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翻译的定义翻译标准直译和意译词典与翻译翻译过程

1. What Translation Is

   Translation is an art ，a bilingual art．Like painting,translation enables us to reproduce the fine thought of somebody ， not in coIours ， 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 trans1ate and translate well ． No ， not at a11 ． 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 one's 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 colours, 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 Fu 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 1951 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!

   Translation is an art, not a science. In science theories or general principles play a very important role. Not so in art ． Translation is largely a matter of practice.

   Translation implies rendering from one language into another of something written or spoken. It is essentially the faithful representation in one language of what is written or spoken in another. It is the replacement of textual material in one language (the source language) by equivalent textual material in another language (the target language).

   The term “equivalent” is clearly a key term. The central problem of translation practices is that of finding the target language translation equivalence both in form and in essence. Translation, so far as the means of communication is concerned, is the unity of opposites which are bilateral alien language —— the source language and the target language.

2．The Importance of Translation

   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 world's best writers in their own language, 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 one's own language, and that the knowledge of foreign languages makes one's own language more flexible and expressive.

   Thus the study of a foreign language is connected with that of one's own. And translation is the very course for foreign language students to meet this end.

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