| 动态对等理论 |
| self-evident: adj. 自明的，不言而喻的 |
| diversities: n. 多样性 |
| simultaneously: adv. 同时地 |
| deliberately: adv. 故意地 |
| connotations: n. 暗含，内涵 |
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文化与翻译--Part I 课文学习--第一页
（ Culture and Translation ） |
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| 本章重点： 文化与翻译的关系 文化的多样性 文化的相似性 文化对等及对策 文化意识 Many linguists maintain that language is the carrier of culture. As a means of recording human history and expressing the ways in which people live and think, every language-spoken community has its unique history and profound culture background. Since human beings are social creatures, they need to communicate with each other. Most of the time communication cross different peoples and cultures are fulfilled through translation. According to Eugene A. Nida's ‘dynamic equivalent' theory, “a translation should be so well understood by the receptors of the target language text that they can fully appreciate how the original receptors respond to the original text." This means that target language receptors must not only know how the original receptors must have understood the content of the text, but they should also be able to appreciate some of the impact and appeal which such a text must have had for the original receptors. Therefore, as one of the important means by which people speak different languages communicates, translating is necessarily not only a process of changing one language into another literally, but a process of transmitting one culture into another. Culture plays an important part in translating process and is difficult to deal with. Professor Wang Zuoliang （王佐良） once said that “The most difficult thing in translation is that the two cultures are quite different. You may find something which is really self-evident in one culture (i.e. source culture) while in the other (i.e. target culture) it becomes so obscure that one has to take a lot of troubles to make explanations.” Culture diversity lays difficulty for translators. A good translator, therefore, should not only have a good command of the two languages (i.e. the source language and the target language as well), but also have an intimate knowledge of both cultures in order to do a good translating job. He needs to be clear about their similarities and diversities simultaneously. I． Culture Diversities Can Not Be Ignored In The Process of Translation As I've mentioned in the above section, language is the carrier of culture and it conveys many things unique in the culture of that people: their traditions, their thoughts, their conventions and their feelings etc. Most of the translation practices, from Chinese to English from English to Chinese, proved that a translation which has ignored the cultural aspects of the source language cannot exactly convey the real original meanings or arose the same impact on the target receptors as the source text does on its receptors. Sometimes, to make things worse, it may cause misunderstanding. Here below we have an example. Please read and compare. Original: 若仔细挑选，在廉价商店可以买到 很便宜 的东西。 Translation: You may buy very cheap products at discount stores if you shop with care. Does the English version reflect what the Chinese version really means? The answer is definitely “ No ” . Superficially we'll think the English version is O.K. but actually it's problematic because it doesn't convey the cultural connotations exactly. In Chinese, “ 很便宜 ” can be explained in two different senses and is used to refer to two things: One is something that has a low price; the other is something that is worth more than what one actually paid. Here in this Chinese version, “ 很便宜 ” means the latter. If someone said that the house which cost you 30,000 yuan ，“ 很便宜 ” he meant that the house is worth more that 30,000 yuan. But in the English translation above “ something is very cheap ” cannot convey the same connotation as in the Chinese version. Perhaps the appropriate one should be put like this: You can find bargains at discount stores if you shop with care. Here “bargain” is the proper word that can convey the concept of “ 便宜 ” in the Chinese version because it can evoke the same associative meaning in English native speakers as “ 便宜 ” does in Chinese native speakers. This instance indicates that a translation should not just be literal substitution of the source languages but a closely reflection of similar impact on the reader or the addressee. For this reason, cultural diversities cannot be ignored in the process of translating. Otherwise, the cross-cultural communication will not be a successful one. In addition, experiences of many famous Chinese translators such as Cha Liangzheng, Bajin and Dong Leshan, etc. also gave us a concrete evidences to support this point of view. Although none of them had learned any translating skills and theories deliberately, they all did an excellent job in translating. Their profound knowledge of both Chinese and English cultures enabled them to produce good translations. Thus in order to make the translation sounds more natural, one should familiarize himself/herself with both cultures and know well their similarities and diversities, especially diversities. Only by this means, can a translator successfully transmit the cultural connotations into the target language and the intended impact or appeal in the source language on the target receptors. |
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