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在“亚马逊”网站上查到《三国演义》的两个英译版本，其中，C. H. Brewitt-Taylor翻译的版本将“三国演义”译为Romance of the Three Kingdoms，而Moss Roberts的版本只将其译为“Three Kingdoms”。

亚马逊网站截图

根据literary terms网站，romance定义为：

In the strictest academic terms, a romance is a narrative genre in literature that involves a mysterious, adventurous, or spiritual story line where the focus is on a quest that involves bravery and strong values, not a love interest. However, modern definitions of romance also include stories that have a relationship issue as the main focus. 

（https://literaryterms.net/romance/）

Literary devices网站对romance定义为：

Etymologically, romance comes from Anglo-Norman and Old French romanz, which means a story of chivalry and love. The word “romance” also refers to romantic love. As far as literature in concerned, the term has an entirely a different concept. It means romantic stories with chivalrous feats of heroes and knights. Romance describes chivalry and courtly love, comprising stories and legends of duty, courage, boldness, battles, and rescues of damsels in distress. 

（https://literarydevices.net/romance/）

综上，不考虑其与爱情（relationship, courtly love）相关的定义，romance作为一种文学形式，其讲述内容的特点为骑士精神（chivalry, bravery, duty, courage, boldness, battles）和冒险（adventurous, quest, rescues of damsels in distress）。

两者相比，chivalry对于romance似乎更为重要。《大不列颠百科全书》网站对romance的定义为：Romance, literary form, usually characterized by its treatment of chivalry, that came into being in France in the mid-12th century.

（https://www.britannica.com/art/romance-literature-and performance#toc508347main）

“三国”的故事与“冒险”没什么关系。《牛津词典》对chivalry，也就是“骑士精神”的定义如下：

“三国”中的将领们固然有勇气和荣誉感，但chivalry包含的不仅是勇气与忠义，还有乐善好施，扶危济困、尊重妇女等品质，更像中国文化中的侠客。“三国”讲的不全是武将的故事，重点也不是武将的德行。大到“三国”描绘的宏伟历史画卷，小到排兵布阵的智谋韬略，chivalry都不能胜任。译者如果因为romance的chivalry之意而把 “三国演义”译为一种romance会对原著造成一种缩减。

除了前面提到的特点外，romance的另一个特征也许是让C. H. Brewitt-Taylor选用romance一词的原因。根据《大不列颠百科全书》网站：

The marvelous is by no means an essential ingredient of “romance” in the sense in which it has been defined. Yet to most English readers the term romance does carry implications of the wonderful, the miraculous, the exaggerated, and the wholly ideal…The great 12th-century Roman d’Alexandre… introduces fantastic elements, more especially technological wonders and the marvels of India: the springs of rejuvenation, the flower-maidens growing in a forest, the cynocephali (dog-headed men), the bathyscaphe that takes Alexander to the bottom of the ocean, and the car in which he is drawn through the air by griffins on his celestial journey.(https://www.britannica.com/art/romance-literature-and-performance#toc50948)

总结来说，就是romance作品常包含奇异、奇幻、夸张和理想化的内容。引文段落最后一部分以Roman d’Alexandre一书 举例说明这种奇幻描写，如返老还童泉（springs of rejuvenation）和花仙女（flower-maidens）。

Goodreads网站对于romance有如下介绍，将与爱情无关的romance定义为虚构的（fictitious）、以奇异（marvelous）和非凡（uncommon）事件为要素的作品：

The terms "romance novel" and "historical romance" are ambiguous, because the word "romance", and the associated word "romantic", have a number of different meanings. In particular, on the one hand there is the mass-market genre of "fiction dealing with love", harlequin romance, and on the other hand, "a romance" can also be defined as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvelous and uncommon incidents". (https://www.goodreads.com/genres/historical-romance)

《三国演义》虽然有作者加工和夸张的成分，但《三国演义》不是《封神演义》，故事还没有到“奇幻（marvelous）”的地步。“亚瑟王传奇（Arthurian romance）”中的亚瑟王是一个神话（mythological）人物，而“三国”里的一众角色基本都是有历史记载的真实人物。

如果想用romance渲染一种久远、神奇的氛围的话，这个词可能有些过于缥缈了，会让人以为“三国”是个像亚瑟王那样的玄幻故事。

前面都是从定义层面分析romance这类小说的特点，从实践来看，笔者想不到哪部既非爱情又非玄幻的小说是以romance命名的。唯独把“三国演义”译成Romance of the Three Kingdoms有些奇怪。

综上，“三国演义”并非romance。将“三国演义”译为Three Kingdoms，或更突出故事性，强调“演义”的The Story of Three Kingdoms即可。

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