翻译实践探析——以《法国大革命的反思》为例.doc

攀枝花学院本科毕业论文 翻译实践探析 以 法国大革命的反 思 为例 学生姓名 冯 丽 学生学号 200910201016 院 系 外国语学院 年级专业 2009 级英语本科 3 班 指导教师 廖红 教授 二二 一三年五月一三年五月 Feng Li Under the Supervision of Liao Hong School of Foreign Languages and Cultures Panzhihua University May 2013 Translation the Reflections on the Revolution in France 攀枝花学院本科毕业论文 Contents Contents Abstract I Key Words I 摘 要 II 关键词 II Introduction 1 I Translation Preparations 2 A Understanding the Author of the Original Work 2 B Preparing the Translation Tools 3 C Reading the Original Work 4 Translation Practice 5 A Confirming the Style 5 B Choosing a Word 7 C Analyzing Sentence Structure 9 D Using Translation Skills 10 E Proofreading the Text 15 Translation Suggestions 16 A Strange Words 16 B Long Sentences 16 C Translation Skills 17 Conclusion 19 Bibliography 20 Acknowledgements 21 攀枝花学院本科毕业论文 Abstract I Abstract In the course of human events translation plays an irreplaceable role in urging the communication of Chinese and western culture promoting the progress of science and technology and facilitating the development of human civilization As a bridge of communication translation is beneficial to help people cross the barrier of time and space and the gap of languages In order to advance the development of multi culture society and cross cultural communication it is important to understand and grasp the translation skills and put them into practice This thesis basing on the translation practice of Reflections on the Revolution in France has discussed the whole process of the translation practice namely translation preparations translation practice and translation suggestions aiming at giving undergraduate English majors some enlightenment and experience when they are engaged in translating Key Words Translation practice translation skills Reflections on the Revolution in France 攀枝花学院本科毕业论文 摘要 II 摘 要 翻译在人类发展史上 对于促进东西方文化交流 推动科技进步和促进文明发展等方面起到了 不可替代的作用 作为语言交流的桥梁 它有利于帮助人们跨越时空的障碍和语言的鸿沟 为了促 进多元文化社会的发展和加强跨文化交流 了解和掌握各种翻译技巧以及把它们应用于翻译实践具 有极为重要的价值和意义 论文从 法国大革命 翻译实践的角度 对翻译的整个过程 翻译准备 翻译实践和翻译建 议这三个方面进行了探讨和论证 旨在通过翻译实践给英语专业本科学生一些翻译方面的启示和经 验 关键词 翻译实践 翻译技巧 法国大革命的反思 攀枝花学院本科毕业论文 Introduction 1 Introduction The author has not only translated the Reflections on the Revolution in France but also made a study of the methods of translating political essays It is necessary to apply various translation skills into practice including solving the problems of style and diction In addition it is worth mentioning that all the examples in the thesis come from the original work and all the versions are finished by the author Though much ink has been spilled on translation scholars at home and abroad have studied a lot of translation theories and practice However so far undergraduate students seldom research them This thesis makes an attempt to explore and analyze the translation process from the perspective of translation practice in the hope of enhancing the translation ability of undergraduate students or giving them some enlightenment The thesis focusing on the translation practice of Reflections on the Revolution in France is divided into three parts Chapter one analyses the preparations of translation Chapter two illustrates the process of translation practice Chapter three summarizes the problems in translating and gives some suggestions 攀枝花学院本科毕业论文 Body 2 I Translation Preparations Translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message first in terms of the meaning and second in terms of style Sun Ping P1 2004 When translators translate a text first of all they should do some preparations before translation such as understanding the author of the original work including his life thoughts influence and the background of writing this book etc preparing translation tools such as English dictionary Chinese dictionary and aided translation tools and reading the whole text It is worth mentioning that this thesis is based on Reflections on the Revolution in France A Understanding the Author of the Original Work It is necessary that translators understand the author of the original work before they start to translate Generally speaking the more they understand the author the better they will comprehend the original work 1 The Author s Life Edmund Burke was a very influential English political theorist who is notable for his strong support for the American Revolution and his fierce opposition to the French Revolution and the Reflections on the Revolution in France Burke was born in Dublin on 12 January 1729 and he is the son of a solicitor He was educated at Trinity College Dublin and went to London to study law when he was 21 Then he studied politics and literature In 1765 he became a member of parliament and retired from parliament in 1794 His last years were sad because his only son died but he continued to write and defend himself So he is regarded as one of the founders of the British Conservative tradition And he died on 9 July 1797 2 The Background of the Original Work 攀枝花学院本科毕业论文 Body 3 French Revolution broke out in 1789 At the beginning of the Revolution European politicians have showed their attitude to it that is the Revolution would be ended soon and a constitutional monarch would be established However Burke did not think so and he wrote the Reflections on the Revolution in France in 1790 in order to express his own opinions about the French Revolution As the earliest and most prominent critics of French Revolution Burke expressed his hostility in Reflections on the Revolution in France The book provoked a huge response He emphasized that French Revolution is the origin of human evil and the epitomizing of pride ambition greed and intrigue which fundamentally shakes the foundation of social order freedom and all the treasures of human civilization created in the long history He predicted that the devastation would eventually lead to the emergence of a new authoritarian which would spread around the whole Europe inevitably Before long Napoleon established the European political hegemony seemed to confirme his prediction He feared that the Revolution s fervor was destroying French society so he appealed to the British virtues of continuity tradition rank and property and opposed the Revolution to the end of his life B Preparing the Translation Tools One can not be omniscient because one s ability is limited and a translator is no exception Translators should try to expand their own scopes of knowledge and strive to become a Jack of all trades Meanwhile they should be familiar with all kinds of translation tools and understand their respective characteristics so that they can refer to a word immediately because different combination may have different sayings in translation These tools include Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Youdao Dictionary Modern Chinese Dictionary and Google and Baidu search engine etc If some words can not be found in these tools translators can write them down and go to library to use more authoritative and comprehensive Webster Dictionary 攀枝花学院本科毕业论文 Body 4 C Reading the Original Work Translation is not only rendering the original into the smooth target language but also showing its beauty and culture Having collected the author s information and prepared translation tools translators should read the whole material and comprehending it approximately In general the more we understand the original work the better version we will have If one begins to translate without reading the whole text one may find that it is hard to understand the author s opinions because the original work has high logicality By reading it through we can decide what kind of methods can be used to translate it accordingly If we translate it as we read it we ll lose the digesting process Su Ping P12 2004 If there are the other versions of translation translators can choose to read them but should avoid their infection Look at an example It may not be unnecessary to inform the reader that the following Reflections had their origin in a correspondence between the Author and a very young gentleman at Paris who did him the honour of desiring his opinion upon the important transactions which then and ever since have so much occupied the attention of all men Edmund Burke p143 1909 It is necessary to read the original in order to understand its general meaning If the author does not read these sentences he may think that this is a formal essay and try to use formal words all the time However the original work originated from a correspondence between the author and a very young gentleman at Paris so the author should use some spoken languages when needed 攀枝花学院本科毕业论文 Body 5 Translation Practice A Confirming the Style The purpose of translation is conveying one language into another language Translation is not only translating the meaning of the original but also the style of the original Translators must understand some knowledge of stylistics which is of importance to be engaged in translating Sometimes translators may think that a word is too big and it is not suitable for a particular context and this reflects the subject is irrelevant to the style of original 1 Classification of Style Style is the relation among linguistic entities that are stable in terms of wider span of text than the sentence Dong He P8 2005 It not only includs language variants caused by time geography class gender occupation age and scenarios such as various dialects formal language and informal language etc but also sorts of types of works such as science and technology style official style news style colloquial style and written style etc There are many types of writing such as poetry fiction drama exposition narration argument and Advertisement etc It is traditional to divide all proses into three kinds description narration and exposition Lots of what people reads are exposition so the author is going to analyze the Exposition The Exposition is called argumentative 议论文 or political essay 政论文 Liu Fuqing P107 1998 And the purpose of the exposition is decided before beginning The example is given as follows You are pleased to call again and with some earnestness for my thoughts on the late proceedings in France I will not give you reason to imagine that I think my sentiments of such value as to wish myself to be solicited about them They are of too little consequence to be very anxiously either communicated or withheld It was from attention to you and to you only that I hesitated at the time when you first desired to receive them In the first letter I had the honour to 攀枝花学院本科毕业论文 Body 6 write to you and which at length I send I wrote neither for nor from any description of men nor shall I in this My errors if any are my own My reputation alone is to answer for them Edmund Burke p144 1909 As the beginning of the original this paragraph gives us the purpose of the author It came from a letter between the author and a gentleman in Paris in which the author expressed his opinions on the proceeding in France And he emphasized that he wrote not for any one 2 Characteristics of the Exposition Long sentences characterized by complicated structure and large capacity are usually used in the exposition The examples are given as follows 1 I should be still more unwilling to enter into that correspondence under anything like an equivocal description which to many unacquainted with our usages might make the address in which I joined appear as the act of persons in some sort of corporate capacity acknowledged by the laws of this kingdom and authorized to speak the sense of some part of it Edmund Burke p147 1909 2 But I never heard that any public measure or political system much less that the merits of the constitution of any foreign nation had been the subject of a formal proceeding at their festivals until to my inexpressible surprise I found them in a sort of public capacity by a congratulatory address giving an authoritative sanction to the proceedings of the National Assembly in France Edmund Burke p146 1909 In the first example after the sentence skeleton there is a postpositive attributive which includes a non restrictive attributive clause in which also includes a non restrictive attributive clause These clauses are arranged together in order to form a long sentence which makes the meaning of the sentence more coherent and close In the second example in this part two long sentences are used to express the author s surprise of a club And the clear structure shows the merit of the long sentences This kind of writing does not pursue beauty in aesthetics but plainness in writing and strictness in diction Generally the author usually used a single verb rather than 攀枝花学院本科毕业论文 Body 7 verb phrases However the author just wanted to write a letter in the beginning so he used a lot of informal words verb phrases for example are of consequence beg leave to and be able to etc In addition the author uses I in abundance Therefore in the process of translating exposition translators must bear in mind that they should try to use abstract words long words and big words etc and never forget the author s opinion B Choosing a Word Generally speaking the meaning of words in English is abundant and has wide range Polysemy is a good example of how diction is complicated because the meaning of words becomes more rich and varied and strongly depends on the context Although translators make every effort to weigh a word they also want to give it another whirl So they must choose the most proper words to reproduce the original meaning 1 The Specific Meaning People can not correctly understand a word if there is no context The context of situation plays a major role in translating the original work Sometimes the same word has the different meaning in the different contexts So people must get the specific meaning of the word by analyzing its context Look at the following examples 1 Much that was hopeful in the Revolution he failed to see and he could not in his passion discriminate carefully among men and motives Edmund Burke p142 1909 他未能看到大革命的希望所在 也未能仔细甄别追随者及其革命的动机 translated by the author The basic meaning of men is many adult male human If people choose the superficial meaning of the men it may sound awkward This sentence principally talks about the Revolution so it is better to change the men into follower 2 it is in the highest degree valuable to see these momentous events through the eyes of a great contemporary conservative Edmund Burke p142 1909 攀枝花学院本科毕业论文 Body 8 我们还能通过伟大的保守党的视野看待这些重大事件 这是非常有价值的 translated by the author Eyes means one of the two parts of the body that people and animals use to see But it can not be directly translated into eyes because it is an abstract word in this context so we should replace it with vision 3 when their fellows in the Constitutional were in equity entitled to some share Edmund Burke p145 1909 当他们的同伙在 宪法协会 里平等地享有席位时 translated by the author Share in this sentence is a noun which means the part of something that belongs to you or that should be paid for or done by you It is seemed that the superficial meaning does not conform to Chinese expression so the word Xi Wei 席 位 is better 2 Chinese Four character Idioms People may have this kind of experience several English words only express one Chinese word In the English Chinese translation ingeniously using Chinese four letter idioms will make the version more authentic concise and vivid Some examples are as the following 1 The sweeping away of the traditions of ages the erection of new forms of government built on abstract theories were abhorrent to him and he threw himself with vehemence into opposition Edmund Burke p142 1909 革命把传统一扫而空 以抽象理论为基础确立了新的政体 这与他所倡导的思想格格 不入 因此遭到了他的强烈反对 translated by the author Were abhorrent to means making somebody unacceptable but it seems verbose in Chinese However the four letter idiom Ge Ge Bu Ru 格格不入 is both plain and clear 2 you will think me excusable in making its late conduct the subject of my observations Edmund Burke p145 1909 你将会认为我把它的近期行为作为作为观察的主题是情有可原的 translated by the author 攀枝花学院本科毕业论文 Body 9 In dictionary excusable is explained as can be forgiven which is used in spoken language frequently rather than written language The author has stated that the original is an political essay so the four character phrase 情有可原 seems better than literal translation C Analyzing Sentence Structure In English there are often long sentences that consist of a main clause and numerous subordinate clauses i e attributive clauses adverbial clauses and objective clauses and phrases i e infinitive phrases nominal phrases and prepositional phrase involving complicated grammatical and logical relationships within the sentence He Sanning P103 2009 The structure of long sentence is relatively complex and its confusion logic usually makes translators headache Therefore translators might as well analyze the sentence structure clarify the relationship of each part and adopt division to translate its clauses Two examples are given as the following 1 Those who cultivate the memory of our Revolution and those who are attached to the constitution of this kingdom will take good care how they are involved with persons who under the pretext of zeal towards the Revolution and constitution too frequently wander from their true principles and are ready on every occasion to depart from the firm but cautious and deliberate spirit which produced the one and which presides in the other Edmund Burke p144 1909 那些支持我们革命的朋友和加入我们王国宪法的朋友 将会慎重与这类人打交道 这 些人在对革命和宪法热诚的借口下 非常频繁地偏离真正的原则 而且准备在任何场合都 坚定但小心奕奕的 深思熟虑的脱离产生革命和存在于宪法中的精神 translated by the author Those who and those who of this kingdom is the subject of the sentence which is composed of two attributive clauses guided by who and will take good care is its predicate How they are in the other is a predicative clause in which an attributive clause guided by who modifies the noun persons In the attributive clause who is the su