The Old Blog Archive (Traditional Chinese), 2004-2009

亂讀古書的好處之一……

就是知道,原來某些胡扯瞎扯的技倆,是有古人背書的(蒙田《散文集》第2冊第12章):

我曾在義大利時建議某個人,既然他非常努力想學義大利文,卻僅僅只是需要被瞭解,又不期望有什麼特出成就的話,他實在只要使用任何他信手捻來的字就好了,管它是拉丁文、法文、西班牙文還是加斯孔方言,只要加上義大利文字尾就成,而且這樣絕對正好會搭上某種義大利方言的說法,諸如托斯卡納、羅馬、威尼斯、皮耶德蒙或是拿坡里,而且在各種文法組合裡,總會用到一個對的。

1595年版的蒙田原文:

Je conseillois en Italie à quelqu’un qui estoit en peine de parler Italien, que pourveu qu’il ne cherchast qu’à se faire entendre, sans y vouloir autrement exceller, qu’il employast seulement les premiers mots qui luy viendroyent à la bouche, Latins, François, Espagnols, ou Gascons, et qu’en y adjoustant la terminaison Italienne, il ne faudroit jamais à rencontrer quelque idiome du pays, ou Thoscan, ou Romain, ou Venetien, ou Piemontois, ou Napolitain, et de se joindre à quelqu’une de tant de formes.

1603年版的英譯:

I perswaded somebody in Italy, who laboured very much to speak Italian, that always provided he desired but to be understood, and not to seek to excell others therein, he should onely imploy and use such words as came first to his mouth, whether they were Latine, French, Spanish, or Gascoine, and that adding the Italian terminations unto them, he should never misse to fall upon some idiome of the countrie, either Tuscan, Roman, Venetian, Piemontoise, or Neapolitan; and amongst so many severall formes of speech to take hold of one.

我也來學舌來個仿古版(不負任何責任):

嘗經意大利阿,余曉義于人曰,君習所謂意語者,求人能解爾,既不奢精進,果然,則不假思索脫口出者可也,諸若剌丁語、法語、西語,乃至喀思孔鄉音,便附以意語詞尾,誰曰不宜;有甚者,大凡經此而出,竟能射方言諸端於其一,則托思喀吶、羅馬、維尼思、辟琊德蒙、拿珀里者,句法雖眾,要言不離其宗也。

嗯,應該要有張同樣仿古的《蒙氏泰西遊記》插圖才對……

5 Responses to “亂讀古書的好處之一……”

  1. on 22 Nov 2005 at 05:33vanvan

    有趣,有趣!

  2. on 22 Nov 2005 at 22:27Dr Kaihsu Tai

    Yes, I haue been using this technique and indeed was introducing it to a recent acquaintance.

    By the way, “Guid tae see ye at the Scots Wikipaedia, the first encyclopaedia in the Scots leid!” http://sco.wikipedia.org/

    Also see: http://europa.eu.int/languages/

  3. on 23 Nov 2005 at 00:45Dr Kaihsu Tai

    I think Dario Fo drew on the dialectal diversity in Italy as he was trying to emulate how itinerant storytellers go from one village to another, repeating the same narrative in different tongues, similar to what the passage cited was talking about. I think the Fo book in English translation I read had someone trying to translate a bit in Scots; and that inspired me to try doing it in Hakka….

  4. on 29 Nov 2005 at 11:09Kuang Qi

    Good blog site..go to here by an unintentional google search from Guangzhou, Mainland.

  5. on 02 Dec 2005 at 19:33Dr Kaihsu Tai

    Dario for mayor!