DIE ÜBERSETZUNG VON KAPITEL 1 DES SHUIHU ZHUAN [水滸傳] VON MAX GERHARD PERNITZSCH (1929)

The Shuihu zhuan 水滸傳 is one of the best known traditional Chinese novels, an adventure story with picaresque elements and social critique. This presentation offers chapter 1 of a practically unknown German version by Sinologist Max Gerhard Pernitzsch (1882–1945), which was published in Batavia in 1929, and is thus a contribution to the history of the reception of this novel the first complete translation of which (into English, by Pearl S. Buck) was published in 1933; a condensed version in German by Franz Kuhn appeared in 1934, but it leaves out chapter 1. So it seems that Pernitzsch's translation of chapter 1 is the first complete one into any European language, if we discount the fragment given by Louis Bazin in 1850–1851. Pernitzsch's translation is reliable, makes good reading and was targeted at a wider audience. From a remark in a letter by the celebrated critic Erwin von Zach, it may be deduced that Pernitzsch had either translated the whole novel, or at least a considerable part of it, and tried to get it published in Germany, by the good offices of Prof. Ferdinand Lessing of the Oriental Seminar at Berlin. Unfortunately, very little is known about Pernitzsch – there are no letters, library, manuscripts, photographs. Therefore the editor of the translation gave the scanty data in full, including a professional evaluation of Pernitzsch by Hamburg Sinologist Fritz Jäger. This bibliographical note refrains from going into the textual history of the novel which the well-known specialist on Ming fiction, Ma Yau-woon 馬幼垣, discussed exensively in his books on the subject. 《水滸傳》為中國古典四大文學名著之一，是以叛逆者冒險為題材及社會批評的章回小 說。本文提供《水滸傳》中第一回的德文譯本，它是一篇在今天幾乎完全不被知曉的德文 譯本，在 1929 年為在巴達維亞（今名雅加達）的德國漢學家 Max Gerhard Pernitzsch (1882–1945) 翻譯成德文。本文對西方關於《水滸傳》容納史作出了補充，第一部完整的 英文譯本是由Pearl S. Buck (Sai Zhenzhu 賽珍珠, 1892–1973) 於1933 年出版的，德文的 節略譯本是由Franz Kuhn (弗蘭茲• 庫恩， 1884–1961) 於1934 年發表的，而偏偏 沒有《水滸傳》的第一回。如果不考慮法國漢學家Antoine-Pierre-Louis Bazin (1799–1863) 的貢獻（他在1850–1851 年間從《水滸傳》中隻不過翻譯了小部 分），那麼Pernitzsch 從《水滸傳》中所翻譯的第一回好像是歐洲語言中第一個 譯本。Pernitzsch 從《水滸傳》中所翻譯成德文的第一回是可靠的、具有可讀 性，讀者圈寬泛。廣為人知的評論家Erwin von Zach (1872–1942) 在他的信件 中，簡短地提示Pernitzsch 大概把全部的《水滸傳》或者是其中大部分翻譯成德 文。除外， Pernitzsch 曾打算把相關的譯本靠Ferdinand Diedrich Lessing (1882–1961) 教授的幫助在德國柏林的東方學院出版。令人遺憾的是，我們對Pernitzsch 的所知不多。沒有他的任何信件、圖書、文件及照片。所以編者提供並不充足的 所有資料，也包括漢堡漢學家Fritz Jäger (1886–1957) 的對Pernitzsch 的專業評 估。本文不涉及《水滸傳》文本歷史上的研究，因為著名的明朝作品專家馬幼垣 （出生於1940 年）已經充分地討論過。