（英语语言文学专业论文）异化与中国古典诗英译中文化意象的传递.pdf

descriptive chinese abstract i 摘 要 摘 要 古典诗歌是中国文学的精髓，以其独特的魅力被视为传统文化的瑰宝。而意象，尤 其是文化意象更是诗歌的灵魂，文化意象在古诗中的运用十分普遍，充当着举足轻重的 角色。可以说古诗的魅力得益于文化意象的充分运用。中国古典诗歌中的文化意象论越 来越成为中国诗学、文学和文艺理论研究的热门课题，也是翻译研究，特别是古典诗英 译研究的热点。语言是文化的载体和交流的工具。文化意象是蕴涵着丰富的民族文化内 涵的语言符号。在其英译中不仅要考虑语言的转换，同时也要考虑文化的转换。本文旨 在从文化的角度研究中国古典诗英译中文化传递的问题， 探讨文化意象翻译中处理文化 因素的具体策略。 翻译的最终目的是为了促进不同文化之间的交流与对话。从本质上来看，翻译是以 一种语言为载体的文化内涵转化为另一种文化形式的文化翻译。在翻译中，如何实现文 化内涵从源语到目的语的转换成为判断译文成功与否的一条重要标准。 而文化策略的选 择直接影响到文化内涵的表达效果。 归化和异化是文化翻译中的两个重要概念和处理翻 译中文化因素的具体策略。归化派代表人物是美国翻译理论家奈达，归化翻译以目标语 文化为归宿，主张在翻译中运用目标语文化易于接受的表达法，使译文更通俗易懂，更 适合于目标语读者；异化派的代表是美籍意大利翻译理论家韦努蒂，异化翻译则以源语 文化为归宿，提倡在翻译中保留原文的形式，努力再现原文的文化色彩，更好地传达源 语文化的异国情调。 归化与异化两种策略之争一直贯穿中外翻译历史。过去，归化在翻译中一直占据主 要地位，而异化则处于从属地位。然而，在中国古典诗英译中，归化翻译不利于文化意 象翻译中文化因素的传递。 21 世纪的今天， 随着高科技特别是互联网在全球的普及以及 经济贸易的日益国际化和全球化，人类历史已进入一个全新的阶段，经济全球化带来的 一个直接后果就是文化全球化。文化的相互渗透和融合使异化成为翻译的趋势，这种趋 势也体现在中国古典诗英译中文化意象的传递上。究其原因主要体现在两个方面：一方 面是全球化下文化交流的特点所致（全球化的趋势、语言的吸收性和渗透力、对“文化 帝国主义”的抵制性和实现跨文化交流的目的） ；另一方面是翻译观的改变所致（翻译 的目的、翻译的忠实性和读者的期望和接受能力） 。这种异化策略在文化意象英译中具 体可以通过三种方式来实现，即：完全直译、直译加文化信息补偿（文外加注和文内明 descriptive chinese abstract ii 示） 、音译。强调对源语文化意象的充分如实传递实际上凸显了异化法在各种翻译策略 中的主导地位。然而，异化翻译也有限度，行不通时，还要借助于归化。 关键词：古典诗歌；文化意象；传递；异化；归化；翻译策略关键词：古典诗歌；文化意象；传递；异化；归化；翻译策略 english abstract iii abstract as a gem in the treasure house of chinese literature, classical chinese poetry is rich in culturally-loaded words. image, especially cultural image, the soul of poetry, plays a crucial role in poetic creation. its through the cultural image that the depiction of the immediate scene embodies ideas of far-reaching significance. the study on cultural image in classical chinese poetry gradually becomes a hot topic in the field of translation studies and literature. language is the carrier of culture and a means of communication as well. language and culture are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture. the cultural images translation should concern not only the transfer between languages, but also the transfer between cultures. from the perspective of culture, the thesis is aimed at probing the specific strategy of dealing with the cultural factors in cultural images translation. translation, in essence, is intercultural communication, the ultimate purpose of which is to promote the cross-cultural exchange. how to realize the transfer of the source language culture to the target language has become the most important criterion to judge whether the translation is successful or not. and the translators choice of the cultural strategies for translation, to a large extent, influences the effects of expression of cultural connotations. domestication and foreignization are two important strategies in translation. domestication, a representative of which is eugene a. nida, refers to target-language-culture-oriented translation in which expressions acceptable in target language culture are exploited in order to make the translated texts intelligible and suitable for the target text readers. foreignization, a representative of which is lawrence venuti, is source-language-culture-oriented translation which strives to preserve as much as possible the original flavor in order to retain the foreignness of the source language culture. the controversy over domestication and foreignization has lasted a long time both at home and abroad. in the foretime, domestication played a major role in translation while foreignization was just in a subordinate status. however, domestication translation is not appropriate for transferring the cultural images in classical chinese poetry translation. nowadays, with the frequent cultural exchanges, the application of foreignization will be a tendency in translation and cultural images translation as well. the foreignization tendency is due to the characteristics of cultural exchanges in the age of globalization with trend of globalization, assimilation of language, resistance to ethnocentrism and promotion of cultural exchanges included and the change of translation viewpoints with purpose of translation, english abstract iv faithfulness of translation as well as readers acceptance and expectation included. the application of foreignization in poetic cultural images translation can be realized through three techniques: complete-literal translation, literal translation with cultural information compensation (literal translation with footnotes and literal translation with in-text annotations) and transliteration. however, though foreignization strategy is suitable for cultural images translation, some features and cultural information still cannot be conveyed completely. when foreignization is not feasible, the translator should resort to domestication as a supplementary method. key words: classical chinese poetry; cultural image; transference; foreignization; domestication; translation strategy 湘潭大学湘潭大学 学位论文原创性声明学位论文原创性声明 本人郑重声明：所呈交的论文是本人在导师的指导下独立进行研究所 取得的研究成果。除了文中特别加以标注引用的内容外，本论文不包含任 何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写的成果作品。对本文的研究做出重要贡 献的个人和集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。本人完全意识到本声明的 法律后果由本人承担。 作者签名： 日期： 年 月 日 学位论文版权使用授权书学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解学校有关保留、使用学位论文的规定，同意 学校保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和电子版，允许论文 被查阅和借阅。本人授权湘潭大学可以将本学位论文的全部或部分内容编 入有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或扫描等复制手段保存和汇 编本学位论文。 涉密论文按学校规定处理。 作者签名： 日期： 年 月 日 导师签名： 日期： 年 月 日 introduction 1 introduction as the gem of language and the crystallization of a culture, poetry is rich in cultural images, through which the depiction of the immediate scene embodies ideas of far-reaching significance. cultural image plays an important role in poetic creation. the charm of poetry is attributable to the adoption of rich cultural images. in a word, cultural image is like a pearl which makes the poetry shine with dazzling brilliance. language and culture are interactive and interdependent. it is no exaggeration to say that language is the foundation of culture and culture is the track along which language forms and develops. as a means of communication, translation plays an important role in cross-cultural exchange. as a kind of cultural sign, cultural image of classical chinese poetry (ccp) is loaded with comparatively fixed cultural connotations and rich associative meanings, so the understanding of cultural images can make people have a deep comprehension of the culture. the translation of cultural images must be helpful for intercultural communication among nations. based on the important role of cultural images translation in cross-cultural communication, the present thesis gives a tentative study of cultural images translation with ccp as the texts from the perspective of culture and is aimed at finding a solution to the problem of cultural transmission in poetic images translation. the significance and purposes of studying transference of cultural images from the angle of culture lie in the following aspects: first of all, studies on transference of cultural images in translation are still relatively weak in the field of translation. little has been done to the translation of images considering the cultural factors. exclusive research of cultural images is still inadequate and incomplete. in the last decade, studies of poetry translation have mostly stayed on the image translation not involving the cultural factors. arthur waley says that image is the soul of poetry. angus c. graham (1988) asserts that the translation of imagery is fundamental since it is the essence of poetry. pound, one of the leading figures of imagism, advocates the importance of image in poetic translation. in the preface for golden treasury of tang and song poetry，xu yuanchong expounds the “three beauty” principle for poetic translation, namely, beauty in introduction 2 sense, beauty in sound and beauty in form. of the three, beauty in sense is the most essential requirement. image is the most important aspect in meaning conveyance. xu polishes image in a flexible and original way with the aim to grasp the spirit of the original and attain the aesthetic effect in it. many a scholar has devoted their energy into the study of translation of chinese poetry including the images. literary works focused on the aspect of image include: the reading of imagery in the chinese poetic tradition (pauline yu, 1987), images in jade (arthur christy, 1929), traditional chinese poetry and poeticsomen of the world (stephen owen, 1985), readings in chinese literary thought (stephen owen, 1992),诗歌 意象论 (chen zhie, 1990), 意象符号与情感空间 (wu xiao, 1993). there are still many other scholars, namely, xi hualin (习华林, 2001), zhang baohong (张保红, 2002), wei jiahai (魏家海, 2003), yao zhenjun (姚振军, 2004), zhang junfeng (张俊峰, 2004), who have done some research in this field and their findings are all inspiring. in 1999, xie tianzhen, in his book medio-translatology, outlined three angles, from which scholars at home and abroad had approached the transference of cultural images: (1) from the perspective of translation techniques, transference of cultural images has been discussed; (2) from the perspective of psychological linguistics, imagery words or phases have been translated; (3) from the perspective of cultural comparisons, some cultural concepts, allusions and proverbs have been researched. he also claimed that “we should take it as our duty to transmit the cultural images of the original text as much as possible besides the general meaning” (xie tianzhen, 1999: 192). therefore, it can be inferred that it is necessary to study the transference of cultural images from the perspective of culture and researchers today are paying more and more attention to such studies. secondly, it is inevitable that cultural images translation of poetry will encounter the problem of cultural transmission from the source language (sl) to the target language (tl). in the general sense, language and culture are closely related to each other. language is a part of culture and is the carrier of culture at the same time. translation, therefore, is in essence not only interlingual communication but also intercultural communication. a translator cannot only translate a language without translating the culture underlying the language. the author of this thesis intends to apply the theory of foreignization to the probe into the matter of cultural transplantation in poetic image translation. in traditional cultural images introduction 3 translation, people tend to apply domestication strategy at most times which advocates natural, transparent and fluent translation and adapt the sl cultural images or replace them with the tl images so as to accomplish “equivalence response” in the tl receptors. it will remove or weaken the flavor and cultural elements. foreignization, with lawrence venuti as its theoretical representative, is source-language-culture-oriented. foreignization stresses that translation should strive to express the exotic cultural flavor of the sl, and thus it advocates retaining the original cultural images in the translated version. hence, foreignization helps transfer the sl culture to the tl and promote the cross-cultural exchanges. moreover, with the application of foreignization in transferring cultural images in poetic translation, one culture can absorb new elements from others and make it more visualized and colorful. berman antoine states: “a bad translation i call the translation which, generally under the guise of transmissibility, carries out a systematic negation of the strangeness of the foreign work. translation is the mode of existence by which a work reaches us as foreign. a good translation retains this strangeness even as it makes the work accessible to us” (1992: 187). therefore, translation should make the readers be at home in the foreign text. the retaining of cultural images which are absent to the readers culture may cause difficulties in understanding the poem but may open up the possibility of further cross-cultural communication as well. thirdly, since the foreignizing translation is powerful not only in theoretical aspects, but in practical translation as well, this thesis attempts to prove that foreignization is not only powerful in accounting for the phenomena of translation theory and practice in general, but also in directing the translators to transfer cultural images of poetry derived from different cultures. as for the application of a translation theory, luo xinzhang declares that “a translation theory would be an uprooted tree or a dried-up river, if it is divorced from actual translation practice. it may draw the attention of the public for a period of time, nevertheless, it cannot go far and wide” (quoted in liao qiyi, 2001: 3). eugene a. nida also maintains that translation theory “must be based on the comparative study of translation practice” (1984: 5). one of the main reasons for the fascination of this thesis, therefore, is that it tends to provide the insights of foreignization in seeking the most effective methods for transferring cultural images of poetry in the process of translation. introduction 4 this paper falls into four chapters. chapter one gives a brief introduction to the cultural images of ccp, and the difficulties in the transference of cultural images in ccp translation. chapter two mainly presents the theories about domestication and foreignization as well as their theoretical basis and gives brief reviews of the debates on domestication and foreignization at home and abroad and also analyses the defects of domesticating strategy in traditional cultural images translation. chapter three introduces foreignization tendency in cultural images translation. chapter four recommends three methods of realizing foreignization in cultural images translation. they are complete-literal translation, literal translation with cultural information compensation (literal translation with footnotes and literal translation with in-text annotations) and transliteration. this paper ends with a conclusion that foreignization is the most suitable strategy for the transference of cultural images. although foreignization strategy is suitable for cultural images translation, some features cannot be conveyed completely. when foreignization is not feasible, the translator should resort to domestication as a supplementary method. chaptercultural image in classical chinese poetry and its translation as cross-cultural communication 5 chapter cultural image in classical chinese poetry and its translation as cross-cultural communication classical chinese poetry (ccp), the very essence of chinese literature, is cherished as chinese unique heritage with its mysterious glamour. images abound in chinese poems and play an important role in poetic creation. the charm of poetry is attributable to the adoption of rich images. what is image? what is cultural image? why is the transference of cultural image from one culture to another of great importance? what factors will hinder the cultural images translation of poetry? all these questions are essential and will be answered in this chapter in details. 1.1 definitions and categories of cultural image in ccp before defining cultural image in ccp, we should have a good command of the concept of image in poetry. “an image is language that addresses the sense. the most common images in poetry are visual, they provide verbal pictures of the poets encounterreal or imaginedwith the world” (meyer, 1967: 69). laurence perrine also defines the function of image: “indirectly it (poetry) appeals to our sense through imagery, the representation to the imagination of sense experience” (1969: 54). he further states: since imagery is a peculiarly effective way of evoking vivid experience and since it may be used by the poet to convey emotion and suggests ideas as well as to cause a mental reproduction of sensations, it is an invaluable resource of the poet. in general, he will seek concrete or image-bearing words in preference to abstract or non-image-bearing words. (1969: 55) here one way of defining image is to describe it as the representation through language of sensory experience, that is to say, it describes physical experience in terms of mental chaptercultural image in classical chinese poetry and its translation as cross-cultural communication 6 experience. image denotes a verbal expression that evokes a mental picture or recalls a physical sensation; it means an expression that involves two terms which are used to substitute one kind of experience for another as well. briefly, image is an aesthetic object created by the writer. it is not simply an image (either an object or a person), but is an artistic one that combines an objective image with the subjective feeling of the writer (ma huijuan, 2003: 206). for the definition and category of image and cultural image, many scholars at home and abroad have expounded the viewpoints in their own ways. 1.1.1 various definitions by scholars the focus on poetic image is a relatively late concern of the western critical tradition, whereas in the case of china it occupies a central position from the earliest commentary literature. the concept and definition of image has been mentioned early in chinese literature. in the book of changes (易经)，which is considered as a philosophical work in which peoples thinking patterns were reflected, different images were cited to refer to natural phenomena. while the combinations of meaning (意) and image (象) in chinese can be traced back to the book of changes in the appended statements xi ci: he said, “what is written does not give the fullness of what is/was said (yan); what is/was said does not give the fullness of the concept in the mind (yi).”