对ChatGPT汉英译跨文化交际能力的考察
文/冯雷
智能聊天机ChatGPT问世以来,人们尝试用它做很多事情:编故事、作诗文、学外语、译文本等等,它的表现有时让人啧啧称奇,有时却显得离奇不靠谱。本文以沈从文小说《边城》为例,请它(3.5免费版)通过翻译含有中国特色词汇的语段和句子,观察训练它的英文语料库中中国文化知识储备情况和翻译这些词汇的方法,分析它的跨文化意识。本节所选例句来自小说的前两章。
作为对比,每条原文提供三种译文,两种机器译文和一种人工译文,机器译1取自提供给ChatGPT的整段文本,译2由只提供它含有中国文化特色词的孤立句子生成;人工译3来自汉学家Jeffery C. Kinkley的英文译本Border Town (2009, HarperCollins) 。
一、“里”的译法
例一
原文:小溪流下去,绕山岨流,约三里便汇入茶峒的大河。
译1.The stream flows onward, winding around the mountain’s rugged terrain, and after about three miles, it merges with the river near Chadou.
译2.The small stream flows down, winding around the mountain rocks, and after about threeli, it merges into the main river near Chadong.
译3.As the stream meandered on, it wrapped around a low mountain, joining a wide river at Chadong some three li(斜体)downstream, about a mile.
译1把“里”直接译为mile,显然是错的。此外,“茶峒”的拼音也不对。这两个错误可能是因一次性处理的文本较大造成。译2是提供给它的单句翻译,这两处译得没有问题。译3在译成li之后,加了about a mile,是给读者的解释。此例说明,人工翻译有较强的跨文化交际意识,机器没有。
二、“丈”的译法
例二
原文:小溪宽约二十丈,河床为大片石头作成。
译1.The stream spans about twenty yards wide, with a riverbed made of large rocks.
译2.The small stream is about twenty zhang wide, and its riverbed is made up of large rocks.
译3.The stream was about twenty zhang(斜体)wide—two hundred feet—over a streambed of boulders.
此例和例一的情况如出一辙。译1用yard译“丈”,长度不匹配,一码(yard)约等于1米,而一丈相当于3.33米。译2是用拼音直译,没错,但没做解释。译3加了two hundred feet说明二十丈,使读者大致了解“丈”的长度。
三、“粉条”的译法
例三
原文:到了卖杂货的铺子里,有大把的粉条,大缸的白糖,有炮仗,有红蜡烛,莫不给翠翠很深的印象,回到祖父身边,总把这些东西说个半天。
译1.Inside the general store, there were heaps ofnoodles, large jars of white sugar, fireworks, and red candles, leaving a deep impression on Cuicui. She’d return to Grandpa, talking about these things for hours.
译2.When they arrived at the grocery store, there were bundles of noodles, large jars of white sugar, firecrackers, and red candles. All these left a deep impression on Cuicui, and when she returned to her grandfather’s side, she would talk about these things for half a day.
译3.What she would see in the general store—big piles of thin noodles made from bean starch, giant vats of sugar, firecrackers, and red candles—made a deep impression on her. When she got back to her grandfather, she’d go on about them endlessly.
译1和译2都简单译成”noodles”,没区别“粉条”和“面条”,可能训练它的语料库里“粉条”的对应英文只是noodles。译3译得比较细致:thin noodles made from bean starch,但需要注意的是thin,或许译者只见过“细粉条”,没见过“粗粉条”。
四、“钱”和“斗”的译法
例四:
原文:有人心中不安,抓了一把钱掷到船板上时,管渡船的必为一一拾起,依然塞到那人手心里去,俨然吵嘴时的认真神气:“我有了口粮,三斗米,七百钱,够了。谁要这个!”
译1.Yet, when someone, feeling uneasy, throwsmoney onto the boat’s deck, the ferryman inevitably retrieves it and firmly places it back in the person’s hand, with a stern and earnest expression: “I have enough food and seven hundred coins; that’s sufficient.”
译2.“When someone felt unsettled in their heart, tossing a handful of money onto the boat plank, the ferryman would invariably pick it up and still stuff it back into that person’s palm, appearing earnestly serious as if arguing: ‘I’ve got provisions, three bushels of rice, seven hundred coins, enough. Who needs this!'”
译3.Some passengers were a little uneasy about this. When someone grabbed a few coins and threw them down on the boat deck, the ferryman always picked them up, one by one, and pressed them back into the hands of the giver, saying, in a stern, almost quarrelsome voice, “I’m proud for my work: three pecks of rice and seven hundred coppers. That’s enough for me. Who needs this charity?”
“钱”,译1和译2分别译成money和coins;译3译为coins和coppers。coppers是铜线,可包含于coins但比coins更廉价,此处可看出译者的心思。旧时的容量单位“斗”,译1没有译出,译2为bushels of,译3用了pecks of。根据实际容量,似乎pecks of更接近原文。一个bushel相当于四个pecks。
五、“吊脚楼”的译法
例五:
原文:贯串各个码头有一条河街,人家房子多一半着陆,一半在水,因为余地有限,那些房子莫不设有吊脚楼。
译1.Connecting the various docks is a river street, where houses are built partly on land and partly over the water due to limited space, all withoverhanging floors.
译2.Connecting various docks is a river street, where houses are mostly half on land and half over water. Due to limited space, these houses are all equipped with overhanging buildings.
译3.Threading through each of the wharves was River Street. Land was scarce, so most people’s houses were “dangling-foot houses,” half on land, half on stilts built over the water.
译1和译2均采用意译,用overhanging,楼分别用了floors和buildings。译3采用直译,加了引号“dangling-foot houses,”试图保留原文的形象。前两章还出现了两次吊脚楼,第二次出现时,译3译成stilt houses,第三次出现译为dangling-foot houses,没加引号。
六、“岳云”的译介
例六:
原文:傩送美丽得很,茶峒船家人拙于赞扬这种美丽,只知道为他取出一个诨名为“岳云”。虽无什么人亲眼看到过岳云,一般的印象,却从戏台上小生岳云,得来一个相近的神气。
译1.Nuosong was exceptionally beautiful, praised by the folks in Cha Tao for this beauty, known only by the nickname “Yueyun”. Though few had seen Yueyun in person, the general impression was derived from a young actor named Yueyun on the theater stage, which gave a somewhat similar aura.
译2.Nuosong is very beautiful, but the boatmen in Chadong are not adept at praising this beauty; they only knew to give it a nickname, ‘Yueyun.’ Although few have seen Yueyun with their own eyes, the general impression derives a similar aura from the stage character ‘Yueyun,’ a young actor.
译3.Nuosong was exquisitely handsome. The boat people of Chadong were hard put to find words for his good looks. The best they could come up with was the nickname Yue Yun. None of them had ever seen Yun Yun, that most handsome warrior of the Song dynasty a thousand years earlier, but they thought they saw a resemblance to the dashing Yue Yun figure who appeared onstage in local opera.
译1把岳云拼写成Yueyun,说明它不清楚名和姓,此外,它再次把“茶峒”写错了,这次写成Cha Tao,说明它对“峒”的读音不熟悉。译2也拼写成一个单词,但拼写对了Chadong。两种译文都没有对岳云做过多介绍。我尝试问它,但从它的回答看,它训练的语料库中没有关于岳云的背景知识:
“Yueyun” is a name mentioned in the text, but it doesn’t refer to a specific individual. In this context, it’s used as a nickname or a moniker given to something (presumably a beautiful aspect of the Nuo opera) by the boatmen in Chadong. The text implies that while “Yueyun” is praised or mentioned by the locals, few have actually witnessed or seen what or who “Yueyun” is, but it carries a sense of beauty or an impression similar to a character from a stage play named “Yueyun.”
译3直接在文中插入了关于岳云的背景知识:that most handsome warrior of the Song dynasty a thousand years earlier,而不是作为注解,再次说明译者理解读者的知识结构,想通过译文跨越文化障碍。
小结:ChatGPT在翻译大量文本时,在速度上有很大优势。向它提供的文本短,它翻译的准确率会提高。在处理文化特色词上,ChatGPT的译文质量,基本由自身语料库对应词的有无和对应词的准确度决定。在跨文化交际意识上,如果不做特别要求,ChatGPT目前尚不具备这样的意识。即便提出要求,如果它语料库中没有,它也无法提供帮助,或者通过“编故事”误导。因此,在使用它进行辅助翻译时,文化特色词汇需译者重点关注。