2翻译的基本理论术语和几个一般性问题及其常用英文表述.doc

翻译基本理论术语翻译的标准 The criteria(standard)of translation信达雅 Fidelity(faithfulness) Fluency(expressiveness) Elegance(flair)透彻的理解 have a thorough understanding准确的表达 precise(accurate) expression意译 free (liberal) translation直译 literal translation死译 word-for-word translation活译 dynamic equivalence translation重译 repetition增译 (contextual) amplification减译 omission词类转移 conversion词序调整 inversion分译 division正说反译/反说正译 negation语态变换 the change of the voice归化/异化 Foreignizing/ Alienation; Domesticating/ Adaptation 对等 equivalence形式对等 formal correspondence动态（灵活）对等 dynamic equivalence意义对等 equivalence in terms of meaning风格对等 equivalence in terms of style意合 Parataxis形合 Hypotaxis欠额翻译（过载翻译）under translation (overloaded translation)校核 rectification释义 paraphrase翻译学 translatology翻译科学 science of translating神似 be alike in spirit (be an excellent likeness)化镜 sublimity (perfection)已入化境 reach(attain) perfection和谐 harmonious和谐一致 in perfect harmony不仅形似而且神似 be alike not only in appearance(form) but also in spirit宁信而不雅 It is better to be faithful than to be elegant宁顺而不信，宁信而不顺It is better to have a smooth version than a faithful oneRather be faithful (in thought) than smooth (in language)保持原文的丰姿 keep the full flavor of the original work忠实通顺 Faithful(ness) and smooth(ness) (clear and coherent)忠实的译文 translation true to the original忠实于原文 true(faithful) to the original句子不通 the sentence doesnt read smoothly他的翻译通顺易懂 his interpretation is coherent and intelligible（泰特勒Tytler提出的）翻译三原则：1， 译文应完整地再现原文的思想内容 That the translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work2， 译文的风格，笔调应与原文的性质相同 That the style and manner of writing should be of the same character with that of the original3， 译文应象原文一样自然流畅 That the translation should have all the ease of the original compositionGenerally speaking, a qualified translator should have 1, a good command of the source language 2, a good command of the target language 3, a wide range and scope of knowledge 4, a high political consciousness 5, a necessary knowledge of basic techniques (skills) used in translation翻译的几个一般性问题及其常用英文表述 本材料选自不同翻译论著，全是关于翻译的几个一般性问题的常用英文表述方法，语言较为通俗易懂，在讨论翻译时也较为常用，涉及下面六条内容： 1何谓翻译 2外语学习的目的和翻译的重要性 3译者的必备条件 4翻译标准 5直译和意译 6我国翻译史简介要说明的是，英文材料的段落后有(1)，(2)，(3)，(4)或(5)等编号时，这编号指本章后References and Further Reading项下的书目编号，说明此编号前所引引文的出处。Some Views on Translation in General1.1. What Translation IsTranslation is an art, a bilingual art. Like painting, translation enables us to reproduce the fine thought of somebody, not in colors, but in words, in words of a different language. It is no easy job, not so easy as it is supposed. Do not think that any one who knows a foreign language, say English, can invariably translate and translate well. No, not at all. Many can speak and write English well, but they cannot translate. And this difficulty is greatly multiplied by the wide difference in vocabulary and sentence construction between the Oriental and Occidental languages.Translation is difficult to be mastered. Many experienced translators complain that they have had insurmountable difficulties in their work. Indeed, few people can translate a book without more or less making mistakes. Very few translated works can be recommended and taken as models. Strange to say, it is rather easy for one to translate an article from Chinese into English than to translate an article from English into Chinese, if ones English is good enough to do translation work. As we know, translation is a representation or recreation in one language of what is written or said in another language. Strictly speaking, translation is a kind of science because it has a whole set of rules governing it and certain objective laws to go by in the process of translating just as other sciences do. From an artist point of view, translation is also an art, a bilingual art, for in translation, certain skills and technique are needed in order to attain clearness of style, and fluency in language.English and Chinese are two entirely different languages. Each has an individual and distinct system. On the one hand, there are some similarities between the two languages, as in the word order of subject and predicate and that of transitive verb and object. On the other hand, there are lots of dissimilarities between them both in morphology and in syntax. Because of this, we have to be familiar with both languages, especially with the wide difference in vocabulary, grammatical relations and sentence construction between these two languages.Translation, like painting, enables us to reproduce the fine thought of an author, not in colors, but in words of a different language. A translator must be quite at home in the two languages concerned and quite familiar with their characteristics, similarities and differences. He must have a thorough understanding of the original, its artistic features and the historical situation in which it was written. At times even a word or phrase takes much time to establish in translation. Yan Eu once said: “It often takes as long as ten days or even a full month to establish a term. “ This is the common experience all veteran translators have shared. So translation requires patience and skillful treatment and various sorts of techniques.Whoever has a mastery of the art of translation can certainly produce fine translations. Those who know nothing about translation theory and techniques will never be able to turn out any satisfactory work. It is because translation is not only a science with its own peculiar laws and methods but also an art of representation and recreation.In his talk on literary translation published in 1954 Guo Moruo pointed out, “Translation is creative work. Good translation is as good as writing and may be even better than it. Sometimes translation is more difficult than writing. A writer must have experience in life, but a translator has to experience what the writer has experienced. At the same time, a translator must not only be proficient in his mother tongue but also have a very good foundation in a foreign language. Therefore, translation is not easier than writing at all. “His analysis is really penetrating!As you all know, translation is an art, not a science. In science theories or general principles play a very important role. Not so in art. Im not saying that they dont count in art. But Im sure you will agree with me when I say that translation is largely a matter of practice. 2.2. Aim of Foreign Language Study and the Importance of TranslationWhat is the object of studying foreign languages? . A foreign language is now to be studied, not to serve the foreign imperialist, but to serve our own people, not for the sake of foreigners, but for the benefit of ourselves. To illustrate this, let us quote the following:“Learning a foreign language is not easy but it is worthwhile. It makes you able to read foreign scientific and technical literature, and that might be useful. It makes you able to read some of the worlds best writers in their own languages and this is a great pleasure. But the most important thing is that it gives you a better understanding of your own language.”“Engels who knew a number of foreign languages, including Russian, thought that you could know your own language only if you compared it with other languages.“N. K. Krupskaya says that it is wrong to separate the study of foreign languages from the study of ones own language, and that the knowledge of foreign languages makes ones own language more flexible and expressive. Speaking of Lenin who knew five foreign languages and could read dictionaries hour after hour just for rest”, she adds: Those who study the language of Lenin know how rich, vivid and expressive Lenins language was.”Thus the study of a foreign language is connected with that of ones own. And translation is the very course for foreign language students to meet this end.Translation is of value to the foreign language learner only when he has in the main mastered the mechanisms of the source language as well as those of the target language. A translator or an interpreter can hardly meet with success if he is unable to compare the ways of thinking and the modes of expression of the two languages concerned.So far as its function is concerned, translation undoubtedly proves a valuable aid to the foreign language learner, because it gives him a better understanding of the two languages in question. One knows ones own language better only if he compares it with other languages. The knowledge of foreign languages can make ones own language more flexible and expressive. Needless to say, actual practice in translation helps a translator or an interpreter brush up his foreign language used as either the source language or the target language.Now, . . the people of all nationalities throughout the country are determined to raise the scientific and cultural level of the entire Chinese nation. We must strengthen scientific and technical cooperation and academic exchanges with other countries. Obviously, though we have our own inventions in science and technology, we still need to learn from other countries. And there is nothing queer about international academic exchanges. Joseph Needham stated positively: “Certain it is that no people or group of peoples has had a monopoly in contributing to the development of science. Their achievements should be mutually recognized and freely celebrated with the joined hands of universal brotherhood.”Karl Marx was fond of saying: “A foreign language is a weapon in the struggle of life.” Now, we Chinese people, under the leadership of the Party Central Committee, are setting out on a new Long March to achieve the general task for new period. In order to raise the scientific and cultural level of the Chinese nation and to strengthen scientific and technical cooperation and academic exchanges with other countries, we are in need of not only one but, many foreign languages. Experience over years has proved that to acquire a mastery of a foreign language is not as easy as falling off a log. Nor would it be practical for each of us to pick up one or two foreign languages in brief space of time. Hence a great need for translation. The English language has spread all over the globe since 1850. It scores as being the primary medium for twentieth century science and technology, too. It stands to reason, therefore, that we are to occupy ourselves with translation from English into Chinese and vice versa. Everything is for socialist modernization. Translation, as it ought to be, is no exception.3. Prerequisites for a TranslatorIn a nutshell, in order to achieve genuine (not feigned) competence in translation, we in China must eliminate the pernicious-influence of the “doctrine of immediate effect” peddled by Lin Biao and the “gang of four”. We must bear in mind that translation, too, means honest, solid knowledge, allowing not an iota of falsehood, and that genuine knowledge comes from practice. We must, in the final analysis, follow conscientiously the instructions given by our respected and beloved Premier Zhou Enlai to strengthen our “basic training” in the three essential aspects: the enhancement of our political consciousness, the betterment of our command of the relevant languages, and the broadening of the range and scope of our general knowledge. As translation is a bilingual art, we have to know both languages, if we are going to do translation work with competence. We have to know the language to be translated from and the language to be translated into. In the case with the student in the English Department both Chinese and English must be mastered. Many books are said to be poorly translated because some English terms, idioms, slang or fictions in them are misunderstood or misinterpreted. Other books are equally poor because they are not well expressed in Chinese. Most of the translators are poor in Chinese, so they cannot do justice in expression to their translated works, which would contain sentences in Chinese characters but in English construction, quite contrary to good usage of the Chinese language.Besides a good knowledge of the two languages, acquaintance with the subject matter covered in the book or article is also an indispensable factor in doing translation work well. Suppose you are going to translate a textbook on physics, you have to know something more about the science than the book deals with, otherwise you will run the risk of making mistakes in the subject matter imperceptibly. Just imagine how much harm your work will do the readers, who usually take for granted that the book is one hundred percent correct!To sum up, as a good translator, one has to know well the foreign language, the Chinese language, and the subject matte 4. Criteria for TranslationSpeaking of translation, we tend to think of Yan Fu who advocated for the first time the three words as translation criteria, namely, “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance. “ Yan Fus “faithfulness” means the full and complete conveying or transmission of the original content or thought. His “expressiveness” demands that the version must be clear and flowing without any grammatical mistakes or confused logic and sense. So the first two words as translation criteria are acceptable. But his “elegance” is unadoptable because it refers to the use of classical Chinese before the Han Dynasty. Yan Fu held that only the language before the Han Dynasty could be considered elegant and old vocabulary, old structure of Chinese must be used in order to represent the original fully and adequately. Therefore he can be said to object to the use of the vernacular or popular language of the people. As a matter of fact, the vernacular began to be in fashion when Yan Fu lived. Facts prove the vernacular or the popular language of the people can be used to translate any foreign language in the world. But Yan Fu opposed the application of the vernacular in translation, that is why many people criticized his “elegance. “ Of course Yan Fus explanation of the translation criteria is limited by the age he lived in. Therefore we must look at his criteria with a critical eye.Furthermore, Yan Fus “elegance” can only be regarded as one style. Its opposite is the style of “boldness and unconstraintedness. “ “Elegance” and “boldness” constitute two different styles. Of course there are many other styles in translation. So “elegance” as an overall translation principle may give rise to diverse interpretations.Mr. Lu Xun, the greatest modern Chinese writer proposed “faithfulness” and “smoothness” as translation standards and attached importance to the preservation of the original flavor. But he once said, “Rather be faithful (in thought) than smooth (in language).” This was only put forward in opposition to Zhao Jingshens saying: “Its better to have a smooth version than a faithful one”. And this is, of course, understandable.Criteria for translation constitute the yardstick for measuring a piece of translated work. The common criteria applied in translation can be summarized in the following two words: faithfulness and smoothness.1) “Faithfulness” first refers to the content of the original work. The translator must bring out the original meaning both comprehensively and accurately without any distortion or casual addition or deletion of the original thought.Faithfulness also includes the keeping of the original style, as Mr. Lu Xun put it, “keep the full flavor of the original work.” Sometimes, even the original emotions or feelings such as anger or distress, satire or irony, joy or happiness should not pass unnoticed.2) “Smoothness” requires that version must be clear and distinct, flowing and easy to read without signs of the mechanical word-for-word translation, of obscure and crabbed language, of grammatical mistakes, confused structure and turbid logic. By smoothness we mean that we should make the language forceful, clear and idiomatic. Different languages have different ways of expression. The translator must try to follow the custom and good usage of the languages used and not stick to the mode of expression of the original.Sometimes there are contradictions between faithfulness and smoothness, but the translator must try his best to arrive at the unity of the contradictions. The most important thing is, he must first have a thorough understanding of the authors ideas and feelings expressed in the original and put them into a different language idiomatically according to some of the fundamental rules and methods of translation. Only thus can he be said to be responsible both to the author and the readers. In the last decade of the 18th century, Alexander Fraser Tytler, professor of history at Edinburgh University, laid down three fundamentals by which a translation should be made or judged. They were (1) a translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work; (2) the style and manner of writing should be of the same character as that of the original, and (3) a translation should have all the ease of original composition. In his book