最早见到霍克思的大名David Hawkes是在他所译的楚辞(Ch'u Tz'u: the Songs of the South, 1959)上,在他所译的杜诗(A Little Primer of Tu Fu, 1967)上,最后才是企鹅版《红楼梦》译本,陈先生从香港寄到美国给我的。那是上世纪八十年代初。
企鹅版的《红楼梦》选译了这本小说原来的名字,The Story of the Stone,即《石头记》。共五册。换言之,书名依脂本,内容却是一百二十回。不过,霍克思只译了曹雪芹的前八十回,高鹗所补的后四十回由闵福德续译而成。霍氏译文在一九七三、一九七七、一九八〇年分三册出版,每一册有个副题。第一册是头二十六回,霍氏所译题曰:The Golden Days(红楼日月),第二册由二十七回到五十三回,曰:The Crab-Flower Club(海棠诗社),第三册题曰:The Warning Voice(异兆悲音)。这副题是霍氏的发明。而除了最后一册外,其他各册的最后一句都是请读者“wait for the next volume”,也就是“且待下册”,这是从“且待下回分解”转化而来,自然也是他的发明。
这样一部小说经典,学术上要解决的问题殊多,翻译所面临的困难自是不言而喻。对译者而言,这已不止能力与勇气,而是坚忍。想象不出来四十年前他是如何着手翻译的。霍克思《〈红楼梦〉英译笔记》(The Story of the Stone: A Translator's Notebooks)的出版绝对是千禧年最可纪念的一件事。
Bao-yu was wearing a little silver coronet on the top of his head and a silver headband round his brow in the form of two dragons emerging from the sea. He had on a narrow-sleeved, full-shirted robe of white material and a silver belt inlaid with pearls.37
第三回中的宝玉
The young gentleman…had a small jewelencrusted gold coronet on the top of his head and a golden headband low down over his brow in the form of two dragons playing with a large pearl. He was wearing a narrow-sleeved, full-skirted robe of dark red material with a pattern of flowers and butterflies in two shades of gold. It was confined at the waist with a court girdle of coloured silks braided at regular intervals into elaborate clusters of knotwork and terminating in long tassels.38