本文以中文的文白雙言現象為例，探討探語言變異的(不)可譯性，深入研究此現象在翻譯上的可能性與重要性。透過當今翻譯學文獻探討及對比進行分析。討論現今翻譯學主流看法與Anthony Pym（2000）提出的“syntagmatic alteration of distance”兩者之間的優劣。以魯迅的<阿Q正傳>為例，說明雙言的語言變異翻譯之重要性，探究魯迅如何以雙言的語言變異來製造諧擬，而不同的譯者採用何種翻譯策略來詮釋這些諧擬效果。文本分分析集中於以下四本英譯本：Wang Chi-chen’s（王際真）Ah Q and others: Selected stories of Lusin (1941); Yang Xianyi（楊憲益）and Gladys Yang’s The true story of Ah Q (1956); William A. Lyell’s Diary of a madman and other stories (1990); and Julia Lovell’s The real story of Ah-Q and other tales of China (2009).

The present paper addresses (un-) translatability of linguistic variation as it pertains to literary translation of diglossia from Chinese to English. The paper investigates issues of potentiality and importance of translation of diglossic linguistic variation. Discussion of potentiality is carried out through an extensive review and comparison of major trends in the Translation Studies literature on linguistic variation. The discussion brings into contrast discourse-restrictive, yet ubiquitous, “translatability of dialect” issues with a rare, yet discourse-liberating, notion of “syntagmatic alteration of distance” put forth by Anthony Pym (2000) as basis for translation of linguistic variation. A brief example from Lu Xun’s (魯迅, 1881-1936) novella The True Story of Ah Q (阿Q正傳, A Q Zhengzhuan) (1921) provides an argument for importance. The example focuses on parody and linguistic variation as they function together in the language and qualities of the novella’s main antagonist and his biographer, the narrator, as they are translated out from the historicized Chinese referential frame of the original text into the English-speaking-world of the translation. Analysis is carried out across four English-language translations: Wang Chi-chen’s Ah Q and others: Selected stories of Lusin (1941); Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang’s The true story of Ah Q (1956); William A. Lyell’s Diary of a madman and other stories (1990); and Julia Lovell’s The real story of Ah-Q and other tales of China (2009).

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