去了牛津大學中文系的教職，全心全意地投入了翻譯工作，直到1980年，才將《紅樓夢》的前八十回（曹雪芹著）譯竟出版。曹雪芹寫作《紅樓夢》，“披閱十載，增刪五次”；霍克斯翻譯《紅樓夢》，同樣歷時十年。曹雪芹為寫《紅樓夢》，貧困潦倒，舉家食粥；霍克斯為譯《紅樓夢》，一度生活窘迫，曾經(jīng)想找一個送牛奶的工作貼補家用，當?shù)昀习宓弥桥＝虼髮W的教授，卻以“學術(shù)背景過高，不適合此項工作”為由婉拒了他?？磥?，成就大事者，必經(jīng)艱苦磨礪，古今同理，中外皆然。

　　翻譯《紅樓夢》，困難重重。首先遇到的障礙就是“甄（真）”與“賈（假）”、夢境與現(xiàn)實以及大量隱喻、諧音的處理?！都t樓夢》雖然是文學創(chuàng)作，但所記之事，不僅是作者親身經(jīng)歷，而且又有很多情節(jié)涉及到皇家，因此，作者不得不隱去真名，借女媧補天的故事，引出通靈寶玉的前世今生。曹雪芹在小說中反復使用寫“夢”的手法，拉開故事情節(jié)與現(xiàn)實生活的距離，同時，又用大量的隱喻、暗示，包括人名和地名的諧音，將故事與真實聯(lián)系起來。書中第一回甄士隱在夢中見到“太虛幻境”石牌坊上的一副對聯(lián)：“假作真時真亦假，無為有處有還無(Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true, Real becomes not-real when the unreal's real.—霍克斯譯 When false is taken for true, true becomes false; If non-being turns into being, being becomes non-being.—楊憲益譯)”，似乎也是在提示讀者書中真實與虛構(gòu)的復雜關(guān)系。

　　《紅樓夢》第一回：

　　當日地陷東南，這東南一隅有處曰姑蘇，有城曰閶門者，最是紅塵中一二等富貴風流之地。這閶門外有個十里街，街內(nèi)有個仁清巷，巷內(nèi)有個古廟，因地方狹窄，人皆呼作葫蘆廟。廟旁住著一家鄉(xiāng)宦，姓甄，名費，字士隱。嫡妻封氏，性情賢淑，深明禮義。家中雖不十分富貴，然本地便也推他為望族了。因這甄士隱稟性恬淡，不以功名為念，每日只以觀花修竹、酌酒吟詩為樂，倒是神仙一流人品。只是一件不足：如今年已半百，膝下無兒，只有一女，乳名喚作英蓮，年方三歲。

　　這段文字看似平鋪直敘，卻大有深意。《紅樓夢》故事從這里拉開序幕，女媧補天剩下的那塊石頭（賈寶玉）、絳珠仙子（林黛玉）等一批癡男怨女均在這個時候投胎轉(zhuǎn)世，墜入紅塵，等待他們的是閶門（娼門）、十里街（勢利街）、仁清巷（人情巷）……俱是人間的煩惱苦難的根源。第一個出場的人物姓甄（真）名費（非）字士隱（事隱），既是真又是非，同時，還將“真事隱”了！

　　這樣一小段文字，就隱藏著這么多地名人名的諧音和隱喻，霍克斯會怎么處理呢？

　　他是這樣翻譯的：Long, long ago the world was tilted downwards towards the south-east; and in that lower-lying south-easterly part of the earth there is a city called Soochow; and in Soochow the district around the Chang-men Gate is reckoned one of the two or three wealthiest and most fashionable quarters in the world of men. Outside the Chang-men Gate is a wide thoroughfare called Worldly Way; and somewhere off Worldly Way is an area called Carnal Lane. There is an old temple in the Carnal Lane area which, because of the way it is bottled up inside a narrow cul-de-sac, is referred to locally as Bottle-gourd Temple. Next door to the Bottle-gourd Temple lived a gentleman of private means called Zhen Shi-yin and his wife Feng-she, a kind, good woman with a profound sense of decency and decorum. The household was not a particularly wealthy one, but they were nevertheless looked up to by all and sundry as the leading family in the neighborhood. Zhen Shi-yin himself was by nature a quiet and totally unambitious person. He devoted his time to his garden and to the pleasure of wine and poetry. Except for a single flaw, his existence could, indeed, have been described as an idyllic one. The flaw was that, although already past fifty, he had no son, only a little girl, just two years old, whose name was Ying-lian. 

　　霍克斯不愧是一位漢學家，他沒有采用音譯的辦法，而是用轉(zhuǎn)譯的手法，將“十里街”譯為Worldly Way, 意思是“勢利街”，將“仁清巷”譯為Carnal Lane, 意思是“世俗巷”。無論是什么靈石還是仙草，一旦墮入凡間，等待他們的不就是名韁利索和情怨苦恨嗎？這樣的翻譯，不僅保留了原意，而且還與作者“神合”，殊為不易。當然，也不是每一處諧音、隱喻和游戲筆墨都要直白譯出，如果將“閶門”譯成Brothel Gate，將甄士隱譯成Hidden Truth，反有過分之嫌。

　　霍克斯在英譯本的前言中也提到《紅樓夢》中的夢境：The idea that the worldling's ‘reality' is illusion and that life itself is a dream from which we shall eventually awake is of course a Buddhist one; but in Xueqin's hands it becomes a poetical means of demonstrating that his characters are both creatures of his imagination and at the same time the real companions of his golden youth.（佛教認為，一切俗世的“真實”皆為虛幻，人生只是一場終將醒來的夢。在曹雪芹的筆下，佛家的這種觀念卻變成了浪漫的寫作手法，作者年輕時的真實際遇與創(chuàng)作中的虛幻想象有機結(jié)合，難分彼此。）

　　對于書中的象征、隱喻和諧音，霍克斯是這樣理解的：......but many of the symbols, word-plays and secret patterns with which the novel abounds seem to be used out of sheer ebullience, as though the author was playing some sort of game with himself and did not much care whether he was observed or not.Many such subtleties will, I fear, have vanished in translation.My one abiding principle has been to translate EVERYTHING-even puns. For although this is, in the sense I have already indicated, an ‘unfinished'novel, it was written and rewritten by a great artist with his very lifeblood. I have therefore assumed that whatever I find in it is there for a purpose and must be dealt with somehow or other. I cannot pretend always to have done so successfully, but if I can convey to the reader even a fraction of the pleasure this Chinese novel has given me, I shall not lived in vain.（小說中頗多象征、隱喻及游戲筆墨，應(yīng)系作者興之所致，信手拈來，仿佛在與自己捉迷藏，至于是否有人觀看，他并不甚在意。但這些微妙含蓄之處，恐怕已在翻譯過程中消失殆盡了。我始終不渝的原則就是“全部”翻譯出來，即使是雙關(guān)語也要設(shè)法譯出。雖然這是一本未完成的小說，但卻是一位偉大的藝術(shù)家用生命之血寫成，所以，我認為小說里的內(nèi)容，不論是什么，必有其存在的目的，無論如何也要想辦法處理，不能刪減。我不能說自己做得有多么成功，但只要能夠?qū)⑦@本中國小說帶給我的快樂，哪怕是很小的一部分，傳遞給讀者，也算不虛此生了。）

　　霍克斯的擔心不是沒有道理，在語言轉(zhuǎn)換的過程中，最難處理的就是諧音之類的文字游戲了。英語中也常有這樣類似于腦筋急轉(zhuǎn)彎的話：He is a man of letters—he works in a post office. 就像中國的歇后語“肚皮上蓋章——印度”一樣，只可意會，一旦轉(zhuǎn)換成另一種語言，由諧音構(gòu)成的邏輯與幽默都不復存在了。連霍克斯這樣的大師級譯者尚存遺憾，足見翻譯之難。

　　霍克斯花費十年光陰翻譯《紅樓夢》，是中國文學外譯的精品，也是對中國文化的巨大貢獻，功德無量。后學晚輩，茶余飯后，換一種語言品讀紅樓，在兩種文字轉(zhuǎn)換之間體會語言文化的微妙，偶有心得，與朋友分享，也是人生一大樂趣。