（英语语言文学专业论文）从社会符号学翻译法看莎剧中神话意象的翻译.pdf

v 从社会符号学翻译法看莎剧中神话意象的翻译从社会符号学翻译法看莎剧中神话意象的翻译 研究生：黄 艳 峰 年级：2006 级 学科专业：英语语言文学 指导老师：谢 世 坚 研究方向：翻译理论与实践 中中 文文 摘摘 要要 本文尝试从社会符号学翻译法的视角研究莎剧中的古希腊、罗马神话意象的汉译问 题。 社会符号学是在社会语境下研究符号系统与社会及人类关系的科学。文字符号总是涉 及一定的社会情景，对符号的解释与符号所在的社会文化语境密切相关，即，任何文字 符号的意义只能借助相关的社会情境才能得到解释。社会符号学翻译法将翻译视作两种 符号系统之间的信息转换，这就将翻译研究从语言领域转向了社会领域。社会符号学翻 译法着眼于跨文化交际，并揭示出可译性与翻译局限性之间的相对关系，这就要求译者 应当尽可能多地了解所译作品的社会文化背景，把注意力投向文化、语境等影响翻译的 因素。 莎剧中出现大量的古希腊、罗马神话意象，这些神话意象是承载着西方民族文化底蕴 的文化意象，亦即典型的西方文化符号；是西方社会的特有文化现象，在汉译的过程中 大部分会出现文化空缺现象。对它们的翻译实质上就是英汉两种文化符号之间的转换， 这其中存在诸多目前难以克服的文化方面的障碍。 神话意象的翻译不仅是跨语言，更是跨文化、跨社会的交际活动。翻译的过程不仅 是英汉两种语言的转换过程，更是反映不同社会特征的英汉两种文化符号系统之间的信息 转换过程。 译者不仅要熟练掌握英汉两种语言，而且必须对中西两种文化有十分透彻的理解；必 须把这些神话意象纳入社会语境中，充分认识可译性与翻译局限性之间的相对关系，从而 探索出切实可行的翻译途径。 总之，本文试图探讨、总结出莎剧中古希腊、罗马神话意象的类型及特点；以社会符 号学翻译理论为基础，结合朱生豪、梁实秋和方平三个代表性的汉译本，举出相应的译例 进行比较、分析，探讨莎剧中希腊、罗马神话意象翻译的有效途径，希望有助于今后的莎 剧翻译。 关键词关键词：莎剧；社会符号学翻译法；神话意象；翻译；文化符号 vi translation of the mythological images in shakespeares plays: a sociosemiotic approach postgraduate: huang yanfeng grade: 2006 major field of study: english language the interpretation to them has a close relationship with the social context in which they exist; that is, only resorting to relevant social context and situation, can we get reasonable interpretation to the meanings of any writing signs. sociosemiotic approach regards translation as the message transfer between two semiotic systems, which extends the study from the mere linguistic field to human society. whats more, the approach focuses on cross-cultural communication and reveals the dialectical relationship between translatability and its limitations. so translators must try their best to grasp the various socio-cultural backgrounds and put their eyes on the factors (i.e. culture, context, etc.) that affect translation. there are a lot of greek and roman mythological images in shakespeares plays. they are cultural images with rich western culture, namely classic western cultural signs; they are culture-specific phenomena in western society, so it is unavoidable to encounter many cultural gaps in the process of translating them into chinese. the translation of them is in essence the transfer between english and chinese cultural signs. there are still a lot of insurmountable barriers, mainly cultural ones at present. the translation of the greek and roman mythological images in shakespeares plays is not only cross-linguistic, but also cross-cultural and cross-social communicative activity to a greater extent. the process of translating is not only the transfer between english and chinese languages, but also the message transfer between the two cultural sign systems in english and chinese. thus it can be seen that it is far from enough for translators to have only a good command of english and chinese in trying to translate the greek and roman mythological images in shakespeares plays. they should also have a thorough understanding of western and chinese vii cultures. furthermore, they have to put these mythological images into certain social context and find out the dialectical relationship between the translatability and the limitations. thus seek out the feasible ways of translation in the end. in a word, this thesis intends to explore and summarize the classifications and characteristics of the greek and roman mythological images in shakespeares plays. then it tries to find the effective ways of translating them by applying the sociosemiotic approach to the comparison and analysis of some translated examples cited from zhu shenghaos, liang shiqius and fang pings translated versions, hoping to contribute to the translation of shakespeares plays in future. keywords: shakespeares plays; sociosemiotic approach; mythological image; translation; cultural sign viii list of figures figure 1 two phases of translating the mythological images 50 figure 2 the process of literal translation 55 figure 3 the process of weakened literal translation 56 figure 4 the process of literal translation with explanation 57 figure 5 the process of literal translation with annotation 60 figure 6 the process of replacing one physical image with another 61 figure 7 the process of abandoning physical images 63 figure 8 the process of literal translation with explanation and annotation 63 论文独创性声明论文独创性声明 本人郑重声明：所提交的学位论文是本人在导师的指导下进行的研究工 作及取得的成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不含其他个人或其 他机构已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。对本文的研究作出重要贡献的个人和 集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。本人承担本声明的法律责任。 研究生签名： 日期： 论文使用授权声明论文使用授权声明 本人完全了解广西师范大学有关保留、使用学位论文的规定。广西师范 大学、中国科学技术信息研究所、清华大学论文合作部，有权保留本人所送 交学位论文的复印件和电子文档，可以采用影印、缩印或其他复制手段保存 论文。本人电子文档的内容和纸质论文的内容相一致。除在保密期内的保密 论文外，允许论文被查阅和借阅，可以公布（包括刊登）论文的全部或部分 内容。论文的公布（包括刊登）授权广西师范大学学位办办理。 研究生签名： 日期： 导 师签名： 日期： iv acknowledgements with the help from my teachers, friends and family, i finished the thesis as scheduled. first and foremost, i would like to express my appreciation and thanks to my supervisor, dr. xie shijian, without his creative guidance, insightful suggestions, critical comments, generous help and continuous encouragement, this thesis would not have been possible. i will never forget that he revised the first draft of the thesis for me word by word and sentence by sentence. i have also benefited greatly from his keen intuitions about language, literature and life in general. his attitude toward academic research and life will be a great asset in my future career and life. i am very grateful to all of my teachers in the college of foreign studies, guangxi normal university. they have helped me to develop an interest in english language and literature and to acquire better understanding of many aspects of translation studies and practice in my graduate studies. i also extend my sincere thanks to my fellow classmates as well as friends for their friendship and kindness during the course of the three-year study and writing the thesis. last but not least, my heartfelt gratitude goes to my family. i would like to thank my dearest parents and wife. in the three years of my graduate studies, they have offered constant support to me. without them, i would not have been able to accomplish so much over the past few years. 1 chapter 1 introduction 1.1 shakespeare and his works as one of the most outstanding playwrights and poets in world literature, william shakespeare (15641616) belongs to those rare geniuses of mankind who have become landmarks in the history of world culture. with 37 plays, 2 long narrative poems and 154 sonnets all over his lifetime, he has established his giant position in world literature. it is said that his works are an inexhaustible mine for various scholars, critics and translators all over the world. in the past hundreds of years, books, essays and articles on shakespeare and his works have kept coming out in large number. of shakespeares place and influence in literature, g. l. evans writes in the upstart crow that “no one has ever excelled shakespeare in the writing of dramatic poetry, no one has challenged his mastery of dramatic form, his depth of characterization, his versatility in plot, theme and expression” (from 张伯香，2004：167).when william shakespeare died in 1616, his great contemporary ben jonson wrote a poem entitled to the memory of my beloved, the author, mr william shakespeare. in it he included the famous phrase, he was not of an age, but for all time!, and by this he meant to offer shakespeare the compliment of suggesting that his writings would live on beyond his own time, and that shakespeare would attain a kind of immortality because of the fame and virtue of his works (michael mangan, 2005: 1). in 1813, nearly 200 years after shakespeares death, another literary giant goethe gave such praise: “shakespeare und kein ende”, meaning in english “shakespeare and no end” (from 陆谷孙， 2005：1-2). just as what ben jonson and goethe predicted, shakespeares works, especially his plays, are universally accepted as world-class literary classics. their lasting vitality always attracts numerous translators, literary critics and so on in different times and different countries to interpret them again and again by using different words indefatigably. in a word, just as michael mangan (2005: 1) says: “shakespeares undeniable central importance as a cultural figure has come about, not by magic but because of successive generations of readers and audiences responding to his plays and making sense of them. the sense which has been made of them differs from generation to generationeach age, each culture has its own shakespeare. sometimes the difference from one age to another are slight, sometimes they are radical. the process is not at an end.” 1.2 the significance of the study 2 “as you know, there are two branches of literary tradition behind shakespeare one is the greco-roman tradition including greek mythology mainly through ovids metamorphosis and the roman comedies of plautus and roman tragedies of seneca, the other is the native english dramatic tradition of biblical stories, the coventry cycle, the miracle and morality plays.” (裘克安，2006：156) from mr. qiu keans words, we can draw a conclusion that shakespeares works have a close relationship with greco-roman mythology and the bibles. this thesis will focus on chinese translation of the greek and roman mythological images in shakespeares plays. greco-roman mythology, also known as western classical mythology, is made up of two branches: greek mythology and roman mythology. the former is a group of traditional tales told by the ancient greeks about the deeds of gods and heroes and their relations with ordinary human beings, and the latter is the religious beliefs and practices of the people of ancient rome. on the one hand, the latter was developed out of the former and they have a lot in common, therefore, to many people, the latter largely seems a copy of the former; on the other hand, both of them have their own uniqueness. the former is an important part of greek culture, while the latter is an important part of roman culture. according to bao huinan (包惠南，2001：257), there are four great cultures in the west, namely greek culture, roman culture, germanic culture and the christian culture. strictly speaking, the origins of the western culture are the cultures which are named as “double h” by the western historians, namely hellenism and hebraism. of them, hellenism, namely greek culture, is the source of other european cultures. thus it can be seen that greek and roman cultures are indispensable parts of the western culture. whats more, the multitudinous myths created by the ancient greeks and romans are the gems of greek and roman cultures. they not only reflect the wisdom of the ancient greek and roman nations, but also refract the radiance of literature and art. on the one hand, these greek and roman myths enrich literature and art greatly; on the other hand, the excellent literary and artistic works give these myths a new life in return. therefore, it may be said without exaggeration that the evolution of western culture is just by means of the each others advance of these greek and roman myths as well as the literary and artistic works correlated with them. it is said that from the renaissance, the enlightenment movement and neoclassicism, romanticism, to the modern times, classical mythology has continued to exert itself as a western cultural reference (马建军，2004：13). even up to now, the greek and roman mythological images and symbols are still glittering in every corner of social life in the west. so it must be approved that the greek and roman 3 mythological images have deeply accumulated in the innermost cultural sense of western people. some of the major ones even have shaped western culture and the way the western people think. in short, the greco-roman mythology not only has given birth to the whole western culture, but also has a great and far-reaching influence on the development of the whole human culture. for writers in literature, the greek and roman myths are indeed the inexhaustible source of literary creation. thus there are a large number of images stem from them appearing in literary works. many literary giants in the renaissance, especially shakespeare, showed more favoritism to them and quoted in large number as one of his creative sources. moreover, the images with rich national culture are an important way to make the readers acquire cultural messages from literary works. therefore, the greek and roman mythological images, as special elements in shakespeares plays and with profound western cultural implications and unique cultural connotations, their chinese translation is important and indispensable. they are so large in number, so widespread and profound in influence, so important in position that any translator should not and can not avoid translating them. their appropriate translation is an essential prerequisite and a fundamental condition for chinese readers and audience to appreciate and grasp shakespeares real intention accurately. so the study on the greek and roman mythological images will help the readers or audience to grasp their true meanings and thus understand shakespeares plays much better. there are a large number of culture-loaded greek and roman mythological images with rich connotations existing in shakespeares plays. however, no penetrating and systematical study on their translation has ever been conducted in china. therefore, it is necessary for translators to try their best to make a thoroughgoing study and an exact translation in this field. it has great significance and will make valuable contributions to the study and translation of the whole shakespeares plays. to sum up, it really has strong practical significance and broad applied prospects to undertake a full study on the greek and roman mythological images in shakespeares plays. 1.3 the objectives of the study generally speaking, the objective of any scientific research is to apply theoretic achievements to practice and thus guiding practice. it is true that the study on the chinese translation of shakespeares plays is worthy of the name: let a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend. but up to now, we have not seen any systematic study on chinese translation of the greek and roman mythological images in shakespeares plays. in view of this, it is very necessary to explore this potential field. 4 however, it is not easy to translate the greek and roman mythological images in shakespeares plays, in which there are still a lot of insurmountable barriers, mainly cultural ones at present. but after all, scientific research aims at making a major breakthrough and bringing forth new ideas. and any difficulty is relative and temporary. moreover, in the process of translating shakespeares plays, many translators have made some helpful attempts at these mythological images. therefore, it can be believed that the cultural differences and gaps between chinese and english will decrease gradually with the unremitting efforts of more and more translators and the continuous development of chinese and western cultural exchange. the objectives of this study are as follows: to undertake a thorough study on chinese translation of the greek and roman mythological images in shakespeares plays on the basis of sociosemiotic theory, and to contribute to some extent to the future translation of shakespeares plays so that chinese audience and readers will have better opportunity to appreciate shakespeares plays. 1.4 the methodology of the study in view of the extremely important position and function of these cultural images in shakespeares plays, their knotty difficulty and incomparable importance in chinese translation, and their present study situation at home and abroad, the author will try to reveal in this thesis, by means of description, comparison and analysis, how problems in the translation of the greek and roman mythological images come about because of cultural differences and so on, and how such problems can be solved by the application of sociosemiotic approach. the methodology of this study is as follows: firstly, classify the greek and roman mythological images in shakespeares plays and summarize their characteristics. secondly, select some typical examples of the images and the corresponding examples from zhu shenghaos, liang shiqius and fang pings translated versions. thirdly, under the guidance of relevant translation theories, mainly sociosemiotic approach, describe, compare and analyze the examples. fourthly, point out the advantages and disadvantages of every translated example by comparing and analyzing from different perspectives, and explore the better ways of translating the greek and roman mythological images in shakespeares plays. in a word, by comparing and analyzing the examples from the three chinese translated versions, this thesis intends to make a tentative exploration into the translation of the mythologic