英语本科毕业论文-The Neglect and Malposition of Cultural Image in the Translation of Literature.doc

第 13 页The Neglect and Malposition of Cultural Image in the Translation of LiteratureI . IntroductionAlong with the globalization of economy, politics, and technology, the cultural exchange between China and western countries becomes ever-increasing. Among them, the appreciation of the literary works is one of the communication bridges. As we know, the cultural factor plays an important role in the translation of literature. In order to improve the exchange among nations, it is utmostly important to correctly deal with the cultural difference in the literary works. Therefore, people set a higher standard to the literary translation. In the present-day society, translation is no longer considered as the transform of linguistic signs, but as a kind of behavior of inter-cultural communication. In the early days, it was pretty good as long as translators expressed the basic information of the original works. While, nowadays, translators must translate not only the meaning of the originals, but also the cultural imagethe symbol of the culture.However, up to now, people still do not have the full understanding of the cultural image. We usually separate the image from the culture, and associate it with figurative words, literary quotations, idioms, metaphors, proverbs, etc. People make a mistake that they think the image is just like a kind of figure of speech, and they do not realize that the cultural image is also a component of the content of original works. Therefore, I wish to explore the neglect and malposition of cultural image in the translation of literature.The Definition of Cultural Image2.1 The definition of cultural imageFor the translation of literature, it is very important to translate a cultural image of original works. While, before the study of a cultural image, we must make clear what the “Translation” is and what the “Translation of literature” is. For the definition of the “Translation”, the explanation from “A modern Chinese Dictionary” is that “to express one linguistic literary meaning by another linguistic literature, or to express signs or codes which represent linguistic literature by linguistic literature.” The definition, which is given in “Words Ocean”, is as same as the preceding one. Meanwhile, the explanation from “Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary” is that “to express (something spoken or esp. written) in another language.” Thus, it is evident that these definitions are almost the same, namely, to express the meaning of certain linguistic characters by another one. Explanations from dictionaries maybe are too obscure to understand. While, the book called “English-Chinese Translation Course” edited by Zhang Peiji, gives us a more clear explanation, that is, “Translation is a linguistic activity which exerts a target language to accurately and completely re-express the ideas and content of the original language.” This explanation is more exact and specific. Meanwhile, it emphasizes two words “accurately” and “completely”.However, in these dictionaries, there is no definition of literary translation. Maybe just as its name, it implies that the so-called literary translation is a kind of translation of literary works. But the explanation is too general to embody the profound meaning and characteristics of it. I once read a proper explanation that the literary translation is a linguistic activity which exerts the target language to faithfully and accurately express the ideas and the characteristic style of the original language. We notice that this explanation emphasizes “the characteristic style”, besides “the ideas”. The characteristic style is just one of necessary factors for literary works. A work without it is certain to be as pale and weak as a person without his own personality. And the cultural image is the most important embodiment of the characteristic among the factors of a work.The so-called cultural image, which is the crystallization of the condensing of each nations wisdom and historical culture, significantly reflects the distinctive nations cultural features. Part of it, which relates with each nations tales and totemism of earlier foundation, gradually became a kind of cultural mark with the relatively and fixedly unique meaning. Because of different living environment, cultural traditions, etc., different nation has its own unique cultural image. For example, there are many farmers proverbs since China is an agricultural country where the population of farm laborers is very large, such as these ones as follows:Withered wood or cold ashes. 槁木死灰B lean as a rake 骨瘦如柴A rolling stone gathers no moss 滚石不生苔Many hands make light work 众人拾柴火焰高However, Britain is the country composed by islands and Englishmen are fond of navigation. So they have many sayings about it, such as these ones as follows:Hoist your sail when the wind is fair. 好风快扬帆Still water run deep. 静水流深In a calm sea, every man is a pilot. 海面平静，人人可当舵手A small leak will sink a great ship. 小洞不赌要大船We also have another example for the traditions. If a Chinese or an Englishman wants to show his or her heart to the lover, both of them would say, “I love you with my heart.” But Nida has said that people in some African nations would say it like “love with my liver” or “love with my stomach”, even “love with my throat”.Thus, we know the cultural image implies different culture. It leads to the neglect and malposition of the cultural image in the literary translation. If translators avoid the knotty image and just translate directly the information contained in an image, it is possible to lose the distinctive national cultural image of original works. Then it results in the deviation of information transitions.2.2 The classification of cultural imageCultural image can be classified into three types: the resonant cultural image, the divergent cultural image, and the meaningless cultural image. Because cultural image has national difference, people who have different cultural background would have the following three different situations (as same as the three classifications) when they understand the implied meanings of image.A. My love is like a red, red rose.Here, “red rose” is the resonant cultural image which has the same meaning in Chineses and westerners mind. This sentence can produce the similar effect on English speakers and Chinese speakers, because “red rose” is such a beautiful and lovely image that can make people with different culture place the feeling of love on it.B. My love is like a dragon.This sentence maybe produces different effect on a Chinese and an Englishman or an American. “Dragon” is the cultural image, and the divergent one. Our Chinese people, “inheritor of dragon”, have the absolute respect for the dragon and consider it as the Chinese national symbol. Maybe Chinese cannot simply understand the meaning of this word, but their first reaction for this sentence is that the lover is probably a man, even a superman. (Because there is a Chinese common saying-He is like a dragon, while Im like a bug) However, for the westerners, the lover mentioned in the sentence may be a woman. They think the dragon who symbolizes disasters is a fierce, cruel and terrible monster, which can spurt smoke and fire. Therefore, in their mind, if people describe a woman like a dragon, it means that she is very malicious and disgusting.C. My lover is like a cauliflower.This sentence is meaningless, and “cauliflower” is the meaningless cultural image. It is difficult to understand what it means for a Chinese and an English or an American because “cauliflower” neither has the implied meaning which can be accepted by both of Chinese and westerners like “red rose”, nor has the different meaning for Chinese and westerners like “dragon”. Therefore, “cauliflower” is meaningless in the common context.2.3 Manifestation forms of cultural imageThere are many forms of the cultural image.Firstly, it may be a kind of plant. For example, in the Chinese language, there are pine trees, winter sweet, bamboos, orchids, chrysanthemums, etc. In western languages, there are oaks, olive-trees, white birches, roses, tulips, etc. Secondly, it may be a real or invented bird or beast. In the Chinese language, there is the crow, the magpie, the dragon, the kylin, the owl, etc. Let us take the owl as an example. The word “owl” always is connected with adversity by Chinese. They think they will be out of luck as long as they see an owl, so they are afraid of it and its sound. Thus, there is a Chinese saying “夜猫子（猫头鹰）进宅” which means you will have bad luck. In western languages, there is the lion, the bear, the swan, the beaver, etc. Westerners usually describe a person who is fond of ingratiating themselves with the higher level as a beaver. A beaver is a kind of animal living in North America. It moves actively and has the high skill and creativity in building nests. Therefore, they have a phrase called “eager beaver” which negatively means an impatient person spares no effort in order to quickly get an accomplishment.Thirdly, it may be an idiom, a proverb, a literary quotation or a figure, etc. Chinese have such kind of sayings-“画蛇添足”, “说曹操,曹操到”. While westerners have the sayings like “to put a fifth wheel to the coach”, “all roads lead to Rome”. Here, “蛇”, “足”, “曹操”, “a fifth wheel”, and “Rome” have become the cultural image of each nations culture because of their specially designated meaning.Fourthly, it even may be a number. In China, people like the coincident meaning of even numbers. They pursue “好事成双”, long for “双喜临门”, and describe good ways of the world as “四平八稳”, etc. For westerners, “three” is related with the religion. The trinity of the Christian culture gives the mysteriously cultural meaning of number three. The westerners are accustomed to divide the quantity of material existence and the process of development into three parts so as to pursue luck. The number of thirteen is considered as an unlucky one in the western countries. People use “12A”instead of the 13th floor in apartments. And also in airplanes, trains and theaters, there is no 13th row. Equally, they do not hold any celebration on 13th day of every month. The Neglect of Cultural ImageI have mentioned how the neglect of the cultural image appears in the preceding text, so I would like to talk about it in details. We cannot deny that if a translated text neglects or distorts the cultural image of an original work, the readers will regret there is a blemish on it, even have the misunderstanding, no matter how good the translation work is. The following three examples illustrate the importance of the appearance of the cultural image in the translated text.3.1 Example 1Li Bai, the poet of Tang Dynasty, has the sentence “烟花三月下扬州”, which is called “beauty forever”. Here, “扬州”, which is the cultural image, representatives not only the beautiful scenic spot, but also the place where Chinese ancient scholars long for. However, John Turner, an English translator of Tang poetry, translates this sentence into English as “Mid April mists and blossoms go”. Thus, he omits the word “扬州”. Maybe the translator thinks it cannot decrease the poetic flavor because “扬州” is just the name of the common place (or other reasons).In fact, it is imperfect. Some researchers have pointed out that the reason why this sentence is called “beauty forever” is that the poet combines the best time of spring (烟花三月) and the prosperous place (扬州) in one sentence. So if John Turner knows the meaning of “扬州”, he will not do so.3.2 Example 2In Chinese culture, we have the sentence “三个臭皮匠，顶个诸葛亮”. If we translates it as “Even three common combers can surpass Zhu Geliang” in English, we just transmit the surface meaning of it, losing the deep meaning. Now, there are another two translation texts-“Many heads are better than one” and “Collective wisdom is greater than a single wit”, being identified widely. Although both of them show the basic meaning of the original, they lose two Chinese unique cultural images-“臭皮匠”, “诸葛亮”. Owning to the necessary separation of the linguistic unity of meaning and images which are organically combined together very well, translators are always reluctant to land in the predicament where they attend to one thing and lose sight of another. Thus the cultural image is lost in the literary translation.3.3 Example 3In translation, especially in literary one, neglecting the meaning of cultural images sometimes can have a negative effect on transmitting the content of original works, even the artistic conception and the characterization. I would like to illustrate it from positive measures, and Zhao Jingshens translation of “Milky Way” is the proper example for this point. Although many people criticize him, I think his translating version is correct.When Zhao Jingshen translated the short novel of a Russian writer in 1922, he translated “milky way” into Chinese as “牛奶路”. It is well-known that, in astronomy, the belt where the countless stars sparkle, is called “milky way” in English and “天河” or “银河” in Chinese. It is so common that people who just pay a little attention to the astronomy can know it. However, Zhao Jingshen unexpectedly call “milky way” as “牛奶路” in Chinese. Lu Xun, a famous writer strictly criticized Zhao for it in his article. Since then, the affair is considered as a joke, even a typical example of the irresponsible translation.Nevertheless, in my opinion, his translation is correct. The novel is the literary work, not scientific one. If we stand on the point of science, he is wrong to translate “milky way” into “牛奶路”. Because people with a little scientific sense may know that the belt which is like a river of stars in the universe is called “milky way” or “银河”. While, we are in the literary translation region to have the discussion now. Here “milky way” is a kind of cultural image and closely relates with the Greek mythology. The ancient Greeks consider it as a “road” linking the earth and Olympus Mountain where Gods and Goddesses live. The milk split by Queen Hera makes it so bright. In China, its name is called “银河” which is the important factor in the moving Chinese folk tale. It is said that when the Cowherd and the weaving girl reunite on the seventh evening of the seventh moon, many magpies come to make up a bridge on “银河”for them. Therefore, different culture makes “milky way” different. There has been the scholar who compared Zhaos translation with the English translation referred by Zhao and the Russian original. He says that Zhaos translation is totally right. The reasons are as follows: Firstly, Zhaos translation is not a scientific document about astronomy, but a literary work. Furthermore, as a translator of literary works, Zhao should transmit the basic content of the original as well as the cultural image.Actually, the author describes a 9-year-old boy who cannot stand the endless bullying and humiliation of the apprentice life, and then he writes a letter to his grandfather living in country on Christmas Eve. In the letter he requests his grandfather to take him back to the country. The paragraph where Zhaos affair happen narrates that the little boy recollects the days of the country living with his grandfather when he is writing the letter. Its English version is as follows:“The whole sky spangled gay twinkling stars, and the Milky Way is as distinct as though it had been washed and rubbed with snow for holiday.” The Chinese version which is generally acknowledged is as follows:“整个天空点缀着繁星，快活地眨眼。天河那么清楚地显现出来，就好像有人在过节以前用雪把它擦洗过似的”Through the comparison, it demonstrates that the English version accurately transmits the cultural image of the Russian original. The main reason is because both of them are belong to the Greek-Roma cultural traditions. However, in the Chinese version, there is a totally opposite cultural image-“天河” against the English one and the Russian one. In fact, it distorts the harmony figure and the reasonable setting description of the original, although we can look up “milky way” which is translated into “天河” in the dictionary. As a result, the Chinese translation becomes self-contradictory and disobeys conventions.Firstly, for words, we find that “wayhad been washed and rubbed” in the English version. It is correct because any way can be washed and rubbed. However, in the Chinese version, the translator use the Chinese character “河” instead of “way”. Then we find a wrong sentence in Chinese-“天河好像有人把它擦洗过似的”.Its impossible that any river can be washed and rubbed. Even though the “天河” is composed by the stars, we are not only restricted by the convention, but also by our accumulation of the national culture, the latter is more important, when we read literary works. So, in our Chinese mind, “天河” is liquid. If not, why do the Cowherd and the weaving girl only can poorly face each other across the river and reunion once a year on the bridge built by so many magpies?Secondly, for the figure of the character, in the Chinese version, the little boy who has the background of the Greek-Roma culture has the Chinese cultural mind. Thus he imagines “milky way” which is well-known around the European nations as “天河”. It obviously damages the integration of the character. Let us suppose that if the little boy writes the sentence “I wish you Marry Christmas and God bless you” to his grandfather in the letter, the translator translates it into the Chinese sentence “祝您春节好，求菩萨保佑您”. It is totally incorrect. And there is no difference between it and the translation of “天河”.Now, let us make a study of Z