漢文溪

最近在读的一本书，在本专业领域也算是鼎鼎大名的一本著作吧，虽然里面纯技术性的错误比较多（如错别字之类），但是国内能够系统的做出这样一本专业性较强的专著已经是很不易的事情了。以前读的时候对一些细节也没在意，这次老觉得这些细节不怎么舒服，今天就挑一个译名简单说说。

该书内容在介绍部分学者的时候，有一个“美国艺术与科学学院院士”的头衔，国人第一眼肯定以为这位学者是搞艺术的，而如果联系这本书的专业背景想必有点专业常识的人就知道这里的“艺术”大概可能也许是误翻了，将“人文”或者“文科”翻成了“艺术”。本人不是语言学出身，也没有扎实的语言功底，所以只能结合现成的词典介绍点自己理解的皮毛。下面看看这个被称为“one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies”的“美国艺术与科学学院”(American Academy of Arts and Sciences) 吧。

American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

在这家成立于西元1780年的组织的官方介绍里是这样说的：

For over 225 years, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has been honoring excellence and providing service to the nation and the world. Through independent, nonpartisan study, its ranks of distinguished “scholar-patriots” have brought the arts and sciences into constructive interplay with the leaders of both the public and private sectors.

The Academy was founded during the American Revolution by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock, and other leaders who contributed prominently to the establishment of the new nation, its government, and its Constitution. Its purpose was to provide a forum for a select group of scholars, members of the learned professions, and government and business leaders to work together on behalf of the democratic interests of the republic.

In the words of the Academy’s charter, enacted in 1780, the “end and design of the institution is…to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honour, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.”

Today the Academy is an international learned society with a dual function: to elect to membership men and women of exceptional achievement, drawn from science, scholarship, business, public affairs, and the arts, and to conduct a varied program of projects and studies responsive to the needs and problems of society.

The Academy’s unique strength lies in the distinguished leadership of its 4,000 Fellows and 600 Foreign Honorary Members and the wide range of expertise they bring to its multidisciplinary analyses of compelling contemporary issues. The Academy is probably best known to the public through its quarterly journal, Dædalus, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading intellectual journals.

Recent Academy projects have focused on the changing nature and needs of higher education and research, the well-being of the humanities in the United States and their central role in assuring the vitality of our cultural life, the emerging challenges of scientific and technological advances, geoglobal politics, population and the environment, and the welfare of children.

Now in its third century, the Academy continues to mobilize the intellectual resources needed to anticipate, examine, and confront the critical challenges facing our society.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences presented its Rumford Prize to Nuclear Security Project principals George P. Shultz, William J. Perry and Sam Nunn and world-renowned physicist Sidney D. Drell in recognition of their ongoing efforts to reduce the global threat of nuclear weapons.

硬着头皮看完，再特别关注一下加粗的部分，不难发现，其实这是一家搞人文与社会科学兼容自然科学的机构嘛，艺术肯定是有的，但是却不仅仅只是涵盖艺术（当然如果你把艺术理解成是一个涵盖所有科学领域的概念的话，另当别论）。该机构在其章程里就强调了：”end and design of the institution is…to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honour, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.” 并且，现如今的它已经广泛涉猎诸多领域，“to elect to membership men and women of exceptional achievement, drawn from science, scholarship, business, public affairs, and the arts, and to conduct a varied program of projects and studies responsive to the needs and problems of society.”再看看它的院士吧：雷蒙·阿隆、贝聿铭、罗伯特·约翰·奥曼、托马斯·克罗姆比·谢林、本·伯南克、卡尔·多伊奇、斯坦利·霍夫曼、罗伯特·吉尔平、哈迈德·泽维尔、科里·古曼、施泰因梅茨、乌拉姆等等，这些名字大概和单纯的艺术基本没有太直接的关联。所以，很明显，翻译这个机构中文名的译者可能犯了一个以偏概全或者简单化的教条主义错误，问题就出在这个机构名称中的“Arts”这个单词上，我们看看词典是怎么解释art和arts的。

art1 [ɑ:t]
n.
1. (与自然相对而言的)人工，人为，人的创造力
2. (工匠的)技术，技能，技艺，技巧
3. (需要技术、工艺的)行业，职业；手工艺
4. 艺术，文艺(包括绘画、雕塑、建筑、音乐、舞蹈、戏剧、文学等)[亦见 fine art]
5. 美术(尤指绘画、绘图、版画、雕塑等)
6. [总称]艺术(作)品；美术(作)品；画，油画，水彩画；雕像，塑像，铸像等
7. [总称]【出版业】(书报、杂志、广告设计的)插图，图片，照片，装饰物
8. 1). (一门)人文科学
2). [用复数]文科(文学、音乐、哲学等，与自然科学相对而言)
9. (特殊)本领；方法；诀窍；手腕，手段
……
adj.
1. 1). 艺术的；美术的 2). 艺术品的，美术品的 3). (为)艺术家的；美术家的
2. 具有艺术性的
3. (戏院、电影院)专演艺术作品的
vt.,vi. [口语](把…)装饰得古色古香，(把…)装饰得古怪而有艺术趣味，把…装饰得有艺术价值；把…加以艺术乔装，使艺术化[仅用于 art up 短语中]
……

---

arts
n. 文科
……

以上来源于：《21世纪大英汉词典》

无须赘言，看看上面的解释各位应该有个比较清晰的理解了，所谓“美国艺术与科学学院”这一汉语称谓的翻译似乎是有点问题的了。American Academy of Arts and Sciences，照字面意思直接意译过来，翻译成“美国人文与科学 院”（美国人文与科学学院<学会>）或者“美国文科与科学 院”（美国文科与科学学院<学会>）这样似乎更贴切一些。而如果联系下国人习惯，再看看该机构的涵盖领域，貌似翻译为“美国文理学会”也不赖，而且比直译还要简洁“直观”，让历史去检验这一切吧。毕竟，如果说起艺术大家很自然的会想起音乐、美术、电影等等内容，相应的自然也会联系到奥斯卡的东家，成立于1927年的美国电影艺术与科学学院 (The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences，AMPAS)，后者貌似才是专注于某一艺术领域的机构。

另：同样简称为AAAS的还有一家成立于1848年的美国科学促进会（American Association for the Advancement of Science）。

American Academy of Arts and Sciences：http://www.amacad.org
American Association for the Advancement of Science：http://www.aaas.org
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences：http://www.oscars.org