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Rescued into Extinction? The Case of the Naxi Texts in Translation
2016 / 2017 School of Chinese Research Student Seminar
在搶救中消亡? 談納西經文之翻譯
Rescued into Extinction? The Case of the Naxi Texts in Translation
Duncan Poupard
November 18, 2016 (Friday): 5:30-6:45pm
Room 730, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU
Language: English
翻譯若其對象為少數民族文本，以雲南麗江盆地之納西東巴文為例，便成為一種民族誌，更確切地說，為一種文化表述。建立民族誌與翻譯兩種活動之間的聯繫意味著我們所關注的不僅僅是文本如何被翻譯（例如被譯成中文或英文），更是翻譯過程本身對該文化的意義。中國視東巴文化及其文本傳統為其非物質文化遺產，且是一種瀕臨滅絕而亟待“搶救”之遺產。翻譯真能超越文本而搶救其文化嗎？或許“搶救”已預設了會有得以穩定地傳承下去的翻譯定本的存在？但假若沒有固定的原文與定本翻譯，且中西方人類學譯者並未考慮到此可能性，情況將是怎樣呢？換言之，“誰來搶救搶救者？”這將是本演講欲探究的問題。
Translation—when dealing with ethnic minority texts such as those of the Naxi Dongba, from the Lijiang basin in Yunnan—is a form of anthropology, specifically the writing of a culture. Establishing this link between the acts of ethnography and translation means that we are not just asking how texts are translated (into Chinese, into English), but what the process means for the culture in question. China has enshrined Dongba culture and the textual traditions of its 300,000 people as part of its intangible cultural heritage, a heritage which must be “rescued” because it is in danger of going extinct. Can translation go beyond the text and rescue a culture? Perhaps “rescue” presupposes the possibility of a final translation, an accepted version which can be safely passed down. But what if there is no fixed source text and no fixed copy, and the Chinese and Western anthropological translators have failed to hold their translations accountable to this possibility? In other words, “Who will rescue the rescuer?” This talk seeks to answer the question.
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