日本人的吸收方式

∷林巍 文／译

原 文

[1]“日本人见好就学”，而且是以最简易和实用的方式，这是世人对日本人吸收外来文化和技术的基本态度和做法的评论。看看日本的文字和汽车，便会一目了然了。

[2] 日本的文字，由“汉字”、“平假名”、“片假名”组成， 看上去是拼凑起来的，很不统一；日本的汽车，更是“八国联军”，各显其能。

[3] 有一个历史故事：德国人第一次把汽车卖给日本人时，曾得意地说，不久日本人会发现我们的质量有多好，从而会大量订购的。但在久等不来之后，发现日本人已“照猫画虎”，造出了更为新颖的汽车，根本不用订购了。

[4] 就地理位置而言，日本列岛是中国和朝鲜半岛的近邻，从未受到过外来文化的侵略和征服，因而在吸取外来文化和科技时，具有很大的自主性。

[5] 中国文化对于日本文化固然有着巨大影响，但是日本吸收了中国的汉字、法律制度、儒教，却拒绝了不符合日本国情的宦官制度、科举制度及以儒教基本法则为准的“同姓不婚”制度。同样的，在吸收日本的佛教文化时，亦允许僧人娶妻、吃荤，形成了一种更为宽容的佛教文化。

[6] 在家畜饲养方面，日本人也没有学习中国人的阉割牲畜的技术。对于西方的先进性技术，日本在模仿、改造的基础上，将其制造得更加精细和廉价。所以，日本人对于外部世界的吸收方式是值得借鉴的。

译 文

[1] The statement that “Japanese will copy everything suitable to them” in a simpli fied and practical way may signify a popular view of Japanese attitude towards foreign cultures and technologies. Japanese writing characters and cars illustrate well this approach.

[2] The Japanese writing system borrows Kanji from Chinese, and creates Hiragana, Katakana characters of its own, with an inconsistent outlook; similarly Japanese cars are made of multinational ideas and advantages with appropriate modi fications.

[3] Here is a historical story: when Germen sold their first car to the Japanese, they were pretty much convinced that their partner would come back to them very soon with a bulk order based on the car’s high quality. However, they were very disappointed to find out that the Japanese had replicated their car with a slightly improved model, and consequently they didn’t need any order anymore.

[4] Geographically, Japan is located in between China and the Korean peninsula, a position immune from foreign invasion, capable of taking in foreign cultures and technologies with a high degree of autonomy.

[5] The Japanese adopted Chinese writing, legal system and Confucianism, but left the eunuch system,the imperial examination system, and “same surname marriage prohibition” of Confucian doctrine, which were deemed to be contradictory to Japanese culture. Similarly,when embracing Buddhism, the Japanese made it more tolerant religion by allowing monks to marry and eat meat.

[6] In breeding livestock, Japanese didn’t learn the techniques of castration from the Chinese either. Western advanced technologies, once imported to Japan, would all be copied and modi fied to make them finer and cheaper.There is surely something to be learnt from the Japanese way of taking in things from the outside world.

译 注

在[1]中，“见好就学”可译为 learn whatever is deemed to be good...，但此处针对日本人行事的特点，变通为“copy everything suitable to them”，其中的copy不是“复印”，而是动词“模仿”，如Jean always copies the way I dress （琼总是模仿我穿衣服的样子）。“一目了然”一般可译为clear at a glance，但这里其实是“充分说明”之意，故用了illustrate，其意为to clarify, as by use of examples or comparisons，显得更有分量。

在[2]中，“日本的文字，由‘汉字’、‘平假名’、‘片假名’组成”实际包含两层含义，即从中文借来的汉字和自己创造的平假名、片假名，故在译文中要有所体现，变通为borrows Kanji from Chinese, and creates Hiragana, Katakana characters of its own；“看上去是拼凑起来的，很不统一”，“拼凑”可译为put piece together; knock them together，但此处可与“不统一”合并，译为 with an inconsistent outlook，亦含其意；“八国联军”自然不是指历史上the Eight-Power Allied Forces (troops sent to China by eight western countries in 1900)，而是中国人的通俗说法，泛指多国强势，故用了multinational ideas and advantages，而“各显其能”实指善加利用，译为with appropriate modi fication，意指一种技术上的吸纳。

在[3]中，“得意地说”，这里不见得是 complacently said that，而是一种主观判断，故用了convince，其意为 to deeply believe to be so；由于日本是德国的生意伙伴，因而不妨将其译为partner；“照猫画虎”英文可为draw a tiger with a cat as a model; copy something without catching its spirit, copy in form but not in spirit等，这里可不必这样复杂，仅replicate即可，而所谓“新颖的汽车”，根据实情，译为a slightly improved model更加确切。

在[4]中，“从未受到过外来文化的侵略和征服”似可用...hasn’t been invaded and conquered by foreign cultures，但分析起来又非如此，虽然很受中国文化的影响，但并非“侵略和征服”，故这里不妨宽泛地理解为immune from foreign invasion；“具有很大的自主性”不妨译为介词短语with a high degree of autonomy，类似的还有“港人治港，高度自治”：Hong Kong people govern Hong Kong with a high degree of autonomy。

在[5]中，“吸收”常用的译语为absorb, take in, draw, assimilate 等，鉴于这里是指对文化的采纳，故可为adopt，而在“吸收佛教文化”时，则又用了embrace（或convert）以显其宗教色彩。至于“拒绝”，又并非一定要refuse，此处用了leave (left)，因该词除了其基本含义外，亦有不理不睬之意，如No one speaks to him, he’s always left out（没人跟他讲话，他总是被人冷落）等。

在[6]中，“对于西方的先进性技术”是介词短语结构，但在译文中可处理成主语，同时可增添once imported to Japan，使含义更为明确。“借鉴”一般情况下可译为 use for reference,draw lessons from, draw on the experience of... 等，而此处不妨简约为 learnt。