苗人古歌的記音與翻譯：歌師Sangt Jingb的手稿、知識與空間

簡美玲。〈苗人古歌的記音與翻譯：歌師Sangt Jingb的手稿、知識與空間〉。《民俗曲藝》183 (2014.3): 191-252。

Chien Mei-ling. “Transcription and Translation of Hmub Antique Songs: A Song Master’s Manuscript, Knowledge, Space and Landscape.” Journal of Chinese Ritual, Theatre and Folklore 183 (2014.3): 191-252.

Abstract

從Boas與Malinowski以來，在人類學家的民族誌研究與書寫，跨文化的知識建構就和翻譯有緊密關聯。每個跨文化民族誌工作，在方法論上也都是文化的翻譯。田野裡的文字工作除了翻譯，還有記音。語言人類學者指出，從記音、聽寫逐字稿，到翻譯的過程中，都有作者對於文化的建構。本文由一位黔東南苗族（Hmub）歌師所記音與翻譯的古歌手稿，探討知識的構成與苗人空間的文化展述。Sangt Jingb，一個歷經文化大革命，能寫苗文的歌師。1999–2000年，我在貴州田野，曾以學徒身分，跟他習古歌。歌師以十年時間將台江流傳的古歌分主題整理，寫成十二部手稿。《跋山涉水》（Nangx Eb Jit Bil）是第三部。這部二百頁手稿包括手繪圖、封面、內容提要、序文，以及手寫的141首短歌。近二千行歌句的古歌按照實際演唱形式來記錄，描述祖先由北方遷徙貴州的故事。每頁手稿左半部逐句記音與逐字苗漢對照，右半部將成句苗文譯成漢文。手稿的記音與翻譯，雖展現歌師對信、達、雅的追求，但也有一些翻譯文字出現的縫隙耐人尋味。譯文的變化展現出譯者意識與現身。本文以古歌文本與歌師生命史兩條軸線為分析基礎，討論苗人歌師手稿的記音與翻譯展現的傳統古歌與現代性並置的空間文化與知識，以及譯者、作者、編者與儀式專家多元身份的再現。

Following the legacy of Boas and Malinowski, ethnographic studies and writings are closely related to cross cultural construction of knowledge and cultural translation. Cultural translation is also embedded in the methodology of ethnography. Besides translation, there is also the task of transcription of the fieldwork. According to linguistic anthropologists, various versions of translation and transcription can be created or constructed from the sounds and voices. In line with such theoretical point of view this paper will explore the constitution of knowledge and the cultural space and landscape through the study of the manuscripts by an antique song master of the Hmub from Southeast Guizhou, and his transcription and translation works. Sangt Jingb, an educated song master of the Hmub, had experienced the Cultural Revolution in China and can write the Hmub language. I was learning Hmub antique songs from him for several months during my ethnographic fieldwork in Southeast Guizhou from 1999 to 2000. Sangt Jingb spent more than a decade to compile the Hmub antique songs that were circulated in Taijiang area of Southeast Guizhou. According to the topics of these songs he wrote twelve manuscripts. Travel Over Land and Water (Nangx Eb Jit Bil) was the third one. The two-hundred-page manuscript included paintings, cover page, summary, preface and one hundred and forty one folk songs. The nearly 2,000 lines of lyric of the antique songs were transcribed according to actual oral performance depicting the ancestors’ migration from the north to Guizhou. On the left page of the manuscript was the Hmub language and on the right the meaning in Chinese. Although Sangt Jingb tried to achieve an accurate, clear and elegant translation, there were inconsistencies, which is intriguing, in some of his transcription and translation. The variations of the translation demonstrated the consciousness and the visibility of the translator. The lyrics of the antique songs and the life history of the song master are the two axes that form the analytic discussion base of this paper. It will discuss how the transcription and translation of the manuscript created the hybridity of the antique Hmub songs in the modern knowledge and cultural space, and the emergence of one single person who is a translator, a writer, an editor and also a song master.