走进大英博物馆，在数量众多的中国兵书中，《孙子兵法——世界最古老的军事著作》特别显眼 。博物馆工作人员自豪地对记者说，这本英译本出自该馆东方藏书手稿部助理部长莱昂内尔•贾尔斯之手，近一百年后的今天，这个译本仍然是较为流传的英译本之一。

When you step into the British Museum, you would see the most conspicuous The Art of War – the Oldest Military Treatise in the World among masses of Chinese military books. The museum staff said proudly to the journalist that the English version was translated by Lionel Giles, the Assistant Secretary of the East Library Manuscript Division. Although the translation version was completed 100 years ago, it is still one of the most widespread one.

贾尔斯中文名叫翟林奈，生于中国，是英国领事官、汉学家老贾尔斯(翟理思)之子。贾尔斯于1900年进大英博物馆图书馆，负责管理东方书刊和手稿，潜心研究汉学。

Giles, the son of Old Giles (Zhai Lisi) who was a Britain Consular Officer and a sinologist, was born in China and had a Chinese name: Zhai Linnai. In 1900, Giles joined the British Museum Library to be in charge of Asian books and periodicals and devoted himself to the Sinology.

1910年，莱昂内尔•贾尔斯的《孙子兵法》英译本问世，这个由伦敦卢扎克公司出版的译本忠于原作，严格按照孙星衍的《十家孙子会注》本翻译，汉英对照，逐句译出，注释详尽，通顺流畅，对在西方世界中传播孙子思想起到了深远的影响。

In 1910, London Luzac & Co. published Lionel Giles’ English version of The Art of War which was faithful to the original and was in strict accordance with the Ten Annotations of Sun Tzu by Sun Xingyan. This Chinese-English version was translated sentence by sentence with detailed annotations, characterized by smooth and fluent language, making a far-reaching influence on the dissemination of Sun Tzu Thinking in the Western world.

贾尔斯在翻译《孙子兵法》前做了充分准备，翻译过程中下了很大功夫，研究了《左传》、《史记》、《吴越春秋》、《四库全书》等大量典籍，考察了孙子“十三篇”成书的历史背景和孙武其人，还研究了中国历代的与现存的《孙子兵法》诸版本。贾尔斯表示，《孙子兵法》是中国兵学之精粹，不能因翻译不当而使其蒙尘受辱。

Giles had made full preparations before translating The Art of War and paid great efforts during the translation. He had studied Zuo’s Commentary on Spring and Autumn Annals, The Historical Records, Spring and Autumn Annals of the States of Wu and Yue, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature and many others famous ancient books, and had surveyed the historical background of 13 Chapters of Sun Tzu and the information of Sun Wu, as well as various historical and existing versions of The Art of War. Giles said that The Art of War was the succinct of Chinese Strategics, and it couldn’t be humiliated by poor translation.

在纷繁芜杂的中国兵学经典中选好版本是此版本成败的关键。贾尔斯独具慧眼地以《孙子十家会注》为蓝本进行英译，该蓝本所具有的权威性，使英译本的依据经得起历史的检验。在他之后，除了英译《武经七书》中的《孙子兵法》以武经本为底本除外，其余英译《孙子兵法》都以《十家注》为蓝本。

Choosing a good version from the numerous and complicated Chinese strategics classics is the key point of a successful version. Giles perspicaciously translated The Art of War from Chinese to English based on Ten Annotations of Sun Tzu which is of great authority and ensures this English version’s basis could withstand the test of history. After him, except for The Art of War of Seven Military Classics was translated on the basis of Military Classics, all other English versions of The Art of War were based on Ten Annotations of Sun Tzu.

贾尔斯效法著名汉学家理雅各翻译“四书”、“五经”的做法，分段逐句译成英文。为尊重原著，先出中文，后出英译文，而且中英文完整地保持在同一页上。与理雅各略有不同的是，每段《孙子兵法》中的长句或短句都加阿拉伯数字序号，所有引自中国典籍的注释都附上原文，以便于西方读者阅读，也便于懂双语者对比检验。

Giles had learned from the methods used by the famous sinologist Legge in translating The Four Books and The Five Classics to translate each paragraphs sentence by sentence. In order to remain faithful to the original work, he placed the complete Chinese sentences above and the corresponding English sentences below on the same page perfectly. But unlike Legge, both long and short sentences in each paragraph of The Art of War, were given sequence numbers, and all annotations quoted from Chinese classics were attached with original text, which was very convenient for Western readers to read and for bilinguals to compare and check.

解释详尽是贾尔斯英译本的又一特色。译者对注释家分别作了简介，概述其主要著作以及他们对《孙子兵法》所作注释的特点。针对“十三篇”中的兵学概念、人名、地名、古汉语辞汇等加注，大都选自《十家注》的原注，但也有译者自己独特的见解。在整个译本中还恰到好处地对早先西方译本的译法多所评论，这在一般的译注中也是罕见的。

His translation is also characterized by detailed explanations. He made brief introduction to and summarized major works annotators and the features of their annotations. Annotations to the strategics concepts, names, place names and ancient Chinese glossary in 13 Chapters were mostly abstracted from Annotations of Ten Masters with his unique perspectives. Within the whole Translation, he appropriately made comments on the previous Western translations, which was very rare in common translations and annotations.

贾尔斯英译本达到了“信、达、雅’的标准，译文严谨，语句通畅，富有韵味，自成风格，不仅在很大程度上表达了《孙子兵法》原有的文章之美，而且比较完整准确地用英文表达了孙子博大精深的兵学思想。

Giles’ translation has reached the standard of faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance with preciseness, fluency, charm and his own unique style. He not only greatly explained the charm of the original The Art of War, but also completely expressed the extensive and profound strategics thinking of Sun Tzu in English.

大英博物馆工作人员表示，贾尔斯的译本被公认是一部将《孙子兵法》介绍给西方读者的佳作，为其他西方文字翻译《孙子兵法》奠定了基础，也使欧洲人能更好地了解孙子思想。

A worker from the British Museum said that Giles’ translation has been recognized as a masterpiece to introduce The Art of War to Western readers, and it also has established a solid foundation for translate The Art of War into other Western languages, enabling Europeans to get a better understanding of Sun Tzu’s Thinking.

英国坎大哈伯爵罗伯茨元帅曾致函给贾尔斯称“孙子的许多格言完全适用于现在”。美国托马斯-R-菲利普斯准将于1949年重版该英译本时撰写的导论中写道“贾尔斯博士的译文语义准确，遣词凝练生动，其他英、法文译本在这两方面都显得逊色”。

The British Marshal and Earl of Kandahar Roberts once wrote to Giles:”Many Sun Tzu’s mottos are totally applicable to the present situation.” The American Brigadier Thomas R – Phillips wrote in the introduction for it when republished in 1949:”Doctor Giles’ translation is accurate in semantic meaning and concise & vivid in word-choosing, while the French translation version is relatively inferior in both respects.”

翻译：Elodie

编辑：Steve

https://www.transcenter.cn/article-10866-1.html

Read Also: Translation of classical Chinese poetry into English