Culture Comparisons in Translation.doc

culture comparisons in translation i. introduction there are various errors in translation. the technical character causes some of the mistranslation. for example, “亿” is translated into “million”, “cow” is mistaken for “crow” or “rational” as “national”, or the whole sentence even the whole paragraph may be omitted. someone calls the above mistranslation as “hard wound”. my essay is aimed to discuss another mistranslation, which is called the mistranslation of cultural character. this mistranslation is caused by the diversity of culture. the purpose and characteristics of translation are to exchange ideas and culture. translation promotes understanding among different countries and nations. in translation the principle of “seeking the common ground while reserving differences”1 should be practiced. translation should reflect alien things in a strange land that are expressed in the original. ii. culture and mistranslation a. culture related to the social system courtesy expressions immediately reflect the socio-behavioral patterns of a culture. the notion of courtesy seems to be something universal, but people from different cultures might have different ideas as to what are courtesy expressions and what are not. traditionally, e.g. a chinese may greet a friend or acquaintance by asking “have you had your meal?” or “where are you going?” a westerner on the same occasion would, however, say something like “hello!”, “good morning!”, “nice day, isnt it ?”, etc. when meeting a friend who has just arrived after a long journey, the chinese would usually say,“ you must have had a tiring journey.” the westerner would ask instead, “did you have a nice trip?” or “did you enjoy your trip?” the fact that in chinese, many conversations start with “how old are you?” “are you married?” “whats your job?” “how much do you earn?” may disconcert a western reader, and many cause temporary cultural shock. b. culture related to the linguistic system culture may sometimes be traced to the linguistic, especially semantic structures of a language. the most typical case is one wherein comparable words in different languages may carry strikingly different associations. in chinese, for instance, “vinegar” is often another name for jealousy, e.g. “吃醋” (“eat vinegar”to be jealous). in english, however, the word is connotative of ill-tempered speech, character, etc. one may say that someones remarks are “made with a strong note of vinegar”. “sour ” or “vinegary” means in english “bad-tempered”, (“ a sour mood”), but in chinese sourness or being sour is connected with pedantry, so a pedantic scholar is often said to be a “sour” one. 2cculture related to the specific expressions indeed, some words and expressions profoundly imbued with unique cultural elements do cause translation problems. for instance, the chinese language possesses a great number of self-depreciating expressions: “鄙人”（my humble self）, “寒舍”（my humble home）, “拙文”（my awkward article）, “贱内”（my humble wife）, “老朽”（my old and useless self）,etc. these terms come from a long feudal tradition of keeping a low profile and refraining from showiness. contrary to this understatement of ones own value, the chinese show profuse respect, perhaps too bombastic to the western mind, for others: “拜读大作”（read your great article in awe）,大札（your great letter）, etc. 3 this is due to the chinese tendency to obey politeness principles rather than principles of co-operation. in such cases, translators can hardly expect english readers to respond with ease and comfort to a word-for-word translation of the chinese terms.iii. form-changing for faithfulness in translation, a cultural perspectivea. mental culture and language culture culture is an extremely complex concept and an enormous subject. it almost embraces everything in the world, whether material or spiritual. however complex it is, it can be roughly classified into three categories in scope: material culture which refers to all the products of manufacture, institutional culture which refers to social system, religious system, educational system etc. and mental culture which refers to peoples mentalities and behaviors, their beliefs, concept of value, thought pattern etc.the acceptance of culture is possible, because human beings all live on the same planet, the earth, and they share more or less similar aspects of culture; yet the acceptance of culture is usually incomplete, because it is limited by the difference in three categories of culture and particularly by the difference in language-culture and mental culture. the transfer of culture can be resorted to various codes, but language is of course the most important code of all for the transfer of culture. being an intrinsic part of culture, language carries culture, mirrors culture, spreads culture and helps develop culture. it is no exaggeration to say that language is the life-blood of culture and culture is the track along which language forms and develops.language-culture is strongly influenced by mental culture. this is because the formation of language is closely related to peoples thought patterns. the use of language has a great deal to with language-users brain and mind. for example, in chinese mental culture, “喜鹊” is regarded as a messenger of good news, because the first character of its name means “happiness, joy”. therefore the chattering of a magpie has the connotative meaning of “good news to come” in chinese. but in english mental culture more attention is paid to the physiological characteristics of this black-and-white bird, that is, noises it makes. then the connotative meaning of a magpie in english is “a chatterbox”. the chinese discourse structure featured by the four steps of beginning, following-up, transition and conclusion. the typical chinese thought pattern is like “beating around the bush.” that accounts for a circular line of development a chinese paragraph tends to follow. on the contrary, an english paragraph normally follows a straight line of development. it usually begins with the statement of the central idea expressed by a topic sentence, followed by a series of subdivisions of the central idea. these subdivisions develop the central idea and prepare for the addition of other ideas in later paragraphs. the chinese thought pattern is inductive whereas the english thought pattern is deductive. the difference in thought pattern gives rise to the difference of paragraph development.b. change of imagethe change of images in chinese-english translations is almost inevitable because chinese is imaginable whereas english is functional. this diversity between two language-cultures comes from the diversity between two mental cultures: the chinese emphasize intuition and images while the englishmen emphasize reason and logic.chinese is written with characters, which, in their earliest forms, were pictures of things or ideas. although chinese characters in their present, highly developed forms are not a system of picture writing, they are a complex means to convey ideas vividly with images. for example, “人”（man）is exactly the image of a man standing with legs separated, “伞”（umbrella）is shaped like an open umbrella. “日”（sun）and “月”（moon） are like the sun and the moon in the sky. “日” (sun ) and “月” (moon ) combine to give “明” (brightness). “从” (to follow) very vividly describes how a man follows the other.the meaning of some chinese words can be understood directly by audio-video means, for example, “硬币”（coin）, “纸币” (note ; bill), “高跟鞋” (high-heel shoes), “短袜” (socks), “连衣裙” (overall skirt) is a piece of clothing that combines a skirt and a blouse. many chinese words are very vivid with images, shapes and qualities clearly presented whereas most of their english translations only convey the meaning and function of the source text without preserving the images.the change of image often occurs when concrete images are employed in chinese as metaphor to stand for abstract ideas. for instance, “手忙脚乱” vividly describes the rush a person is in when he or she does something. the idiom gives an overall flurry situation without specific reference to “手” and “脚”. in the translation of this idiom the connotative meaning is completely preserved but the images of “手” and “脚” are lost. “如日中天” is the description of one who is the peak of his power or career just like the sun at high noon. since both the chinese and englishmen share this cultural phenomenon, literal translation “like the sun at high noon” and free translation “at the peak of ones power, career, etc.” are all good translations. 4 “势如破竹” compares to splitting bamboo the victories won one after another without any difficulty. it copies the scene when the upper part of a bamboo is split, the lower part will naturally become separated. its english translation can be: “like splitting bamboo,” which arouses the association of splitting bamboo on the part of the readers by preserving the image completely; “ with irresistible force”, which only conveys the connotative meaning with the image lost; “like a hot knife cutting through the butter”, which borrows the image from the western culture with the similar connotation. although these three versions are all faithful, their appropriateness is determined by the context as to who uses this idiom at what time in what place. appropriateness here refers to the appropriate transfer of mental culture, namely, whether the mental culture mirrored in the source text is properly transferred to the target text. the change of image makes translators regretful when they translate measure words. for example, “一枝笔” ( a pen), “一张报纸” (a newspaper), “一朵花” (a flower), “一把椅子” (a chair), “一面镜子” (a mirror), “一根棍子” (a stick), “一匹马” (a horse), “一盏灯” (a lamp), “一棵树” (a tree),“一块蛋糕 ”(a cake) are so vivid with images. their english translations are very accurate indeed to convey the concerned meaning and the quantity of the objects described, but they fail, and will never succeed, in reproducing the images with their vividness in the chinese measure words.c. change of formthe change of form inevitable takes place on all levels of language culture in chinese-english translation. the focus of discussion here is how to change forms properly in reproducing similar rhetorical devices. influenced by the harmonious philosophical perception of central harmony, the chinese have developed their peculiar aesthetic values, one of which is unique emphasis on the beauty of balance. for example, antithesis is an important figure of speech in both chinese and english. but antithesis is much more employed in chinese poetry, folk songs, and proverbs than in english.for example, the proverb “人无千日好，花无百日红。” can be translated “man cannot be always fortunate; flowers do not last forever.” 5 and “满招损，谦受益。”（ book of songs）6 can be translated “haughtiness invites losses while modesty brings profits.”the effect of contrast is achieved in both source text and target text by means of antithesis. “好” and “红” in this context bear connotative meanings which are properly translated. “while” in the second sentence connects two contradictory ideas and emphasizes the effect of contrast. this amplification of words is also used in the translation of classical chinese poems. 登鹳雀楼王之涣 白日依山尽，黄河入海流 欲穷千里目，更上一层楼。 mounting the stork tower wang zhihuan the white sun sets behind mountains, the yellow river flows into the sea. go further up one flight of stairs, and youll widen your view a thousand li. 7the first two lines of the source text are sharply juxtaposed with co-ordinate ideas presented by “黄河” and “白日”, “入” and “依”, “海” and “山”, “流” and “尽”. so are the first two lines of the target text. the last two lines of the source text are cohesive by the implied relationship between condition and result. “and” is this amplified to reproduce this relationship and “you” to make the fourth line a complete sentence. the target text seems to have changed a little in the form of antithesis, but this change is necessary in order to preserve all the meanings of the source text.the formation of many chinese four-character compounds with co-ordinate relations also reveals this aesthetic value of chinese. balance is so carefully kept in these four-character compounds that meanings are often repeated. for example, “天造地设” consists of two parts, “天造” and “地设”. “地设” actually repeats the meaning of “天造” in a similar form. this formation, which can be found in “天涯海角”, “天旋地转”, “四通八达”, “四分五裂”, “十拿九稳”, “年深月久”, “年富力强”, “繁荣昌盛” and many others, serves to make compounds balanced in form and sound with emphasis on meaning. owning to this feature of compounds, it is enough to translate the meaning of one part to avoid redundancy. the above nine compounds can be translated respectively into be created by nature, the ends of the earth, (feel as if) the sky and earth were spinning round; very dizzy, extend in all directions, fall apart, practically certain, as the years go by, in the prime of life and prosperity. this method can only be used when coordinate relationship exists and it is not the only method. as to other kinds of four-character compounds with modifying relationship or subject-predicate relationship, a careful analysis of the exact relationship should be made before proper method is selected.the translation of compounds matters a great deal, because the compound is the most important chinese linguistic unit, which reflects all the methods, mediums and relationships of combination. it can serve as a constituent of a sentence and become a sentence itself when it is read with an intonation. besides the repetition of meaning for the aesthetic value mentioned above, a compound often has connotative meaning which is quite different from its formal meaning and sometimes the images in the compound have to be changed in order to achieve faithfulness. “世界风云” as a tv program does not refer to any wind or cloud in the world. it means world affairs review. “纸上谈兵” now only has connotative meaning-unpractical empty talk. its translation “ to be an armchair strategist” has turned the images “paper” into “armchair” and added “strategist”. although “谈” is omitted in translation, the effect of being an armchair general who offers advice or opinions without actually participating in the war is quite similar to that of the source culture. “虽败犹荣” seems to be a contradictory concept in chinese culture, fortunately this contradiction is shared by the english-speaking people and the expression “successful failure” is the evidence. 8the above discussion about formchanging illustrates that images and forms language-culture are very closely related to mental culture. owning to the intrinsic feature of chinese, the change of images and forms is often inevitable. when images and forms are stamped with conation of mental culture, appropriate changes are all the more necessary in order to achieve faithfulness of the target culture to the source culture in chinese-english translation. iv. toward a translation study in the context of chinese-western comparative culture studies a. reconstructing an ideal criterion for literary translationoriginating in the han dynasty (206 b.c.220 a.d.), the translation of studies in china have a long history, but since china has been an isolated country seldom open to the outside world, little importance was attached to translation studies in china until the beginning of the 20th century, when western academic works and literary writings flooded china and made a strong impact on the rise of new chinese literature ( “新文化” ) marked by the may 4th movement in 1919. since then, translation has been regarded as equally important as creative writing, especially by those who strongly advocate the “overall westernization ”( “全盘西化” ) of culture. 9this applied to yan fu, who put forward his influential but controversial principles on translation, especially on literary translation from foreign languages into chinese. these principles affect much translation work in china even today, and are that one should pay attention to the three criteria of translation, “faithfulness”, “expressiveness” and “elegance”( “信，达，雅” ).this has evoked endless debates. however, in contrast to the rapid movement in translation theories and translation studies toward a scientific and empirical approach in the west, chinese translation studies are, in my opinion, only at the level of translation review or translation criticism, and are far removed from a theoretical system of chinese translation studies in the present context of cultural studies. nor has chinese translation studies reached the international level of empiricallybased translation studies. so i would like to offer my own explanation of yans three points in a broader cultural context, by analyzing what yan means by “faithfulness”, “expressiveness” and “elegance”. 10although it is not clearly defined, i am convinced that by “faithfulness”, yan means that a good translation should certainly be as faithful to the original as possible. yan simply means that the translator should first of all read the original closely, between the lines and even behind the lines, so that nothing subtle escapes him. here there is a cultural problem. cultures exist in relation to other cultures, just as cultures are characterized by their differences. although euro-american cultures differ greatly among themselves, western culture as a whole is completely different from chinese culture, which belongs to an entirely different cultural system. therefore, in reading a literary text, there are inevitably misreading, s