《三体》翻译中文本的“声音”：科幻翻译的伦理探讨 = THE “VOICE” IN THE TRANSLATION OF THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM: EXPLORING THE ETHICAL ISSUES REGARDING SCIENCE FICTION TRANSLATION

Abstract

Ethical issues concerning the use of machine translation (MT) in literary translation have been widely discussed in translation studies. Previous research such as Chesterman’s (2001) models of translation ethics primarily focuses on the actions of the translator (Kenny, 2011). Recent scholarship has extended to investigate the way in which MT can compromise the ethics of communication (Taivalkoski-Shilov, 2019; Kenny, 2011; Melby & Warner, 1995), paying special attention to the ethical dimension of the use of MT in literary translation. This research line highlights the role of other stakeholders (authors, publishers, and readers) who actively participate in the translation process (Kenny, 2011; Taivalkoski-Shilov, 2019).However, the ethical question of to what extent the author’s voice may be affected by human translators and MT has remained largely under-explored. In translation studies, some scholars (Folkart, 1996; Alvstad et. Al, 2017). Taivalkoski-Shilov (2019) have examined ethical issues pertaining to the concept of voice in translation, with reference to the comparison between human translators and the MT. For this present study, I adopt Folkart’s (1996, p.127) definition that voice is “a cluster of textual features that gives the impression of being attributable to a single source of enunciation” to further examine the way in which the voice of the author is presented in human-produced and machine-assisted translations, respectively. Chesterman’s (2001) ethical models serve as a point of departure for this study. Liu Ci Xin’s science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem (《三体》, san ti) is analyzed as an example of human translation, which is then triangulated with two different versions of machine translations produced by Google Translate and DeepL, respectively.