翻译中的所谓“真值共享”(shared values)论指译者将一切语句的是非问题依附于原文,原文对也译,不对也照译不误,文责概由原文作者自负,译者可以“稳做姜太公”。“真值共享”论显然不是一种完全站得住脚的翻译价值观。我们需要的是自己的逻辑分析,而不是唯文本论、唯原作者是从。
其实,原文之“责”由原文作者自负在大多数情况下确属必须而且必然。译者只是原意的转达者,不是加工创制者。我们只负责如实达意传情。
这里的问题是一、要不要对读者负责?二、要不要对自己负责?如果以讹传讹,那就不仅害了读者,也贻害本人、贻害翻译的社会声誉和读者对翻译的信赖。
这方面例子很多。例如,译者很可能在一首诗中遇到这样一节诗——他显然会处在两难境地,因为诗中充满了逻辑问题——也可以说是“无稽之谈”:
At anchor laid, remote from home,
Toiling,I cry,"Sweet Spirit,come!
Celestial breeze, no longer stay,
But swell my sails, and speed my way!
Fain would I mount, fain would I glow,
And loose my cable from below:
But I can only spread my sail;
Thou, thou must breathe th'auspicious gale."
下面是一位批评家对诗人的质问:
…On which(指上一节诗)a writer in Spurgeon's Sword and Trowel, April, 1865,observes:"This sweet hymn by Toplady(指上一节诗的作者)is a singular mass of muddled metaphors. Why should mariners at anchor toil? Why should they lie at anchor when wishing for a gale? How can a ship mount? How can it glow? Does the poet wish to perish like the ill-fated 'Amazon'"?