The Incomplete Translations of Christie's Death in the Clouds in Italy

不完整翻譯：克莉絲蒂《謀殺在雲端》的義大利文版

10.29912/CTR.202103_14(1).0005

施喬佳(Giorgia Sfriso)

detective fiction ； Christie ； Fascism ； ideology ； retranslation ； 偵探小說 ； 克莉絲蒂 ； 法西斯 ； 意識形態 ； 重譯

編譯論叢

14卷1期（2021 / 03 / 01）

119 - 156

英文

Translations of Agatha Christie's works in Italy began to appear as early as the 1930s, and dozens of re-editions have been published since then. Surprisingly, no re-translations were commissioned before the 1980s and, even then, re-editions of the Fascist-era translations kept circulating. Several critics have argued that Fascist era translations of Christie's novels are incomplete, with sentences or entire passages of the original works omitted, or significantly reshaped in the Italian translations. But are Fascist-era translations the only ones that made changes on the original? By comparing Christie's (1935/1987) novel Death in the Clouds with three of its Italian translations-namely a Fascist era translation from 1937, its 1986 edition, and the 2019 edition of a second translation from 1983-I found that both the 1937 and 1986 translations are incomplete and have made considerable modifications to the source text; the 2019 translation is the only one to have remained unabridged. Surprisingly, the 1986 re-edition of the Fascist-era translation actually displays a significantly higher number of modifications and omissions that came after the fall of the regime. In addition to offering a comprehensive account of the differences between these translations of Christie's work, this article also discusses the constraints and conventions that might have influenced the process of translation. Four features of the translations are discussed: femininity, morality, intrigue and explicitation. My analysis reveals that the 1937 and 1986 versions are more conservative in their depiction of femininity; that the 1986 translation also tends to add judgments about certain morally dubious behaviors, as well as clues that might help readers to solve the mystery; finally, all three translations show a tendency towards explicitness, but the 1986 version is the most consistent.

阿嘉莎．克莉絲蒂偵探小說的義大利翻譯版本在原版出書後不久出版，自1930年至今，已有數十版譯本出版；令人驚奇的是，其出版的譯本幾乎皆為法西斯時期的首譯版之再版，直至1980年代才有重譯版。許多評論文章提到，法西斯時代的首譯版並不完整，原作中有過多的句子乃至整個段落被刪減或是被竄改，可以想見接下來的再版中，也有同樣的改變；然而筆者發現，再版的版本比起法西斯時期首譯版有更多顯而易見的更改處。目前許多以法西斯時代的審查制度和偵探小說為主題的研究，尚未出現有關首譯及再譯版差別處的系統性探討。本論文藉由比較克莉絲蒂《謀殺在雲端》於1937年、1986年、2019年3個義大利翻譯版本，試著全面探討這3個譯本的差別，以及不同時代背景下譯本所遵守的習俗及約束。這些譯本的特色主要表現在4個面向：女性特質、道德規範、破案線索和明晰化。其中1937年以及1986年的譯本對於女性特質的描述較為保守，另外1986年譯本除了對於不道德行為的評判以外，也給出原文未提及的破案線索以幫助讀者「破案」，而明晰化則為3個版本的共同傾向。

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