Let us begin with a story that Pham Duy Khiem tells. There was once a young wife, who had been left behind by her husband when he was called up to fight in his nation’s army. Soon after his departure, she gave birth to their child. As the boy grew older, he began to ask his mother where his father was. The mother chanced on the ruse of lighting a candle each night, casting her own shadow on the wall and telling the child that the shadow was his father. Each night the boy would bow to the shadow, before going to bed. After three years, the man returned to his home. He picked up the boy and informed him that his father had come back. To his surprise, the boy rejected him, saying that his father came each night, never talked and never touched him, but did everything the mother did. An extremely jealous man, the father immediately rejected his wife and left the house. Hurt and not understanding the reason for his actions, the mother eventually committed suicide. The father returned to look after the child, lit a candle, and watched as the child bowed down to the shadow on the wall. The man understood what had happened but now it was too late. This article is about the shadows cast by absent texts, specifically by Légendes des terres sereines (Legends from Serene Lands, 1942/1951), a collection of Vietnamese folktales written in French by the Vietnamese scholar and diplomat Pham Duy Khiem (1908–1974). It will describe the political aspects of publishing Khiem’s work in the original and in translation in Vietnam, France, and India. It will also consider the barely acknowledged uses that have been made of Khiem’s stories in French and English, obliterating his shadow altogether. Throughout this analysis, recognition will be made of the statement by Andre Lefevere that in the act of translation (as in the prior act of writing) there are four important dimensions: language, culture, poetics, and ideology. Each of these will play a role in the further life of the text, in different ways at different times. I will conclude by suggesting (contrary to Plato) that the shadows are a necessary part of our imaginative life.

中文翻译：

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不在场父亲的影子：范杜谦、政治和剽窃

让我们从范杜谦讲的一个故事开始。从前有一位年轻的妻子，当她的丈夫被征召为他的国家军队作战时，她被她的丈夫抛弃了。在他离开后不久，她生下了他们的孩子。随着男孩长大，他开始问他的母亲，他的父亲在哪里。母亲碰巧每晚点燃一支蜡烛，将自己的影子投在墙上，并告诉孩子影子是他的父亲。每天晚上，男孩都会在睡觉前向影子鞠躬。三年后，这个人回到了自己的家。他抱起男孩，告诉他父亲回来了。令他惊讶的是，男孩拒绝了他，说他父亲每天晚上都来，从不说话，从不碰他，而是做母亲所做的一切。一个极度嫉妒的人，父亲立即拒绝了他的妻子并离开了家。母亲受了伤并且不明白他行为的原因，最终自杀了。父亲回来照顾孩子，点燃蜡烛，看着孩子向墙上的阴影鞠躬。男人明白发生了什么事，但现在已经太晚了。这篇文章是关于缺席文本所投下的阴影，特别是 Légendes des terres sereines (Legends from Serene Lands, 1942/1951)，越南学者和外交官范杜庆 (1908-1974) 用法语撰写的越南民间故事集. 它将描述在越南、法国和印度出版 Khiem 作品的原著和翻译版本的政治方面。它还将考虑 Khiem 的法语和英语故事的鲜为人知的用途，彻底抹去他的影子。在整个分析过程中，将承认安德烈·勒费弗尔 (Andre Lefevere) 的声明，即在翻译行为（如在先前的写作行为中）有四个重要维度：语言、文化、诗学和意识形态。这些中的每一个都将在不同时间以不同方式在文本的进一步生命中发挥作用。最后，我将建议（与柏拉图相反）阴影是我们富有想象力的生活的必要部分。