《文赋》英译始于20世纪40年代,目前已有八个重要英文全译本。本文基于知识翻译学提出的“以真求知”“以善立义”和“以美行文”的翻译标准,对同为旅美华人离散译者的陈世骧与方志彤的《文赋》两个英文全译本在词汇、句法、修辞和语篇四个层面进行对比分析,以探寻两英译本在“真、善、美”三个层面的实现程度。研究发现,陈世骧旨在向西方传播其“中国文学抒情传统”论这一中国古代文论知识话语,同时受其“诗体翻译”思想影响,其译本主要采用归化策略,整体上兼具“真、善、美”特征。方志彤旨在向美国文学界传播原汁原味的魏晋文论知识,受其忠实翻译观影响,其译本以异化策略为主,体现出对原文文论知识的求“真”,但在“善”与“美”两方面则稍逊色于陈译本。两英译本均对中国古代文论知识话语的世界性重构做出了贡献。

The English translation of Wen Fu commenced in the 1940s. Insofar, there have been 8 important English translations. Based on the criteria of “seeking knowledge with truth, determining theme with kindness, and writing with aesthetic feeling” in transknowletology, this paper conducts a comparative study of the two full English translations by Shih-hsiang Chen and Achilles Fang, both of whom are Chinese diasporic translators in the United States, on the four levels of vocabulary, syntax, rhetoric, and discourse, in order to explore the realization of the three aspects of “seeking knowledge with truth, determining theme with kindness, and writing with aesthetic feeling”. The paper reveals that Shih-hsiang Chen aims to spread his concept of Lyricism of Chinese literature to western countries, and influenced by his thought of “poetic translation”, his version mostly adopts domestication strategy, which generally realizes “seeking knowledge with truth, determining theme with kindness, and writing with aesthetic feeling”. Achilles Fang aims to spread the original knowledge of literary theory in Wei-Jin period to the American literary circle, and influenced by his thought of faithful translation, his version mostly adopts foreignization strategy, which mainly reflects the pursuit of “seeking true knowledge” of literary theory in the original text, but it is slightly less satisfactory than Shih-hsiang Chen’s version in “determining theme with kindness” and “writing with aesthetic feeling”. Both translations have made considerable contributions to the global reconstruction of the discourse of ancient Chinese literary criticism.