文化翻译课程教案.docx

文化翻译课程教案.docx

《文化翻译课程教案.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《文化翻译课程教案.docx（41页珍藏版）》请在冰点文库上搜索。

文化翻译课程教案

文化翻译课程教案

ChapterOne

DefinitionofTranslationandTranslationPrinciples

Translationisgettingmoreandmoreimportant,whichisknowntoall.andwhatistranslation,anyway?

Nowlet’sseethefollowing:

AccordingtotheEnglishdictionary,translationistheprocessofawrittenorspokenrenderingofthemeaningofaword,speech,book,orothertext,inanotherlanguage.Butinthepracticalsociety,differentpeoplehavedifferentopinions.ThefamousEnglishlinguistGeoffreyLeechthoughtinhisbookSemanticsthattranslationistofindawaytoexpressthesenseofawordinanotherlanguage.ChairmanofITA（国际译联），ProfessorAnnaLenowasaidinthebookTheTheoreticalEssentialsofGeneralTranslation（1985）,“Asaprocess,translationisaspokenorwrittenactivity,withthepurposeofmakingthespokenorwrittenspeeches（writings）existinginalanguagereappearinanotherlanguageandkeepingtheinvarianceofthecontentsandqualityoftheoriginaltextandthecorrectnessoftheoriginalauthor.”Theprofessorwentonsaying“Astheresultoftranslatingactivity,translationistheanaloqueoftheoriginaltext.Theidealtranslationistheidealanaloqueoftheoriginaltext,whichisproducedinthenewsociety,cultureandtheactuallanguageandplaysaroleintherealizationofthereality.”Peopleshouldn’tregard“analoque”hereastheabsolutenessoftheoriginaltext,theword-for-wordlanguageanalogyandinflexibleduplicationandshouldunderstanditastheanalogyoftheentiresystem,thatis,theanalogyofstructuralfunction.AccordingYangShi-zhang（2000[3]:

73.ForeignLanguages）:

Therearetwotranslatingways---symboltranslationandsensetranslation.Theformerreferstotranslationconductedatthelevelofsymbolform.Translatorsdon’tgivedeliberateconsiderationtotheessenceoftheappeared/existingsymbolbutrespondaudiblytoitdirectly.Thistranslationisautomatic,whichistransformedjustlikefromoneformofalanguagesymboltoanotherformofanotherlanguagesymbol.Sensetranslationrequiresthetranslatorfirsttodeterminethereferent（sense）ofthelanguagesymbolorthespeechsituation,thentrytofindtheequivalentsymbolinthetargetlanguage.YangYan—songthinksthattranslationisnotonlythetransformationandcontrastoftwolanguagesbutalsothecomparisonandblendingoftwocultures（Yang,P103,TranslationTheoryinHunan）.CaoHejianthinksthattranslationisatransformingprocessofalanguageandalsoatransforming/convertingprocessofwaysofthinking.（Cao,P89,TranslationTheoryinHunan）.TheAmericantranslationtheoristEugeneA.Nidabelievesthetthetranslationwecallinthetargetlanguagereferstotheinformationreproducingtheoriginaltextbyusingtheclosestandthemostnaturalequivalencefromsemantemetostyle.WhatNidastateshereisacceptedbymostofthepeopleinthecircleoftranslation,forthisstatementnotonlyemphasizesmostcloselybutalsomostnaturally“toreproducetheinformationoftheoriginaltext”,thatistosay,thetranslatedtextshouldbefaithfulnotonlytotheoriginaltext,butalsotothewritingstylesothatitisfavourableforthereadersofthetranslatedtexttoachievethesameeffectasthereadersoftheoriginaltext.AccordingtoTheNewEncyclopaediaBritannica,Macropaedia,translationisacontinuousconcomitantofcontactbetweentwomutuallyincomprehensibletonguesandonethatdoesnotleadeithertosuppressionorextensionofeitheristranslation.

Fromwhatismentionedabove,theessenceoftranslationisacross-languagetransformationalactivity,thoughthetranslatorsbothathomeandabroadandsomeauthoritativedictionarieshavegiventhedefinitionoftranslationwithdifferentemphases.Fromtheangleofculture,translationisevenanactivityofcross-culturalexchangeintheformofphonesandwords.Inancienttimeswhentherewerenowrittenlanguages,translationonlydealtwithoralinterpretation,laterontherewerewrittenlanguages,sowrittentranslationappeared.Withtheapplicationofthecomputers,thefoundingofsemiology（Semiotics）andtheimprovementofthephotoelectricsignandcodetechniques,thereappearnewwaysoftranslationsuchasman-machineintertranslationandmechanical/machinetranslation,sothatwecanaddsomethingnewtothedefinitionoftranslation.AccordingtoAnEnglish-ChineseDictionaryofModernScienceandTechnology（1980,ShanghaiPressofScienceandTechnology）,“Translationistochangetheinformationofthecomputerfromonelanguageintoanotherone,orchangethecharactersfromoneformintoanotherone.”

Asfarasthefunctionisconcerned,translationisthetieandbridgebyusingthelanguageasatooltolinkdifferentcultures.Buthowwecangivefullplaytothetieandbridgeofcross-cultural（intercultural）exchangecorrectlyandeffectivelyandhowwecanexpresstheculturalinformationcorrectly,closelyandfluentlythatonelanguagebears/containshavebeenforagestheaimsthatscholarsofforeignlanguagesespeciallythetranslatorshavebeenpayingcloseattentiontoandhavebeeninpursuitofandwhatismore,theimportantsubjectsthatthetranslatorsandtranslationtheoristsbothathomeandabroadhavebeenapproachinganddiscussing.

Inthehistoryofmoderntranslation,thefirstrealwesternmonographontranslationtheory,Iamafraid,isthebookEssayonthePrinciplesofTranslatingwrittenbyafamousEnglishscholar,theprofessorofEdinburghUniversity,whosenameisAlexanderF.Tytler,andthetranslationtheoristbroughtupthethreeprinciplesoftranslationinthebookpublishedin1792:

（1）Atranslationshouldgiveacompletetranscriptionoftheideasoftheoriginalwork;

（2）Thestyleandmannerofwritingshouldbeofthesamecharacterasthatoftheoriginal;

（3）Atranslationshouldhavealltheeaseoftheoriginalcomposition.Itisgenerallythoughtthat,accordingtotheorderofthearrangement,theprinciples

（1）and

（2）reflectthefaithfulnessofideas,styleandmannerofwriting,andtheprinciple（3）reflectsthefaithfulnessofexpression,showingthatthetranslatorshouldnotjustimitatetheformoftheoriginalbuttrytoknowtheauthor’ssoulandmakeitspeaktheauthor’smind,that’stosay,thetranslatorshouldtrytograspthespiritoftheoriginalandexpressitinverygoodtargetlanguageinsteadoftheoriginal.ThereisnodoubtaboutitthatTytler’sthreeprinciplesoftranslatinghavehadgreatandfar-reachinginfluenceinthecirclesoftranslationandlaidthefoundationof/forthetheoryoftranslatingwork.

MaJian-zhong,anexpertoftranslationattheendoftheQingDynastyinChina,wroteabooktitledASuggestionofSettingUpaTranslatingAcademyandhepointedout,ifyoutakeabook,you’llhavetoreaditoverandoversoastograspitsspiritual

Essence,trytofigureoutitsstyleandunderstanditsmoodandtranslateitwithgreatfacility,andthetranslatedtextmustbeexactlyliketheoriginalonewithouttheslightesterror,andthereaderscangetasmuchfromthetranslatedtextasfromtheoriginalone,onlysuchtranslationcanbecalledthefirst-classtranslation.（一书到手，经营反复，确知其意旨之所在，而摹写其神情，仿佛其语气，然后心悟神解，振笔而书，译成之文适其所译而止，而曾无毫发出入其间，夫而后能使阅者得之益与观原文无异是则为善译也已。

）[1]HereMaJian-zhonghasgivenussuchexpositionwhichwasquitefreshinsightofhistime,tellinguswhatattitudethetranslatorshouldhaveandwhatshouldbekeptasthestandardsoftranslationandwhatthetranslatingprocessis.AsMrMadidn’ttranslatesomeworks,peoplehavepaidnoattentiontohimanhistheory,butpeoplehavehaddifferentopinionsonwhathestated:

“thetranslatedtextshouldbeexactlyliketheoriginalonewithouttheslightesterror.”Canitberealizedthatyoutranslatesomeworkswithouttheslightestsrror?

Ithinkthisisanimpracticalidea-anideal.Withtheexceptionofthis,weshouldadmitthatmostofwhathesaidisofgreatuseandcanserveourtranslationtoday,especiallythetranslatingprocess.Ifthetranslatorshadnoticedhistheory,thetranslationofChinamighthavebeenmuchbetter.It’sapitythathistranslationtheoryproducedaverylimitedinfluenceontranslationinthepast.

YanFu（1854～1921）,livinginthelateQingDynastyandtheRepublicofChina,wasthenafamoustranslatorandthroughalotoftranslationpractice,hesummedupthethreetranslatingstandardsofthreechinesecharactersin1898（theothersayingisin1897）:

“Intranslation,therearethreeaspectsdifficulttobringabout:

fidelity/faithfulness,smoothness/fluencyandelegance.Itisnoeasyworktorealize‘fidelity/faithfulness’!

Ifthereisonlyfidelity/faithfulnesswithoutsmoothness/fluency,thetranslationdoesn’tamounttotranslation.Fromherewecanseefluency/smoothnessisofgreatimportance.”（译事三难：

信、达、雅。

求其信已大难矣！

顾信矣不达，虽译犹不译也，则达尚焉。

）

What’smentionedaboveiswhatYanFuusedtomeasure/judgewhatcanbeknownasexcellentversions.Asamatteroffact,YanFu’sthreetranslatingstandardsofthreeChinesecharacterswerefirstbroughtupbyZhiQian（支谦），atranslatorlivingintheperiodoftheThreeKingdomsbutit’sYanFuwhotookthestandardsastheonlymodelorpattern.Thelatergenerationshavehadmanydiscussionsabouthisstandards.Generallyspeeking,peoplethinkthattherelationslipbetween“faithfulness”and“fluency”hasbeenclearlysaidbyMrYan,whichhaslaidthefoundationofChina’stranslationtheoryandpeopleagreewithwhathehassaidaboutthetwoprinciples.Buttheyhavedifferentviewpointsonthethirdprinciple“elegance”,infact,theyhaven’tmadeitclearthathis“elegance”putsstressonfigureofspeechandstyle.SomepeoplecompareYanFuwithAlexanderF.Tytler,andtheysaidthat