中国古诗及典籍包含众多意象和比喻,其中绝大多数的释义长期基本稳定、一致,仅有极少数包含歧义,也只是在字义层面。一旦进入翻译(英译),这些歧义的译文立即呈现出巨大的反差,中外译者得出的译文各异,有的甚至与传统理解截然相反。研究者对此的讨论通常局限在语言理解(歧义)上,而实际上,这远不只是语言的问题。本文以中国古诗(唐诗)中的歧义为例,考察其英译文(出自中外译者)所展现的深刻意义,涉及古诗意象解读的意外性和多样性、意象与现实的关联,还有对原文含义解释的权威性(母语译者的理解优于外语译者?)等问题。通过分析可以看出,此类翻译是一个对原文含义造成质疑并由此产生语言和文化互渗的过程。结果是,原文的潜在含义被重构、被重新认识,这是英译带来的新功用。 Chinese ancient poems and books contain many images and metaphors. The vast majority of them have been basically stable and consistent for a long time, with only a few containing ambiguities and only at the word level. Once translated into English, the translations of these ambiguities immediately present a huge contrast. Chinese and foreign translators come up with different translations, some even contradicting the traditional understandings. The researchers’ discussion of this is usually confined to language comprehension (ambiguity), but in fact, this is more than just a linguistic problem. Taking the ambiguity in Chinese ancient poem (Tang poetry) as an example, this paper examines the profound meaning of English translation (from Chinese and foreign translators), the accidental and diversity of the interpretation of ancient poem, the connection between image and reality, Interpretation of the meaning of the authority (native translators understand better than foreign translators?) And other issues. It can be seen from the analysis that such translation is a process of doubting the meaning of the original text and resulting in the infiltration of language and culture. As a result, the potential implications of the original text are reconstructed and re-recognized, which is a new function brought about by English translation.