Comparisons on different cultural developments of dragon in China and western country.doc

从中西“龙”文化发展差异浅谈如何英译龙comparisons on different cultural developments of dragon in china and western country-to discuss how to translate “dragon” into english contentsi. introduction.7ii. different cultural and historical developments of dragon in china and western countries.102.1 the cultural and historical development of chinese “long”.102.1.1 in ancient times.102.1.2 in the middle-age.112.1.3 in contemporary time.132.2: the cultural and historical development of western dragon.132.2.1 in ancient time.132.2.2 in medieval times.142.2.3 in neoteric times.16i.ii.iii. the cultural symbol and content of dragon in china and western country.163.1 the cultural symbol and content of dragon in china.173.2 the cultural symbol and content of dragon in western countries.17iv. english translation of dragon and its respective problem.194.1直译.194.2 transliteration.204.3 free translation.224.4 transformation.23v. conclusion.26bibliography.28.abstractthis paper is firstly designed to make a comparison between china and western countries on the cultural and historical development of dragon into three stages, then a conclusion has been drawn that although dragon is an imaginary creature both in china and western culture, the chinese “long” is not exactly equal to western “dragon”, this is mainly because each one has its own cultural origins, images, posts in ancient myths, as well as their symbols. thus, due to the important roles dragon play in chinese and western social culture and great consequences it has for ethnic and cultural promotion. it is a critical point to discuss how to translate dragon into english in complex cultural contexts so that intercultural communication can be processed effectively. and this kind of english translation version should be our ultimate goal of whole papers thesis.key words: dragon; development; culture; symbol; translation摘 要本文首先通过比较龙分别在中国与西方国家的文化与历史发展，接着得出结论：尽管龙都是想象虚拟的产物，但它们之间并不对等，不仅文化渊源不同，形象不同，神话中的职守各异，象征意义也大相径庭。因此，正因为龙在中西方所占的重要地位与其在民族精神与文化生活中的不同影响，如何对龙给出一个合理的英译版本，以便对其进行正确的英译，以达到准确的中西文化交流与传播的目的，这是本文探讨与研究的重点。关键词：龙，发展，文化，象征，翻译i. introductionlanguage and culture, intrinsically dependent on each other, have evolved together through the history. their mutual inter interdependence can find proof in the rise of civilization, the development of writing and human communication. much of the recent work has revealed that language is related to cognition, and cognition in turn is related to the cultural setting. then translation, as an important means of cultural communication among human beings, has been exerting a profound influence not only on transforming between two kinds of languages, but also on interacting and combining two different cultures.for instance, understanding toward dragon from people with various cultural backgrounds varies to a great extent. on one hand, if we are asked to name some national emblems of china, dragon is prone to be one of famous images that pop into our minds. we chinese often view ourselves as “the descendants of the dragon”. it is not unfamiliar to us that chinese parents eagerly hope their offspring may become the “dragon”. as a mythical creature, the chinese “long” has deeply rooted in chinese culture. traditionally, dragon in china is considered to govern rainfall. they have the power to decide where and when the rain falls. in addition, dragon in china stands for the imperial power. the emperors thought that they were real dragons and sons of the “god”. on the other hand, while chinese believe that dragon can bring prosperity and good fortune, this mythical is regarded quite differently in western countries. in the bible, dragon represents the devil and it tends to tricks the world. “westerners usually see dragon as cold-blooded reptiles, just resembles snakes”, quoted from a copy editor for the teens. “they are cruel killers, breathing out fire and capturing women”, he also adds that people think of dragon as being dishonest because of their forked tongues. more of than not, dragon in western literature is without exception presented as monsters against which the hero must battle. now we are going to discuss translation. the fundamental function of translation is to pass on information that can make texts understood by readers. a desirable one should be capable conveying messages between the lines, including cultural effects. in the course of translating, readers ought to be taken into account thanks to their significant parts played in cultural communication. as such, focuses in different translations of dragon in this paper consist of the results derived from cultural differences. for another, on the basis of translation strategies, the means to render “long” into “dragon” belongs to domestication (归化，in chinese), which, along with foreignation (异化)，is called one of commonly used translation strategies. as we refer to it, domestication is such a means of target-language culture oriented translation that adopts expressions tailored for target-language culture to male translation read smoothly and fluently. by contrast, foreignization is another means of source-language oriented translation which attempts to keep the linguistic style of original text, making it possible to preserve “exotic flavor” of source language. therefore, domestication and foreignization are two opposite opinions stemming from controversies about how to handle cultural differences while translating. as far as cultural transformation involved in translation is concerned, we may define domestication and foreignization as two principles. one is named target-language culture oriented or tl culture oriented and the other source-language culture oriented or sl culture oriented. both of domestication and foreignization could be treated as conceptual expansion of metaphrase and free translation, for there are no equalities among them. the profound effects of cultural, literary even political intentions would be included in domestication and foreignization , if aims of metaphrase and free translation were to convey information on language level, we can be sure that spotlights of domestication and foreignization concentrate on culture, poetry and politics.it is in such a complicated context that once translating dragon in practical writing, most of us are supposed to fully consider linguistic origin and pay adequate attention to correct words and phrases for cultural meaning. a successful and effective translation approach, thereby, is capable of conveying cultural messages faithfully to achieve a reasonable combination literally and meaningfully. next we will swift our notice to the development of dragon in china and western world. ii. different cultural and historical developments ofdragon in china and western countries2.1 the cultural and historical development of chinese “long”2.1.1 in ancient times chinese long initially turned up as an auspicious creature. according to the archaeological studies, even 7,000 years earlier than nowadays, ancient chinese people had begun to observe all kinds of ceremonies, in which they showed great respect and honor for long. from chinese peoples point of view, long, broadly speaking is a mythological creature, with the head of camel or horse or snake, the horns of a deer, the eye of a rabbit, the ears of a cow, the scales of a carp, the claws of a hawk, the palm of tiger, whiskers and beard. long has no wings and it will become ying long（翼龙）after a one-thousand years self-tempering. long is generally regarded as benevolent, powerful, worshipful and lucky. it is also thought of as the primary source of wind and rain, especially in laborers opinion. furthermore, long, which appeared on the description of chinese fairy tales, often is said to situate in the bottom of sea or river. rarely does this powerful deity come to contacts with common civilians living on the ground, nor will they stay in a certain location that fails to provide a quiet environment for them. with the large amount of mythological description about the magic beast, chinese long is widely cherished as a lucky creature, in most cases long is even regarded as the ambassador of god, commanding supernatural power and serves for the immortals. no matter in articles of chinese forebears or modern media material that vividly depict major duties of chinese long, it is not uncommon to see that long always makes its appearance as aids for their own masters who usually are the celestial beings with magic power.2.1.2 in the middle-agechinese long has become closely intertwined with emperors of feudal societies, and this kind of subtle relationship eventually renders long as the prime representation of royalty. as early as in tang dynasty (200 bc) in china, the date had revealed that the image of long has been used to stand for the emperor. first of all, nearly all the dictators of ancient chinese nation, ranging from emperor huang (黄帝)，emperor yan (炎帝), emperor yao (尧帝), shun (舜) and yu (禹), their original spirits were said to be the very “dragon” which came into being from the sky. moreover, it is al known to us that chinese, for quite a long time, have been showing honors for ancestors so that in their opinion, since the past emperors were called as dragon, the present monarch should also claim to be the descendents of dragon. not surprisingly, longs status as the symbol of supreme governors has been passed down from generation to generation. secondly, it is acknowledged for a long period that long must have a special talent to commute between the world and the paradise, as a result of the accepted belief that long is responsible for administrating water on the ground and rainfall from the sky. the ability to fly between different places enables long to perform the routine of reporting general situation about common people to the supreme emperor who governs immortal world as well as the mortal, conveying requirements from immortal deities to the mortal world. in that case, because emperors in feudal societies claim to be the “son” of long and execute plans in accordance with spiritual beings command, they thus gradually accept dragon to be the symbol for themselves and look upon it as their own embodiment.chinese long, during that time, was endowed with a lot of characteristics such as monarch, emperor, sacred, noble and propitious. no single emperor in feudal society would not call all himself or herself as dragon, and descendents of royal family were all named as “dragons generation. besides, the palaces where emperors live and apparels with which they dress in daily lives are both named after with dragon. there are some examples of words, like the palace of emperor（龙廷）, the bed of emperor (龙床), the overcoat of emperor (龙袍), the emperor looks greatly pleased (龙颜大悦) that fully display the subtle relations between long and emperor. from then on, the positive and commendatory meaning of dragon in china has been further developed.2.1.3 in contemporary timelong in china was once used as the mark to be printed on the national flag. therefore, throughout the history of eastern countries in asia in modern times, many nations including china have always honored dragon as national spirits. for instance, qing dynasty (1616-1911) initially considered long as the unique symbol of emperor. while later dealing with the people of western countries, the authority at that time was believed to portray the picture of dragon on the flag intentionally. and what they sought to do was expressing the idea that dragon was the representation of supreme power, your foreign visitors thus should bow down before our chinese emperor for respect. in the beginning, this kind of flag appeared in the shape of triangle. however, when governors realized that national flags of other states were without exception a rectangle shape afterwards, they decided to change the shape accordingly so as to follow the custom of other nations.during this time, shortly after the appearance of dragon flag come the national anthems whose major content centered on chinese long. in 1906, the ministry of land force in qing government composed a song for the army, which was called “ode to the dragon”. at a time, this song was taken as the acting national anthem. the lyrics of the song reads in chinese: “于斯万年，亚东大帝国，山岳纵横独立帜，江河漫延文明波，四百兆民神明胄，地大物博，扬我黄龙帝国威，唱我帝国歌.” from the song, the symbol of chinese long as emperor can be strongly sensed; it is amid the contemporary times when westerners get to know the differences of image between chinese long and their own dragon gradually. another crucial event taking place in this time is the revolution of 1911 led by dr sun yat-sen which overthrew the qing dynasty; it successfully overthrew the feudal system that has been dominating china for nearly two thousand years. this revolution eventually altered the role of dragon in monarchy, making chinese long become the emblem for the chinese nation again.2.2 the cultural and historical developments of western dragon2.2.1 in ancient timesdragon in western countries often played the role as the loyal bodyguard who in charge of keeping an eye on such precious things as pearls and jewels. at this age, this devoted creature was all depicted as either a huge, ugly and ferocious snake or a simple-minded monster with a lizard-look body. the skin color of these fierce “snakes” was mostly dark-green and on the surface of skin grows the squama that is capable withstanding any exterior attack. at the same time, western dragon was commonly thought of having a peg-shape head and long poisonous teeth, some of dragons even had more than one hand which breathed out fire.there was a famous story in greek tales telling that the king of thebes, cadmus succeeded in killing a giant dragon which was responsible for watching the fountain in boiotia. it was said that after killing the monster, the king cadmus decided to pull out its teeth and sowed them into soil as seeds. to his great surprise, these teeth soon turned into warriors who proceeded to fight against each other immediately. at length, the number of these brutal warriors was left only five. therefore, english idiom “to sow dragons teeth” had been regarded to get origin from this anecdote. nowadays, the idiom means that “keeping the hidden trouble but provoke conflicts and start a war”.it is not unique but has its similar cases. about in the mid-5th century of anglo-saxons, the britain had a masterpiece which was honored as the national epic of the anglo-saxons nation. it was called beowulf. its centered on a story in which the hero, beowulf, struggled to slaughter a fierce monster. like the creature of greek tales above, this sort of monster was none other than a dragon that guarded the treasure. although beowulf was badly injured by the dragons fire, he finally put an end to monsters life through courage and determination.2.2.2 in medieval timeseuropean dragon in western has been degenerated as the embodiment of devil. great changes took place with the image of western dragon amid the middle age. as a result, dragon was depicted like a huge and poisonous demon which can release fire out of mouth, being endowed with wings that bats could have, and a fat abdomen. avarice, guile and atrocity constituted dragons primary features of nature. on the other hand, dragon was believed to be fond of inhabiting caves, crater, lakes or seas. once disturbed or encroached, it was prone to take revenge on anyone who got close to their territories ruthlessly. in the bible, the demon satan transformed himself into a tremendous red dragon, whose tail was so long that it could reach to the sky, sweeping through one third of stars. this red demon had got nine heads, each of which wore elegant crown and it devoured the newly-born infants greedily. in consequence, the role of western dragon shifted from the “miser” to “evil demon”, being reduced to the very representation of crime, craftiness and cruelty.a large number of myths about slaughtering dragon were also popular in europe during the medieval period. brave mens wrestling against dragon in these myths were universally held as the fight occurred between good and evil. among these widespread legends was one of christian tales mostly well-known: saint george was a christian and a roman general living in 4th ad. in the course of his journey at one of destinations, there he was told by the local people that a huge and violent dragon rooted in the lake and it threatened to cut off water supply provided that its requirement of claiming a young girl every day could not be met. subsequently, the dragon was about to eat the last girl in the village when saint george came out timely and thrust the dragon into death with spear.2.2.3 in neoteric timesthe word “dragon” in western countries has become a derogatory word. thanks largely to advances in science and technology and cultural awareness, westerners nowadays are able to get rid of ignorance about dragon and step by step, becoming aware of the fact that dragon is no more than an imaginary and fabricated a