In the previous sections, eight texts from the four languages in question are singled out, and they are Hugo's French original (embracing the whole of Huss's 1892 abridged version), English versions of Les Misérables by Charles E. Wilbour, Lascelles Wraxall, Alexander Dimitry and A. F. (the Richmond translation), Isabel F. Hapgood, and William Walton et al. respectively, Kuroiwa Ruikou's Japanese Aamujou, and Su Manshu's Chinese Can Shijie. Now it is time to subject them to intertextual
comparison and contrast.
My strategy of comparison is oriented primarily to plot and secondarily to nuanced linguistic subtlties. In practice, my comparison is conducted first from a macro perspective and then in a micro manner. The macroscopic comparison deals with the structures of narration in the different texts concerned—that is, how the plot elements are presented, in what sequence they are arranged, and what not. In the microscopic comparison, my study compares the individual plot elements to sort out the relationships between the different versions. When different texts show common plot elements, my research shall get down to the minute linguistic details, such as choice of words, phrases and syntax, to see if they reveal nuanced distinction. The two levels of comparison and contrast serve to inform my judgment about the most probable source of Su's translation.
As mentioned earlier, Su Manshu's Chinese rendition of the French novel handles only the Second Book ("La chute") of Volume I ("Fantine") out of the forty-eight books in five volumes in the original. In the original French work, the major plot line of Book Two starts from Jean Valjean's entrance in the town of Digne, through his recurrent rejections by the townspeople, his kind reception by Bishop Myriel, his abuse of the bishop's beneficence, to his disappearance from Digne. Interspersed in the story line are some digressions and flashbacks, including reflections on the evils of society and some information of the hero's background, his theft and imprisonment.
Structurally speaking, in the total of thirteen chapters in this book, the first five chapters are narrated in chronological order, beginning in medias res from the protagonist's appearance in Digne, through his constant rejections and frustrations in seeking food and shelter there, to his falling asleep in the bishop's house. The Sixth Chapter opens with a single-sentence paragraph purporting that Jean Valjean woke up in the middle of the night. From the second paragraph of this chapter on, the narrative flashes back to some accounts of the hero's background and history, including his desperate act of theft, his imprisonment and the elongation of his term of punishment as a result of his four escape attempts. The Seventh Chapter digresses to reflect on the correlation between crimes of individuals and crimes of society and also on the ill impacts of the punitive systems on a good-natured person. Chapter Eight extends the digression by comparing the socially disadvantaged to a drowning man who hopelessly struggles to survive in the billowy sea. The Ninth Chapter, also a digression, describes the exploitation of labor Jean Valjean suffers in jail and the unfair treatment he receives
in payment of wages after his release from the prison house. The Tenth Chapter picks up what was left off in the first paragraph of Chapter Six and continues the chronological narration until the end of the Thirteenth Chapter which concludes Book Two, with episodes inclusive of the protagonist's larceny of the bishop's silverware, his capture by the gendarmes, his condonation by the more than magnanimous bishop, his robbery of Petit Gervais's coin, and his final remorse.
The above chapter descriptions of the Second Book of the original novel can be summed up by differentiating the plot line from the digressions. The principle axis of the story starts from Chapter One onward, breaks at the first paragraph of the Sixth Chapter, resumes from Chapter Ten, and then follows through to the end of the Thirteenth Chapter. The digressive part comprises the majority of Chapter Six and the whole of Chapters Seven to Nine. This differentiation will prove useful in my later comparison and analysis.
A close rendering of the French work, the five English versions have the exact same narrative structure.
Now we shall look at the Chinese version first before examining the Japanese one.
Despite the fact that Su's text contains numerous omissions, additions, and inventions, the sequence of the episodic elements in Su's text is in perfect match with that in the French original. The thirteen chapters in the French text are rearranged in Su's translation in fourteen chapters of the zhanghui novel form. In Su's text, the first six chapters concur with the first five chapters of the French original: the same episodes and the same sequence of events. As the French text starts digressing with the second paragraph of Chapter Six after a single sentence describing Jean Valjean's wakening in the first paragraph, the Chinese translation also drifts into digression from the second paragraph of Chapter Seven onward after the first paragraph's brief mention of the dormancy of Jean Valjean and the bishop's family. The deviating part of the Chinese version, from early Chapter Seven to middle Chapter Thirteen, consists of another story line, about the adventures of Ming Nande 明男德, which is invented by the translator. The two plot lines cross each other as Ming Nande learns of Jean Valjean's arrest and decides to rescue him from prison. Subtly woven into the invented plot are sporadic descriptions of Jean Valjean's background, his theft of bread, his imprisonment, his lengthening of jail time, and his subjection to cruel abuse. Su's fabricated digression ends with the failure of Ming Nande's attempt to assassinate Napoleon in the middle of the Thirteenth Chapter, and then the story reverts to the
major story line, i.e., the scene in the bishop's abode, where Jean Valjean awoke at two o'clock after some hours of repose. The portion from the latter half of Chapter Thirteen to the end of Chapter Fourteen in the translation echoes Chapters Ten to Thirteen in the French novel, recounting Jean Valjean's waking in the night, his running away with the bishop's silverware, his capture by the policemen, his obtaining forgiveness from the bishop, his pillage of Petit Gervais, and his ultimate regrets. In a nutshell, except the part of the text which deals with the narrator's reflections on the hero's situation in relation to society at large, all the main episodic elements of plot in the original work are retained and followed in the same order in the Chinese translation, albeit in a condensed and rephrased manner.
Kuroiwa Ruikou's Aamujou begins, like Su's Chinese rendition, from the Second Book of Volume One of the French novel, and the first eleven chapters of the Japanese text as a whole correspond to the content of the Second Book, i.e., the part treated by Su Manshu. Generally speaking, Kuroiwa's version follows the narrative order of the French novel for the most part. However, four exceptions are prominent. To begin with, the Japanese text initiates the First Chapter with a brief introduction to the town of Digne, a piece of information that is absent in the corresponding portions in the original and in Su's version alike. Second, where the original story proceeds to Chapter Two describing Bishop Myriel's activity before dinner, the Japanese version inserts a passage to give some accounts of the bishop's status and background and his acts of benevolence in the past. This interpolation is taken from Book One of Volume One of the original novel, and is absent here in the counterparts in the French and Chinese texts. Moreover, Kuroiwa's version differs from the French and the Chinese in the process of interactions between Jean Valjean and the bishop's family. The entry of the culprit in the bishop's house and their conversation at the dinner table are depicted in Chapters Three and Four of the original story. The part of the dialogue where the bishop inquires about Jean Valjean's suffering and then warns him against harboring hatred for past inflictions is moved by the Japanese translator from Chapter Three to Chapter Four of the original division so that the episodic sequence is changed.
Specifically, the scene at the table in the French novel includes the following interactions and topics of conversation in sequential order:
1. Jean Valjean's offering to reveal his name and hometown to the bishop (Chapter Three)
2. the bishop's inquiry about Jean Valjean's suffering (Chapter Three)
3. the serving of food by the female servant (Chapter Three)
4. the presentation of six pieces of silverware on the table (Chapter Three)
5. Jean Valjean's expressing that the wagoners live better than the bishop (Chapter Four)
6. talk about Jean Valjean's destination, the bishop's past experience there, and the bishop's relatives there (Chapter Four)
While the French and Chinese texts follow the listed order, the Japanese version relocates the bishop's inquiry about his guest's suffering (no. 2 in the above sequence) to somewhere between the talk about wagoners (no. 5) and the chat about the hero's destination (no. 6).
There is one last outstanding difference in the Japanese text's presentation of events. Whereas in the original story, the digressive parts, arranged from the Sixth to Ninth Chapters providing some information about Jean Valjean's family background, theft, imprisonment, and maltreatment, are followed by descriptions in Chapters Ten to Thirteen of Jean Valjean's waking in the dead of night and his subsequent acts of stealing, the Japanese translator postpones the digression until Jean Valjean has entered the bishop's room in preparation for stealing the silverware. In other words, the French and Chinese digression occurs before Jean Valjean decides to steal the silverware, while the Japanese digression is inserted in the act of stealing.
Through the above macroscopic, structural comparison of the eight texts of Les Misérables, the present thesis finds that in terms of narrative structure the Chinese text agrees with the French and the English but differs somewhat from the Japanese in certain points. Here it is necessary to take another look at the four conspicuous structural differences analyzed above in order to judge how possible it is for the Japanese version to be Su's source. The first two differences involve the respective insertions of introductions to a place and a character, i.e., Digne and Bishop Myriel.
The absence of such insertions in the Chinese version is not sufficient proof that the Japanese version is not the Chinese translator's source, for it is Su's tendency to delete and rewrite, especially in a context where the information of Digne and Bishop Myriel is only trivial to the plot line. And then there are the last two differences, which have to do with rearrangement of narrative sequence. Can it be that based on the Japanese text, Su reorganized the topics of the table conversation in an order that was more to his liking, and so is the case with the placement of the digressive part? This possibility cannot be denied. However, the fact that Su's deviation from the Japanese text entails
his concurrent conformity to the French original seems to greatly compromise the Japanese's possibility and point to another better likelihood—that Su did not base his translation on the Japanese version.
The above analysis is directed in terms of probability. Though of the three language sources Kuroiwa's text is the least likely one Su might have drawn on, my study cannot exclude the Japanese version altogether for certain. To make my judgment more decisive will require more substantial and powerful evidence from the texts, and this leads me to the second stage of comparison: a microcosmic comparison which involves juxtaposition of the different texts to sort out their relationships.
In my micro-perspective research, I find numerous instances which serve to argue against the Japanese translation. In most cases, the Chinese plot is presented similarly to the French and English ones, but shows some evident differences from the Japanese.
To present all of such examples, however, would be impractical and make little sense.
In what follows, only some selected cases, i.e., the ones which are found representative, will be given to show how the different versions are related. For ease of reading, comparing and referring, the instances will be numbered, and all the cited texts will be put in tables.
Example 1: The first example has to do with the presentation of time. At the onset of Book Two, the time of action is given respectively as follows:
French (Victor Hugo) English (Charles E. Wilbour) Dans les premiers jours du mois
d'octobre 1815, une heure environ avant le coucher du soleil. . . . (LM I: 93)
An hour before sunset, on the evening of a day in the beginning of October, 1815. . . . (51)
English (Lascelles Wraxall) English (Alexander Dimitry and A. F.) At the beginning of October, 1815, and
about an hour before sunset . . . . (LM [1880?] I: 55)
An hour before sunset, on the evening of a day in the beginning of October, 1815. . . . (I: 44)
English (Isabel F. Hapgood) English (William Walton et al.) Early in the month of October, 1815,
about an hour before sunset, . . . (I:
55)
At the beginning of October, 1815, and about an hour before sunset . . . . (XI: 123)
Japanese (Kuroiwa Ruikou) Chinese (Su
In the French, English and Chinese versions, the temporal information of the event that is about to be narrated is offered directly and clearly as the evening of a day in early October in 1815. By contrast, Kuroiwa's Japanese translation indicates the time in a relatively roundabout manner. The text first introduces the town of Digne as the place where Napoleon spent the night on March 1, 1815 on his way from Elba to Paris. The time of March 1, 1815 here refers to an event about Napoleon that happened sometime prior to the appearance of Jean Valjean in the town of Digne. The Japanese narrator uses this time about Napoleon as a point of reference and, after a couple of paragraphs, brings in Jean Valjean's emergence in relation to this particular point in time. The reference to Napoleon here in this context is peculiar to the Japanese version and not found in the corresponding parts in the other texts. So here the Japanese mode of temporal narration is vastly distinct from the French, English, and Chinese ones which are similar to each other. This suggests that the Japanese version is the least likely source for Su's Chinese translation.
Example 2: The description of Jean Valjean's entry into the town of Digne involves another passage worth comparing:
292 All the Chinese passages of Can Shijie in this section are quoted from Su Manshu's Manshu Dashi Quanji 曼殊大師全集.
293 The Japanese passage is translated into English as follows:
". . . This is the place where the hero Napoleon spent the second night as he landed on the shore of Cannes on March 1, 1815, and proceeded on his way to Paris after escaping from the isolated island of Elba.
. . .
Now, seven months later, on an evening in early October of the same year. . . ."
294 "It happened that in early October of 1815 on the Western calendar, on the evening of this particular day. . . ."
French (Victor Hugo) English (Charles E. Wilbour) Il fallait qu'il eût bien soif, car des
enfants qui le suivaient le virent encore s'arrêter, et boire, deux cents pas plus loin, à la fontaine de la place du marché. (LM I: 94)
He must have been very thirsty, for some children who followed him, saw him stop not two hundred steps further on and drink again at the fountain in the market-place.
(51)
English (Lascelles Wraxall) English (Alexander Dimitry and A. F.) He must have been very thirsty, for
the children that followed him saw him stop and drink again at the fountain on the market-place. (LM [1880?] I: 55)
He must have been very thirsty, for some children who followed him, saw him stop not two hundred steps further on and drink again at the fountain in the market-place. (I:
44)
English (Isabel F. Hapgood) English (William Walton et al.) He must have been very thirsty: for the
children who followed him saw him stop again for a drink, two hundred paces further on, at the fountain in the market-place. (I: 56)
He must have been very thirsty, for the children that followed him saw him stop and drink again at the fountain on the market-place. (XI: 124)
Japanese (Kuroiwa Ruikou) Chinese (Su Manshu)
町ま ちの入口いりぐちで、汗あせを拭ふき拭ふき井ゐ戶どの水みづ
Here some plot elements are worthy of notice. Regarding the way the hero quenched his thirst, the French, English and Chinese versions say that his drinking source was fountain water, but according to the Japanese text it was water from a well that he
295 "At the entrance to the town, wiping his sweat he drew water from a well and drank it. One or two blocks later, he drank again from a well in the town. . . ."
296 "Several children who saw the stranger, obviously coming from afar, followed behind. In less than two hundred steps, he voraciously drank twice from the bucket of spring water (or fountain water) in the street."
drank. Since wells were very common as a source of drinking water in both Japan and China in the nineteenth century, it is quite unlikely that the Chinese translator could have deliberately turned the well water in the Japanese into the fountain water in the Chinese if he had translated from Japanese. Then, about the interval of the protagonist's thirst-slaking acts, the French, English and Chinese texts, excepting the versions by Wraxall and Walton et al., use "step" or "pace" as a unit of measurement and specify less than two hundred steps or paces as the interval of the action.
Contrastively, the Japanese unit of measurement is " 丁ちやう," or "lane or block," and the distance offered is one or two blocks farther. Apart from that, the Japanese text is the only one of the eight that does not mention the part where the protagonist was followed by some children. All these instances show the Chinese text's similarity to the French and the English and its concurrent departure from the Japanese. If Su had referred to the Japanese text as his major source, he could not have modified the Japanese plot elements and invented his own version that coincides with the French and English versions. This also indicates that Japanese is less likely than French and English to be Su's source of translation.
Regarding the five English texts, the Richmond translation copies Wilbour without altering a word, and the version by Walton et al. is a replicate of Wraxall's rendition. While the plot offered by the five texts, as well as the original French, is similar on the whole, Wraxall and Walton et al. distinguish themselves by omitting the description about the interval of two hundred steps altogether. Since the Chinese text
Regarding the five English texts, the Richmond translation copies Wilbour without altering a word, and the version by Walton et al. is a replicate of Wraxall's rendition. While the plot offered by the five texts, as well as the original French, is similar on the whole, Wraxall and Walton et al. distinguish themselves by omitting the description about the interval of two hundred steps altogether. Since the Chinese text