《洛丽塔》作者纳博科夫也是一翻译家，比如他翻译过《叶甫盖尼·奥涅金》。1941年，他在《新共和》上发表了一篇关于翻译艺术的文章，第一段是这样的：

Two grades of evil can be discerned in the queer world of verbal transmigration. The first, and lesser one, comprises obvious errors due to ignorance or misguided knowledge. This is mere human frailty and thus excusable. The next step to Hell is taken by the translator who intentionally skips words or passages that he does not bother to understand or that might seem obscure or obscene to vaguely imagined readers; he accepts the blank look that his dictionary gives him without any qualms; or subjects scholarship to primness: he is as ready to know less than the author as he is to think he knows better. The third, and worst, degree of turpitude is reached when a masterpiece is planished and patted into such a shape, vilely beautified in such a fashion as to conform to the notions and prejudices of a given public. This is a crime, to be punished by the stocks as plagiarists were in the shoebuckle days.

翻译关于翻译的文字是很恐怖的事情，就好像是戏中戏，所以这里恕不献丑，只说个大意了：

纳博科夫在这里称，不好的翻译第一是无知，或一时理解错误，但他认为无知者无罪，人谁没个理解错误的时候？人性如此，尚可原谅。

第二种，属译者无信，遇到一些问题自行决断，或跳过不译，或是觉得隐晦或淫秽，故而自我审查，给删除掉，或是不作调研，藏于作者身后，自甘无知。

前面两种在翻译的各样批评里大家看到的都不少，但是第三种缺陷，却往往被不能通晓外文的读者当作优点。唯独在会一点鉴赏的读者，或是从事翻译很久的译者自己，才会看出这一风格的不妥。

这第三个毛病是什么呢？是译者无骨，或曰媚俗，以特定读者群的观点和偏见为准，将一作品捶捶打打，磨平其棱角，以致看似文笔漂亮，实属油滑。前几天在网上看到周作人评丰子恺译《源氏物语》，其中便提到了这一风格的祸害：“丰子恺文只是很漂亮，滥用成语，不顾与原文空气相合与否，此上海派手法也。文洁若予以校正，但恨欠少，其实此译根本不可用。”

我想还可以补充一点，无知无信无骨兼而有之，则属无良。分享到网易微博