从总的趋势来看，翻译越来越倾向于译文的可接受性(TLT acceptability)，这一趋势在下一个世纪将变得愈来愈明显，并将深深影响翻译实践和翻译研究。十九世纪以前盛行的但至今并未绝迹的文人书斋体（式）翻译，将真正成为历史陈迹，代之而起的是清新活泼、欣畅悦人（既悦耳又悦目）的翻译文风。

其实熟谙读者心态的十七世纪末英国诗人、剧作家、文艺批评家兼翻译家德莱登早就描写过那种不顾读者、只顾自己的唯美主义乌托邦文人译者(他举出Ben Johnson之译Horace为例）的窘态：

In short, the verbal copier is encumbered with so many difficulties at once, that he can never disentangle himself from all. He is to consider, at the same time, the thought of his author, and his words, and to find out the counterpart to each in another language; and, besides this, he is to confine himself to the compass of numbers, and the slavery of rhyme. "Tis much like dancing on ropes with fettered legs: a man may shun a fall by using caution; but the gracefulness of motion is not to be expected: and when we have said the best of it, 'tis but a foolish task; for no sober man would put himself into a danger for the applause of escaping without breaking his neck. We see Ben Johnson could not avoid obscurity in his literal translation of Horace, attempted in the same compass of lines.

当然，所谓“读者接受”应该从两方面看。其一是读者总是乐于接受洋溢着本国语文的欣畅与清新气息的翻译作品，这是自不待言的。我们的翻译界前辈和翻译理论界、批评界也一直在努力引导译者尊重本国读者的民族性审美倾向。就此而言，在语言交际中，交流效果得以保证的重要条件是符合民族审美心理和倾向，即所谓“喜闻乐见”。

然而，我们常常忽视的是“读者接受”还有另外一面。那就是广义的“喜闻乐见”。特别是在艺术的精神诉求方而更是如此。读者审美倾向具有一种以多层次、多维度、非单一诉求为特点的进取性发展趋势：在新的世纪中，情形预料更加如此；因为文化多元化肯定会使读者的审美倾向日趋多元化。清新、健康甚至奇特的异域色彩和异域情调对读者的吸引力同样也是不可忽视的。人的审美心理和文化心理具有“趋异性”。这个问题西班牙的哲学家兼翻译理论家加塞特（Jose Ortega Y.Gasset)有过如下一段阐述，很值得我们参考：

It is clear that a country's reading public do not appreciate a translation made in the style of their own language. For this they have more than enough native authors. What is appreciated is the inverse: carrying the possibilities of their language to the extreme of the intelligible so that the ways of speaking appropriate to the translated author seem to cross into theirs. The German versions of my books are a good example of

this. In just a few years, there have been more than fifteen editions. This would be inconceivable if one did not attribute four-fifths of the credit to the success of the translation. And it is successful because my translator has forced the grammatical tolerance of the German language to its limits in order to carry over precisely what is not German in my way of speaking. In this way, the reader effortlessly makes mental turns that are Spanish. He relaxes a bit and for a while is amused at being another.

这是人类文化进步以及日益趋向多元化必然带来的可喜现象，而且这种发展倾向是人的意志或人为干预阻挡不住的。其实，正如加塞特所说的，这不仅仅是一个翻译文风问题，还涉及到语言的多元化演变这一令人神往的问题。

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