翻译论坛| 苏洵《六国论》及多个英译本

编者按

    《六国论》是北宋著名文学家苏洵的政论文代表作。该文先是提出精辟论点“六国破灭”“弊在赂秦”，之后一步一步加以论证，实属一篇非常严谨、具有很强说服力的论说文。作者意在借古讽今，针砭军事上骄惰无能、外交上极端软弱、政策上绥靖求和、经济上积贫积弱的宋王朝，抨击其年年要向契丹和西夏上贡大量银两以及商品而造成民不聊生，国力退化的丧权辱国的“贿赂”政策，并告诫其统治者应吸取六国破灭之惨痛教训，以免重蹈覆辙。

    此次林苑君选取了三个英文译本。译者分别为许景城、徐英才、谢百魁。三个译文各有千秋，以飨读者。河北卫视新闻主播王益豪朗诵中文原文，双语主播李强朗诵许景城英译文，录音师张晖对音频编辑。特此感谢。

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（英文朗诵：李强  中文朗诵：王益豪  音频编辑：张晖）

译本一

六国论On the Six States【宋】苏洵By Su Xun许景城（Peter Jingcheng Xu） 译

    六国破灭，非兵不利，战不善，弊在赂秦。赂秦而力亏，破灭之道也。或曰：六国互丧，率赂秦耶？曰：不赂者以赂者丧，盖失强援，不能独完。故曰：弊在赂秦也。

   The undoing of the six states during the Warring States Period was caused not by their unadvanced armament or unfavorable battles but by their bribing Qin State. Their bribing weakened their power and strength, further leading to their collapses. One may doubt, "Nothing but bribing is the root cause of their successive demises?" To quench the doubt, I will argue, "The undoing of the states that didn't bribe resulted from the states that bribed, for they could not survive without strong supports from those bribing states." Thereupon, as I observe, bribing Qin made for their undoing.

    秦以攻取之外，小则获邑，大则得城。较秦之所得，与战胜而得者，其实百倍；诸侯之所亡，与战败而亡者，其实亦百倍。则秦之所大欲，诸侯之所大患，固不在战矣。思厥先祖父，暴霜露，斩荆棘，以有尺寸之地。子孙视之不甚惜，举以予人，如弃草芥。今日割五城，明日割十城，然后得一夕安寝。起视四境，而秦兵又至矣。然则诸侯之地有限，暴秦之欲无厌，奉之弥繁，侵之愈急。故不战而强弱胜负已判矣。至于颠覆，理固宜然。古人云："以地事秦，犹抱薪救火，薪不尽，火不灭。"此言得之。

   Qin State, apart from annexing lands through wars, acquired even through their briberies small towns and large cities. Among all these spoils, the bribed towns and cities tremendously outnumbered those procured through wars. Likewise, among six demised sates, the undoing of states due to briberies disconcertingly outpaced the defeating of those via wars. Thus, wars have no bearing on the insatiable greed of Qin State and the tragedies of six states. Just image how their founding fathers, to obtain a patch of land, weathered biting cold and burning heat, and toughed out thistles and thorns. However, their descendants didn’t treasure it but frivolously gave it offhand by relinquishing five towns today and ten cities tomorrow just to pursue peace of a single night. Waking up and looking around, they were surprised to find themselves again besieged by Qin soldiers. Indeed, the lands of six states were limited while the avarice of Qin State was unquenchable. The more frequent the tributes were, the hastier the invasion was. Thus, it is obviously easy to foresee the result of both sides even with no resort to wars, and to claim that their demises were naturally reasonable, just as an ancient saying aptly goes, "The tributes of lands are to Qin as logs are to fire! No more logs, No more fire!"

   齐人未尝赂秦，终继五国迁灭，何哉？与嬴而不助五国也。五国既丧，齐亦不免矣。燕赵之君，始有远略，能守其土，义不赂秦。是故燕虽小国而后亡，斯用兵之效也。至丹以荆卿为计，始速祸焉。赵尝五战于秦，二败而三胜。后秦击赵者再，李牧连却之。洎牧以谗诛，邯郸为郡，惜其用武而不终也。且燕赵处秦革灭殆尽之际，可谓智力孤危，战败而亡，诚不得已。向使三国各爱其地，齐人勿附于秦，刺客不行，良将犹在，则胜负之数，存亡之理，当与秦相较，或未易量。

   Qi State never bribed Qin, but collapsed as well. Why? The reason is that it made peace with Qing and didn’t support other five states, and it was unavoidably defeated by Qin right after Qin swallowed up those five states. With insightful strategies at first, the dukes of Yan and Zhao states were so capable of defending their territories and adhering to moral principles that they didn’t bend themselves over to bribe Qin. Small as Yan was, it was the last to be defeated, which was attributed to its wise military strategy. However, its rapid doom came soon after Prince Dan sent Jing Ke to assassinate the sovereign of Qin. Zhao State waged five wars with Qin with two defeats and three victories. Later, Qin repeatedly assailed Zhao but ended up being repulsed by Li Mu each time. Not until Li was exterminated because of malicious slanders against him, did Han Dan, Capital of Zhao fall under Qin’s control. What a pity that Zhao didn’t cherish Li’s military talent till the end. Amid Qin’s triumph over other four states, Yan and Zhao were isolated and helpless, either militarily or intellectually. Naturally, they were soon defeated to demise. Providing that those three states, Chu, Han, and Wei, had treasured their lands, Qi hadn’t conciliated Qin, Prince Dan hadn’t sent Jing Ke, and Li Mu had been still alive, the fate of those six states, compared with Qin’s, would have been disparate.

   呜呼！以赂秦之地封天下之谋臣，以事秦之心礼天下之奇才，并力西向，则吾恐秦人食之不得下咽也。悲夫！有如此之势，而为秦人积威之所劫，日削月割，以趋于亡。为国者无使为积威之所劫哉！

   Alas! Those six states could have given advisers of their own countries the lands they used to bribe Qin and bestowed prodigies the same honors and respects they showed to Qin. They could have formed an alliance to fight westward. Were all this to be fulfilled, as I view, Qin would have never dared to wolf down their lands. Woe! The obvious advantages that they could have formed in their favors were waned by the waxing power and menace of Qin, to which their lands were relinquished month in and month out, culminating in their demises. A lesson for us is that an authority should never be quailed by waxing menace and power of foes.

   夫六国与秦皆诸侯，其势弱于秦，而犹有可以不赂而胜之之势。苟以天下之大，而从六国破亡之故事，是又在六国下矣！

   Those six states and Qin were all vassal states, and yet the former were weaker than the latter. Their defeats would have been reversed to victory if they had not bribed Qin. It is true of the situation facing our great country. Were we to follow the footprints of those six states, we would be even inferior to them! 

Notes

1. In the long Chinese history, Warring States Period saw the fragmentation of a country by rivaling vassal states, among which there were seven powerful ones. Those six states mentioned in this argumentative prose refer to the states of Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, and Wei (齐、楚、燕、韩、赵、魏).

2. Su Xun (苏洵，1009-1066), a native of Meishan, Meizhou (now known as Meishan, Sichuan Province, 眉州眉山人,今四川眉山县) was one of eight greatest litterateurs in Song Dynasty(唐宋八大家). He and his sons, Su Shi and Su Zhe are known as "San Su" (三苏). This argumentative prose was written by him to satirize the disgracing and inferior policies of Song sovereign to states of Liao and Western Xia and admonish the ruler of Song Dynasty not to follow the footsteps of those six states.

3. Prince Dan (太子丹, ?--- 226BC) was the son of Sovereign of Yan State.

4. Jing Ke(荆轲, ?---227BC) was a famous assassin during Warring States Period. When Qin destroyed Zhao, Prince Dan was so scared that he sent Jing Ke to assassinate the King of Qin. But Jing ke turned out to fail the task and ended up being quartered by Qin.

5. Li Mu (李牧, ?---229BC) was one of the four greatest generals of Zhao State. The other three were BaiQi, Wang Jian and Lian Bo(白起、王翦、廉颇). He had made illustrious and meritorious military services for Zhao, but in 229 BC, Qin played Zhao’s sovereign and Li Mu off against each other, and the sovereign believed the slanders against Li and countermanded his military authority. Three months after Li’s slaying, Zhao was ruined by Qin.

译于北京林业大学外语学院2012-10-8改译于英国威尔士大学，班戈2016-2-28

译本二

六国论*1On the Six States苏洵Su Xun徐英才译Translated by Xu Yingcai

    六国破灭*2，非兵不利，战不善*3，弊在赂秦*4。赂秦而力亏，破灭之道也。或曰：“六国互丧，率赂秦耶？”曰：“不赂者以赂者丧，盖失强援*5，不能独完。故曰‘弊在赂秦’也！” 

    What led to the destruction of the six states were not their weapons or their military tactics — but it was the practice of buying off Qin. The buying-off had weakened their strength. That was the real cause! You may challenge this by asking, “Is that true in every state?” The answer is: “Those that didn’t buy off were destroyed because of those that did. Those that didn’t buy off had lost the needy backups from other states and therefore could not sustain themselves single-handedly. That is what is meant by ‘It was the practice of buying off!’” 

    秦以攻取之外，小则获邑，大则得城，较秦之所得，与战胜而得者，其实百倍*6；诸侯之所亡，与战败而亡者，其实亦百倍。则秦国之所大欲，诸侯之所大患，固不在战矣。 

    In addition to what it had made from military attacks, Qin was given various buy-offs—sometimes as small as a town and sometimes as big as a city. What it had thus obtained was as much as a hundred times more than what it had made from winning wars. In other words, what those dukes had lost by making the buy-offs was a hundred times more than what they had lost in the war. Therefore, what Qin really desired, which also created the Dukes’ real problem, was not war itself.  

    思厥先祖父，暴霜露，斩荆棘，以有尺寸之地*7。子孙视之不甚惜，举以予人，如弃草弃。今日割五城，明日割十城，然后得一夕安寝。起视四境，而秦兵又至矣。然则诸侯之地有限，暴秦之欲无厌，奉之弥繁，侵之愈急。故不战而强弱胜负已判矣。至于颠覆，理固宜然。古人云：“以地事秦，犹抱薪救草，薪不尽火不灭。”此言得之。

    Think about it: while the ancestors of the six states had gone throuygh a lot of hardships —exposing themselves to frost, rain, and brambles — in opening up their meager land, their sons and grandsons were nonetheless indifferent and simply gave it away to others as one would throw away a piece of weed, ceding five cities today and ten tomorrow merely for a temporary peace — so temporary that when they woke up the following morning from their peaceful sleep, Qin’s forces had already reached them again. But their land was not infinite while brutal Qin’s appetite was insatiable. The more they offered Qin, the further it pressed. As a result, even without actual wars, it was already clear who was stronger and who, weaker; who was going to win and who, to lose. Therefore, it is inevitable that they were to be destroyed. This, our ancients had already well pointed out, “The practice of buying off Qin with land is like attempting to extinguish fire with firewood — The fire won’t stop until the firewood runs out.” This is exactly what it was.

    齐人未尝赂秦，终继五国迁灭，何哉？与嬴而不助五国也。五国既丧，齐亦不免矣*8。燕赵之君，始有远略，能守其土，义不赂秦。是故燕虽小国而后亡，斯用兵之效也。至丹以荆卿为计，始速祸焉。赵尝五战于秦，二败而三胜。后秦击赵者再，李牧连却之。洎牧以谗诛，邯郸为郡，惜其用武而不终也。且燕赵处秦革灭殆尽之际可谓智力孤危，战败而亡，诚不得已*9。向使三国各爱其地，齐人勿附于秦，刺客不行，良将犹在，则胜负之数，存亡之理，当与秦相较，或未易量。

    The State of Qi didn't buy off Qin, but like the rest of  the five states, it was also destroyed. Why? Because it didn't help the other five states, as it was on friendly terms with Qin at that time. Once the five states were destroyed, how could it not end up with the same fate? The Dukes of Yan and Zhao were strategic and justified enough at first in not buying off Qin but defending their territories. And that is why Yan was destroyed fairly late, although it was smaller than most of the other five states – Its relatively longer sustainability is simply the result of using its forces. It was Prince Dan's stratagem of sending Jing Ke to assassinate the King of Qin that led to its misfortune. Of the five battles with Qin, the State of Zhao lost only two, and won three. And in the subsequent two battles, Li Mu, the Commander in Chief of Zhao, continuously defeated Qin. Unfortunately, he was executed after being framed, and soon Handan, the capital of Zhao, fell into the hands of Qin and became one of its counties. It is a real pity that Zhao didn’t persist in its military defense. Furthermore, as Qin was winding up its final victories on all its military fronts with other states, both Yan and Zhao were isolated and were at the end of their wits. There was no other way out but to lose. If the three states of Han, Wei and Chu had treasured their land, Qi had not affiliated itself with Qin, Yan had not send its assassin, and the able general of Zhao were still alive, then it would be hard to say who would be the winner!

    呜呼！以赂秦之地封天下之谋臣，以事秦之心，礼天下之奇才，并力西向，则吾恐秦人食之不得下咽也。悲夫！有如此之势，而为秦人积威之所劫，日削月割，以趋于亡。为国者，无使为积威之所劫哉！ 

    Alas! If the land used in buying off Qin had been used to reward the strategists in the world and if the humble attitude adopted in treating Qin had been adopted to treat the extraordinary talents in the world — if these had been employed against Qin, then I am afraid that Qin may not have been able to swallow what it was trying to chew. What a sad story! Such great advantages were all borne down by the Qin’s gradually accrued force — being chipped off day by day and bit by bit until completely taken away. No ruler should be daunted by such an accrued force! 

    夫六国与秦皆诸侯，其势弱于秦，而犹有可以不赂而胜之之势；苟以天下之大，下而从六国破亡之故事，是又在六国下矣。

    All the six – and Qin as well — were but feudal states. Although the six states were weaker than Qin, they all the same had the possibility of defeating it if only they had not adopted the buying-off practice. Now we are such a large country. Should we follow the footsteps of the six states to ruin, we would be far inferior to them.

翻译注释

1.《六国论》的这个“国”是“国家”的意思，但这个“国家”指的是战国时期各诸侯所拥有的封地，相当于州，所以用state来译十分妥帖，因为state原意即指“州”，也可以是“国”，如The United States of America（美利坚合众国）。用词准确是确保翻译质量的一个基本要素。这里如果见到“国”就把它译成country甚或nation就有失偏颇了。

2. “六国破灭”是“六个国家的灭亡”，译作the destruction of the six states。注意destruction这个动词性名词的用法—所谓动词性名词就是指带动作的名词。动词性名词后面带of后，它对后面的动词具有动宾关系，所以the destruction of the six states 意思是“六个国家的灭亡”，即“六个国家被消灭了”。了解了这一点，就知道the occupation of China不是“中国占领（别国）”，而是“（别国）对中国的占领”; perception of Spring不是“春天（自己）的感悟”，是“（人）感悟春天”。

 3. “六国破灭，非兵不利，战不善”的意思是“六国的灭亡，并不是兵器不好，或者战术不好”。这个句子不能直译成The destruction of the six states was not because of their inferior weapons nor because of their clumsy military tactics。此译看上去跟原文的意思很接近，但实际是误译，因为这个译文首先已经肯定这六国的兵器不好，战术也不好，而原文里却没有这个意思。本译文把它译作What led to the destruction of the six states were not their weapons or their military tactics。

4. “弊在赂秦”的这个“赂”怎么译？把它理解成“贿赂”并译成bribe是不是对？不对！因为一般来说，“贿赂”是“为了得到好处而给东西”，而这里却是“为了不遭到坏处（被攻打）而去给东西，所以这个“赂”不是“贿赂”，而是“收买”的意思，故译作buy off。另外，原文里，“弊在赂秦”本来并不是一个独立的句子，而是前面整个句子里的最后一小节，但因为它是对前面各节的总结，为了加强这个总结性，本译文把它单独译成一个短句 It was the practice of buying off  Qin，就更有力了!

5. “强援”的意思是“强大的支援”，直译成powerful support初看好象很贴切，实际并不很深刻。为什么要“强大的支援”呢？他们并不想强过秦国，攻占秦国。他们只是想要保卫自己而已！这么一想，在这里把这个“强大的支援”译作the needy backup就会觉得更妥帖，更深刻。

6. “秦以攻取之外，小则获邑，大则得城，较秦之所得，与战胜而得者，其实百倍”的意思是“秦国除用战争夺得土地之外，还获得了诸侯的贿赂，这些贿赂，小则如邑镇那样，大则如城市那样。秦国受贿所得到的土地比战胜别国所得到的土地实际要多百倍”，译作In addition to what it had made from military attacks, Qin was given various buy-offs — sometimes as small as a town and sometimes as big as a city. What it had thus obtained was as much as a hundred times more than what it had made from winning a war.原文里包含了多个表示“获得”这一概念的词，用的不是“获”就是“得”，注意译文里是如何表达这个概念的。在译文里，前者用had made，接下来用was given，再接下来用的是had thus obtained。前者的had made表示是经过自己的努力 make来的；接下来的was given则表示是别人give来的；再接下来的had thus obtained则属于中性语气，仅仅表示事实上得到（obtain）而已。翻译时，特别是翻译文艺作品时，既要考虑用词的准确性，还要考虑用词的connotation，以引起丰富的联想；在需要表达多个同一概念时，还要注意用词的变化，以避免重复而显得单调。

7. “思厥先祖父，暴霜露，斩荆棘，以有尺寸之地”的意思是“想一想他们的祖辈父辈是怎样冒着雨霜，披荆斩棘，才有了很少的一点土地”。这里的“暴霜露，斩荆棘”是用具体的例子来表达“艰难困苦”这个概念，英译时如果不点明这个概括性概念，读起来就会费解，所以本英译添加了一个概括性词语hardships，把它译作Think about it: while the ancestors of the six states had gone through a lot of hardships — exposing themselves to frost, rain, and brambles — in opening up this meagre land…另外，请注意，英语在例举事物时喜欢连用三个，象上面的frost, rain, and brambles那样。一般情况下，英译时如能做到这一点则最好；当然，如果做不到，也不必勉强为之。

8. “五国既丧，齐亦不免矣”意思是“其它五国既然已经灭亡了，齐国也就无法幸免了”，为增强语气，下一个定论，译文用否定形式的感叹句翻译，译作Once the five stats were destroyed, how could it not end up with the same fate?

9. “战败而亡，诚不得已”意思是“战败了而亡国，确实是不得已的事”，译作There was no other way out but to lose，but在这里是only（只能）的意思，比如：a. We can but try.  我们只能试试。b. He is but a boy.  他只是个小孩。

选自：徐英才. 2011.《英译唐宋八大家散文精选》[M].上海外语教育出版社. 

译文三

On the Six Fallen States谢百魁 译

    The fall of the Six States was not owing to their inferior weaponry or lost battles but to their bribing the State of Qin, resulting in the undermining of their strength, which was in fact the cause of their ruin. One may ask: Since the Six States perished one after another, was this all due to their bribing Qin? The answer is: The ones that did not bribe it perished because of the ones that did. For a state could not survive without a strong support. That is why I say that bribing Qin was at the bottom of their collapse.

    Apart from seizure of land by wars, Qin acquired through their bribery towns in minor cases and cities in major cases. These, put together, were a hundred times more than those occupied through its victories. By the same token, the towns and cities lost by the principalities were also a hundred times more than those lost through their defeats. Therefore, the great avarice of Qin and the great disaster of the principalities had nothing to do with wars. Just think how their forefathers, exposed to inclement weather, hacked a way through brambles in order to gain a piece of land, while their offspring, making little of it, gave it up to others unstintingly, ceding five towns this day and ten towns that day for peace and ease of a single night. But they woke up only to find the Qin troops coming again. Nevertheless, there was a limit to their land whereas there were no bounds to Qin’s greed. The more land was ceded to it, the more unrelenting its aggression became. Thus, even without wars the balance of power and the chance of victory for the two sides were only too evident, and it stood to reason that the six principalities should have been annihilated. The ancients said: "To propitiate Qin with land is like extinguishing fire with faggots—no end of the faggots and no cease of the fire." It is indeed an apt remark.

    The State of Qi did not bribe Qin, yet it also perished after the other five. How to explain it? The answer is: Qi was reconciled with Qin and did not help the other five, whose collapse inevitably led to its own. The sovereigns of the Yan and Zhao principalities, guided by a far-sighted strategy, were at first enabled to defend their territory, refusing to bribe Qin out of a sense of justice. Although Yan was a small principalities, it fell the last of the six, due to its resistance to Qin by armed force. It was only when Prince Dan resorted to the stratagem of using Jing Ke to assassinate the King of Qin that it was doomed. Zhao had prosecuted five wars with Qin, suffering two defeats and scoring three victories. Later Qin attacked Zhao again, but each time was repulsed by General Li Mu. This situation lasted until Li was slain because of traducers and Handan, Zhao’s capital, was turned into a prefecture of Qin. So it was regrettable that Zhao failed to carry the use of arms through to the end. However, Yan and Zhao, in the face of the collapse of approximately all the other principalities, might be said to be at the end of their resources. Their ruin was brought about by military defeats and was in the nature of things. If Han, Wei and Chu had cherished their land, Qi had not submitted to Qin, Yan’s assassin had not done his mischief and Zhao’s able general had not been killed, it would be hard to say whether the Six States or Qin would have stood to win and survive.

    Alas! If the Six States had granted the land they used to bribe Qin to the resourceful strategists of their countries and had treated their prodigious talents with the same respect they paid to Qin, and had joined forces to meet the challenge from the west, I am afraid that Qin would have found it difficult to swallow up their territory. Alas, that they, with such an originally advantageous situation in their favor, should have been overwhelmed by Qin’s bluster, ceding land day in and day out and ending in their common collapse! How I wish that the rulers of a country would not be intimidated by the bluff of their enemies!

    The Six States and Qin were all principalities. Even though they were in a week position as compared with the latter, there still might exist a possibility of their winning victory over it without bribing it. How much more this must be the case with a great empire! Should such an empire follow in the footsteps of the Six States which invited their own ruin, it would prove even inferior to them!

来自：http://www.en84.com/article-8570-2.html

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