March 7, 2024

Questionable English translation of Friedrich Engels's words

恩格斯关于家庭的一段中文翻译：
“那时就可以看出，妇女解放的第一个先决条件就是一切女性重新回到公共的劳动中去；而要达到这一点，又要求个体家庭不再成为社会的经济单位。”（《马克思恩格斯全集·二十一卷·二、家庭》
https://www.marxists.org/chinese/marx-engels/21/005-03.htm

这句话的英译可能有误：
"Then it will be plain that the first condition for the liberation of the wife is to bring the whole female sex back into public industry, and that this in turn demands the abolition of the monogamous family as the economic unit of society."
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1884/origin-family/ch02d.htm
其中汉译的“妇女”是英译的wife（妻子），汉译的“个体家庭”是英译的monogamous family（一夫一妻制家庭）。难道恩格斯在主张废除一夫一妻制家庭？多年来，讲英语的网民似乎的确有这样的看法，甚至维基The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State条也有这样的倾向。但事实是，恩格斯主张的是停止将单个家庭作为经济单位，言外之意即，经济单位应该大于一个家庭。

看看恩格斯的德语原文：
"Es wird sich dann zeigen, daß die Befreiung der Frau zur ersten Vorbedingung hat die Wiedereinführung des ganzen weiblichen Geschlechts in die öffentliche Industrie, und daß dies wieder erfordert die Beseitigung der Eigenschaft der Einzelfamilie als wirtschaftlicher Einheit der Gesellschaft."
http://www.mlwerke.de/me/me21/me21_036.htm
其中汉译的“妇女”、英译的wife是德语的Frau，这个德语词兼有“妇女”和“妻子”两个意义。虽然在这段以上的文字（见链接的网页）中可译作“妻子”，但在这句话中译为“妇女”显然更恰当。更重要的不同之处在于Einzelfamilie，英语直译即single family或individual family、汉语“个体家庭”，但marxists.org网站收录的英译为monogamous family，意思就非常不同了，可以认为是严重的误译。另外，德语Vorbedingung直译是“先决条件”，英译为condition而不是precondition则稍有偏差。至于德语Industrie被汉译为“劳动”还是“事业”无关紧要。

总之，这段话的汉译高于英译。汉译中唯一可商榷的是头两个字“那时”，也许是“那么”（德语dann，英语then）的笔误。

English version

Frederick Engels' Einzelfamilie was translated as 'monogamous family'. I don't think that's right. The German original is

"Es wird sich dann zeigen, daß die Befreiung der Frau zur ersten Vorbedingung hat die Wiedereinführung des ganzen weiblichen Geschlechts in die öffentliche Industrie, und daß dies wieder erfordert die Beseitigung der Eigenschaft der Einzelfamilie als wirtschaftlicher Einheit der Gesellschaft."

The English translation on the fairly authoritative or at least frequently cited website Marxists.org is

"Then it will be plain that the first condition for the liberation of the wife is to bring the whole female sex back into public industry, and that this in turn demands the abolition of the monogamous family as the economic unit of society."

I think the German word Einzelfamilie should be translated simply and literally as 'single family' or 'individual family'. Engels was proposing that we not treat each family as an economic unit. It's possible that a careless English reader of the above translation would focus on just the phrase "abolition of the monogamous family" and assume that Engels was advocating abolition of monogamous families (and therefore calling for polygamy). That would be a gross misunderstanding of Engels. The word 'monogamous' or its noun means something totally different.

Also, the German word Frau in this context means 'woman' more than 'wife'. But that's a minor point.