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Translation Thoughts

On Xu Yuanchong’s Translation of Tang Poems from the Perspective of the Creative Treason-李玉 Li Yu 202020080615 英美文学

李玉 Li Yu

Abstract

Tang Poems are one of the quintessences of Chinese classical culture. The English translation of Tang poems is of great significance for promoting the spread of Chinese culture in English-speaking countries even around the world. And because Tang poetry has its unique structure and imagery, whether it can be transformed into an English translation that can be accepted by people in English-speaking countries has always been a debate. This even led to the view that Chinese classical poetry cannot be translated. On the other hand, in the process of translation practice, many excellent translations have emerged. From the perspective of creative treason theory, this article analyzes its application in the translation of Tang Poems by Professor Xu Yuanchong, and demonstrates the translatability of Tang poetry and the positive role of creative treason, which opens up a new vision for future English translations of poetry.

Key Words

Creative Treason, Tang Poems, Xu Yuanchong

题目

创造性叛逆视角下许渊冲英译唐诗研究

摘要

唐诗是中国古典文化的精粹之一，唐诗的英译对于在英语国家乃至全世界范围内推动中国文化的传播具有着十分重要的意义。而又因为唐诗有着其独特的结构和意象，是否可以形神兼备地将其转化成可以为英语国家人士接受的英译本，一直是一个争论。这甚至引发了关于中国古典诗歌不可译的观点。另一方面，在翻译实践的过程中，有许多优秀的译作涌现。本文从创造性叛逆理论视角出发，通过分析其在许渊冲教授的英译唐诗中的应用，论证了唐诗的可译性及创造性叛逆在其中发挥的积极作用，为未来的诗歌英译打开了视野。

关键词

创造性叛逆，唐诗，许渊冲

1.Introduction

Translation is a process during which the translator will consciously or unconsciously betrayed the source text due to the differences of culture between the target language and source language, especially in literary translation. French sociologist of literature Robert Escarpit proposed the concept of creative treason in his Sociology of Literature by saying that ”Translation is always a kind of creative treason” (Escarpit 1987:137). Here "treason" it is understood also in its connotation of "revolt" (叛逆). And he further developed his argument by saying that “If we are willing to accept the view that translation is always a kind of creative treason, then the stimulating problem of translation may be solved. The reason why translation is treason is that it put the works into a completely unexpected reference system (refers to the language); the reason why translation is creative is that it not only endows the works with brand-new appearances so as to enable them to have a new literary communication with a wider range of readers but also gives the works second lives while at the same time lengthens their lives” (Escarpit 1987:139). After that, renowned Chinese professor of comparative literature, Xie Tianzhen, has introduced creative treason to China and has profoundly pointed out the connotation of creative treason in his Media-Translatology by saying that “if creativity in literary translation indicates a kind of subjective endeavor of the translator to approach to and represent the original works, then the treacherousness in literary translation reflects an objective betrayal of the translated text to the original text that is caused by the translator’s trying to achieve some subjective goal in the process of translation” (Xie Tianzhen # 106). This chapter chooses to analyze the English translation of Tang poems not only for that they are an important part of Chinese classical literature, but also for that the English translation of Tang poems is important for the transmission of Chinese culture around the world. The research of it is necessary. And the reason why I choose Xu Yuanchong’s translation of Tang poems is not only that his translation is a good example of how to balance truthfulness and beauty in literary translation, which I will verify in the fourth part of this chapter, but also that he is a translator with mature translation theories.

2.Faithfulness and creative treason

2.1.Faithfulness

The purpose of translation is communicating information and transmitting culture,so faithfulness is doubtlessly the first and most important principle of all. The proposing of the translation principle of faithfulness dates back to 1 century A.D. Horace,the poet and literary critic in Ancient Rome, puts forward “faithful translator” in his Ars Poetica. And his translation principle can be summarized into two points：(1) Adhere to live translation and reject literal translation. "A faithful translator will not translate literally"; (2) The native language can be enriched by borrowing foreign words through translation. Contrary to the translation Model of Horace’ s, there is another Model which is also a pattern of the west called Jerome’ s pattern. In Jerome’ s time,the text needed to be translated is the Bible, which is sacred. So Jerome advocate literal translation, and always stick to word. Though appeared to be different, these two models shared one thing in common, that is faithfulness. Faithfulness is the most important principle in translation not only in the west, but also in the east. Since the translation of the Buddhist scripture begins, faithfulness has always been an important principle. In the modern times, Yan Fu has proposed the three principle of translation. And among them, faithfulness is the most important one. On the surface, faithfulness asks the translators to faithfully represent the meaning,connotation,emotion and language structure. However, if we dig into the deeper, we will find that different language modes people’s thinking and recognition pattern differently. So it is hardly possible that a translator can achieve all these at one time. Especially in poetry translation, which is an art of language itself, the writing strategies are deeply dependent on the characterizations of a specific language. However, it is a must to try one’s best to represent the original texts’ beauty. Otherwise, poetry translation will be meaningless.

2.2.Creative treason

Literally speaking, creative treason combines creativity and treason together. To be creative, means that in the process of translation, the translator can add some personal understanding and imaging into the translated version. Of course, it should be based on the meaning and connotation of the source text; treason, means that the translator can refuse to adhere to the structure or expression form of the original text, and change them into something that is can be more easily accepted by the target readers. However, these two things are not contradictory. They are closely related with each other. And there are two kinds of creative treason. Conscious creative treason and unconscious one. And most creative treason are unconscious. That means objectively, the translators are not mean to betray the source text, but rather negatively have done that.Creative treason as a phenomena or strategy is neither positive or negative. The key point is whether it has been used properly and achieved the intention of the translation tasks.

2.3.The relationship between faithfulness and creative treason

The ultimate ends of literary translation is to remold the same aesthetic experience in the target readers’ heart as in the native reader’s. The setting of the translation criteria, faithfulness, served for this ultimate ends. So as creative treason. In poetry translation, faithfulness and creative treason are just like the two sides of one coin.they are complementary to each other.On the one hand, faithfulness is the basis of creative treason. Without faithfulness, creative treason will lose its creativity and be reduced into merely treason. On the other hand, creative treason is the way to achieve a higher level faithfulness. Without creative treason, faithfulness will only be a slogan.

2.4.Creative treason in poetry translation

I will apply to a Li Bai’s poem to further present the use of creative treason in poetry translation.

静夜思

床前明月光，

疑是地上霜。

举头望明月，

低头思故乡。

Quite Night Thought

Bedside bright moonlight

Is suspected to be frost on the floor.

Raising head to watch the bright moon,

Lowering head to think of the hometown.

Nostalgia

A splash of white on my bedroom floor. Hoarfrost?

I raise my eyes to the moon, the same moon.

As scenes long past come to mind, my eyes fall again on

the splash of white, and my heart aches for home.

Translated by Weng Xianliang（翁显良）

In the Still of the Night

I descry bright moonlight in front of my bed.

I suspect it to be hoary frost on the floor.

I watch the bright moon, as I tilt back my head.

I yearn, while stooping, for my homeland more.

Translated by Xu Zhongjie（徐忠杰）

The first translation is a word-for-word translation. Though appeared to be faithful in meaning, this kind of translation gives the reader a mechanical feeling and lacks the transmission of the original poem's verve. In this respect, the translation is not faithful to the original poem.Because the original poem doesn't feel mechanical. Not to mention it abandons the rhyme scheme of the original poetry. The second translation conveys the meaning of the original poem without the feeling of mechanism but is not faithful to its form and beauty. It was translated into prose instead of poetry. However, prose and poetry are totally different. They provide different aesthetic experience to the readers. The third version not only conveyed the meaning of the original poem but also reproduced the beauty of the original poem. This translation adds "I" to every sentence and adopts alliteration to reproduce the beauty of the original poem. Alliteration is in line with the custom of English poetry and is more acceptable to British and American readers. Moreover, the first line and the third line are rhymed. So as the second line and fourth line. The third version is a good example of applying to creative treason. It betrayed the original rhyme scheme, but it use another rhetoric device to make up.

2.5.The Necessity and Inevitability of Creative Treason

Chinese is an isolated language, which emphasizes parataxis, and its word-to-word combination does not emphasize logical connection. However, English is a kind of inflected language with heavy hypotaxis, and word-to-word combination does not emphasize semantic relevance. So poetry as a art form of language, can never ignore the characterizations of language. There is bound to be a huge gap when the translators try to transform the cultural information interlingually. Exact representation is almost impossible in this respect. So creative treason is necessary and inevitable.

3.The Translation Thoughts of Xu Yuanchong

Xu Yuanchong contributed a lot to the transmission of Chinese culture. Due to his great achievement, he has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature in 1999. His greatness lies both in the field of translation thoughts and translation practice.Xu Yuanchong's translation thoughts is mainly formed on the basis of a large number of traditional Chinese poetry and literature translation practices. Those thoughts are highly condensed from Xu Yuanchong's years of translation practice. So before analyzing those specific cases, this section will present those important thoughts that is used in his translation practice.

3.1.The Art of Translation

3.1.1.Three Beauty: Beauty in Sense, Beauty in Form and Beauty in Sound

The so called "Three Beauty" is beauty of sense, beauty of sound and beauty of form. Xu got the initial idea of "three beauty" from Lu Xun 's thesis From Language to Article and firstly pointed his idea in 42 Selected Poems of Mao Zedong. Beauty of sense is the beauty of ideological contents which makes readers feel good. Beauty of sound is the beauty of rhyme which sounds good. Beauty of form is the beauty of words and sentences arrangement which looks good. "The translation poems need to convey not only the sense beauty but also the sound beauty and form beauty of the original poems". (Xu Yuanchong, 24-25)The relationship between the three beauty are indispensable. They complement with each other .Xu positively advocate thisprinciple of Three Beauty in poem translation practice. He follows this principle in his translation as well. Xu' s thought can be concluded as: "For one thing, to achieve beauty in sense so as to move readers' heart; to achieve beauty in sound so as to please readers' ears; to achieve beauty in form so as to appeal to readers' eyes.(Guo Zhuzhang, 421)

3.1.2.Three "hua": Equalization, Particularization, Generalization

Xu got the idea of three "hua" from Qian Zhongshu's statement. Qian Zhongshu says in his book, Lin Shu' s translation "The highest standard of literary translation is "hua" (transformation). That is to say, a literary text translated from one language into an entirely different language should not exhibit in its grammatical and stylistic forms any trace of awkwardness or strangeness, and at the same time it retains the spirit, the charm and the style of the original work."(Qian Zhongshu,120) Xu proposed Three "hua" according to Qian Zhongshu's statement.Xu thinks that translation is an art to change one language in to another. The purpose of three"hua" is to make the connection between original work and translators, translators and the translation works, translation works and reader tight. About three "hua", there are three points of "hua". One is Equalization, another one is Particularization, and the last one is Generalization. Xu thinks that translators should try the best to follow the idea of the original work unless the translator has to remove or put some part. Generalization is to avoid disadvantages and particularization is to make full use of the advantages of the original work.And equalization is in the middle. Equalization is the same as what western translator put forward, functional equivalence translation theory. Xu thinks that the translated version should be equivalent to the original work in both content and form.

3.1.3.Three "zhi": Comprehension, Appreciation, Admiration

Illumined from Wang Guowei's Poetic Remarks of the World of Men, Xu proposed "Three zhi". Xu put the theory of realm into his translation practice and he thinks that translation should reach three realms, which is summarized as "Three zhi" theory in translation. Poem translation must make the readers have the feeling of Comprehension,Appreciation and Admiration. What is Comprehension? It means to make the readers to know what the original work talking about. The role that a translator plays is to eliminate the obstacles of different translators. Xu thinks "Admiration" is the crown of laurels. Translation activity takes the responsibility of the original work, its writers. What's more it also plays an importation role for culture transfer. What needs to be taken into consideration is if the translation from one language to another language can be accepted and loved by readers. Actually, the acceptance of readers influences the spread of the original works. So translators should pay much attention to readers' reading experience.

3.2.Xu 's 4-R Principles:Recreation, Refinement, Resemblance and Rivalry

3.2.1.The Principle of Recreation

There is only a small amount of equal words can be found between Chinese and English. Besides these two languages, each language is unique in vocabulary, pronunciation and form. These features of the languages cause the difficulty of conveying one language fully into another .Peter Newmark said: "a successfully translated poem is always another poem.(Peter Newmark, 165) However, in Xu' s point, what the translation cannot convey the original work fully does not mean that it cannot be conveyed at all. In order to solve this problem, Xu appointed the theory of "creation for loss" Guo Moruo used to say "Literature translation has no difference with creation. Good translation equals to creation.And it sometimes exceeds creation." [Zhang Zhizhong, 89]According to this, Xu proposed theory of Recreation.

This theory is also on the basis of creation for loss. As far as Xu is concerned, translation should make readers cheerful and feel the beauty. It seems that the author is writing the work in another language which we call it target language. The contrary between "truth" and"beauty" can be solved only by Recreation. About the generality of translation and recreation,Xu used to compare these two actions as painting. Creation take the reality as the model.However, translation cannot take the original work as the model only, instead, it needs to take the reality which the original work reflects as the example. Xu Yuanchong pointed that "Recreation is not absolute freedom. What is recreated should be what is hidden in the original work and be revealed by recreation" Xu also said that, Chinese poem has the lingering charms. However, the equivalent words of the target language can only express the original meaning of the Chinese word. Words with same meaning and conveying same lingering charms cannot be easily found in target language (here we refers to English language). So the way of solving this problem is by Recreation.

3.2.2.The Principle of Refinement

What refinement talks about is the relationship between the original language and the target language. Xu Yuanchong thinks that the relationship between the two languages cannot be absolutely equal. Translation, especially poem translation which has strong sense of literature has to take the advantage of the target language and avoid disadvantages. In the year of 1981, Xu proposed on Translation Correspondence that "Taking the advantage of the target language" and "Loyalty to the orig final works, idiomatic translation form" are the standard of literature translation. It is a great challenge to the mainstream translation standard.

Before the new standard come into force, the scholars pay a great attention on the contrary between loyalty and smoothness, form and content, literal translation and liberal translation. And there is a big amount of argument on these topics. No matter which side they stand, they ignored the deep reason why this contrary arouses. And how this kind of contrary can be solved is ignored also. However, this kind of study will be more meaningful than stand on one side and deny the other side. And that will be more useful in translation practice.

According to Xu's theory, two languages, source language and target language have advantages and disadvantages. Xu denies the equal relationship between the two languages. In order to reach the goal of communication between two languages, and to make readers feel "Comprehension, Appreciation and Admiration"(知之，好之，乐之)，translators have to make up the disadvantages by make full use of the advantages of the target language so that it can achieve the new balance. Using the advantage to make up the disadvantage is like weighting something.

Based on "taking the advantages of the target language", Xu proposed the theory of Refinement.(三势)The development of social life is always for the best. From a micro point of view, translation activity like other social activity, conform to history. So the principle of Refinement shows the direction of the history development. So the so called "take the advantage" is to make the best translation work s and to find the best way to express. At the same time, it should twist the disadvantage and fight for equilibrium. According to Xu' s theory, translation has to analyze the advantage of the source language and the target language. And also see where the equilibrium and the disadvantage are. And then find way to solve the problem of the unbalance. By this way, it can minimize the losses caused by translation. And this may make the translation over the original work.

In 1981，Xu wrote another paper to talk about if translation can be beyond original works.In his paper, he quoted lots of translators and scholars idea about the ad vantage of the target language in translation. Qian Gechuan thinks that French poet Charles Baudelaire is one of the translators who make his translation work Poe famous all over the world. It is generally accepted by readers. In the paper, Xu makes the list of better translation than original works especially Tang Poem translation. At last Xu connected his theory of "Three Beauty" and he summarized the condition of beyond original works. He highly admits that there is possibility of surpassing the original work. In poem translation, it can remain the beauty in sound and form, and it can surpass the original work for the beauty in sense point of view .Even for master pieces, different ages come to new translation versions. The old one may remain but the new version is to surpass.

3.2.3.The Principle of Resemblance

Fu Lei used to propose in the preface of the book The Old Man Gao. As for the effect,translation is just like painting. What it is pursuing is not the similarity in form instead issimilarity in spirit. The short sentence in the preface highly concluded the experience of translating literature translation. This makes the translation to the high level of art appreciation. This idea transcends Yan Fu's "Faithfulness, Expressiveness, and Admiration".

Why translation has to reach the goal of similarity in spirit? That is because the source language and the target language are quite different. Syntactic Structures, Grammar, Figure of speech, Thoughts of translators', Social Background, Thinking and Ideas are all different from each other. These kinds of differences make it impossible to be absolutely equal, especially for the two absolutely different languages: English and Chinese. So using one language to translate another language is aim to focus on similarity of spirit instead of form.resemblance in sense. Those whose school takes Faithfulness as the highest standard always stop for resemblance in sense. However, the faithfulness sometimes loses the charming character of the original work. A translation work without charm and character is like a bird without wings. It will have no difference from a sample. Professor Xu Yuanchong thinks that Chinese poem focuses on the charm of the poem.So while translation Chinese poems, the taste of the original work, the charm of the poem and the rhyme of the poem have to be translated. So Xu advocates translating literature works especially translating poems should pursue the third level of three resemblance, resemblance in spirit. Chinese poems seek for beautiful words and sentences. At th a same time, it attaches importance to the affection and momentum of the poem. So the translation of Chinese poem should be the same as the original works with bone and flesh, powerful and spiritual. Xu's "Three Resemblance" can be explained as the following formula.

Resemblance in form: 1+1<2

Resemblance in sense: 1+1=2

Resemblance in spirit: 1+1>2

Resemblance in form is the part which can be translation by computer .That is a scientific part. However, the resemblance in spirit is the part which cannot be solved by any technical method. It belongs to Art. Translating is not a science; however, it is an art. All in all resemblance in spirit is the highest level to pursue.

3.2.4.The Principle of Rivalry

Professor Xu Yuanchong's "Rivalry" theory refers to the competition between source language and target language as well as the culture of both languages. This kind of rivalry composed several aspects.

1) The rivalry be tween two cultures. Language difference causes by different culture. Translation is to use target language to convey the image and emotion described and expressed by source language. And then unify the two cultures. In the process of translation, culture collision, advantages complementary, all these can be described and expressed accurately. All above is the rivalry in culture. The two cultures complete with each other for the purpose of growth and improvement.

2) The rivalry between two languages. This kind of rivalry refers to the competition between the translation works and the original works.Or we can also say the rivalry between writers and translators. Combined with "Making full use of tar get language", two languages make comparison and show their embodiment. Translators choose the best words to express the meaning of the original language carefully.Sometimes, translators are creative enough to create more charming translation then the original works.

3) The rivalry between translators which is the competition between two translation works f or the same original work .Newton used to say，"why do I have such achievement? That is because I am on the shoulder of giants". Just because of the competition,good quality works can appear.

4.Xu Yuanchong’s Translation of Tang Poems From the Perspective of Creative Treason

4.1.Xu Yuanchong’s Translation Appreciation

4.1.1.Crossing River Han by Song Zhiwen（宋之问）

渡汉江

岭外音书断，经冬复历春。

近乡情更怯，不敢问来人。

Crossing River Han

I longed for news on the Frontier

From day to day, from year to year.

Now nearing home, timid I grow;

I dare not ask what I would know.

In this translation, Xu translate the first two lines into a coherent sentence so as to make the rhyming possible. And the translation for”岭” is “the Frontier”.Though weakening the image of mountain ridge but at the same time strengthening the meaning of border. And this adjustment in translation is wonderful for that for the readers abroad, the construction of the concept”border” is more important than that of “mountain ridge” in terms of understanding the meaning and sensing the feeling of this poem.

The subject “I” is added to the translation in the first line of the translation, which makes the meaning clearer to the target readers. And this translation strategy is also adhere to the expression habit of English-speaking country. “音书断” is reversely translated into “Longed for news”, which make the translation more perceptible to the readers.

“经冬复历春” is translated into “from day to day,from year to year”. In Chinese,“经冬” and ”历春” are connected by “复”，which presents the lingering of having no letters, however, in English, there is no such word that can perfectly matches. So Xu creatively uses two ”from...to...” structures, and displaces”冬春” with “day” and “year”, which achieves faithfulness both in connotation and to some extent in form.

In the third line, Xu uses “grow” vividly represents the feeling of the original word ”更”.And the repeated meaning “timid” and “dare not” gives a strong impression on the readers’ mind. And the translation of “what I would know” is clever enough to conveyed the implied meaning in the original poem.

4.1.2.Drinking Alone Under the Moon by Li Bai(李白)

月下独酌

花间一壶酒，独酌无相亲。

举杯邀明月，对影成三人。

月既不解饮，影徒随我身。

暂伴月将影，行乐须及春。

我歌月徘徊，我舞影零乱。

醒时同交欢，醉后各分散。

永结无情游，相期邈云汉。

Drinking Alone Under The Moon

Among the flowers, from a pot of wine

I drink without a companion of mine.

I raise my cup to invite the Moon who blends

Her light with my Shadow and we’re three friends

The Moon does not not know how to drink her share;

In vain my Shadow follows me here and there.

Together with them for the time stay,

And make merry before spring’s spent away.

I sing and the Moon lingers to hear my song;

My Shadow’s mess while I dance along.

Sober, we three remain cheerful and gay;

Drunken, we part and each may go his way.

Our friendship will outshine all earthly love;

Next time we’ll meet beyond the stars above.

In the first line, Xu first uses “among the flowers” and “from a pot of wine” to give the readers a suspense, and then shows the subject “I” in the second line. “a companion of mine” vividly represent the intimacy between “I” and the absent companion, though betrayed the structure of the original poem “相亲”, the translation has achieved the expected effect.

In the fourth line, the use of “blends” represent the harmonious relationship between “the Moon”and “I” which is merely implied by the original diction “邀”.In the sixth line, the diction “in vain” and “here and there” vividly expressed the feeling of “徒” and “随”. “Together with them for the time stay,And make merry before spring’s spent away”, this two lines make the connotation “carpe diem” clearer. And “lingers” and “mess” are not only faithful but also clearly shows the relations of the three. “Sober” and “drunken” are put at the beginning, which makes it easier to rhyme and at the same time strengthens the rhythm. And the structure echoes the original one. “outshines” and “beyond” give the readers endless imagination.

4.2.Summary

From these two poems, we can see that creative treason is everywhere in Xu’s translation of Tang poems. From diction, sentence structure, to connotation, Xu all makes some recreations. And we can feel little unfaithfulness from the translation. Xu’s translation of Tang poems is doubtlessly a successful case of creative treason.

5.Conclusion

Xu Yuanchong uses plain and natural language and gives new life to Tang poetry. Read his translation, you can temporarily put aside the original fixed mode of reading poetry, and find in the translation a new, strange feeling. Some of the cultural connotation of the original is not expressed, but Xu uses his profound literary understanding and solid language foundation of basic skills, to make up for the defects. He resorts to creative treason, and presents to us the originality and uniqueness of his translation, which is worthwhile to learn and to conduct some research upon.

Moreover, we can see from his applying of creative treason an accessible way to translate classical poetry. His translations are also a proof that poetry can be translated.

References

Escarpit, Robert. 罗伯特·埃斯卡皮 (1987).文学社会学[Sociology of Literature].安徽文艺出版社[Anhui Literature and Art Publishing Company].

Guo Zhuzhang.郭著章(1997).翻译名家研究[A Study of famous translators in Translation].湖北教育出版社[Hubei Education Press]

He Junhua.何俊华(2017).哲罗姆模式和贺拉斯模式对比研究 ——解读翻译的忠实标准[A Comparative Study of The Jerome Model and Horace Model -- The Criteria of Faithfulness for Translation].英语广场[The Square of English],10-12.

Newmark, Peter (1988):A Textbook of Translation. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press

Qian Zhongshu钱钟书 (1981).林纤的翻译[The Translation of Lin Shu].商务印书馆[Commercial Press]

Xie Tianzhen.谢天振(2013).译介学[Media-Translatology].译林出版社[Yilin Publishing Company]

Xu Yuanchong.许渊冲(2007).翻译的艺术[The Art of Translation].中国对外翻译出版公司[China Translation and Publishing Company]

Xu Yuanchong.许渊冲(2012).唐诗三百首[300 Tang Poems].中华书局[Zhonghua Book Company]

Zhang Zhizhong张智中(2006).许渊冲与翻译艺术[Xu Yuanchong and the Art of translation].湖北教育出版社[Hubei Education Press].--Li Yu (talk) 22:00, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

On the Analysis of Three Kinds of Beauty in Moonlight over the Lotus Pond Under the Guidance of Functional Equivalence-林敏 Lin Min 202020080616 语言学

林敏 Lin Min

Abstract

Functional equivalence theory is one of the most important theories in the field of translation, aiming to achieve the equivalence of functions between the source language and the target language in a translation. Xu Yuanchong introduced his translation standard of poetry translation--the “Three Beauties” principle in his book Forty Two Poems of Mao Zedong. In the preface of this book, he said that the translated poetry should try to convey the beauty in sense, sound and form of the original poem. This thesis is going to use such two theories to compare and analyze the two English versions of Moonlight over the Lotus Pond in our nation --Zhu Chunshen’s version, Yang Xiangyi and Gladys Yang’s version with some typical and representative examples, thus finding the merits of the two versions, so as to learn whether the two translations achieve the functional equivalence.This thesis is divided into five parts: the first part roughly describes the purpose, method and significance of the study; the second part introduces the general idea and two English versions of Moonlight over the Lotus Pond; The third part introduces two translation theories functional equivalence and three beauties principle; the fourth part, some typical examples are selected and two theories are used to compare the two versions. The fifth part summarizes the whole thesis.

Key words

Functional Equivalence, Three Kinds of Beauty

题目

功能对等理论指导下《荷塘月色》英译本“三美”的传达

摘要

功能对等论是翻译理论中最重要的理论之一。功能对等论的目的是实现源语和目标语之间的功能对等。许渊冲在《毛泽东诗词四十二首》序言中提出的译诗的“三美”原则，即音美，意美和形美。本篇文章将利用这两个基本原则，通过一些有代表性的例子对译本进行比较学习，学习研究两篇文章是否符合功能对等。本篇论文共分为五部分，第一部分介绍了本研究的目的、意义和方法；第二部分介绍了《荷塘月色》的大意和两个英译本；第三部分对两个翻译原则：功能对等论和“三美”原则做了简要地介绍；第四部分选取了有代表性的例子，运用了两个理论对两译本进行了对比学习；第五部分对全文进行了总结。

关键词

功能对等论，三美原则

1. Introduction

With the advent of globalization as well as the development of Chinese economy, more and more Chinese literary works have been introduced abroad. Prose is one of the important part of China’s literature.However there is still not enough attention to the introduction of Chinese prose, especially Chinese modern prose.

Moonlight over the Lotus Pond，the well-known lyric prose, written by the famous author Zhu Ziqing, has made a huge influence on the development of Chinese prose. Moonlight over the Lotus Pond depicts a beautiful scene of the lotus pond in Tsinghua University and expresses the writer's depressing mood. For this prose is a typical example of Chinese modern prose, many translators have tried to translate this prose, such as Zhu Chunshen, Yang Xiangyi and Gladys Yang, Li Ming and Wang Jiaosheng. A large number of scholars have analyzed its different versions making great contribution to the prose translating.

Functional equivalence theory is one of the most important theories in the field of translation. Functional equivalence theory introduced by Nida, refers to the fact that the translation does not take rigid correspondence between words and structures as a standard, but aims to achieve the equivalence of functions between the source language and the target language. The theory emphasizes that“翻译是用最恰当、自然和对等的语言从语义到文体再现源语的信息”。

Here, this thesis selects two of the most famous English versions of Moonlight over the Lotus Pond in our nation --Zhu Chunshen's version, Yang Xiangyi and Gladys Yang’s version, to compare and study, based on Xu Yuanchong's “Three Beauties” principle under the guidance of functional equivalence. This thesis will compare and analyze the two English versions, thus finding the merits of the two versions, so as to learn whether the two translations achieve the functional equivalence.

2. Moonlight over the Lotus Pond and Its English Versions

Before comparing and analyzing the two English versions of Moonlight over the Lotus Pond , we need learn some necessary information about the author who wrote it and the relatively background. At present, the two famous English versions are Zhu Chunshen’s version as well as Yang Xiangyi and Gladys Yang’s version .

2.1 Moonlight over the Lotus Pond

Moonlight over the Lotus Pond is the classical of lyric prose written by Zhu Ziqing in Tsinghua University, Beijing on July 1927，which depicts a beautiful scene of the lotus pond in Tsinghua University and expresses the writer’s depressing mood. It was published in the Novel Monthly, one of the new literary journals which enjoys the reputation of “the first journal in the China’s literary world” in the 1920s.Since it was published, the article has received both high praise and fierce criticism. From this perspective, it has witnessed the history of modern Chinese literature.（Han ,2018 ）

In this prose, the author is sleepless and sits in his yard to enjoy the cool in the evening. Suddenly, it occurrs to his mind that the lotus pond where he passes every day and the pond must be different at night with the moonlight. So, the author wanders lonely on a cinder footpath around the lotus pond, he feels that he is a “free man”. As he sees the pond cover with trim lotus leaves and white lotus flowers, hearing the sounds of the cicadas and the frogs, Zhu thinks that "this animation was theirs alone, I had no part in it（Yang ,1990 ）."

2.2 The Two English Versions

Moonlight over the Lotus Pond is one of Zhu Ziqing’s masterpieces and is selected into Chinese textbook. Most scholars say that the prose is “文质相称，形神俱美” which has attracted an amount of scholars and students.The prose has been introduced to foreign countries in different languages, especially in English since the May 4th Movement. The notable translations include Zhu Chunshen’s version, Yang Xiangyi and Gladys Yang’s version, Li Ming’s version and Wang Jiaosheng’s version. This thesis choices Zhu Chunshen’s version as well as Yang Xiangyi and Gladys Yang’s version. Both Zhu ’s version and Yang’s version are faithful to the original meaning and concise to the sentence structure and close to the original style. But Zhu prefer to employ literal translation and Yang uses the free translation, like the words “热闹” ,“冷静”, “群居”and “独处”, Zhu translated these as “a serene and peaceful life”,“a busy and active one”, “being in solitude” and “in company”, in contrast Yang’s translation is “excitement and stillness”.（Chen ,2018）

3. The Basis of Theory

3.1 The Functional Equivalence Theory

The first scholar in history to propose the equivalence effect is the British translation theorist Alexander Fraser Tytler in 1790. He defined the “good translation” in his book A Brief Introduction to Translation Principles. He introduced that the good translation should completely transfer the advantages of the original work to another language so that the target language readers could clearly understand and feel strongly as the original readers do. This is to say that a good translation should be able to produce the same effect as the original in different linguistic societies. Then, the German translation theorist Kaul called it a comparable effect in his book The Art of Translation in 1896.

Nida’s translation theory was formed in the 1960s and introduced to China in the 1980s. The functional equivalence principle is one of his central translation ideas. In 1964, Nida first proposed the concept of dynamic equivalence in his book Toward Science of Translating, proposing to shift the focus of translation research from the attention of static text information to reader’s attention to the dynamic information of the text. In The Theory and Practice of Translation, Nida defined this theory again. He proposed that dynamic equivalence is therefore to be defined in terms of the degree to which the receptors of the message in the receptor language respond to it substantially the same manner as the receptors in the source language. Here, the dynamic equivalence refers to the functional equivalence. The basic point of functional equivalence is to compare the way of understanding and appreciating the original text by readers with that of the recipient of the target text. It requires readers of the target text to be able to perceive the original text when understanding the translation.

3.2 Three Kinds of Beauty

Xu Yuanchong ,the highly respected translator and famous professor, is known as “the only person who translates Chinese poems into English and French”. He introduced his translation standard of poetry translation--the “Three Beauties”principle in his book Forty Two Poems of Mao Zedong. In the preface of this book ,he said that “the translated poetry should try to convey the beauty in sense, sound and form of the original poem.”(Xu, 2003) Xu Yuanchong said that “in translation, the beauty in sense is the most important, beauty in sound comes next and the last is beauty in form, when it is difficult to achieve them all, translator should stress beauty in sense.”And professor Xu also claimed that the “Three Beauties” principles can use in researching and studying the translation of prose.(Xu, 2003)

4. On the Analysis of Two English Versions of Moonlight over the Lotus Pond Under the Guidance of Functional Equivalence

Zhu Ziqing used a large number of rhetorical devices and reduplicated words to describe the beauty of the lotus pond under the moonlight at night, to express his gloomy and upset mood, which brings great difficulty to translation, in his famous prose--Moonlight over the Lotus Pond. This part is aimed at using the functional equivalence theory and Xu Yuanchong’s theory of “Three Beauties” to analyze whether the two English versions of such prose achieve the degree of function equivalance.

4.1

Words are the basic meaning of sentences. G •Leech divided “meaning” into two categories: conceptual meaning and associative meaning.(Leech,1987) The conceptual meaning is the meaning that we can find in dictionary, and the associative meaning is the actually meaning of the word in the special context. It is a truly universal acknowledge that the meaning of the sentence is not simple addition of word meaning. Thus, the translator should find the conceptual meaning and the associative meaning of the original, especially the associative meaning. Here are some typical examples:

Example 1: “这几天心里颇不宁静。”（Zhu Ziqing , 1927)

Zhu ’s version: “I have felt quite upset recently.”(Zhu Chunshen, 1992)

Yang ’s version: “The last few days have found me very restless.”(Yang Xiangyi, Gladys Yang, 1990)

This sentence is the first sentence in the first paragraph. Here “不宁静” refers to “quite uncomfortable”, which can be translated as “upset, restless, untranquil, disquieting and so on”. However, considering Zhu Ziqing’s patriotic feeling and his responsibility for his wife and kid, he cannot devote his whole life to the great revolution. Therefore “不宁静” in the context means the author is anxiety, because he want to change his condition. Zhu Chunshen translated it as“upset”which means“unhappy or disappointed because of something unpleasant that has happened”in the OED, which emphasized the unhappy mood. And Yang Xianyi employed it as “restless”, which means “unable to stay still or happy where you are, because you are bored or need a change ” in the OED, which stressed on one needing a change. It is clear that the word “restless” is more exactly than the word “quiet” in this sentence.

However,“宁静”has an end rhyme“ing”and neither“upset”in Zhu’s translation nor“restless”in Yang’s version opted the words with the same end rhyme for they both focused on the meaning. And such sentence in original text is a 9 characters short sentence with no subject, Yang translated it into 9 words,used the“the last few day”as the subject, while Zhu’s version only has 6 words and selected “I” as the subject. Therefore, Yang’s version is expressive to the original in this sentence and it retains the beauties of form and sense in this sentence at the same time. In short, the two versions are good translation, but the Yang’s version is much better from this point.

Example 2“这是一条幽僻的路；白天也少人走，夜晚更加寂寞。”(Zhu Ziqing, 1927)

Zhu’s version: It is peaceful and secluded here, a place not frequented by pedestrians even in the daytime; now at night, it looks more solitary......”(Zhu Chunshen, 1992)

Yang’s version: “It is off the beaten track and few pass this way even by day, so at night it is still more quiet.”(Yang Xiangyi, Gladys Yang, 1990)

The word “幽僻” means “安静和人迹罕至” here. Zhu rendered the word “幽僻” into “peaceful and secluded”, emphasized that there is silent and private. Yang employed it into “off the beaten track” which means no one knows here and quiet. From this perspective, both translations are very similar in understanding the writer’s meaning.

However, the word “幽僻” is an adjective word with two meanings: quiet and not disturbed by other people. Zhu’ s version “peaceful and secluded” ,are two adjective words and has two similar meanings, which keep the form and sense of the original sentence. In conclusion，according to the “Three Beauties” principle, Zhu’s translation is much better than Yang’s for it retains the form of the original.

Example 3: “这路上阴森森的，有些怕人。”(Zhu Ziqing, 1927)

Zhu’s version: “The foliage, which, in a moon-less night, would loom somewhat frighteningly dark.”(Zhu Chunshen, 1992)

Yang’s version: “ On nights when there is no moon the track is almost terrifyingly dark.”(Yang Xiangyi, Gladys Yang, 1990)

In this sentence, Zhu Ziqing uses “怕人” to describe the atmosphere of the air on the road and his feeling of walking on this path at such a night. “怕人” referred to “令人害怕的” in Chinese, it is an adjective to present his feeling. “Frightening ” means “making you feel afraid”, and “terrifying” means “to make somebody extremely frightened”in the OED , which can be regarded as synonyms. Both use the adverb to translate the adjective “怕人”. But in Zhu’s translation, “the foliage” is “frighteningly dark” and in Yang’s version, “the track” is “terrifyingly dark”. Both translators have their own understanding of the original content, but the both translations are faithful to the word “怕人”. We could say the two translations achieve the beauty in sense. However, in “Three Beauties” principle, we should consider the beauty in form and sound. As for sound ,the last sound of “怕人” is [en] in Chinese, but both “frightening” and “terrifying” has the same end sound of [en]. As for “frightening” and “terrifying”, the last sound of these are [iŋ] which could be regarded as the similar pronunciation with [en] .So, the two translations achieved beauty in sound from this aspect. In all the both versions are great from this perspective.

4.2

The two English versions of Moonlight over the Lotus Pond do a good job in two aspects: “grammaticality”and “idiomaticness”. This part will analyze their features of“clarity”and “ organization”.(“stylistic adaptability” will be analyzed in the next part) The first is the“clarity”. A qualified translation should be fluent and easy to understand. Here it does not means the two versions have grammatical mistakes.Readers should not be confused by the cultural and social background of a word. In Moonlight over the Lotus Pond ,there are also some words with Chinese cultural or social characteristic. Here are some examples:

Example4 : “我悄悄地披了大衫，带上门出去。”(Zhu Ziqing, 1927)

Zhu’s version: “ Shrugging on an overcoat, quietly, made my way out, closing the door behind me.”(Zhu Chunshen, 1992)

Yang ’s version: “I quietly slipped on a long gown, and walked out leaving the door on the latch.” (Yang Xiangyi, Gladys Yang, 1990)

The words “大衫”and“带上门” with Chinese characteristics, cannot be simply translated, the translator should carefully apt the best words owing to their traits.

First of all,“大衫”is means “身长过膝的中式单衣”. Zhu Chunshen and Yang Xianyi employed this word into “overcoat” and “gown” respectively. The overcoat is a long warm coat worn in cold weather. And the gown is a long loose piece of clothing. At the beginning of the prose, the author sits in his yard to enjoy the cool. So, it is hot and the overcoat is not suit for summer. Then, the Chinese people in the later Qing Dynasty and the period of Republican, especially the men who were educated, preferred wearing the long and loose clothes. Thus, “大衫” translated into “grow” is more proper than “overcoat ”. By doing so, readers can correctly understand the meaning of the original text and draw a picture in his mind without confusion: why he wears a thick coat in summer.

Generally speaking, a house with a courtyard has two doors, the gate of yard and the door of house in China, and when the owner need to go out for a short time, he will not lock the gate of yard, just as the Chinese people says “我一会就回来，别锁门”. Thus the word “带上门出去” translated as “leaving the door on the latch” in Yang’s version is more faithful to the original meaning than the word “closing the door ” in Zhu’s translation. In this sense, readers can receive more information about Chinese cultural or social background.

To sum up, both two versions of this sentence are fluent without any grammatical errors and successful convey the meaning of original. However, Yang masterly selected the words “long gown” and the expression “leaving the door on the latch” .

Example5 : 月光如流水一般，静静地泻在这一片叶子和花上。薄薄的青雾浮起在荷塘里。叶子和花仿佛在牛乳中洗过一样；又像笼着轻纱的梦。(Zhu Ziqing, 1927)

Zhu’s version: The moon sheds her liquid light silently over the leaves and flowers, which, in the floating transparency of a bluish haze from the pond, look as if they had just been bathed in milk, or like a dream wrapped in a gauzy hood.(Zhu Chunshen, 1992)

Yang’s version: Moonlight cascaded like water over the lotus leaves and flowers, and a light blue mist floating up from the pool made them seem washed in milk or caught in a gauzy dream.(Yang Xiangyi, Gladys Yang, 1990)

In order to make the translation more authentic and smooth English, both Zhu Chunshen and Yang Xiangyi used the translation method of combination to combine the original three sentences into a long sentence, but the two versions have their different features. As for the form of the translation, Zhu Chunshen rendered his translation in three segments, short parts and long parts combined that is similar to the original sentence.

To sum up, both two versions of this sentence are fluent without any grammatical errors and successful convey the meaning of original. However, Yang masterly selected the words “long gown” and the expression “leaving the door on the latch” .

4.3

Style is a difficult and hot issues of literary translation. Leech defined style as “the way in which the language is used in a given context, by a given person, for a given purpose and so on”.(Leech,2001:10) Many scholars believe that although the style is not translatable to some extent, the translation should still strive to reproduce the style of the original text. Liu Zhongde emphasized the importance of being close to the style of the original text in his the three-character principle of translation--faithfulness, expressiveness and closeness. Zhu Guanqian also believed that “对原文忠实，不仅是对表面的字义忠实，对情感，思想，风格，声音节奏等必须同时忠实。”So how should the translator reproduce the original author’s style? (Zhu Guangqian,1984:447)

In the following part, the author of this thesis is going to compare the two English versions, and is based on the translation of rhetorical devices , to discuss whether or not the two versions can reproduce rhetorical effects of the original. This thesis focus on the analysis of metaphor, personification and other rhetorical devices, and selects several fragments of these rhetorical devices as the comparison of the original text.

Example 6: 叶子出水很高，像亭亭的舞女的裙。层层的叶子中间，零星地点缀着些白花......正如一粒粒的明珠，又如碧天里的星星，又如刚出浴的美人。(Zhu Ziqing, 1927)

Zhu’s version: ...reaching rather high above the surface, like the skirts of dancing girls in all their grace. Here and there, layers of leaves are dotted with white lotus blossoms... like scattering pearls, or twinkling stars, or beauties just out of the bath. (Zhu Chunshen, 1992)

Yang’s version: ...which rose high out of the water like the flared skirts of dancing girls. And starring these tiers of leaves were white lotus flowers... like glimmering pearls, stars in an azure sky, or beauties fresh from the bath.(Yang Xiangyi, Gladys Yang, 1990)

Zhu Ziqing used three extremely beautiful metaphors to form a parallel construction, to enhance the language strength, to express his love of lotus, gives people endless feeling of beauty.

The author uses “亭亭的舞女的裙” to describe the lotus leaves above the surface, vividly and lively depicted the lotus leaves as the skirt of the dancing girls, which is beautiful and charming. Zhu Chunshen rendered“亭亭” into “in all their grace”, though the meaning is relevant, there is an inappropriate: the metaphor here uses to focus on the dance dress rather than dancing girls, so it is not correctly using too much words to modified the dancer. Yang Xianyi added the word “flared “before the “skirts of dancing girls”, which seems out of thin air. However, “flared” referring to the cloths being “wider at the bottom edge than at the top”, the word is more appreciated and reproduces the scene of lotus leaves. In general, Yang handling of metaphor the first sentence is the most appropriate, also can best affect the beauty of sense.

Zhu Ziqing used “一粒粒的明珠”, “碧天里的星星”and “刚出浴的美人” to describe the “白花 ”. The writer used three different things to describe the lovely lotus blooms. As for the form and sound, Zhu Chunshen employed “一粒粒的明珠” and “碧天里的星星” into two same phrases “scattering pearls” and “ twinkling stars ”which end with “-ing”, which is well-read and looks greater; while Yang translated them into two sentences in different forms, which differs from the original form for such sentence is just faithful to the literal meaning of original. As for the clause “刚出浴的美人”, Zhu’s translation is similar to Yang’s.

All in all, Yang’s version is more appreciated for keeping the sense of beauty in the first sentence of this fragment. And Zhu’s version better reproduces the beauties of sound and form.

Example 7: “层层的叶子中间，零星地点缀着些白花，有袅娜地开着的，有羞涩地打着朵儿的......”(Zhu Ziqing, 1927)

Zhu’s version: “Here and there, layers of leaves are dotted with white lotus blossoms, some in demure bloom, others in shy bud ...”.(Zhu Chunshen, 1992)

Yang’s version: “And starring these tiers of leaves were white lotus flowers, alluringly open or bashfully in bud ...”(Yang Xiangyi, Gladys Yang, 1990)

“袅娜”and “羞涩”are the words used to describe people;“袅娜” uses to describe elegance posture and expression, especially women’s and girls’. Zhu Chunshen rendered “袅娜” into “demure”, which means “behaving in a way that does not attract attention to herself or her body; quiet and serious” in the OED, which seems inconsistent with the original text. However, Yang Xianyi translated it into “alluringly”, which refers to attractive and exciting in a mysterious way in the dictionary. It seems much appropriate. Then as for the word “羞涩”, Zhu translated it into “shy” and Yang’s version is “bashfully”. Both the two words can use to describe people, and use to translate the word “羞涩”. However, the word “bashful” means “shy and easily embarrassed” which is more appropriate to reproduce the beauty of sense. Moreover, yang’s translation retains the beauty of form, because “羞涩” in original text is a adverb, and “bashfully” is a adverb too. Therefore, it is obvious that Therefore, it is obvious that Yang’s version is more appropriate.

Example8: “微风过处，送来缕缕清香，仿佛远处高楼上渺茫的歌声似的。”(Zhu Ziqing, 1927)

Zhu’s version: “A breeze stirs, sending over breaths of fragrance, like faint singing drifting from a distant building”. (Zhu Chunshen, 1992)

Yang’s version: “The breeze carried past gusts of fragrance, like the strains of a song faintly heard from a far-off tower.” (Yang Xiangyi, Gladys Yang, 1990)

Synaesthesia is the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body. The author uses “歌声” to describe the fragrance of the lotus flowers. Here the fragrance of flowers is originally the sense of smell, but the author written it as a melodic song, the sense of hearing. Zhu Chunshen used “breeze...breaths...building” and “fragrance...faint...from”to describe the faint sound of the song which is vividly and close to the original text. And Zhu employed an alliteration, “drifting from a distant” to make the readers feel the dynamic beauty of lotus and achieve the same effect as the original text.In general, Zhu’s version is more appropriate for he reproducing the beauties of sense and sound .

5. Conclusion

We learn from the study and comparison. We develop from the study and comparison. While we are accumulating English and Chinese knowledge and practicing translation skill, we should also study others’ translations carefully. Through comparative study, we can improve ourselves.

Through the comparative analysis of these two English translations, we will find that functional equivalence theory has been fully embodied. Functional equivalence theory is a bridge connecting world cultures, fully reproducing the original text through form equivalence, content equivalence，so that the readers of the target texts receive the same feeling as the readers of the original. Functional equivalence theory not only has a wide range of applications now, but in the future, functional equivalence theory will certainly play its role in promoting the exchange and development of various cultures and promoting the prosperity of the world’s culture.

6.Reference

• Leech G N,(2001) Short M H.Style in Fiction:A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose.Beijing:Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press,2001:10.
• Chen Bohui.陈波慧(2018).汉英叠词对比及其英译——以《荷塘月色》两个英译本为例.[ Comparison of Chinese and English Reduplication and Their English Translation——Taking the Two English Versions of Moonlight over the Lotus Pond as an example ].海外英语.[Overseas English]. 2018.7
• Han Zhengshun, Wang Jian.韩征顺,王健. （2008）月朦胧,荷朦胧,雾蒙蒙,意浓浓——《荷塘月色》四译文“模糊美”研究. [A Study on the “Fuzzy Beauty” of the Four Translations of Moonlight over the Lotus Pond] .西安外国语大学学报.[ Journal of Xi’an International Studies University] 第16卷　第4期.Vol. 16 Issue 4
• Liu Huiqun.刘慧群(2015).《荷塘月色》修辞翻译管窥[ A Glimpse of Rhetorical Translation of Moonlight over the Lotus Pond]. 语文学刊 [Chinese Journal]外语教育教学[Foreign Language Education and Teaching ].2015年第10期. 2015, Issue 10
• Xu Yuanchong.许渊冲.(1978)毛泽东诗词四十二首.[Forty Two Poems of Mao Zedong]. 洛阳：中国人民解放军外国语学院[Chinese People's Liberation Army Institute of Foreign Languages] 1978.
• Yang Xianyi, Gladys Yang杨宪益，戴乃迭(1990,5). Moonlight over the Lotus Pond. 英语学习[English Learning], 1990(5).
• Yuan Lei.袁雷.功能对等理论指导下的散文英译及三美分析——《荷塘月色》的两个英译本比较[ On the Analysis of Two English Versions of Moonlight over the Lotus Pond Under the Guidance of Functional Equivalence]贵州师范大学.[Guizhou Normal University]
• Zhu Ziqing.朱自清(1927).荷塘月色[Moonlight over the Lotus Pond].全日制普高高一语文第一册第 5 课.[General High School Chinese Book 1 Lesson 5],原载 1927年7月10日《小说月报》第18卷第7期[originally published in Novel Monthly].北京：人民教育出版社[ Beijing: People’s Education Publishing Society]
• Zhu Chunshen.朱纯深(1992). Moonlight over the Lotus Pond.中国翻译.[Chinese Translation]. 1992, (1).--Lin Min (talk) 12:32, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

On Form and Spirit in Translation -文偲荇 Wen Sixing, 202020080649 亚非语言文学

文偲荇 Wen Sixing

Abstract

Both the form and the spirit should be pursued in translation, which is a dialectical relationship. However, in translation, it often loses its spirit because of various factors that lead to excessive pursuit of formal resemblance. It is very important to deal with the problem between the formal resemblance and spiritual resemblance in translation. While emphasizing the spiritual resemblance, do not forget the formal resemblance. If possible, try to achieve a balance between the two, and make a choice in the specific context. Only in this way can the translation realize the new unity of the form and content of the source language in the target language.

Key words

Formal resemblance; Spiritual resemblance; Form and Content; Dialectical unification

题目

论翻译中的形的贴合与神的韵味

摘要

翻译时应追求形神兼备，这两者是一种辨证关系，但在翻译时常常会因为各种因素导致过度追求形似而失去神韵。处理好翻译中形似与神似之间的问题至关重要。在强调神似的同时不要忘记形似，在可能的情况下尽量达成两者之间的平衡，而在特定的语境下也可做出取舍，才有利翻译在译入语中实现传达原语形式和内容新的统一。

关键词

神似与形似；形式与内容；辨证统一

1. Introduction

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1.1 Definition

Formal resemblance means that when translating, the target text should be consistent with the original text in terms of words, sentence structure, expression and figurative means. And spiritual resemblance means that when translating, we should try to keep the spirit and charm of the original work and achieve the artistic effect of the original work.

"Form", in translation activities, is the most important refers to "language". And "deformation" is what we call "language transformation". From the source language to the target language, "deformation", that is, "language transformation", is inevitable. The change of sound and shape, as well as the combination of sound, shape and meaning should also be changed. And "spirit", to use the terminology of contemporary linguistics, refers to the product of "linguistic activities".

From the point of view recognized by the current translation circle, "spirit" refers to "meaning" to a large extent, but the problem lies in the definition of "meaning", and the linguistic field has not formed a unified view. In fact, many debates about "spirit" and "form" are more or less rooted in the understanding of "spirit" and "form".(Xu Jun 2003,01)

1.2 Spiritual resemblance in Translation

The spiritual resemblance is first put forward by Fu Lei. He said, "As far as effect is concerned, translation should be like painting. What is sought is not resemblance in form but resemblance in spirit." (Fu Lei, 1950). Zhu Shenghao also put forward the idea of "keeping the spirit of the original". He said, "The aim of the book is to preserve the spirit of the original as far as possible. Must be forced to seek the next, also must be clear and clear words, faithfully convey the meaning of the original; However, the hard translation with word-for-word contrast is not appreciated. "(Zhu Shenghao, 1954). “神”, means the spirit of the original. Good literary works always have rich feelings, profound artistic conception, strong appeal and strong artistic effect.

2. The relationship between Formal resemblance and Spiritual resemblance

2.1 Correlation

Yan Fu, said in Theory of natural selection, "Three difficulties in translation: faithfulness, expression and elegance". "Faithfulness" means that the meaning does not differ from the original text, that is, the translation should be accurate, not deviate, not omit, and not add or subtract meanings at will. "Expression" means not sticking to the original form, but making the translation smooth and clear; "Elegance" means that the words chosen in the translation should be appropriate and the article itself should be quaint and concise. In translation, it is difficult to be faithful to the ideological content of the original text. However, if you correctly understand the original text without "expressing" it in a smooth translation, it is equivalent to no translation. Therefore, emphasis should be placed on "expressing" at this time. Since then, the expression of translation has become the focus of translation studies.

Formal resemblance and spiritual resemblance is two different means of translating expression, question of "form" and "spirit" in translation also is one of the most discussed and most difficult fundamental issues to be unified. "The relationship between form and spirit, which directly reflects the relationship between signifier and signified, which is closely related to the means and ends of translation. The so-called means is the transformation of form, while the end is the rebirth of spirit." (Xu Jun 2003, 1). Fundamentally speaking, "form" and "spirit" are interdependent. No "form" means no "spirit".

However, the saying that "sprit follows form", which we often emphasize, gives form the primary character as the material basis for spirit's existence. "Form" is concrete, and the relationship between "form" and "spirit" involves every aspect of human life. The discussion about "body" and "soul" is, to a certain extent, a dispute about the relationship between "form" and "spirit". "soul" and "flesh" in religion, "substance" and "spirit" in philosophy, "form" and "content" in literature, etc, all originate from the fundamental problem of "form" and "spirit". "As far as translation is concerned, the question of "form" and "spirit" can be said to be an obvious paradox. The contradiction lies in the fact that "form" and "spirit" are interdependent and inseparable in nature, while the fundamental task of translation is to achieve the rebirth of "spirit" through "form" transformation". (Xu Jun 2003, 2)

2.2 In translation, numerous factors may cause the Formal resemblance and Spiritual resemblance out of step

2.2.1 Metaphors and Associations

Due to the different ways of expression in the two languages, the metaphors and associations used in SL(source language) are often unacceptable to TL(target language) readers, or TL readers cannot understand them at all. Or from the surface structure, target language is similar to source language said, but in the sense is not exactly the same, even lost a thousand miles. In this case, for example, the expression form of source language is still used in translation and try to be similar in appearance, which is bound to form a semblance, with similar appearance and spirit completely lost.

ex）"A man may break a word with you,sir,and words are but wind."(SL)

“先生，跟你说话的人可能会失言，而言语总会随风而逝。”(TL)

"Break a word with you" and "words are but wind" are all metaphors in English that may be difficult for non-native speakers to understand when translated.

ex）"The rain came down in long knitting needles."(SL)

“雨滴像长长的编织针一样落下。”(TL)

"Long knitting needles", is a special thing that exists in the context of a native speaker, so non-native speakers are likely to have no accurate concept of it, so it's hard to fully grasp the metaphor even with an honest translation.

2.2.2 The cultural differences

The translator and the author have different cultural backgrounds, so their understanding of the original text is naturally different. This difference in understanding is mainly due to the influence of preconceived notions. This is a pervasive cultural phenomenon.

ex）He is really the man in the moon(SL)

“他是个真正的月老”(TL)*

“他是个真正远离世俗的人”(TL)

In Britain, people traditionally think of the dark shadow of the moon as a person. The moon is far from the earth, the people in the moon of the nature, he must be unknown to the human world. So He is really a man in the moon means "He is really a man out of the world"(他是个真正远离世俗的人). Under the influence of traditional Chinese culture, once people see the image words "moon" and "man" combined together, they will naturally think of "Yuelao(月老)"——The legendary god of marriage, which leads to the deviation in translation. (Niu Chuangyue 2006, 215)

ex）He is always politically correct(SL)

他总是政治正确(TL)*

他说话四平八稳(TL)

Many people take this sentence that "He is always politically correct" as "He is always correct in politics", which is in line with the Chinese mindset, but it's not what it says. Politics in Chinese refer to principles of thought and ideology while in English politics refer to how they approach people. "He is always politically correct" is not "He is always correct in politics", but "He's smooth talking."

2.2.3 The context of languages changes

The surface layer of words, is a relatively fixed objective reality; And its deep, namely its connotation, but often because of the person's subjective will shift. For language learners and users, it is not difficult to get familiar with the surface, but to grasp the connotation of its continuous shift. To grasp the connotation of words is to analyze the actual meaning of users in a specific context, which is also known as "understanding" in translation. The change of context can be divided into subjective and objective. The so-called subjective change refers to the meaning given to words by users for certain needs; And the objective change is the change in meaning caused by the natural environment.

ex) Made in China(SL)

（由）中国制造(TL1)

（在）中国制造(TL2)

Made in China was, of course, “由中国制造”, before western multinationals entered the country. But when multinational companies enter China, the products they set up in factories in China are still marked "Made in China", but they are not “由中国制造” but “在中国制造”. Made in China, likewise, is different by circumstance, either “由中国制造” or “在中国制造”, of which its connotation is different. Therefore, when understanding the original text, it is not enough to just focus on the literal itself, More attention should be paid to the impact of changes in social history and context.

2.2.4 Human factors

"Language is a dog". It means that people are subject to language. In fact, this metaphor only illustrates one aspect of the relationship between man and language, namely, man's passive adaptation to language changes. Such passive adaptation certainly exists objectively. But a closer look reveals that the so-called passive adaptation is also due to some human factors rather than the powerful inertia of non-language itself.

On June 20, 2005 British farmers grow potatoes held a noisy protest in London, protesting the Oxford English dictionary, included the couch potato (refers to passive while sitting idly spend your leisure time, especially all day watching TV or DVD), think it said the potatoes too unhealthy, so strongly asked the Oxford English dictionary, delete the entry with couch slouch replace the couch potato.

This event vividly illustrates the human element of semantic change. Potato is originally a plant without any emotional factors, but it has been artificially given some kind of associative meaning. In a sense, of course, this is an expression of the richness of language, but this richness comes at the cost of deducing the actual meaning of specific concepts. If we compare documents from hundreds or thousands of years ago with the languages we speak today, we will find a general phenomenon that today's languages are much more complex and abstract than those of old. The reason is that we are constantly deducing the semantic meaning of specific concepts or words for various rhetorical purposes.

In the concrete application of language, such deduction exists objectively and is also the concrete manifestation of the normal function of language communication. However, in translation, the translator should try to avoid the appearance of such deduction and manifestation, or at least control it within a certain limit, which may lead to the semantic variation of the primitive concept in the translation. (Zhang Rui 2015, 117)

2.3 Balance of Formal resemblance and Spiritual resemblance in Translation

Of course, it is best to retain the original spirit in translation, but is form and spirit necessarily contradictory? The answer is clearly no. This is because sometimes formal resemblance is spiritual resemblance. The ideological content and emotional charm of a literary work must be expressed in a certain form. Sometimes the original text has some metaphors or associative images, vivid and lifelike, with strong appeal, the emotion and artistic conception appear on the paper, and the source language habits are also close to the target language. At this time, keeping the original form of the translation actually plays a role of spirit evocative. By keeping this form, the translation can achieve the unity of form and spirit.

ex) He was a friendly and very hospitable man.(SL)

他是个友善而又十分好客的人。/他为人友善，热情好客。(TL)

ex)Though somewhat pompous, he was an entertaining companion.(SL)

虽然有些浮夸，（仍不免承认）他是个娱人的伴侣。(TL)

ex)He was a man of good understanding and talents.(SL)

他为人通达而富有才情。(TL)

ex)There are people to do everything for money.(SL)

为了钱什么事情都有人做。/有些人为了钱无所不为。(TL)

The above examples show that, at some point, Formal resemblance and Spiritual resemblance can achieve a harmonious unity. Proper formal equivalence not only helps to preserve the language style of the original text, but also enriches the expression form of the target language. Such expression can achieve both the form and the spirit of the target language, on the one hand, it can retain the form of the original language, on the other hand, it cannot lose its spirit.

2.4 Choice

2.4.1 The pursuit of spiritual resemblance first

But in more cases, Formal resemblance and Spiritual resemblance cannot be both.In the translation of literary works, the pursuit of a similar-looking translation lacks vitality. It would be best if the two languages can have both formal resemblance and spiritual resemblance. However, due to great differences in thinking mode, cultural basis and language structure of the two languages, especially the target language and the source language belong to two different language families with great cultural differences, it is difficult to achieve the unity of the formal resemblance and the spiritual resemblance.

In this case, if the blind pursuit of form similarity, the pursuit of language structure, vocabulary, grammar and other aspects of equivalence, will make the translation stiff, obscure, difficult to understand. For example, in English-Chinese translation, translators with low proficiency are often unable to get rid of the linguistic structure and form of the original text, resulting in a large number of European languages appearing in the Chinese translation.

Professor King Shenghua, a famous Hong Kong translator, once criticized this Europeanized language and called it "translated style". "What is 'translated style' ?" she said, “The word 'translationese' in English. In the past, it has been called the "translation cavity." (King Shenghua, 2006). Which means the translation has a strange-sounding, and unbearable tone of European language. However, up to now, the "translation cavity" is no longer enough to describe this phenomenon, because the evolution so far has formed a style, which appears not only in the translation, but also in the daily life of writing, meeting and communication. This phenomenon is not conducive to the development of translation. From the following examples, you can see the awkwardness of pursuing only the form of translation.

ex)There was much traffic at night and many mules on the road with boxes of ammunition on each side of their pack—saddles and gray motor trucks that carried men, and other trucks with loads covered with canvas that moved slower in the traffic.(SL)

晚上交通甚繁，有许多骡子走过，鞍子驮着军火箱子，灰色的摩托货车装着人，此外，还有一些装货的货车，上面用帆布盖着，走起来慢一点。(TL)*

夜间，这里运输繁忙，路上有许多骡子，鞍子的两侧驮着弹药箱，灰色的卡车上坐满了士兵，还有一些辎重车辆，用帆布盖着，在路上慢慢的行驶着。(TL)

Boxes, motor trucks, and trucks were used to identify the “军火箱子”,“摩托货车”, and “装货的货车”, totally be loyal to the source language. But in literary translation, the translation needs to consider the specific context. The writing background of this article is the period of war, so the translator should also put these words in the specific writing background of war, i.e. the “弹药箱”, “卡车”, “辎重车辆” in the next translation. The translation here obviously violates the original meaning and is a kind of betrayal to the original text. However, this kind of betrayal is the result of the translator's proper re-creation after considering the writing background of the original text. That is to say, in the process of translation, the translator lays emphasis on the spiritual resemblance of the original text, and thus abandons the formal resemblance in part.

ex)“原始森林景区是一个最具自身特点的生态观光区。放眼沟畔，‘林涛万顷接天碧，幽谷百丈入地青’ 的峡谷奇观，总会让人长久驻足; 登上矗立于沟畔的望火楼极目远眺，会真切体验登临泰山那种‘会当凌绝顶，一览众山小’的感觉。”(SL)

“The scenic primitive forest, as an eco-tourism place of interest, possesses its distinctive style. No tourists will not take time to enjoy the canyon spectacle: the vast expense of trees choiring in the wind and the deep valley dressed in green stretches long and deep. When climbing up the fire-watching tower and gawking into the distance, tourist scan experience the sense: "I have now ascended the mountain's crest that dwarfs all peaks under my feet", just as standing on top of Mount Tai. ”(TL)

“Artistic creation originates from a different national (aesthetic standard). As for the translation of artistic conception, some uncertain factors, such as language structure, narrative method, aesthetic method and context creation, often make it difficult for the translation to realize the absolutely correct "equivalence". The implication of this is that contextual translation has a lot of arbitrariness (i.e., asymmetrical equivalence) and is often not limited to any theory. This arbitrariness is reflected in the inspiration generation and Aesthetic creation of the translator in the process of translation.

In other words, the translator is affected by the artistic conception of the original text, arouses infinite emotion and artistic conception, and naturally puts this feeling into the translation. The key lies in the expressiveness, that is, the fluency and accuracy of the narration, and the completion of the transformation from one kind of beauty to another. ” (Zhang Ju 2011, 76)

2.4.2 Formal resemblance first

The choice of formal resemblance is preferred, mostly in the case of neat alignment and elegant form. For example, the translation of Chinese couplets, or poems, such as antithetical couplets, is a very important form of text.In the translation of general text, content is the primary form. However, when translating poetry, both content and form must be paid equal attention to. For poetry, form is often an integral part of the content that cannot be divided.

ex)《芣苢》：“采采芣苢，薄言采之。采采芣苢，薄言有之。采采芣苢，薄言掇之。采采芣苢，薄言捋之。采采芣苢，薄言袺之。采采芣苢，薄言襭之。”(SL)

Gathering plantain, Here we go plucking it; Gathering plantain, Here we go picking it. Gathering plantain, Quick fingers strip it; Gathering plantain, By handfuls pull it. Gathering plantain, Here we fill skirts with it; Gathering plantain, Belt up full skirts. (translated by Yang Xianyi)(TL)

ex)You say that you love rain, but you open your umbrella when it rains... You say that you love the sun, but you find a shadow spot when the sun shines... You say that you love the wind, But you close your windows when wind blows... This is why I am afraid; You say that you love me too...(SL)

你说烟雨微芒，兰亭远望；后来轻揽婆娑，深遮霓裳。 你说春光烂漫，绿袖红香；后来内掩西楼，静立卿旁。 你说软风轻拂，醉卧思量；后来紧掩门窗，漫帐成殇。 你说情丝柔肠，如何相忘；我却眼波微转，兀自成霜。(TL)

It can be seen that in order to maintain the evenness and the artistic conception of the poem, many images and function words that were not in the original text were added in the translation. Thus it can be seen that it is of course ideal to achieve spiritual resemblance in translation, but it is also a choice to achieve formal resemblance. As long as it conveys the connotation of the original text and achieves functional equivalence, it should be regarded as a success.

3. Discussion on Form and Spirit

It should be noted that in the history of translation, the thinking about "form" and "spirit" has been going on almost all the time. In the 20th century, there have been many heated discussions about "form" and "spirit" in Chinese literary translation, and the focus of the discussions is mainly on whether translation should seek formal resemblance or spiritual resemblance. On the surface, it does not seem to be a problem whether the translation should seek resemblance in form or in spirit, because seeking resemblance is not and should not be the purpose of translation.

“However, those who advocate formal resemblance believe that only by seeking formal resemblance first can the spiritual resemblance be guaranteed. But the school that advocates spiritual resemblance thinks, shape resemblance is hard to find, can rely on spiritual resemblance only. The former pursues the first appearance and then spirit, and "both form and spirit" is the best realm; The latter takes "spiritual resemblance" as the only pursuit, and clearly puts forward that "what the translation seeks for is not in appearance but in spiritual resemblance". Due to the difference in emphasis between the formal resemblance school and the spiritual resemblance school, there are also differences in translation methods. The former advocates literal translation while the latter advocates free translation.” (Xu Jun 2003, 02)

The discussion of form and spirit in translation can be traced back to Mao Dun's article "Responsibility and Efforts of New Literature Researchers", published in Fiction Monthly (1921), in which he proposed that "the most important artistic color of a literary work is the spirit of the work. Chen Xiying also published "on Translation" in New Moon(1929), proposing the theory of sculpture and painting. He pointed out that "translation is the same as painting, of course, imitation is the most important. But the imitation art of a original painting uses the same brush color, while the original text of a book and the translated text use very different languages. Due to different tools, the methods vary greatly." (Chen Xiying,1921). Chen also divides translation into three levels, formal resemblance, meaning resemblance and spiritual resemblance. Chen's "Three Levels" theory is similar to Zhu Shenghao's "Three Levels": (spirit, interest and charm, and rigid translation) theory in translation of Shakespeare's plays.

Xu Yuanchong, a famous translator and professor of Peking University, also put forward the theory of "three likings", based on his own experience in poetry translation. In the Art of Translation, he thought that in order to convey the beauty of meaning, sound and form of poetry, the degree of meaning resemblance, sound resemblance and shape resemblance in the translation can be changed. Jiang Feng, a translator, pursues resemblance in form followed by resemblance in spirit. He said in the afterword of translation of Selected Shelley poems that in translating poems, one should strive to be alike in form and spirit, because spirit lives in form, and those who lose his form are bound to perish his spirit. Bian Zhilin, also advocated that the translated poems should be translated in accordance with the original form.

Therefore, as far as translation is concerned, Mao Dun and Fu Lei advocate the emphasis on spiritual resemblance rather than formal resemblance, Jiang Feng advocates both form and spirit, while Bian Zhilin advocates that form resemblance is spiritual resemblance.

4. Conclusion

From the above content, we can know that there are many factors that influence the form and spirit in translation, and the emphasis on the form or spirit resemblance in translation depends on some specific situations, which need to be analyzed on a specific basis. For example, when translating ancient poems and poems, in order to keep the antithesis neat, we emphasize the form more; When translating long sentences with beautiful artistic conception, we usually put more emphasis on the spirit in order to preserve the beauty of artistic conception.

In the process of translation, to achieve the dialectical unity of form and spirit, at least two aspects need to be considered: one is the restriction of form on content; the other is the stylistic meaning of form itself. We should not only consciously convey the content of the original text, but also convey the formal meaning, so as to achieve a new unity of form and content in the target language, to produce a better translation and achieve a harmonious unity between form and spirit.

However, in some cases the formal resemblance is the spiritual resemblance. The two are not completely separated, but there is a part of you and a part of me in each other. Sometimes the formal resemblance is bigger than the spiritual resemblance, and sometimes spiritual resemblance is bigger than the formal resemblance. This is the dialectic of things, if we insist on consistency, it will backfire. Therefore, we should not only get a thorough understanding of the original text, in-depth study, strive for both form and spirit, grasp the key points and master them thoroughly, but also be prepared to abandon the form of the original text, grasp the essence of the original text, use appropriate form, the original text for artistic recreation, so as to strive for the ideal effect of spirit resemblance.

Reference

[1] Cui Yonglu. 崔永禄. (2002). 得意不可忘形——试论翻译中形与神的辨证关系. [Pride must not Be Lost in Shape -- On the dialectical relationship between form and God in Translation]. 天津外国语学院学报. [Journal of Tianjin Foreign Studies University] 1-5.

[2] Li Zhengguo. 李振国. (2016). 从奈达的功能对等理论视角探析英汉翻译中的“形神兼备”——以程雨民的《初次与约翰逊见面》译本为例. [An Analysis of "Both form and Spirit" in English-Chinese translation from the Perspective of Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory -- A case study of Cheng Yumin's First Meeting with Johnson]. 贵州师范学院学报. [Journal of Guizhou Normal University] 92-94.

[3] Niu Chuangyue. 牛喘月. (2006). 形与神俱,不可分离——从语义与语境的演变看中医翻译中的“常”与“变”. [Form and Spirit are inseparable -- "Chang" and "Chang" in TCM Translation from the Perspective of Semantic and Contextual Evolution]. 中西医结合学报.

[4] Pang Xuefeng. 庞学峰. (2013). 翻译中的文质之争与神形之辩. [The quality of the text and the form of the debate in translation]. 赤峰学院学报(汉文哲学社会科学版). [Journal of Chifeng College (Chinese Philosophy and Social Sciences edition)] 150-151.

[5] Xu Jun. 许钧. (2003). “形”与“神”辨. ["Form" and "Spirit"]. 上海外国语大学学报. [Journal of Shanghai International Studies University] 57-66.

[6] Zhang Ju. 张巨. (2011). 汉英意境翻译中的形与神. [Form and Spirit in Chinese-English translation of Artistic Conception]. 江苏外语教学研究. [Research on Foreign Language Teaching in Jiangsu province] 74-78.

[7] Zhang Rui. 张蕊. (2015). 从形与神之矛盾看“翻译者即背叛者”. [From the contradiction between form and Spirit, "translator is a traitor"]. 鸭绿江(下半月版). [The Yalu River (second Half)] 122+117.

[8] Zhang Xiaoman. 张小曼. (2006). 诗歌翻译中的形神问题——以杜甫《望岳》一诗的英译为例. [The Problem of Form and Spirit in Poetry Translation -- Taking The English translation of Du Fu's Wangyue as an example]. 合肥工业大学学报(社会科学版). [Journal of Hefei University of Technology (Social Science edition)] 157-160.

--Wensixing (talk) 14:45, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

Book Analysis: The Way of Translation: Theories and Application 周诗卿 Zhou Shiqing

your student number and 专业are missing--Liu Jinxingqi (talk) 11:45, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

Abstract

The Way of Translation: Theories and Applications closely circled around the mutual relationship between translation theory and practice to explain translation studies. This paper summarizes the original text, which includes a brief translation history, the present situation of translation study, a detailed analysis of the “cultural turn” as well as some important redefined concepts about translation studies and some deep reflection about translation studies. The author analyzes the book from different perspectives, including the introduction, major contents, academic contributions, strength and weakness etc.

Key Words

translation theory and practice; “cultural turn”; medio-translotology; translation study; textual purpose --Liu Jinxingqi (talk) 11:49, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

摘要

《翻译之道：翻译理论与实践》一书紧紧围绕翻译理论与实践之间的互动关系展开, 作者对中西翻译历史作出简要回顾，针砭时弊，对翻译理论与实践现状进行了切中的描述，深挖“文化转向”的来龙去脉，重新界定了翻译概念、目的与标准等概念，对理论与实践的现状作出深刻反思。本文将就原书出版背景、逻辑主线、学术立意、读后启发几个方面展开论述。

关键词

翻译理论与实践；“文化转向”；译介学；翻译学；文本目的

Introduction

Background

As we all know, the theory and practice are interrelated with each other closely. Since the beginning of social practice and when people began to work, human beings knew exactly how to use their wisdom to accumulate experience. So did translation activities. Translation activities began from the fact that human beings used language to communicate. At the early stage, it was mainly serving to the purpose of ideology. With the development of formal translation activity, translation activities diversified. Since contemporary and modern times, translation studies prospered across the world. In the West, the representatives were scientific linguistics, philological school. In China, we mainly focused on the study of literature translation at that time.

After the May 4th Movement as well as the modern "reform and opening up", Chinese citizens were attracted to learn the advanced western approaches and theories. As western advanced theories were introduced into China, different areas of scientific studies like theory of literature and art, psychology, philosophy and sociology provided rich contends and materials for the study of translation, which helped the later to become an independent subject and a discipline.

However, after the "Cultural Turn", translation studies followed this trend. They no longer solely targeted at the translation activities and theories, but also included other spheres concerning various aspects of human activities (Cao Minglun 2003). This made translation studies lose their defined focus on translation research itself. Since the translation studies were transitioned into other spheres while the translation activities kept its own sphere, the relationship between the two was no longer closely interrelated with each other.

Therefore translation teaching jobs and translation and interpretation activities have become worse. Because of this, it turned to be an urgent need to establish a systematic and cohesive guiding system about translation theories and practice.

Thus, upon publication, the book "The Way of Translation: Theories and Applications" quickly won the praise and good comments from translators and students majoring in translation. At the same time, this book provided a systematic and scientific study for translation teaching practice and researches.--Liu Jinxingqi (talk) 12:08, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

About the Author

Cao Minglun, professor as well as doctoral supervisor of Sichuan University, received his doctor degree at Peking University. He majored in the studying of British and American literature, translation studies, literature translation and the study of comparative culture. During his three years at Peking University, Professor Cao systematically studied the present translation researches and the realistic problems. Combined with his decades of translation experience, he dived into the study translation books and monographs. Through the combination of logical researches and provision of living samples, the combining approach of diachronic review and synchronic research, Professor Cao built up a systematic academic system about translation practice and theory by transcending various subjects, providing research direction for our researchers.

The book "The Way of Translation: Theories and Applications" published in 2007 and revised in 2013, was the most famous representation of him. The author would like to introduce this book in the following and make some analytical comments about it based on his understanding and facts.--Liu Jinxingqi (talk) 11:59, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

Main body

The brief introduction

From the point of view of Professor Cao, the interrelationship between translation practice and theory can be summed up with six characters, which are “mutual construction, mutual supplementation and mutual manifestation”. Centering on the relationship between translation theories and practice, the book The way of Translation Studies explained effectively how to analysis properly this kind of relationship. This book is divides into eight chapters; each of them clearly focuses on how to manifest the relationship based on different perspectives.

First of all, in the first chapter, it made a vivid review about both the eastern and western translation history which highlights the fact that the two are closely interrelated with each other since the beginning of the translation activity. Second, in the second chapter, the book targeted on the contemporary situation of translation theory and practice and pointed out the essential matters. The author then made a thorough research about “the Cultural Turn” and the origin of the discipline of Translation Studies. He pointed out the urgent problem of the focus of translation research and the imbalanced relationship between translation theory and practice. Thirdly, the author reaffirmed respectively about the concept of translation, its aim as well as the tasks of translation studies in a logical manner. In his strong belief, the content of translation will not lose with the diversification of scientific researches.

Translation should be regarded as the activity of the transformation of linguistic signs. Fourthly, the author made a detailed description of the present situation of translation theory and practice. Then he taught us how to combine both the theory and practice together, which provides us with a practical approach to further study the relationship between translation theory and practice. During this process, the author pointed out that the purpose of translation should be focused on the transformation of the texts itself rather than other purposes and he also proposed the concepts of “textual purpose” and “non-textual purpose”. Besides this, Professor Cao borrowed Benjamin’s appeal to the translators ’tasks, pointing out that a translator must be loyal to the original book and the translation version should not stick to one type and be independent.

In terms of the translation standard, Professor Cao made a clear distinguish between translation studies and medio-translatology and he emphasized the weak points of new criticism. In the next chapter, that is chapter five, the Professor draw a line between translation study and translation theory. The concept of translation study includes translation theory, translation history and translation analysis. At the same time, he creatively established “the location map of translation theory”, they are “introvert ontology” and “extrovert comprehensiveness”.

The six and seven chapters made a detailed reviewed about the translation theory and practice. For the theory part, researches did not provide strong evidence and lack of prove and identification, the translation of terms and translation nouns did not consist with each other and the logical problems about thinking pattern and language organization. He also tackled on the recognition process to prove whether it was objective. Finally, Professor proposed the effective way of combining translation theory and practice together, pointing out the scientific approach for translators.

Above all, the whole book followed by severe and strict scientific demonstration of the relationship between translation theory and practice, providing us with effective approach to combine both the practice and theory together during which process, the systematically theoretical guidance was constructed. This all contributed to an excellent academic book rich in content and vivid in demonstration.

From the point of view of Professor Cao, the interrelationship between translation practice and theory can be summed up with six characters, which are “mutual construction, mutual supplementation and mutual manifestation”. Centering on the relationship between translation theories and practice, the book The way of Translation Studies explained effectively how to analysis properly this kind of relationship. This book is divides into eight chapters; each of them clearly focuses on how to manifest the relationship based on different perspectives.

First of all, in the first chapter, it made a vivid review about both the eastern and western translation history which highlights the fact that the two are closely interrelated with each other since the beginning of the translation activity. Second, in the second chapter, the book targeted on the contemporary situation of translation theory and practice and pointed out the essential matters. The author then made a thorough research about “the Cultural Turn” and the origin of the discipline of Translation Studies. He pointed out the urgent problem of the focus of translation research and the imbalanced relationship between translation theory and practice. Thirdly, the author reaffirmed respectively about the concept of translation, its aim as well as the tasks of translation studies in a logical manner. In his strong belief, the content of translation will not lose with the diversification of scientific researches.

Translation should be regarded as the activity of the transformation of linguistic signs. Fourthly, the author made a detailed description of the present situation of translation theory and practice. Then he taught us how to combine both the theory and practice together, which provides us with a practical approach to further study the relationship between translation theory and practice. During this process, the author pointed out that the purpose of translation should be focused on the transformation of the texts itself rather than other purposes and he also proposed the concepts of “textual purpose” and “non-textual purpose”. Besides this, Professor Cao borrowed Benjamin’s appeal to the translators ’tasks, pointing out that a translator must be loyal to the original book and the translation version should not stick to one type and be independent.

In terms of the translation standard, Professor Cao made a clear distinguish between translation studies and medio-translatology and he emphasized the weak points of new criticism. In the next chapter, that is chapter five, the Professor draw a line between translation study and translation theory. The concept of translation study includes translation theory, translation history and translation analysis. At the same time, he creatively established “the location map of translation theory”, they are “introvert ontology” and “extrovert comprehensiveness”.

The six and seven chapters made a detailed reviewed about the translation theory and practice. For the theory part, researches did not provide strong evidence and lack of prove and identification, the translation of terms and translation nouns did not consist with each other and the logical problems about thinking pattern and language organization. He also tackled on the recognition process to prove whether it was objective. Finally, Professor proposed the effective way of combining translation theory and practice together, pointing out the scientific approach for translators.

Above all, the whole book followed by severe and strict scientific demonstration of the relationship between translation theory and practice, providing us with effective approach to combine both the practice and theory together during which process, the systematically theoretical guidance was constructed. This all contributed to an excellent academic book rich in content and vivid in demonstration.--Liu Jinxingqi (talk) 12:11, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

The Specific Exposition

To be more specific, in the second chapter, Professor Cao made a description about both the east and west contemporary translation study. Since many scholars have previously contributed the reasons of the imbalanced relationship between translation theory and practice to the phenomenon called “cultural turn”, Professor Cao had done a great program in the study of “cultural turn”. For example, to discover why the imbalanced situation between translation study and theory appeared, Professor Cao did quite a lot of comparative study of the previous scholars’ work.

He found out that a lot of intellectuals had already discovered the problems, believing that translation theory and practice were broke up with each other for quite long time. Many scholars thought the most severe problem was that translation theory did not focus on the practice itself but other spheres like human activity or cultures etc. Therefore, the Professor made a thorough investigation about the history after “cultural turn”. During this process, he discovered that decades of years of “annual overview” towards translation study had severe problems published in Chinese Translation Journal.

In fact, translation study in China did not establish comprehensive and scientific study towards translation practice. The name of this subject is called Translation Studies, the author made a deep exploration of this name. Among which, the most impressive one should belong to translation study’s concept of Holmes by Tury as well as the four research fields divided by Bassinet in the late 1980s. This transition made a great impact on the happening of the phenomenon of “cultural turn”. Besides this, Professor Cao did a thorough research about the book written by Bassinet and the other person named “Translation, history and culture”.

In the introduction part, the content can be called the announcement of “cultural turn”. Before the translation subject became an independent subject, it was considered in the fields of literature. In the announcement part, Professor pointed out that the review about the translation study in the fields of literature helps to give power to let translation get independent.

While in terms of the origin of the term ‘Translation Study”, the Professor made a detailed and scientific study about a period of history about scholar Holmes. In 1972, from August 21st to 26th, the Third International Applied Linguistics Seminar was opened in Copenhagen. The American Scholar Holmes, the Professor of Amsterdam University attended this conference and he also handed in the paper named “The Nature of Translation Studies”. This paper used a third length to revise the formal name of translation study. For the English alone, the previous used names were Science of Translation, Translation Theory, Translatology, and Translatistics. In Holmes’s view, he points out that the names above had their respective weakness as the names of these translation versions did not have a solitary direction, this would greatly impact the future development of this subject because people found it hard to have a common consensus. Therefore, he recommended using Translation Studies as the set name of this subject.

In the later part of this article, Holmes set this subject as an empirical discipline and set the research scope as well as designs the disciplinary framework. However, in the later ten years, although the name Translation Studies was widely accepted, Holmes’ design and plan did not receive wide response. Until he was passed away two years later, his paper collections “Translated! Paper on Literary Translation and Translation Studies, 1988” was published. His translation philosophy won the positive response and recognition from the translation circle and was widely considered the establishing announcement of the subject of Translation Study. (Gentzler, 1993:92/2004:933). In 1995, Toury in his book Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond, he constructed Toury’s concept of translation study as Holmes’ basic “map” of Translation Studies :(Toury, 1995:10).

From this map we can see, the blueprint of Holmes can be grand and his written one can be regarded as much greater.(Holmes, 1988:72-73). As we can see from this above picture, translation study is divided into two dimensions, one is the pure theory and the other is applied linguistics. According to Holmes’ explanation, the branch of descriptive translation study, that is function-oriented DTS will gradually developed into socio-translation study, while the process-oriented DTS will developed into socio-translation study(Holmes,1988:72-73).

However, in his explanation, Holmes did not neglect totally those questions that translators concerned about for 2000 years. For example, Translation Critics and the Translator Training in Applied Translation study, while in the theoretical part, for the text-type restricted analysis and problem restricted type, they were picked out for specific analysis. For the original purpose of his revising of the subject’s name was to make itself more inclusive and open. However, the so-called Manipulation School positively accepted this name. But they tend to analyze translation study from the background of translation study. This has led to the mistaken perception that Translation Studies refers to the study of literary translation and translations. (Shuttleworth& Cowie, 2004:183).

Due to this, Bassinet divided translation into four spheres in 1980, that is History of Translation; Translation in TL culture; Translation and Linguistics; Translation and Poetics.(Bassnett,1991:7-8/2004:16-17). Based on this, we can tell translation is sometimes combined with literature study, which must be paid attention to by Chinese scholars. What’s more, the cultural turn in translation studies urges intellectuals to lay great importance to the study of the independent development of translation. By analysis, the result can be that translation unit would be more put as the culture as the unit but not the word in linguistics or text in literature. Thus, this contributed to the later development of cultural turn.

From this above, we can see that Professor did make a thorough investigation in great detail to make analysis about the origin of the term Translation Studies and the history of cultural turn. By learning and studying previous scholars like Shuttleworth, Holmes and Toury and so on, it would make it easier to understand how translation become independent and how it was transitioned from the branch of literature to translation itself.Second, when it comes to the responsibility of the translator, Professor Cao made a specific analysis and defines again about the real purpose of this task.

First of all, he makes a clear definition about translation, regarding it as an activity of the transformation of semiotics between different languages. Next, he thought that translation study should not focus on other spheres but the text itself, because if we analyze other fields like culture or anything else we would find it easy to lose the original analysis of translation activity itself but to talk about other things that have no direct relationship with the translation activity thus it will be too superficial and lack of depth.

The core issue of translation study should be centered on its concept, aims, tasks and standard and so on. Despite in the micro-aspects, western theories like deconstruction, new criticism and teleology was not studied clearly in China, we should still make clear understandings about this theory. In the response to what kind of responsibility a translator should bear, Professor Cao copied Benjamin’s view. In Benjamin’s book, The Task of Translators, the author divides into two parts, one is to analyze the idea readers and the other is to describe the idea translators.

In this book, Benjamin vividly describes what kind of qualities an adequate translator should have; these are divided into 11 points containing the key elements demonstrating from two perspectives, one is the science and the other is theology. Benjamin thought qualified translators must obey the original sentence and the textual style. Translators must obey the original text and thus transform the source language into the target language from a purified manner.

To be more specific, in the second chapter, Professor Cao made a description about both the east and west contemporary translation study. Since many scholars have previously contributed the reasons of the imbalanced relationship between translation theory and practice to the phenomenon called “cultural turn”, Professor Cao had done a great program in the study of “cultural turn”. For example, to discover why the imbalanced situation between translation study and theory appeared, Professor Cao did quite a lot of comparative study of the previous scholars’ work.

He found out that a lot of intellectuals had already discovered the problems, believing that translation theory and practice were broke up with each other for quite long time. Many scholars thought the most severe problem was that translation theory did not focus on the practice itself but other spheres like human activity or cultures etc. Therefore, the Professor made a thorough investigation about the history after “cultural turn”. During this process, he discovered that decades of years of “annual overview” towards translation study had severe problems published in Chinese Translation Journal.

In fact, translation study in China did not establish comprehensive and scientific study towards translation practice. The name of this subject is called Translation Studies, the author made a deep exploration of this name. Among which, the most impressive one should belong to translation study’s concept of Holmes by Tury as well as the four research fields divided by Bassinet in the late 1980s. This transition made a great impact on the happening of the phenomenon of “cultural turn”. Besides this, Professor Cao did a thorough research about the book written by Bassinet and the other person named “Translation, history and culture”.

In the introduction part, the content can be called the announcement of “cultural turn”. Before the translation subject became an independent subject, it was considered in the fields of literature. In the announcement part, Professor pointed out that the review about the translation study in the fields of literature helps to give power to let translation get independent.

While in terms of the origin of the term ‘Translation Study”, the Professor made a detailed and scientific study about a period of history about scholar Holmes. In 1972, from August 21st to 26th, the Third International Applied Linguistics Seminar was opened in Copenhagen. The American Scholar Holmes, the Professor of Amsterdam University attended this conference and he also handed in the paper named “The Nature of Translation Studies”.

This paper used a third length to revise the formal name of translation study. For the English alone, the previous used names were Science of Translation, Translation Theory, Translatology, and Translatistics. In Holmes’s view, he points out that the names above had their respective weakness as the names of these translation versions did not have a solitary direction, this would greatly impact the future development of this subject because people found it hard to have a common consensus.

Therefore, he recommended using Translation Studies as the set name of this subject.In the later part of this article, Holmes set this subject as an empirical discipline and set the research scope as well as designs the disciplinary framework. However, in the later ten years, although the name Translation Studies was widely accepted, Holmes’ design and plan did not receive wide response. Until he was passed away two years later, his paper collections “Translated! Paper on Literary Translation and Translation Studies, 1988” was published. His translation philosophy won the positive response and recognition from the translation circle and was widely considered the establishing announcement of the subject of Translation Study. (Gentzler, 1993:92/2004:933). In 1995, Toury in his book Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond, he constructed Toury’s concept of translation study as Holmes’ basic “map” of Translation Studies :(Toury, 1995:10).

From this map we can see, the blueprint of Holmes can be grand and his written one can be regarded as much greater.(Holmes, 1988:72-73). As we can see from this above picture, translation study is divided into two dimensions, one is the pure theory and the other is applied linguistics. According to Holmes’ explanation, the branch of descriptive translation study, that is function-oriented DTS will gradually developed into socio-translation study, while the process-oriented DTS will developed into socio-translation study(Holmes,1988:72-73).

However, in his explanation, Holmes did not neglect totally those questions that translators concerned about for 2000 years. For example, Translation Critics and the Translator Training in Applied Translation study, while in the theoretical part, for the text-type restricted analysis and problem restricted type, they were picked out for specific analysis. For the original purpose of his revising of the subject’s name was to make itself more inclusive and open. However, the so-called Manipulation School positively accepted this name. But they tend to analyze translation study from the background of translation study. This has led to the mistaken perception that Translation Studies refers to the study of literary translation and translations. (Shuttleworth& Cowie, 2004:183).

Due to this, Bassinet divided translation into four spheres in 1980, that is History of Translation; Translation in TL culture; Translation and Linguistics; Translation and Poetics.(Bassnett,1991:7-8/2004:16-17). Based on this, we can tell translation is sometimes combined with literature study, which must be paid attention to by Chinese scholars. What’s more, the cultural turn in translation studies urges intellectuals to lay great importance to the study of the independent development of translation. By analysis, the result can be that translation unit would be more put as the culture as the unit but not the word in linguistics or text in literature. Thus, this contributed to the later development of cultural turn.

From this above, we can see that Professor did make a thorough investigation in great detail to make analysis about the origin of the term Translation Studies and the history of cultural turn. By learning and studying previous scholars like Shuttleworth, Holmes and Toury and so on, it would make it easier to understand how translation become independent and how it was transitioned from the branch of literature to translation itself.Second, when it comes to the responsibility of the translator, Professor Cao made a specific analysis and defines again about the real purpose of this task.

First of all, he makes a clear definition about translation, regarding it as an activity of the transformation of semiotics between different languages. Next, he thought that translation study should not focus on other spheres but the text itself, because if we analyze other fields like culture or anything else we would find it easy to lose the original analysis of translation activity itself but to talk about other things that have no direct relationship with the translation activity thus it will be too superficial and lack of depth.

The core issue of translation study should be centered on its concept, aims, tasks and standard and so on. Despite in the micro-aspects, western theories like deconstruction, new criticism and teleology was not studied clearly in China, we should still make clear understandings about this theory. In the response to what kind of responsibility a translator should bear, Professor Cao copied Benjamin’s view. In Benjamin’s book, The Task of Translators, the author divides into two parts, one is to analyze the idea readers and the other is to describe the idea translators.

In this book, Benjamin vividly describes what kind of qualities an adequate translator should have; these are divided into 11 points containing the key elements demonstrating from two perspectives, one is the science and the other is theology. Benjamin thought qualified translators must obey the original sentence and the textual style. Translators must obey the original text and thus transform the source language into the target language from a purified manner.--Liu Jinxingqi (talk) 12:15, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

The writing feature

Complete system with extensive quotations

In the second chapter, the current situation of the relationship between translation theory and practice is described. However, the author has found the common root of the problems in the studies of many eastern and Western scholars. Among them, The Chinese scholar Mr. Long Luo pointed out that the most serious problem in China's translation circle is the disconnection between theory and practice.

Professor Alby argues that modern scholars seem to have forgotten to look at translation from the perspective of translation practice itself. Translation scholars seem to pay more attention to the relationship between translation and human culture, ignoring the relationship between translation theory and translation activities themselves. After more than ten years of investigation, the author found that the imbalance between the two is also due to the "annual review" of Chinese translation studies.

For this reason, the author makes a research on the "cultural turn" which causes these problems and the source Translation Studies of the subject name. Second, the second chapter on the definition of translation and literary translation learning concept, reference many translation books, such as "equivalent translation exploration", "contemporary translation theory", "translation", "the basic framework of the translation in China" in these books to find the definition of translation and from an introduction to comparative literature, the theory of comparative literature "and other books found in the corresponding to the concept of translation study, the author detailed comparative analysis of the two, and by logical reasoning, analyze their difference in addition, the authors also find problems, points out that translation scholars into the difficulty of translation study.

The final reason for the imbalance between translation theory and practice caused by regression. And, the author in view of the status quo proposed the problems effectively, citing industry scholar ji, scholar GuZhengKun’s point of view, emphasizes the necessity of the combination of theory and practice, emphasis on translation theory must be given priority to with translation studies, cultural studies is complementary, define the nature of good translation, purpose, combining introverted text research and export-oriented text research.

In the third chapter, in the process of defining the concept and connotation of translation, a large number of previous researchers, including Venuti and Philophor, are quoted and compared.

In the second chapter, the current situation of the relationship between translation theory and practice is described. However, the author has found the common root of the problems in the studies of many eastern and Western scholars. Among them, The Chinese scholar Mr. Long Luo pointed out that the most serious problem in China's translation circle is the disconnection between theory and practice.

Professor Alby argues that modern scholars seem to have forgotten to look at translation from the perspective of translation practice itself. Translation scholars seem to pay more attention to the relationship between translation and human culture, ignoring the relationship between translation theory and translation activities themselves. After more than ten years of investigation, the author found that the imbalance between the two is also due to the "annual review" of Chinese translation studies.

For this reason, the author makes a research on the "cultural turn" which causes these problems and the source Translation Studies of the subject name. Second, the second chapter on the definition of translation and literary translation learning concept, reference many translation books, such as "equivalent translation exploration", "contemporary translation theory", "translation", "the basic framework of the translation in China" in these books to find the definition of translation and from an introduction to comparative literature, the theory of comparative literature "and other books found in the corresponding to the concept of translation study, the author detailed comparative analysis of the two, and by logical reasoning, analyze their difference in addition, the authors also find problems, points out that translation scholars into the difficulty of translation study.

The final reason for the imbalance between translation theory and practice caused by regression. And, the author in view of the status quo proposed the problems effectively, citing industry scholar ji, scholar GuZhengKun’s point of view, emphasizes the necessity of the combination of theory and practice, emphasis on translation theory must be given priority to with translation studies, cultural studies is complementary, define the nature of good translation, purpose, combining introverted text research and export-oriented text research.

In the third chapter, in the process of defining the concept and connotation of translation, a large number of previous researchers, including Venuti and Philophor, are quoted and compared. --Liu Jinxingqi (talk) 12:21, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

Logical and philosophical Explanation

At the beginning of the third chapter, the understanding of translation is discussed. The definition of translation will not change with the progress of practical activities, and the attribute of translation is the unchangeable concept of the transformation of language symbols. Fourth chapter, the first first, the author applies the formal logic to define the concept of translation, with the method of analogy to clarify language information and the relationship between language carrier, then the author is to distinguish between translation concept connotation and denotation, secondly, the author applies the theoretical thinking of philosophy to translation after the concept of qualitative to define the nature of translation activity, is art or science of translation activities, to make a strong argument to translation and the relationship between translation and classified, then respectively for the purpose of translation, tasks, and standard is defined.

First, the author proposes two pairs of concepts: textual purpose and non-textual purpose, textual behavior and non-textual behavior. As mentioned in the preceding chapter "cultural turn", known as translator for the purpose of present diversification trend, the purpose of the text should be stressed again and again, which is the core of the translation purpose, translation study of the text itself, rather than in the service of other USES, such as ideology, culture, aesthetics and other text purpose can be used as a reference. Secondly, the author reinterprets Benjamin's The Translator's Task and divides the concept of deconstruction into two parts.

The translator's task is to "make foreign books understood by non-foreign language readers". As for the standard of translation, the author introduces the concepts of new criticism, deconstruction and translation mediology, and points out the connections and differences between them and translation studies, so as to help us better grasp the methods of translation studies. The fifth chapter, the author of modernism puts forward the concept of "translation theory location map", can be seen as an extension of the translation purpose, respectively, introverted and export-oriented comprehensive text, introverted text should be closely around the translated text itself to research, and export-oriented comprehensive for translation text such as interdisciplinary field theory to provide support for translation study.

At the beginning of the third chapter, the understanding of translation is discussed. The definition of translation will not change with the progress of practical activities, and the attribute of translation is the unchangeable concept of the transformation of language symbols. Fourth chapter, the first first, the author applies the formal logic to define the concept of translation, with the method of analogy to clarify language information and the relationship between language carrier, then the author is to distinguish between translation concept connotation and denotation, secondly, the author applies the theoretical thinking of philosophy to translation after the concept of qualitative to define the nature of translation activity, is art or science of translation activities, to make a strong argument to translation and the relationship between translation and classified, then respectively for the purpose of translation, tasks, and standard is defined.

First, the author proposes two pairs of concepts: textual purpose and non-textual purpose, textual behavior and non-textual behavior. As mentioned in the preceding chapter "cultural turn", known as translator for the purpose of present diversification trend, the purpose of the text should be stressed again and again, which is the core of the translation purpose, translation study of the text itself, rather than in the service of other USES, such as ideology, culture, aesthetics and other text purpose can be used as a reference. Secondly, the author reinterprets Benjamin's The Translator's Task and divides the concept of deconstruction into two parts.

The translator's task is to "make foreign books understood by non-foreign language readers". As for the standard of translation, the author introduces the concepts of new criticism, deconstruction and translation mediology, and points out the connections and differences between them and translation studies, so as to help us better grasp the methods of translation studies. The fifth chapter, the author of modernism puts forward the concept of "translation theory location map", can be seen as an extension of the translation purpose, respectively, introverted and export-oriented comprehensive text, introverted text should be closely around the translated text itself to research, and export-oriented comprehensive for translation text such as interdisciplinary field theory to provide support for translation study.--Liu Jinxingqi (talk) 12:21, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

Powerful Critism with strong evidence

Throughout the full text, from the status quo of the theory and practice of the second chapter, especially the book in the last few chapters, the author through a large number of reading and rely on the accumulation of translation practice for a long time, have been put forward for the theoretical study and practice of translation problems in reality, the relationship between problem, theory research example, textual research is lax, citing uncertainty, terminology translation and the translation is not unified, there thinking logic and language logic problem, theory and problems such as monotonous and argument, and the question of whether cognitive process is objective, translator translation practice have a "betrayal" of the problem of the wind, vision, objective, to the point, In the last chapter, the author elaborated on the relationship between pure theory and translation, provided a way to combine theory with practice, and improved a complete methodology and action guide for us to better combine theory with practice.

Conclusion

From all of these analyses above, the author has explained the book following the order of introduction part including the background and the introduction of the author, the main body part which includes the major contend and the specific explanation as well as the writing features. Professor Cao made an overview towards the history of both the east and west translation history, the proper description of the current situation of the relationship between translation theory and practice, the careful and strict definition about the core concepts of translation theory such as the purpose, aim, translators’ tasks and standards.

Besides this, Professor Cao also locates the situation of translation theory by distinguishing the translation theory and mediotology. In the end, he also returned to the present problem about the breaking up of the relationship between theory and practice. To solve this, he teaches us on how to study the pure theory and then how to combine theory with practice, which provides a practical guidance for translation study and teaching activities.

In the following, the author would like to make some comments about this book.

Frist of all, this book closely centered on the relationship between translation theory and practice to make scientific explanation and study in a very logical and scientific manner. Since the beginning of translation activities, theory and practice have become interrelated with each other closely. Both in the east and the west, translation practice has been paid great attention to while translation theory closely followed the translation activities. At the very beginning translation activity has been focused on the democracy and ideology purpose.

With the development of the society, human activities have been prosperous thus translation activities become more diversified and vivid. From translation history, the current situation of translation theory and practice, the defined concept of translation purpose and tasks as well as standard to the effective approach of translation practice and theory, Professor Cao opened a new area of translation study which covers a wide range of multidisciplinary subjects and areas.

Hence, Professor Cao strict academic attitude and research spirit deserves to learn.

Second, in the process of defining several concepts such as translation aims, purposes, translators’ tasks as well as translation standard, Professor Cao introduced many useful terms such as textual purposes, translators’ tasks and the translation study and mediotology and textual purpose and non-textual purpose etc., among these newly introduced concepts, some of them are pioneered and innovative.

Thus, from this we can see, the author is very creative while following the principle of scientific researches. The most impressive theory is his own theory called “translation theory location”, which vividly introduced us the defined circle of translation circle and research range. This translation map is divided into two parts, one is “introvert ontology translation theory” and the other is “extrovert comprehensive translation theory”.

He point out that scholars working on the extrovert should pay attention to the following four aspects, the academic results and theoretical approaches of translation issue should be to enrich translation theory while not to replace it, when you study some phenomenon of translation restricted with certain social context, cultural background and ideology, researches must take the limitation of time and locality into consideration but not assentation, when we analyze translation as a certain behavior with certain purpose relates to society, culture, politics or economy, we must distinguish between textual and non-textual behavior, textual purpose and non-textual purpose and the last is the research about the translation version analysis on the culture of the target language, while in China, it belongs to the branch of comparative literature called mediotology. Academic study must be very strict and severe which need to be logical and scientific.

Third, the construction of the book is independent, for example theoretical analysis is combined with problem solving, and conclusion is combined with new problem rising. For example, as Professor Cao made a detailed description of the present relationship of translation theory and practice, he introduced the term translation study and analyzed the origin of culture turn. Translation study includes several aspects like translation history, translation theory and translation criticism. As translation study is a borrowed term, Professor Cao made a research in China to define the real concept of translation activity.

He made a thorough distinguish between translation study and the mediotology in comparative literature. The borrowed term translation study brought us a lot of reflections and lessons. He proposed some urgent and practical issues whether translation theory should be combined with practice and how to avoid the crisis of the discipline. We should keep a calm and practical attitude to keep the features of this subject.

Based on the practical researches, Professor Cao could analyze the thesis and propose proper scientific construction towards translation circle in China. Since in China translation study mainly focuses on the study of literature and besides this, comparative literature would more or less pay attention to the fields of literature but not translation. However, the Professor made a clear distinguish between translation study and mediotology and argued that translation study includes translation history, translation theory and translation criticism. This helps to set a clear definition towards translation study and effectively avoid translation study’s confusion.

Last but not the least, the language use in the whole text is very beautiful and comfortable. Although Professor Cao uses a lot of samples and evidences as well as a lot of historical samples, the transition is very smooth and he would also quotas many poems and history which makes his article seem more poetic and vivid. Through long terms of translation practice, there is no doubt that Professor Cao had a rich experience in translation practice and strong base of translation basis. What’s more, Professor Cao also had a very specific purpose for translation study. He is not only an excellent translator, professor and scholar, but also a very responsible educator and practitioner.

To sum up, Based on the above analysis, the author elaborates on the current imbalance between translation theory and practice, and puts forward targeted solutions, which provide the direction and action guide for translation research and translation teaching. In addition, the author can benefit a lot from his rigorous academic attitude, rigorous theoretical system construction and critical logical thinking. First, Professor Cao Minglun's full text is fluent in writing and appropriate use of professional vocabulary, which fully reflects his profound academic accumulation and solid foundation of academic research. In addition, more importantly, Professor Cao's logical reasoning ability provides reference for the author's future academic research.

The author uses rigorous logical thinking to accurately explain these concepts, both in terms of defining the relationship between translation theory and practice, and in terms of defining the relationship between translation concepts, objectives and tasks. Third, the author in the process of building the book chapters, layer upon layer, closely around the core of the theory and practice of the main line, from the macroscopic roughly summed up as above summary review, described the status quo, put forward the problems to solve the problem, finally the logical context is very clear, from the micro level above, each chapter, cited fully detailed, illustration, contrast analysis, the most important thing is that the author according to the research of the early learning put forward their own theoretical system or solution to the problem. Translation is indeed a cross-cultural discipline, but the study of translation must be closely centered on the translated text itself and supported by the theories of other disciplines, such as comparative literature studies and linguistic studies. Finally, the author uses standard words and the language is exquisite, which reflects the strong academic writing ability. The above contents are the valuable wealth of the author's future theoretical learning career!

From all of these analyses above, the author has explained the book following the order of introduction part including the background and the introduction of the author, the main body part which includes the major contend and the specific explanation as well as the writing features. Professor Cao made an overview towards the history of both the east and west translation history, the proper description of the current situation of the relationship between translation theory and practice, the careful and strict definition about the core concepts of translation theory such as the purpose, aim, translators’ tasks and standards.

Besides this, Professor Cao also locates the situation of translation theory by distinguishing the translation theory and mediotology. In the end, he also returned to the present problem about the breaking up of the relationship between theory and practice. To solve this, he teaches us on how to study the pure theory and then how to combine theory with practice, which provides a practical guidance for translation study and teaching activities.

In the following, the author would like to make some comments about this book.

Frist of all, this book closely centered on the relationship between translation theory and practice to make scientific explanation and study in a very logical and scientific manner. Since the beginning of translation activities, theory and practice have become interrelated with each other closely. Both in the east and the west, translation practice has been paid great attention to while translation theory closely followed the translation activities. At the very beginning translation activity has been focused on the democracy and ideology purpose.

With the development of the society, human activities have been prosperous thus translation activities become more diversified and vivid. From translation history, the current situation of translation theory and practice, the defined concept of translation purpose and tasks as well as standard to the effective approach of translation practice and theory, Professor Cao opened a new area of translation study which covers a wide range of multidisciplinary subjects and areas.

Hence, Professor Cao strict academic attitude and research spirit deserves to learn.

Second, in the process of defining several concepts such as translation aims, purposes, translators’ tasks as well as translation standard, Professor Cao introduced many useful terms such as textual purposes, translators’ tasks and the translation study and mediotology and textual purpose and non-textual purpose etc., among these newly introduced concepts, some of them are pioneered and innovative.

Thus, from this we can see, the author is very creative while following the principle of scientific researches. The most impressive theory is his own theory called “translation theory location”, which vividly introduced us the defined circle of translation circle and research range. This translation map is divided into two parts, one is “introvert ontology translation theory” and the other is “extrovert comprehensive translation theory”.

He point out that scholars working on the extrovert should pay attention to the following four aspects, the academic results and theoretical approaches of translation issue should be to enrich translation theory while not to replace it, when you study some phenomenon of translation restricted with certain social context, cultural background and ideology, researches must take the limitation of time and locality into consideration but not assentation, when we analyze translation as a certain behavior with certain purpose relates to society, culture, politics or economy, we must distinguish between textual and non-textual behavior, textual purpose and non-textual purpose and the last is the research about the translation version analysis on the culture of the target language, while in China, it belongs to the branch of comparative literature called mediotology. Academic study must be very strict and severe which need to be logical and scientific.

Third, the construction of the book is independent, for example theoretical analysis is combined with problem solving, and conclusion is combined with new problem rising. For example, as Professor Cao made a detailed description of the present relationship of translation theory and practice, he introduced the term translation study and analyzed the origin of culture turn. Translation study includes several aspects like translation history, translation theory and translation criticism. As translation study is a borrowed term, Professor Cao made a research in China to define the real concept of translation activity.

He made a thorough distinguish between translation study and the mediotology in comparative literature. The borrowed term translation study brought us a lot of reflections and lessons. He proposed some urgent and practical issues whether translation theory should be combined with practice and how to avoid the crisis of the discipline. We should keep a calm and practical attitude to keep the features of this subject.

Based on the practical researches, Professor Cao could analyze the thesis and propose proper scientific construction towards translation circle in China. Since in China translation study mainly focuses on the study of literature and besides this, comparative literature would more or less pay attention to the fields of literature but not translation. However, the Professor made a clear distinguish between translation study and mediotology and argued that translation study includes translation history, translation theory and translation criticism. This helps to set a clear definition towards translation study and effectively avoid translation study’s confusion.

Last but not the least, the language use in the whole text is very beautiful and comfortable. Although Professor Cao uses a lot of samples and evidences as well as a lot of historical samples, the transition is very smooth and he would also quotas many poems and history which makes his article seem more poetic and vivid. Through long terms of translation practice, there is no doubt that Professor Cao had a rich experience in translation practice and strong base of translation basis. What’s more, Professor Cao also had a very specific purpose for translation study. He is not only an excellent translator, professor and scholar, but also a very responsible educator and practitioner.

To sum up, Based on the above analysis, the author elaborates on the current imbalance between translation theory and practice, and puts forward targeted solutions, which provide the direction and action guide for translation research and translation teaching. In addition, the author can benefit a lot from his rigorous academic attitude, rigorous theoretical system construction and critical logical thinking. First, Professor Cao Minglun's full text is fluent in writing and appropriate use of professional vocabulary, which fully reflects his profound academic accumulation and solid foundation of academic research. In addition, more importantly, Professor Cao's logical reasoning ability provides reference for the author's future academic research.

The author uses rigorous logical thinking to accurately explain these concepts, both in terms of defining the relationship between translation theory and practice, and in terms of defining the relationship between translation concepts, objectives and tasks. Third, the author in the process of building the book chapters, layer upon layer, closely around the core of the theory and practice of the main line, from the macroscopic roughly summed up as above summary review, described the status quo, put forward the problems to solve the problem, finally the logical context is very clear, from the micro level above, each chapter, cited fully detailed, illustration, contrast analysis, the most important thing is that the author according to the research of the early learning put forward their own theoretical system or solution to the problem. Translation is indeed a cross-cultural discipline, but the study of translation must be closely centered on the translated text itself and supported by the theories of other disciplines, such as comparative literature studies and linguistic studies. Finally, the author uses standard words and the language is exquisite, which reflects the strong academic writing ability. The above contents are the valuable wealth of the author's future theoretical learning career!--Liu Jinxingqi (talk) 12:24, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

References

• Bassnett,Susan and André Lefevere .Translation, History and Culture[M].London and New York: Pinter Publishers.
• Mark Shuttleworth，Moira Cowie：翻译研究词典[M]．外语教学与研究出版社，2005
• 谢天振，王宁 翻译学:作为独立学科的求索与发展 [M]．复旦大学出版社，2017
• 曹明伦，翻译之道 ：理论与实践 [M]．保定：河北大学出版社，2007
• 甘雪梅 ．2010．“学 、“术 共生 ，“道”、“器”互彰——评曹明伦教授 《翻译之道：理论与实践》一书[J]．湖北 函授大学学报，(5)：110-111
• 黄中习．2008．努力构建翻译理论与实践的和谐关系——翻译之道理论与实践介评[J]．北经济学院学报 ，(10)：150一l51
• 朱蕤 ．2010．对翻译研究 “文化转向”的反思—— 以 《翻译之道 》为伽 R1．福建省外国语文学会2010年年会 ．厦门
• Bassnett,Susan and André Lefevere .Translation, History and Culture[M].London and New York: Pinter Publishers.(缺少年份)
• Mark Shuttleworth，Moira Cowie.翻译研究词典．外语教学与研究出版社，2005（格式错误）
• Xie Tianzhen, Wang Ning. 谢天振，王宁. (2017). 翻译学:作为独立学科的求索与发展. [Translation Studies: The Search and Development as an Independent Subject] 上海：复旦大学出版社[Shanghai: Fudan University Press].
• Cao Minglun. 曹明伦. (2017). 翻译之道 ：理论与实践. [The Tao of Translation: Theory and Practice] 保定：河北大学出版社[Baoding: Hebei University Press].
• Gan Xuemei. 甘雪梅. (2010)．“学 、“术 共生 ，“道”、“器”互彰——评曹明伦教授 《翻译之道：理论与实践》一书. [Symbiosis of "Science and "Technology", "Dao" and "Apparatus" Mutually Reconcile: A Comment on Professor Cao Minglun's Book "The Tao of Translation: Theory and Practice"]. 湖北函授大学学报[Journal of Hubei Correspondence University] 110-111.
• Huang Zhongxi. 黄中习．(2008)．努力构建翻译理论与实践的和谐关系——翻译之道理论与实践介评. [Efforts to build a harmonious relationship between translation theory and practice: An introduction to the theory and practice of translation]. 北经济学院学报[Journal of North University of Economics]150一l51.
• Zhu Yu. 朱蕤. (2010). 对翻译研究 “文化转向”的反思—— 以 《翻译之道 》为例. [Reflections on the "Cultural Turn" of Translation Studies: Taking "The Way of Translation" as an example]. 厦门：福建省外国语文学会2010年年会. [Xiamen: 2010 Annual Meeting of Fujian Foreign Language and Literature Association].--Liu Jinxingqi (talk) 12:58, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

Translation Strategies

The Study on the Translation Strategies, Translation Methods and Translation Techniques in Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China from the Perspective of Skopos Theory 朱素瑶 Zhu Suyao 202020080675 英美文学

Abstract

This paper studies the English version of seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China from the perspective of Hans Vermeer's Skopos Theory of translation. It can be found that this English version focuses on the target audience and uses appropriate translation strategies, methods and techniques in the light of the target audience's reading habits and cultural background, such as free translation, literal translation, shift, addition, omission, division and combination. As a result, the English translation’s vocabulary, discourse structure or expression can be easier to be accepted by the target audience, which is conducive to the dissemination of China's information and maximizes the communication effect of international news of China.

Keywords: Skopos Theory; translation strategies; translation methods；audience

摘 要

根据汉斯・佛米尔翻译目的论的观点对《为人民谋幸福：新中国人权事业发展70年》英译本进行研究，发现该译本以目标受众为着眼点，从目标受众的阅读习惯和文化背景出发，运用恰当的翻译策略、方法和技巧，比如意译、直译、转译、增译、减译等，因而译本的英语词汇、语篇结构或表达方式更易为目标受众接受，这有利于中国信息的传播，最大程度增强我国国际新闻的对外传播效力。

关键词: 目的论；翻译方法；翻译技巧; 受众

Introduction

Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China is a white paper published by the Information Office of the State Council of China in September 2019. In addition to the preface and conclusion, the full text consists of eight parts, and quotes a large amount of data to show in detail the progress of human rights in China since 1949; the people-centeredness of human rights; the ways to realize the protection of human rights; the remarkable achievements in the implementation of human rights; the continuous strengthening of human rights protection and China's contribution to promoting the cause of human rights in the world.

Nowadays, international political, economic and cultural exchanges are unprecedented frequent and in-depth. International information and culture should be welcomed by our country. At the same time, Chinese culture and values need to be spread. We should have our own voice in international exchange activities, to tell Chinese stories so that the world can better understand China(He Jiaying 2020,4). Therefore, the translation of Chinese international news plays an important role in cross-cultural communication and communication between China and foreign countries. Therefore，it is also worthwhile to study the translation of these news.

In Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China, its accurate and rigorous translation has played a positive role in shaping national image and building international discourse. There are a large number of words related to political system with Chinese characteristics in this text. These words often represent some important policies and current situation of human rights of our country. Accurate translation of these words is the key to correctly convey these messages.

Skopos theory focuses on the purpose of translation and holds that translation activities should adopt corresponding translation methods and techniques. From the perspective of Skopos theory, translation work is mainly for the target audience. Its purpose is to achieve the re-dissemination of the original content and finally gain a certain communicative effect.

As a political document, seeking happiness for people: 70 years of progress on human rights in China can be regarded as government behavior, that is, the organizer and commissioner of translation is the government, and the translator is the institution and interpreter entrusted by the Chinese government. If the relationship between entrustment and entrustment is made clear, the purpose of translation is obvious. The Chinese government disseminates such information, like the concept of human rights, the way to realize the cause of human rights, the achievements of developing human rights, and China's contributions over the years, to English speaking countries on the basis of respecting their linguistic habits and cultural backgrounds. In this way，translators should observe translation principles and choose appropriate translation strategies under the guidance of this purpose.

The principle of coherence requires the translation to be logically clear and semantically cohesive, which can keep the Chinese style of political documents while making it accessible to readers. The principle of faithfulness requires the translator to accurately understand and grasp the connotation of article. (Luo Mazhang, 1984,124-126). On this basis, translators use translation techniques and methods to translate and interpret the original text, so that what readers understand from the English version is consistent with the information expressed in the original text. Moreover, according to the different characteristics of these words related to the political system with Chinese characteristics, we should adopt different translation strategies, methods and skills.

A Brief Introduction to Skopos Theory

Skopos theory originated in Germany in the 1970s put forward by Hans Vermeer. It belongs to functional translation theory, in which it is the most important theory. It has a wide influence on text translation and is widely employed in translation. Vermeer believes that translation is a kind of human behavior, and any behavior has a purpose. The primary factor determining the process of translation is the purpose of translation (VERMEER HANS. J 1989:90). That is to say, translators shall exercise corresponding translation strategies according to different translation purposes, and have the right to decide what contents of the original text can be retained and what needs to be adjusted or modified in the light of the translation purpose. The translation strategy depends on the needs and expectations of the target language readers or audiences. Therefore, we can say that translation is a text that meets the needs of readers on the basis of translation purpose.

People pursuing skopos theory believe that skopos rules, coherence rule and fidelity rule should be followed in translation. The Skopos rule refers to that the translation behavior depends on the translation purpose, in other words the result determines the method; the coherence rule means that the translation must conform to the standard of intralingual coherence, namely, the translation must be comprehensible by the receiver and be meaningful in the target language communication; the faithfulness method refers to the existence of interlingual coherence between the original text and the target text, that is, the translation should be as faithful as possible to the original text (NORD C 2002,28).

Among the three laws, the rule of faithfulness is subordinate to the law of coherence, and at the same time, the two laws ultimately depend on the law of purpose. The translator should first ensure that the translation can achieve the intended purpose, then ensure the coherence of the translation, and finally ensure the consistency between the translation and the original (N. Zhao 2014, 98-101). We know that different cultures have different cultural customs and their own unique values, so translation is not an act of transforming one language into another. The translator should translate based on some specific requirements, combined with the specific demands of the translation, the target readers' reading habits and cultural background.

The Employment of the Translation Strategies And Translation Methods in Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China from the Perspective of Skopos Theory

Foreignization Strategy Under the Skopos Theory

In Schleiermacher's words, the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as possible, and moves the reader towards him." (2006,229) It is shown that in translation, the language, literature and cultural characteristics of the original text should be retained to the full, and the foreign tone kept. The advantages of foreignization strategy are as follows: the structure of source language, poetic features can be introduced into the target language to enrich the expression of the target language; the target language readers can fully appreciate the exotic beauty, and thus promote the cultural exchange between different nationalities (Venuti, 1995). The defect of foreignization strategy is mainly reflected in the readability of the translation, that is, the translation may be stiff and not natural enough, which will affect the reception and dissemination of the target language among the target recipients.

Literal Translation Under the Strategy of Foreignization

Literal translation is characterized by two main features: with regard to lexical meaning and rhetoric without the use of paraphrase, which distinguishes it from free translation; in the processing of lexical and syntactic structure, appropriate changes or transformations are allowed, for example, word order transformation is used to make the translation conform to the lexical and syntactic norms of the target language, which distinguishes literal translation from word-for-word translation (Munday, J 2008,9). There are some examples extracted from Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China:

两个一百年 Two Centenary Goals; 当家作主 became masters of their country; 伟大复兴的中国梦 Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation;人类命运共同体 a global community of shared future;中共十八大 the 18th CPC National Congress;五位一体Five-point Strategy;习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想 Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era;民法通则和侵权责任法the General Principles of the Civil Law and Tort Liability Law

Analysis: with the continuous advancement of China's political and economic status in recent years, China has mastered a certain voice in the international community, and initially established a unique political discourse system. Therefore, some characteristic political words can be translated literally without causing difficulties for the foreign audience to understand.

Zero Translation Under the Strategy of Foreignization

Zero translation does not demand any operation in translating. Some elements of the source language are directly introduced into the target language (Munday, J 2008,8). There are some examples extracted from Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China:

Example 1:中国以占全球6.6%的淡水资源和9%的耕地，养活了世界近20%的人口。 China feeds approximately 20 percent of the world's population using 6.6 percent of the fresh water resources and 9 percent of the arable land of the world.

Example 2:1949年末，全国城乡就业人员18082万人，其中城镇就业人员仅有1533万人，城镇失业率高达23.6%。 At the end of 1949 there were 180.82 million people across the country in employment, of whom only 15.33 million worked in urban areas.

Analysis: The white paper uses a large number of figures to specifically describe the changes and achievements of China since the implementation of human rights. For these large numbers, it is not necessary to translate them, but to keep the Arabic numerals directly. In this way, the translation is faithful to the original text. Besides, it is in line with the purpose of publicity translation.

Word-for-word translation Under the Strategy of Foreignization

Word-for-word translation refers to the translation of the original sentence by word without considering the differences in morphology, syntax and semantics between the two languages (Munday, J 2008,7). There are some examples extracted from Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China:

半殖民地半封建社会 semi-colonial and semi-feudal society；改革开放 the reform and opening up；一带一路”倡议 the Belt and Road Initiative

Analysis: The above political terms widely emerge in various documents and news in China, and also appear in a high proportion in all sorts of reports of foreign media. Therefore, even if word-for-word translation of above words is taken by translators, readers can also understand translations easily without additional translation or explanation, which reflects the principle of faithfulness to the original text in skopos theory.

Domestication Strategy Under the Skopos Theory

In Schleiermacher's words, the translator leaves the reader in peace as much as possible, and moves the author towards him(2006:229). Translators should try to replace the source language, literature and culture with those being popular among the target language readers, and abide by the target language norms. The advantages of domestication are that the translation is smooth, easy to be understood and accepted by the target language recipients, or to meet the specific needs of the target language readers. The defects of domestication strategy are as follows: the loss of language, literature and cultural elements in the original text, which results in the target language recipients being deprived of the opportunity to appreciate foreign languages, literature and culture. This is not conducive to the enrichment and development of the language, literature and culture of the target country and the cultural exchange among different nationalities (Venuti,1995).

Free Translation Under the Strategy of Foreignization

The main feature of free translation is the use of paraphrase in the processing of lexical meaning and rhetoric, so as to reproduce the meaning of the original text smoothly and truly. There are some examples extracted from Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China:

Example 1：四个全面”战略布局 Four-pronged Strategy

Analysis: Four pronged refers to the rake with four teeth. Through cultural borrowing, it vividly interprets a comprehensive strategy of four pronged, to illustrate that the strategic layout includes four aspects, and the contents of the four aspects should go hand in hand. This translation reproduces the lexical and syntactic structure of the source language as well as the form of the original language.

Example 2：新时代中国特色社会主义将人民对美好生活的向往作为奋斗目标。 In building socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, the people's aspiration to live a better life is the focus of all the country's work.

Analysis: The literal translation of “奋斗目标” is usually goal or purpose, but here it is translated as“the focus of all the country's work”，which emphasizes its importance in this context.

Example 3：世界各国在人权保障上没有最好，只有更好。 Every country has room for improvement in protecting human rights.

Example 4：个人权利只有与集体权利统一起来，才能实现人权的最大化。 Individual rights can only be maximized in the context of collective rights.

Example 5：新中国成立之初，社会保障尚属空白。 There was no social security system in China when the PRC was founded.

Example 6：绿水青山就是金山银山。 Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.

Example 7：截至2018年，西藏自治区已有117名学经僧人获得了格西“拉让巴”学位，68名僧人获得了中国藏语系高级佛学院“拓然巴”高级学衔。 By 2018 a total of 117 monks from Tibet had received senior academic titles in Lhasa and 68 from the High-level Tibetan Buddhism College of China.

Analysis: In example 3, "better" is translated into "there is still room", which is another expression to convey the same idea. Although the expression is different, but the meaning is the same, which means that there are always more efforts needed to be put into protecting human rights. In example 4, it uses “in the context” to vividly deliver the condition that individual rights are combined with collective rights. In example 5, “空白”actually refers that social security has yet to be popularized to the public. So it can't be literally translated into “blank”. The free translation here is a good expression of the original meaning. “绿水” in example 6 is not to emphasize that the water is green, but to indicate all the clear and clean waters and the currents, so it is lucid waters. In example 7,“拉让巴”and “拓然巴” are all translated into “senior academic titles”, which make the readers directly clear about its real connotation.

The Employment on the Translation Techniques in Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China From the Perspective of Skopos Theory

In the translation methods, apart from zero translation, transliteration and word-for-word translation, the other five translation methods will involve the usage of various translation techniques. There are many kinds of skills, but they can be generally classified into five kinds: omission, addition, division, combination and shift (M. F. Zhang 2009, 53-60). The following is a rough analysis of the translation techniques employed in Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China.

Omission Under Translation Skills

Omission refers to the deletion of some complicated and redundant words, sentences or even paragraphs in the original text according to the needs of morphology, syntax, semantics, rhetoric or style of the target language, or due to some specific cultural norms of the target language (Reiss K 1971). By doing so, the original ideas can be expressed more concisely and smoothly, and then the translation can better achieve the specific translation purposes. There are some examples extracted from Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China:

Example 1: 中国人权事业的命脉所在、根本所在。 the foundations for the cause of human rights in China.

Example 2: 国家提出经济建设、政治建设、文化建设、社会建设、生态文明建设“五位一体”总体布局，使每个人的经济、政治、文化、社会、环境权利能够得到充分保障。 It puts forward the Five-point Strategy (promoting economic, political, cultural, social, and environmental progress in a coordinated way), so every citizen's rights can be fully protected in each of these spheres.

Example 3：中国的粮食总产量由1949年的11318万吨提高到2018年的65789万吨，耕地灌溉面积由1949年的1594万公顷扩大到2018年的6810万公顷。 Total grain output soared from 113.18 million tons in 1949 to 657.89 million tons in 2018, and the area of irrigated farmland from 15.94 million ha in 1949 to 68.1 million ha in 2018.

Example 4：中国从根本上消除了饥饿，持续改善了人民的营养水平。 It has succeeded in improving nutrition and eradicating hunger.

Example 5：截至2018年，全国已有84%的行政村实现生活垃圾收运处置体系基本覆盖。 By 2018, 84 percent of all administrative villages were provided with garbage treatment.

Analysis: in example 1, “命脉”and “根本” are all used to express the necessity of the cause of human rights, thus one of them can be omitted. In example 2, “economic, political, cultural, social and environmental spheres” has been mentioned in the preceding sentence, so the latter one can replace them with “each of these spheres”. In example 3 the verbs in the first and second sentences are both “soar”，so the latter one can directly be left out by the rules of English grammar. Example 4 directly through the phrase “has succeeded in” to show the results. "从根本上" and “水平” of “营养水平” is to emphasize with no much necessity in the translation, whose omission does not affect the original meaning. Example 5 only use the passive voice of "provide" that can succinctly and lucidly express the original meaning.

Example 6：因为有了新中国70年，中国人民的生活才更加幸福美满；因为有了新中国70年，我们的世界才更加繁荣发展；因为有了新中国70年，人类社会才更加丰富多彩。 As a result of the developments that have taken place in the PRC over the 70 years, the people of China are living a happier life, the world is more prosperous, and human society is more diverse and colorful.

Analysis: "因为有了新中国70年" has been repeated three times to strengthen the tone. While in the translation, it is only referred once to avoid wordiness. There are several other same translations using this skill in the following text. A large number of parallelisms often appear in Chinese political texts. When studying the translation of these sentences, we can find one thing in common, that is, repeated words can be translated only once, which reflects the concise characteristics of English language.

Addition Under Translation Skills

Additional translation refers to the reasonable and appropriate addition of certain words, sentences or paragraphs to the translation according to the needs of the morphology, syntax, semantics, rhetoric or style of the target language, or subject to certain norms of the target language, so as to better express the content of the original text and better realize the specific translation purpose (Shuttleworth, M. &M. Cowie 2004). There are some examples extracted from Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China:

Example 1：人权是历史的、发展的。 Human rights are a historical and developmental concept.

Example 2：人类社会发展经验 the experience gained in human social development

Example 3：中国共产党带领人民深刻总结我国社会主义建设正反两方面经验。 Under the leadership of the CPC, the people review experiences and lessons drawn from socialist construction.

Analysis: Example 1 adds “concept”；Example 2 adds “gain”, a verb, to show the source of experience；Example 3 adds “lessons”, because experiences and lessons can be regarded as a pair of phrases that always appear together.

Example 4：改善城市和农村人居环境，开展生态修复、城市修补……生活垃圾收运处置体系建设。 Efforts have been made in several areas: improving the living environment in cities……transporting and disposing of household garbage in rural areas.

Example 5：国家建立了最低生活保障制度、最低工资保障制度……中小学义务教育制度等。 Chinese government has put into place a number of systems and mechanisms, including those dealing with subsistence allowances, the minimum wage……and compulsory education (primary and middle schools).

Analysis: Summary phrases have been added in several parts of the white paper to make the text clearer. Example 4 adds “efforts” to be the subject in order to clearly state what has been done by China；example 5 uses “systems and mechanisms” to outline its specific content one by one.

Example 6：新时代中国特色社会主义着眼于实现“两个一百年”奋斗目标和中华民族伟大复兴的中国梦。 In building socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, China focuses on achieving the Two Centenary Goals and realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

Example 7：依法保障宗教信仰自由。 China protects freedom of religious belief in accordance with the law.

Example 8：建立起世界上覆盖人口最多的社会保障制度。 China has established a social security system that covers the largest population in the world.

Example 9：尊重和保障人权 We must respect and guarantee human rights.

Analysis: when translating a Chinese sentence without subject into English, the subject mentioned above should be added in translation. Because in Chinese discourse, when the subject appears, it can be omitted in later sentences. As a hypotaxis language, English is stricter with its language structure. As an important part of a sentence, the subject cannot be omitted. Therefore, in examples 6-9, the subjects of “China” and “we” are added to the sentence to make the sentence complete.

Division Under Translation Skills

Division refers to dividing a sentence into two or more sentences, which can effectively solve the translation difficulties of long complex sentences and satisfy the expression habits of the target language and the reading habits of the audience (Shuttleworth, M. &M. Cowie 2004). There are some examples extracted from Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China:

Example 1: 中国共产党的领导，是中国人民能够享有人权并不断享有更加充分人权的根本保证，是全体中国人民的利益所在、幸福所在。 The Party's leadership is the fundamental guarantee for the people of China to have access to human rights, and to fully enjoy more human rights. This leadership is therefore in the interests of all people of China, critical for their pursuit of a happy life.

Example 2: 中国特色社会主义将“人权得到切实尊重和保障”作为全面建成小康社会的重要目标，从战略层面确立了人权事业的重要地位。 In building socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, full respect for and protection of human rights is an important goal of China's endeavors to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects. This establishes the importance of human rights from a strategic perspective.

Example 3: 多年来，中国始终把解决人民的生存权、实现人民的发展权作为第一要务，不断解放和发展生产力，致力于消除贫困，提高发展水平，为保障人民各项权利的实现创造了基础条件。 Prioritizing people's rights to subsistence and development, China has committed to liberating and developing productive forces, eliminating poverty, and enhancing its level of development. All this has laid the foundation for fulfilling the various rights of the people.

Example 4: 坚持人民在人权事业中的主体地位，把人民利益摆在至高无上的位置，让人民过上好日子，使发展成果更多更公平地惠及全体人民，让每个人更好地发展自我、幸福生活，让每个人都能够免于恐惧、不受威胁，是实现人人享有更加充分人权的真谛所在。 For everyone to fully enjoy human rights, we must uphold the people-centered approach……and ensure a good life for the people. We must ensure that the fruits of development offer greater benefits to all the people in a fair way……and prevent them from fear and threat.

Example 5: 国际社会应秉持和平、发展、公平、正义、民主、自由的人类共同价值，维护人的尊严和权利，推动形成更加公正合理包容的全球人权治理。 The international community should uphold the shared values of humanity – peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom. It must safeguard human dignity and rights, and strive for fairer, more reasonable and inclusive global human rights governance.

Example 6: 多年来，中国政府通过改革农村土地制度，稳定和完善农村土地承包关系，大力推进农田水利设施建设，使农业综合生产能力不断提升，主要农产品产量稳定增长。 Over the years the Chinese government has carried out rural land reforms to stabilize and improve land contracting system in rural areas. With improved irrigation infrastructure, China's agriculture has seen a continuing rise in productivity and steady increase in the output of main agricultural products.

Analysis: In example 1-6, the syntax is too long and there are too many clauses. Therefore, in order to avoid the syntax being too complicated, it is necessary to split it. At the same time, there are many non-subject sentences in Chinese while English sentences usually have subjects. Therefore, when translating Chinese sentences without subject into English, translators need to complete the subject of most sentences according to the context. For example, add pronouns “it”, “this”, or start with preposition "with". In this case, the translated sentences will make the readers more relaxed and comfortable in reading.

Combination Under Translation Skills

Combination refers to combining two or more sentences in the original text into one sentence. There are some examples extracted from Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China:

Example 1: 1982年，第五届全国人大五次会议通过了现行宪法。宪法明确规定了中国社会主义民主的主要内容和基本形态。 In 1982, the Fifth Session of the Fifth NPC adopted the current Constitution of the PRC, which clearly defines the substance and basic form of socialist democracy.

Example 2: 中国努力通过发展增进人民福祉，实现更加充分的人权保障。China strives to enhance people's wellbeing through development in order to better protect their human rights.

Analysis: Example 1 combines the two sentences with “which”, making the text more compact. In example 2, the combination is realized by “in order to”, which reflects the logical connection between sentences, and the purpose is clearer.

Shift Under Translation Skills

Shift From Active Voice to Passive Voice

There are some examples extracted from Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China:

Example 1：在新中国成立前夕，通过了具有临时宪法作用的《中国人民政治协商会议共同纲领》。 The Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which was adopted on the eve of the founding of the PRC and served as the provisional Constitution of China.

Example 2：第一届全国人民代表大会第一次会议通过的《中华人民共和国宪法》。 The 1954 Constitution of the PRC, which was adopted at the First Session of the First National People's Congress (NPC).

Example 3：应当尊重人权发展道路的多样性 Diversity in developing human rights should be respected.

Example 4：尊重和保障人权 Human rights are respected and guaranteed.

Example 5：在当代中国的人权实践中，既重视集体人权的发展，又重视个人人权的保障。 In China, equal attention has been paid to developing collective rights and ensuring individual rights.

Analysis: Chinese uses more active voice while English more passive voice. Therefore, in the translation of the original sentences, the subject is put in front and the passive voice is used. In addition, Chinese often express the logical relations between words and sentences by context and word order while English needs clear connectives to express them. Therefore, it is often necessary to add connective words to express logical relations in translation from Chinese to English.

Class Shift

There are some examples extracted from Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China:

Example 1: 从1950年起，对国营厂矿交通企业的生产和管理制度进行民主改革，建立工厂管理委员会和职工代表大会 。 The democratic reform of the production and management of state-owned factories, mines, and transportation operators that started in 1950 set up factory management committees and workers' congresses in these entities. Here the verb“民主改革”is shifted to a noun, and leads this sentence, which stresses the role of it.

Example 2人民基本居住条件显著改善。Improved housing conditions.

Example 3饮水安全获得切实保障。Safe drinking water.

Example 4国民健康水平持续提高。Better health for the people.

Example 5 经济凋敝、民不聊生 a shattered economy, a destitute populace

Analysis: In example 2-4, all the verbs are shifted to adjectives in above sentences, which become neater and terser. In example 5,“民不聊生” means ordinary people is too hard and poor to survive themselves. If just literally translate it like above, the sentence will not so succinct or regular as well as not conform to the sentence structure of four characters in parallelism.

Conclusion

This text introduces Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China. Because the white paper is a typical central document published by government, propagating the concept of human rights, practical measures and gains, and takes the comprehensive and accurate introduction as the purpose. What’s more, it is closely related to national interests and national image.

Based on its political characteristics, this paper studies its translation strategies, methods and techniques from the perspective of Skopos theory, and finds that the difference between the Chinese version and the English version is mainly due to the different readers. The English version is aimed at English audiences, and linguistic form and culture in England are different from China’s. For example, English uses more passive voice, while Chinese uses active voice; when translating Chinese without subject into English, except those passive voice translations, the correct subject should be added into the translation; English focuses more on logic and connection while Chinese on the meaning and content of text.

The differences may affect readers' understanding of the translation. Therefore, in the process of translation, translators should use appropriate translation techniques and methods according to their differences. Moreover, for such a political report, there are many official words, long sentences and heavy emphases on tone. Thus, the techniques of literal translation, division, addition and subtraction are frequently used.

From the perspective of Skopos theory, translation takes into account not only the function and purpose of the original text, but also the receptivity of the audience and the effect of the translation. Through the study of this white paper, we can see that translators need to stand on the perspective of the audience in the white paper translation, should shift from Chinese language patterns to western with facility, use appropriate translation methods, strategies and techniques, and be faithful to the original content in order to translate political intent clearly and accurately. In this way, misinterpretation, leaking and unclear translation can be avoided, so as to let foreign audiences can quickly and efficiently receive the information that the original text intends to pass on. This study can provide theoretical basis and good ideas for the future translators to find the best translation methods and strategies.

References

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[11]Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China.(2019).The Journal of Human Rights.

[12]VERMEER HANS. J. (1989). Skopos and Commission in Translational Action. ANDREW CHESTERMA. Readings in Translation. Helsinki: Oy Finn Leetura Ab.

[13]He Jiaying 何嘉莹, et al.(2020). "翻译目的论视角下英语新闻的编译策略——基于江苏某科技组织微信公众号平台和南方某高校外国语学院英文网站建设." [Translation Strategy Is Based on the Skopos Theory: The Construction of English News Website Based on the Official Account of WeChat, A Science And Technology Organization in Jiangsu, and the English Website of A Foreign Language College in Southern China.] 科技传播 Science And Technology Communication.

[14]Luo Mazhang 罗新璋.(1984). 翻译论集[Translation Volume]. 北京：商务印书馆 Beijing: Commercial Press.

[15]Ma Huijuan, Miao Ju 马会娟，苗菊. (2009). 当代西方翻译理论宣读[Reading of Contemporary Western Translation Theories].北京：外语研究与教学出版社 Beijing: Foreign Language Research And Teaching Press.

[16]Xiong Bing 熊兵.(2014). 翻译研究中的概念混淆——以“翻译策略”、“翻译方法”和“翻译技巧”为例 [Conceptual Confusion in Translation Studies: A Case Study of " Translation Strategies ", " Translation Methods " And " Translation Techniques "] 中国翻译 Chinese Translators Journal.

[17]Information Office of the State Council of the people's Republic of China 中华人民共和国国务院新闻办公室. (2019). "为人民谋幸福：新中国人权事业发展70年" [Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China]. 人民日报 People’s Daily.

Translator’s Subjectivity from Translator’s “Invisibility” to “Visibility” 胡百辉 Hu Baihui 202070080590 MTI

胡百辉 Hu Baihui 202070080590

Abstract

This paper is on translator’s subjectivity from translator’s “invisibility” to “visibility”. As we all know, the translator is the subject of translation, by whom the meaning of the translated text is conveyed. However, the invisibility of translator has always been emphasized in the traditional theory of translation. Until 1970s, with the “cultural turn”, the translators’ role has been redefined and their subjectivity in translation has caught much attention. As a key point in translation studies, the translator's subjectivity should not be confined to the change from “invisibility” to “visibility”, but should be studied in all respects. In addtion, the current challenges should also be identified and dealt with. Translators should give full play to their subjective initiative and deal with the relationship between them.

Key Words

Translator’s subjectivity; Invisibility; Visibility.

题目

译者主体性：从“隐形”到“显性”

摘要

本章从译者的“隐形”到“显形”论述译者的主体性。众所周知，译者是翻译的主体，翻译文本意义的传达是通过译者实现的。然而，传统译论一直强调译者在翻译中“隐形”。直到20世纪70年代出现了翻译研究的“文化转向”，才重新定义了译者的角色，其主体性才得到关注。译者主体性作为翻译研究的重点，我们不能简单说译者的角色从“隐形”转化为“显性”，而是从多个方面探讨，并且关注和解决其面临的挑战。译者要合理发挥自己的主观能动性，合理地处理二者之间的关系。

关键词

译者主体性；“隐形”；“显性”。

Introduction

The translator's “invisibility” and “visibility” have always been a controversial topic in the field of translation, and both of which have their own theoretical basis and purpose; however, both of them are the result of the exertion of the translator's subjective initiative. These arguments are not to prove who is right and who is wrong, but to enrich the arguments in the process of proving their personal views or persuading others, so as to perfect the relevant theories. (Wang Yu, Tian Cuiyun 2020, 128)

For a long time, the translator's subjectivity has been one of the focuses of scholars, but the role of translators in translation activities has always been neglected. It was not until the “cultural turn” in the 1970s that translators and some scholars began to study and discuss this issue. There are some translation theories in the West that face the target culture. So with these translation theories that oriented toward target culture, the scholars will inevitably do some research in translator’s subjectivity. (Wang Yu, Tian Cuiyun 2020, 129)

At present, there are many researches on translator's subjectivity in China. This shows that the study of translator's subjectivity is deepening day by day. The translator should not continue to be invisible in the process of translation. The translator's subjectivity will directly affect the translator selecting words and sentences and the style of translation. In short, at present, the status of translator and translator's subjectivity are highly praised in the field of translation studies. However, it should be emphasized that in today's information technology era, the translator's subjectivity is not only valued, but also faced with great challenges. (Wang Yu, Tian Cuiyun 2020, 129)

Translator's Subjectivity

Traditional translation theories often neglect the study of translator's subjectivity, but tend to explore the linguistic level of the translated text. Therefore, translation, as a dynamic process, is often ignored and the translator's subjective factors are not paid enough attention. On the one hand, the traditional translation view, holds that translation is not creative and can not be compared with creation. On the other hand, it is against advocating the translator's subjectivity and creativity, and requires the translator to worship the original author, which also tends to the original. "And the traditional role of translator was identified as the “servant” of the author, while assessing fidelity to the original text was primary. Pulled between the two poles: fidelity and treason, the translator faced the dilemma of lacking independence and subjectivity" (Shufen Huang 2019, 100). Now it seems that this view of negating translator's subjectivity is unreasonable.

As mentioned in the abstract, attention to the translator’s subjectivity did not arise until the 1970s, when Susan Bassnett and Andre Lefevere have come up with the idea of “the cultural turn”. They stated that translation is not the simple transform between two languages, it goes in special cultural environment. "And studies on the role of translators as well as the function of their subjectivity in the translating process have begun to flourish. However, the role of the translator and his subjectivity have been renewed and affirmed with the development of translation theory and translating activities. In the transitional years for translation studies, new translation theories were proposed"(Shufen Huang 2019, 100). "Those influential translation series, such as the polysystem theory and manipulation school have integrated researches on translator’s subjectivity into their massive system respectively" (Zhiwei Gu 2017,24). At present, the study of translator's subjectivity is emerging in an endless stream.

1. Definition of Translator's Subjectivity

According to Za Mingjian and Tian Yu, translator’s subjectivity can be defined that on the premise of respecting the translation text, the translator shows his subjective initiative in order to achieve the purpose of translation. Its basic characteristics are the cultural consciousness, humanistic character, cultural and aesthetic creativity of the translator. And the essential characteristics of the translator’s subjectivity refer to the translator’s “active cultural consciousness”, “human character” and “ascetic creativeness”. (Zha MIingjian, Tian Yu 2003, 22)

2. Related Theories on Translator's Subjectivity

In the 1970s, some scholars proposed the idea of “culture turn”, and since then many scholars such as Susan Bassnett (1980), Theo Hermans(1985), Andre Lefevere(1992), Tejaswini Niranjana (1992), Lawrence Venuti(1995), and Douglas Robinson (1997) have made studies on translator’s subjectivity. The issue of translator's cultural identity and subjectivity has naturally become an important research topic. While in China, some scholars studying in translation theory have conducted in-depth study in the translator’s subjectivity since the 1980s. In recent years, there are many papers on the study of translator's subjectivity.

The studies on translator’s subjectivity of some typical schools will be introduced as follows.

2.1 Polysystem Theory

This theory is introduced by Tynjanov, and he argues that "elements do not exist in isolation, but always in an interrelationship with other elements of other systems" (Even-Zohar, Itamar 1979, 287). Actually, Tynjanov is a cultural theorist, but his polysystem theory has made the study on translator more popular. But his pioneering work continues to exert considerable influence on translation, particularly when studying translation in emerging cultures or cultures in crisis. He said, it is necessary to include translated literature in the polysystem. "And through studies on the translated edition, it provides a feasible way to reconsider issues like the proper translator, suitable network on translation edition, translating adequacy and so on. This theory ushers in the cultural shift paves the way for the appearance of manipulation school" (Zhiwei Gu 2017,24).

2.2 Manipulation School

The name of manipulation school was given by the title of a collection of essays edited by Theo Hermans(1985), The Manipulation of Literature:Studies in Literature Translation, which gathers a number of studies by scholars such as Van Gorp and Andre Lefevere. "From the point of view of the target literature, all translation implies a degree of manipulation of the source text for a certain purpose" (Hermans 1985, 30), said Hermans. They sited that "translating is rewriting”, which is the foundation of the manipulation school. They have made the translation studies shift from the source-text oriented to target-text oriented. In their opinion, translators have their own feelings for the source text, and they respond to their intuitive feeling, and render the source text in the target culture.

3. Factors Influencing the Translator's Subjectivity

The exertion of translator's subjectivity runs through the whole process of translation activities. When different translators read the same article, their understanding varied. Also when selecting words, choosing translation strategies, the translators would have their own opinions. Understanding the factors that influence the translator's subjectivity makes great contribution to the study of the translator's translation style and characters. (Li Yingying, Lan Jie 2014, 21)

3.1 The historical background of translator

The historical background determines the criteria of value evaluation of translation, which also leads to the trend of mainstream translation style. The era in which translators live will limit the breadth and depth of their understanding. Therefore, the former translation standards may no longer conform to the contemporary development. It took a long time for the translator's position to rise from invisibility to visibility. Yan Fu, a famous translator in China at the end of the 19th century, has put forward the translation standard of “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance”. At this time, China was written in classical Chinese, so the “elegance” here means that the translation should be elegant and be translated in classical Chinese.

Since the May Fourth New Culture Movement, vernacular gradually replaces classical Chinese. Translators begin to translate a large number of classic works of Marxism Leninism, literary theory, progressive literary works of Soviet Union and other countries. Therefore, the translation at this time emphasizes the plainness and energy. So in 1979, Liu Zhongde, a translation theorist, has come up with a new translation criteria of “faithfulness, expressiveness and closeness”, which is accepted by the majority now. Different background determines different criteria of translation value, and the change of criteria also leads the trend of mainstream translation style, with obvious era brand. (Li Yingying, Lan Jie 2014, 21)

3.2 Translator's bilingual cultural competence

The translator's bilingual cultural competence includes linguistic knowledge and cultural knowledge. When translating an article, the translator accepts the cultural influence of the original text and brings the translation into another culture. The coordination of the two cultures reflects the translator's bilingual cultural ability,which directly affects the translator's choice of translation strategies. In general, if the translator has a strong native language ability, he tends to choose the “domestication” strategy when translating the foreign language into the native language. On the contrary, when translating the native language into a foreign language, the translator often uses the strategy of “foreignization” because he can't find the corresponding foreign language expressions. (Li Yingying, Lan Jie 2014, 21)

This is often seen in the translation of literary works and proverbs. It rains dogs and cats, which means it rains heavily. When translating into Chinese, it should be “大雨倾盆”. If this sentence is translated words by words, the target readers will not understand it. In fact, it is obvious in translation whether a translator's bilingual ability is good enough.If not, it will often make errors.

3.3 Understanding of the original

In the process of translation, only when the translator has a thorough understanding of the meaning of the original can he accurately convey the meaning of the original to the readers. As a saying goes," A thousand readers make a thousand Hamlets ". There is a growing tendency to believe that it is the reader that decides the meaning of the literary text.

Zhu Shenghao, a famous translator in China, has translated a lot of Shakespeare's works in his life. Shakespeare's works began to be introduced and translated in China at the beginning of last century. Zhu Shenghao is recognized as an early translator of Shakespeare's works in China, and his translation style has also been highly recognized. Different from the chronological arrangement of the Oxford edition, he divides the works into comedy, tragedy, historical drama and zaju, which are arranged in a self-contained system. Since he has a thorough understanding of the original, he could rewrite and rearrangement it and his translation text is well received at home and abroad. (Li Yingying, Lan Jie 2014, 22)

In a word, the process of translation is also a process of recreation. Under the new study of translation theory, the translator's subjectivity is encouraged and supported, but it needs to be limited. In the process of translation, the translator can always choose their preferred translation strategy and style, and fully develop your own style and characteristics in the translation. In this context, it is always restricted by the original work, and can't be separated from the original meaning. (Li Yingying, Lan Jie 2014, 22)

The Influence of Translator's Invisibility and Visibility on Translator's Subjectivity

In literary translation, the word "invisibility" refers to "the translator should insist on the translation in a smooth and accurate way, and can not add the translator's emotion"; while "apparent" is put forward according to the opposite of "invisibility", which means that the translator can put his own subjective feelings into literary translation, At the same time, in literary translation, the fact is that there are some differences in the transformation of language symbol system to make reasonable and appropriate explanation of words, sentence processing, space structure reconstruction and other forms of translation through their own understanding.Translator should fully make use of it. (Li Zheng, Yang Xianyu 2011, 71)

Cultural differences refer to different cultural styles in different cultural environments. Cultural differences also provide a more free creative environment for translators. Specifically, they can display their own unique styles by refining words, sending sentences and making sentences. This difference leads to the inevitable existence of the translator's "appearance".(Li Zheng, Yang Xianyu 2011, 71)

1. Translator's invisibility

The traditional translation theory focuses on the issue of language, focusing on how the ideal translator should do and what kind of requirements a perfect translation should achieve. It tries its best to eliminate the translator's traces in language and cultural transformation, and faithfully and completely convey all the information of the original work.

According to the traditional translation theory, the translator should be invisible, that is, to achieve "transparency" and "invisibility". The "transparency" of the translation requires the translator to strive to achieve fluency, while the "invisibility" refers to that the target readers should not see the trace and influence of the translator when reading the translation text. "The translator's invisibility depends on the following three conditions, which are often emphasized in the traditional translation theory: first, the translator should not incorporate his own subjective idea into the translation; second, the translator should not show his own personality in the translation; third, the translator should take the original text as the basis." (Xu Jun, 2003).

In a word, "faithfulness" and "equivalence" should be achieved in translation. The criterion of "faithfulness" also contributes to the tendency of traditional translation theories to neglect the translator's subjectivity. The traditional translation theories would emphasize to eliminate the differences in language, even some extreme domestication translation, even cultural differences. In domestication, the translator seems to be invisible. But the fact is that in order to meet the requirements of the target language and cultural norms, and get the recognition of the target language readers, the translator will spare no effort to exert his subjective initiative, which is the process of subject intervention. In this process, the translator should give full play to his subjectivity and bring his subjective idea into play. Therefore, on the surface, the translator seems to be "invisible", but in essence, this "invisibility" is also the result of the translator's subjective initiative, which is the translator's conscious choice and abandonment. (Li Zheng, Yang Xianyu 2011, 72)

2. Translator's visibility

In the 1970s, some scholars proposed the idea of “culture turn”, and since then many scholars have made studies on translator’s subjectivity. The issue of translator's cultural identity and subjectivity has naturally become an important research topic. The most familiar one is the Translator's Invisibility by American scholar Lawrence Venuti. In this book, he put forward the concepts of “foreignization” and “domestication”. According to his view, “domestication” emphasizes fluency and smoothness in order to minimize the exotic flavor in the translation and provide a natural and fluent translation for the target language readers.(Li Jieping, Wu Yuanqing, 2006)

However, “foreignization” is intended to break through the conventions of the target language, retain the exotic flavor in the original text, and inject the linguistic and cultural differences in foreign texts into the target language. He called on translators to "resist" and adopt poor translation. "Venuti believes that foreignization translation can not bring about the improvement of faithfulness. On the contrary, it is a misuse of faithfulness. Not only will some features of the original language be lost, but also new things will be added." (Li Jieping, Wu Yuanqing, 2006)

As a result, the translator appears and the independent status of translation is revealed. In the actual translation process, the translator deliberately uses the "resistance" translation strategy to retain the expression and sentence pattern of the original text, so as to avoid the smooth translation. In this context, the readers can clearly feel that what they are reading is the translation, thus feeling the existence of the translator, reflecting the creativity of the translator and highlighting the role of the translator. (Li Jieping, Wu Yuanqing, 2006)

The Challenge of Translator's Subjectivity

As the focus of translation studies, the translator's subjectivity should not be limited to the transformation from being ignored to being valued, but should be found and faced up to the challenges it is facing from a comprehensive perspective.

1. The challenge of modern information technology to translator's Subjectivity

With the rapid development of modern information technology, translation activities can be completed efficiently in a short time. In the past, translation was time-consuming and laborious, and the executor was the translator. Now, with the emergence of translation software and machines, the subject of translation activities has been increased in the traditional sense. These modern technologies have become the active elements in translation activities, which has caused a challenge to the translator's subjectivity. In some occasions where the requirements for translation are low and there is a certain tolerance for translation errors, translators have completely retired from the background. Because software and machines are supported by powerful corpora, they cover a wide range of fields, can process all kinds of texts, and can produce high-quality translations in a short time.

Therefore, the target language readers can quickly get the original translation through the translation software or machine. In addition, in other occasions where translation requirements are high, translators with the help of translation software and various tools can not only shorten the translation time, but also obtain the translation with high accuracy. However, without the help of translation software and other tools, the translator needs to spend time to mobilize the initiative of all aspects, which can not be as fast and efficient as the machine assisted. (Wang Yu, Tian Cuiyun 2020, 129)

There is no doubt that a series of modern information technology has played a positive role, which requires the translator not only to have the consciousness of language operation, cultural characteristics, artistic creation, aesthetic standards and humanistic character, but also to closely combine his own ability with modern information technology and have the ability to skillfully apply translation software and various auxiliary tools, However, the excessive dependence of translators on translation software can not be ignored. (Wang Yu, Tian Cuiyun 2020, 129)

Some translators are eager for quick success and instant benefit, and make use of translation software and machines to make them become money making accelerators and produce poor quality translation works. In the mixed translation market, there are not a few translators who completely rely on machine for translation with only minor modifications. In the absence of machine translation, translation activities mainly rely on the translator's mental operation, and the translator's subjectivity can be brought into full play.

But now, with the shortcut of translation, some translators can't help being lazy, which makes the most important part of the translation activities to fully display the translator's demeanor and play the translator's subjectivity lose its significance and turn into mechanical language output. In this process, the translator is satisfied with the convenience of machine translation and ignores the full play of the translator's subjectivity. Although translation tools can speed up the translation and improve the quality of translation in the process of translation activities, the excessive dependence on translation tools poses a challenge to the translator's subjectivity. (Wang Yu, Tian Cuiyun 2020, 129)

2. The challenge of the era to the translator's Subjectivity

In the past, professional translators always had to practice a lot of translation, combined with their preferences and strengths, to be able to translate works of interest to people. Many famous translations were produced at that time. Now, with the “one belt, one road” and the common destiny of mankind, the political, economic and cultural exchanges between China and other countries are becoming more frequent. More and more translators need to be served as bridges. The increasing number of translators and the professionalization of translation make translation a means of livelihood.

The common existence of translation companies makes the threshold of becoming a translator too low, which reduces the requirement of translators' competence to a certain extent. From the recruitment information released by various companies, it can be found that many companies place too much emphasis on the language proficiency of interpreters, and they do not attach importance to translation experience or request to check relevant translation works, and neglect to investigate whether the translator's subjectivity, which reflects their profound skills, is fully exerted in their works. At present, the requirement of the translator's ability to survive in the field of translation has been reduced. Translation activities have become a kind of assembly line operation, and the translators participating in the assembly line have also changed from elite translators with strong translation ability to mechanical translation product producers. (Wang Yu, Tian Cuiyun 2020, 129)

From this point of view, professionalization also prose challenges on the translator's subjectivity. With the continuous updating of the information in various fields, the powerful corpus behind the translation software and machine can not be updated automatically, so it is necessary for the translator to explore the untranslated fields in order to obtain the relevant corpus to fill the corpus. From this point of view, as the subject of translation activities with individual thinking, translators must be prior to machines. If they excessively rely on modern technology, they will despise their initiative of thinking and choosing translation strategies in the process of translation, and can not give full play to the translator's subjectivity. (Wang Yu, Tian Cuiyun 2020, 129)

3.The rational exertion of translator's subjective initiative

The translator's "invisibility" and "manifestation" are both the manifestation of subjectivity, and have their specific social and theoretical background. "Translation is the active creative activity of the subject and the author's own language experience. Only through the translator's translation and interpretation can the text survive. The original text needs the participation of the translator's subject to help it obtain new life. The objective "uncertainty" needs to be filled and processed by the translator, so that the original intention of the composition can be revealed " (Wang Zhengliang, Ma Tan, 2010).

However, this kind of filling and processing is not random. Before translation, translators should first confirm whether their own conditions and temperament can adapt to the original text, and then translate the original composition. If the translated text is translated and interpreted at will, it will exaggerate the translator's autonomy to control the original work, and overemphasizes the translator's intervention in the work and the translator's interpretation space. Even under the banner of respecting the translator's identity and status and highlighting the translator's subjectivity, it is difficult to avoid the suspicion of "overcorrection". In this process, we should pay attention to the influence of the mainstream ideology in the historical background of the translator. (Wang Yu, Tian Cuiyun 2020, 130)

When there is a conflict the ideology between the translator and the target culture, there are many translators in history who delete and change the original content in order to conform to the mainstream ideology and exert their subjective initiative. When the source language poetics is different from the target language poetics, the translator also needs to play an active role in mediating the differences between the two poetics, so as to make the translation get new life in the target language.(Wang Yu, Tian Cuiyun 2020, 130)

Conclusion

Many scholars have put forward their own views on the translator's subjectivity. However, few scholars have mentioned the challenge to the translator's subjectivity. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the challenges faced by translators' subjectivity. On the one hand, translators are required to improve their ability to exert their subjective initiative, closely integrate their own abilities with modern information technology, learn and skillfully apply various translation software, search tools, corpus and other auxiliary tools to improve the speed and quality of translation, On the other hand, the translator should be warned not to rely solely on the tool while neglecting the translator's subjectivity. The translator's subjectivity is an important support for our translation research and translation activities. We must face up to the challenges and actively deal with them.

Translation is a process of gradual development and change, not a process of translating one language into another. Translators should fully understand, be familiar with and be familiar with the cultural differences in the original language in order to realize the true transmission of the original content. According to "invisibility" and "manifestation" in contemporary literary translation, we should know "invisibility" when necessary to ensure the fluency of language. According to Venuti's viewpoint of "invisibility or invisibility is to make the translator invisible", we can better understand the meaning of "invisibility" of the translator, and pay attention to the application effect of "manifestation" when necessary, which can not only make people pay attention to the translator, At the same time, it also reflects the cultural differences and image understanding in the process of reading. Therefore, the choice of "invisible" or "explicit" in translation is worth considering.

References

Even-Zohar, Itamar. (1979). "Polysystem Theory". Poetics Today (1) 287.

Hermans, Theo. (1985). "The Manipulation of Literature: Studies of Literary Translation". London and Sydney: Croom Helm. (12) 30.

Lan Hongjun 蓝红军. (2017). 译者主体性困境与翻译主体性建构 [Translator's subjectivity dilemma and construction of translation subjectivity]. 上海翻译 Shanghai Translation Journal (2) 21-27.

Li Hua, Li Guochao 李华,李国超. (2019). 文学翻译中译者的“隐身”与“显形”——以《第十个人》翻译中人物形象的塑造为例[J] [The translator's "invisibility" and "manifestation" in Literary Translation--Taking the creation of characters in the translation of the Tenth Man as an example]. 智库时代 Think Tank Tines (42) 130-132.

Li Yingying, Lan Jie 李盈盈,兰杰. (2014). 浅谈翻译中的译者主体性 [On the translator's subjectivity in Translation]. 考试周刊 Weekly examination (24) 21-22.

Li Zheng, Yang Xianyu 李铮;杨贤玉. (2011). 论译者的“隐形”和“显形” [On the translator's "invisibility" and "visibility]. 邢台学院学报 Journal of Xingtai College (26) 71-72.

Shufen Huang. (2019). “A Study of the Translator’s Subjectivity in Literary Translation--Exemplified by the English Version of The Border Town”. Open Journal of Social Sciences(JSS) (7) 100.

Wang Yu, Tian Cuiyun 王玉,田翠芸. (2020). 从译者的“隐形”“显形”到“忘形”谈译者主体性 [Translator’s Subjectivity from Translator’s “Invisibility” and “Visibility” to “Complacency”]. 华北理工大学学报(社会科学版) Journal of North China University of science and Technology (SOCIAL SCIENCE EDITION) (28) 128-131.

ZhaMingjian, Tian Yu 查明建,田雨. (2003). 论译者主体性—从译者文化的边缘化谈起 [On Translator's Subjectivity -- from the Marginalization of Translator's Culture]. 中国翻译 Chinese Translators Journal (1) 22.

Zhiwei Gu. (2017). "On Zhang Peiji's Prose Translation from the Perspective of the Translator's Subjectivity", English Language and Literature Studies (1) 24.--Hu Baihui (talk) 11:32, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

The Visible Images and Invisible Hands: An Analysis of Lefevere’s Manipulation Theory and Venuti’s Deconstruction of The Translator’s Invisibility - 马智星 Ma Zhixing Japanese Language and Literature

马智星 Ma Zhixing 202020080625

Abstract

Throughout the history of western translation, as the subject of translation, the change of translator's identity reveals a process from "invisibility" to "appearance". In different historical periods, different translators have never stopped discussing the "invisibility" and "appearance" of translators. From the perspective of historical development, this paper examines the different evolution of Lefevere's operation theory and Venuti's invisible translation theory in the western translation history, so as to analyze the change of the translator's identity and discuss the translator's subjectivity.

Key Words

translator's view;translation behavior;invisibility;

摘要

纵观西方翻译史，作为翻译主体的译者，其身份的变化彰显了一个由“隐身”到“现身”的过程。不同历史时期，不同翻译家们对于译者的“隐身”和“现身”的讨论，从未停止。本文从历史发展的角度，考察西方翻译史中勒菲弗尔的操作论和韦努迪的译者隐身翻译理论的不同演变，以此分析译者身份的变化，从而对译者的主体性进行探讨。

关键词

翻译观；译者行为；隐形

Ⅰ.Lefevere’s Manipulation Theory

In the 1980s, culture, rather than text, emerged as the Unit of translation, bringing cultural studies into a new stage of translation theory: Cultural Theory of translation. This change is called the "cultural turn" in the field of translation studies. Andrea, a representative of the Cultural School of Translation Studies, is an important theoretical figure in the field of contemporary Western Comparative Literature and Translation Studies. The translation studies school originally originated in Europe, and Lefevere's profound insight enriched and advanced the further development of this theory in the United States and the world.

Lefevere's manipulation theory is a well-known theory in the Cultural School of Translation Studies. Lefevere regards translation as a rewriting of the original and a manipulation of the original, which breaks the traditional thinking of evaluating translation with the original as the criterion. Lefevere's manipulation theory generally refers to the process of translation, adaptation, compilation, criticism and editing of literary works. He points out that translation is a form of rewriting the text, and a form of creating another text image Literary criticism, biography, film, drama, parody, reader's guide, compilation of history, criticism and editing are all rewriting of the text, which are all forms of creating another text image. In other words, translation creates the literary and cultural images of the original text, the original author, and the original text. And all rewriting, regardless of its intention, reflects a certain ideology and poetics.(Bassnett & Lefevere, 1990:8 )

Lefevere studies translation in a broad sociocultural context, emphasizing the role of ideology, mainstream poetics and culture. Translation is bound to serve certain ideology and poetics. In his view, "rewriting" is "manipulating" . It can "manipulate" literature and "culture" , the positive aspect of which is to help the evolution of literature and society through the introduction of new concepts, new literary genres and new means of expression. The rewriting of different historical periods should be controlled by ideology and mainstream poetics, and finally be related to power and become a means to serve it. The three elements of Lefevere's manipulation theory are set out in translation, rewriting, and the manipulation of literary fame. In his opinion, translation can not truly reflect the original work, mainly because it is always manipulated by three factors: ideology, poetics and patronage.

1.Ideological

ideology refers to a system of ideas that reflects the interests and requirements of a particular economic form, class or social group. Its basic contents include people's political, legal, moral, philosophical, artistic and religious views, etc. . Translation, as a cross-language and cross-cultural communicative activity, will inevitably be affected by ideology. Lefevere points out that ideology has a great influence on translation, which exerts a subtle influence on the translator's thinking and translation activities. Ideology influences the translator's basic translation strategies and the interpretation of the original language and culture. Under the control of ideology, the translator may add, delete or change the original text at will, making the translation serve his own political purposes. At the same time, different translators will form their own ideology because of their different personal experience, educational level, social and cultural environment, etc. . If a translated work wants to enter into the social and cultural system of the target language, it is bound to be restricted by the corresponding social and ideological standards. If the translation violates or offends ideological taboos, it will be difficult to spread smoothly in the target language culture, and may even be banned. Through the analysis of famous translators such as Lin Shu's works, we can clearly feel that it was controlled and influenced by the ideology and poetics of Chinese society at that time. Ideological manipulation of translation can be reflected in the influence on the purpose of translated novels, the choice of translated texts and the application of translation strategies.-

2.Poetics

Poetics is a theory about poetry and the study of poetry and its techniques. It is also a theory about literature and art. The formation of poetics occurs in a certain period, which is often a choice for some types of practice at that time, while excluding other types. According to Lefevere, the methods of translation adopted by translators are carried out under the restriction of certain poetic factors. The study of poetics is as small as a word, as large as a sentence, the style of the whole text and the translation strategies. Translation greatly influences the interpenetration of different literary systems, not only by successfully introducing the image of a writer or a work into another literary system, but also in the introduction of new literary means into a certain poetics.

In lefevere's opinion, as the manipulator of translation, such rewriting should be regarded as a cultural necessity in essence, because in the process of translation, the translator is bound to be affected and restricted by various social and cultural factors. The rewriting of poetics is an important part of the cultural system in which the rewriter works. In order to conform to the dominant ideology and poetics of the period in which the work is rewritten and to be accepted by as many readers as possible, the rewriter often makes some adjustments to the original work. Some masterpieces have also been dealt with to varying degrees so that they can be adapted to the cultural background of different social and historical conditions.

In the development of translation theory, more and more attention has been paid to the indispensability of poetics in translation. Poetics is concerned with what literature should or could be, and has two components, "One is a list of literary techniques, genres, themes, typical characters and situations, and symbols; the other is an idea of what role literature plays or should play in the overall social system. " To a certain extent, the poetic factors also determine the social role that the translation will play and the degree of its influence. The aesthetic sense of poetry in a work will disappear if the significance is emphasized but the poetic factors and the literary brilliance are ignored.

3.The Power of Patronage

Lefevere regards literary translation and other forms of rewriting as one of the social systems. This literary system has two controlling factors, one is the internal factor of the literary system, which is made up of various professionals such as critics, critics, teachers and translators The other is a patron who works outside the system and is "generally more interested in the ideology of literature than in the poetics of Literature" , "The powers (people or institutions) that promote or discourage literary reading, writing or rewriting, such as religious groups, classes, government departments, publishing houses, mass media organizations, can also be personal forces" (Lefevere, 1992:17)

In Lefevere's theory of the three elements, the most important factor is the power of the sponsor, who is always in charge of the whole process of translation. Translation itself is not an isolated act, but closely related to political, social and economic factors. Most translators translate well and safely within the space allowed by the social and political authority of their times. As "any force that may contribute to the production and dissemination of literary works and may hinder, prohibit and destroy literary works" (Chen Dehong, Zhang Nanfeng, 2000:176) , the power of patron can play a role through ideology, economic interests and social status.

Generally speaking, they play a vital role in the trend of translation activities, the development of translated literature and the social status of translators. For example, Yan Fu, as a translator and thinker, although he had his own clear goals and ideas in selecting translation materials, he was also an official appointed by the Qing government, therefore, his selection of translation materials is also controlled by the ideology of the sponsors. There is also a series of translations, translated or edited by Lin Yutang, that are closely related to the requests and suggestions of his patrons, the Pearl Buck and her husband.Lefevere's manipulation theory has opened up a new perspective for translation studies, which has shifted researchers'attention from the internal factors of the text to the external factors of the text, such as ideology, poetics and the power of patronage, this is of great significance to translation studies. Manipulation theory broadens the horizon of translation studies from text to culture. In recent years, with the rise of the Cultural School of Translation, the Study of translation from the perspective of the three elements of manipulation theory has become increasingly attractive.

Ⅱ. Venuti’s Deconstruction of The Translator’s Invisibility

2.1the Translator's Invisibility

Lawrence Venuti, an Italian American scholar, is an important representative and advocate of deconstructive translation theory. His translation thoughts are mainly concentrated in his monograph translator's invisibility published in 1995, his deconstructive translation essays rethinking and translation scandal.n his monograph the translator's invisibility, Venuti puts forward the term "invisibility", which is used to describe the status of translators in ontemporary British and American translation circles. He pointed out that the "invisibility" of the translation makes the reader unable to see the translator, as if he were reading the original rather than the translation.

There are two reasons why the translator is actually "invisible". First of all, translators themselves tend to translate into "fluent" English. Secondly, the way the target readers read the translated text. Whether it is prose, poetry, fiction or other types of subjects, most people accept that the ranslation is fluent in reading, without any unique language or style. It seems that the translation has reflected the author's substantive significance, and the translation seems to be not the translation but the original work.However, the premise of translation is that different languages and cultures are different and there is no absolute equivalence between them. This fluent translation method not only ignores the relationship between the author and the translator, the source text and the target text, obliterates the translator's interpretation, due status and efforts, but also conceals the differences between languages and cultures.

Therefore, Venuti puts forward the "resistance" translation strategy and advocates the translator to show his form. This kind of resistance is the courage to admit the differences between the source language and the target language in terms of language and culture, and to show such differences, and even deviate from the original text. The translator should deliberately retain the expression and sentence pattern of the original text to avoid the smooth translation, so that readers can clearly feel that what they are reading is the translation, thus feeling the existence of the translator, reflecting the creativity of the translator and highlighting the role of the translator.

The emergence and development of deconstructionism is a landmark in the history of both translation theory and practice. Before its appearance, all translation theories depend upon some notion of equivalence. As a deconstructionist, Venuti contributes much to translation studies. Venuti criticizes the ethnocentric and imperialist cultural consequences of the domestic values.

2.2 Foreignization -- the Core of Venuti's Translation Thought'

In 1813, Schleiermacher pointed out in his speech on different translation methods: "either the translator should keep the author at home and let the reader approach the author as much as possible, or the translator should keep the reader at ease and let the author approach the reader as much as possible." The former shows the language and cultural differences in foreign texts and sends readers abroad, which belongs to foreignization translation; the latter, centering on nationalism, naturalizes foreign values into the target culture and invites the original author to China.

Different from Schleiermacher, Venuti believes that foreignization translation can "suppress the violence of racial center in translation" and suppress the "violent" domestication of translation cultural values in English speaking countries. Therefore, foreignization translation is also known as resistance translation, which means that the translator highlights the foreign identity of the foreign text in the translation works by adopting non fluent translation techniques, and protects the original text from the control of the cultural ideology of the target language, so that he is no longer the "implicit person" of translation. Through the selection of foreign texts and foreignization translation, it challenges the cultural hegemony of English speaking countries and achieves the goal of cultural exchange.

2.3The Progress of Foreignization Translation Theory

Venuti considers translation in the context of society and culture and criticizes the way in which foreign literature is assimilated into the target language by domestication. He proposed and advocated foreignization translation strategy or "resistance strategy", emphasizing that the translation should maintain the flavor of the foreign language text and let readers feel the exotic customs. This kind of translation strategy is not only helpful for the translator to "manifest" in translation, but also more conducive to cultural exchange and supplement in the context of world cultural integration.

Contrary to the traditional view, hold that foreignization translation is a kind of recreation, and there is no strict boundary between creation, translation and research. The original is not self-made, but the author uses the long-standing cultural materials, after reorganization, according to some values. Different cultural places are the places for readers to understand. Therefore, Venuti believes that translation should not deny the necessity of "reserving differences" under the pretext of "seeking common ground". He believes that foreignization translation can not bring about the improvement of faithfulness, on the contrary, it is "the misuse of faithfulness". It will not only lose some characteristics of the original language, but also add new things. As a result, the translator appears and the independent status of translation is revealed..

2.4The Limitations of Foreignization Translation Theory

Translation is an activity of cross language and cultural communication, but the premise that can not be ignored is that the source language and the target language are different in ideology, values, habitual expression, logical thinking and so on. Venuti's foreignization strategy is to resist cultural hegemony when translating a weak culture into a strong one. For the weak culture and the marginalized and excluded culture, when they are translated into the strong culture by means of foreignization, the strategy is undoubtedly the best way to resist the strong culture and values and express ideas and culture. However, when a strong culture is translated into a weak culture in the same way, foreignization translation is likely to play a role in boosting the flames. In the face of superior British and American cultures, foreignized translation may subvert the norms of the target language, destroy the target language and the target language culture, or become the accomplice of cultural colonialists inadvertently.

Although foreignization translation reflects the characteristics of the source language and has positive significance for cultural communication, it imposes the language system and cultural phenomena in the source language on the target readers. For ordinary readers, without familiar language expression and the same cultural knowledge background, reading foreignization translation of foreign text will not only feel that the translation is obscure and difficult to understand, but also will gradually alienate or even exclude the foreign text. In this way, foreign texts will not be accepted by the public and can only be shelved.

Venuti says that the translator‟s invisibility raises such troubling questions about the geopolitical economy of culture that a greater suspicion toward translation is urgently needed to confront them. Foreignization is benefit for keeping the characteristics of the source-language texts. It changes the status of the translations. And at the same time, it can advance the translators. However, the transformation of translation ideology needs future more hospitable to the differences that the translator must negotiate.

The emergence and development of deconstructionism is a landmark in the history of both translation theory and practice. Before its appearance, all translation theories depend upon some notion of equivalence. As a deconstructionist, Venuti contributes much to translation studies. Venuti criticizes the ethnocentric and imperialist cultural consequences of the domestic values.Venuti says that the translator‟s invisibility raises such troubling questions about the geopolitical economy of culture that a greater suspicion toward translation is urgently needed to confront them. Foreignization is benefit for keeping the characteristics of the source-language texts. It changes the status of the translations. And at the same time, it can advance the translators. However, the transformation of translation ideology needs future more hospitable to the differences that the translator must negotiate.

Ⅲ.My Thought of "Visibility"&"Invisibility" in Translation Behavior

Venuti believes that in order to translate a good work, the translator must eliminate his sense of racial and cultural superiority, and try to retain the language style of the original text, so that the target language readers can be exposed to the original foreign language and culture, so as to promote the language and cultural exchange between countries. His foreignization translation strategy can make readers better understand foreign language characteristics, foreign culture, local customs, traditional customs and aesthetic habits.

By reading foreign versions, readers can learn different ways of thinking and language expression, thus expanding their horizons and enriching their own language and cultural knowledge. With the continuous development and evolution of language, foreignization translation plays an important role in promoting cultural exchange and absorbing vocabulary and language structure from different countries. It is precisely because of foreignization translation that many foreign words, such as sofa, salon, clone, generation gap, hot spot and so on, are often used in newspapers, magazines and literary works, which greatly enriches our language and culture. And the words developed from Chinese, such as kowtow, Taichi and kungfu, also have a firm foothold in English dictionaries. Under the background of world cultural integration, this kind of translation strategy is more conducive to cultural exchange and supplement.

The purpose of vernuti's foreignization translation is to pursue cultural diversity. This strategy can effectively resist the interference and tampering of British and American cultures on the inequality of weak cultures, so as to curb ethnocentrism and cultural hegemony. At the same time, he claims that the translator's "manifestation" is of positive significance to the affirmation of the translator's value and to the improvement of the translator's status. However, foreignization translation is not the best way to be universally accepted, and there are also limitations. Foreignization translation requires too much knowledge of readers and is not suitable for translating non literary texts. The strategy adopted in translation plays an important role in the translation, which determines what kind of translation will be produced in the end. Domestication translation and foreignization translation have their own advantages and disadvantages, and they play an irreplaceable role in each other. Therefore, in practice, no matter what translation strategy the translator chooses, he should consider the differences between readers' receptivity, text type and ideology, and strive to find a balance between different languages and cultures to achieve the best effect of equal communication.

Ⅳ.Conclusion

Throughout the history of western translation, we find that, in addition to the special historical period, the translator has been gradually pushed from behind the scenes to the front of the screen. The traditional translation theory holds that translators must abide by the principle of faithfulness, and there is only one correct translation. In this way, translators begin to become "invisible people". People ignore that translators are independent individuals in social life and have different understanding of the world, just like everyone else. Translation is a subjective activity. Translators play an important role in intercultural communication in the process of translation. Therefore, we should consider the translator's subjectivity in translation studies.

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Translation of Business Contracts from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory 胡瑾 Hu Jin 202070080591 英语笔译

胡瑾 Hu Jin

Abstract

With the rapid development of globalization in China and the increasing frequency of modern commercial activities, commercial contracts are particularly vital in order to ensure the smooth progress of commercial activities. In a business contract, it is required to ensure that the expression of any text in the contract is accurate as far as possible, and the same is true when translating it. Contracts provide vital basis for the smooth development of business and the protection of rights. Accurate and vivid translation of contracts has an important impetus to the development of business, the protection of rights and obligations and the resolution of disputes. Therefore, it is of practical significance to study the translation of business contracts. According to Nida's functional equivalence theory, equivalence is first realized in meaning and then in form. Dynamic equivalence is used to break the static equivalence and maximize the meaning of the translation. This thesis gives a preliminary introduction to the translation of business contracts, studies the application of functional equivalence theory in contract translation, and puts forward some major translation skills and methods, which will be of some guiding significance to the future translation of business contracts, thus avoiding unnecessary disputes between the two parties.

Key words

business contract; Functional Equivalence Theory; contract translation

摘要

随着中国全球化进程不断加快，现代商务活动日益频繁，为了确保商务活动的顺利进行，商务合同的签订显得尤为重要。在商务合同中，要求尽量确保合同中的每一个文字都表达准确，在对其进行翻译时也是如此。合同是确保业务开展顺利和进行权利保障的重要依托，对合同进行准确生动的翻译对业务的开展和权利、义务的保障以及出现争议时的解决等有着重要的推动力。因此，研究商务合同的翻译有一定的现实意义。根据奈达的功能对等理论，对等首先在意义上实现，然后在形式上实现，利用动态对等，打破静态对等，使译文意义最大化。此课题初步介绍了商务合同的翻译，研究了功能对等理论在合同翻译中的应用，提出了一些主要的翻译技巧和方法，对今后商务合同的翻译具有一定的指导作用，从而避免合同双方出现不必要的纠纷。

关键词

商务合同；功能对等理论；合同翻译

Introduction

Since China promoted the Silk Road Economic Belt, China's economic exchanges with other countries in the world have been increasing day by day. China's exports volume is also rising, and goods are exported to other countries in the world. In 2013, China overtook the United States as the world's largest trading nation. In this context, in order to ensure the smooth progress of transactions and reduce trade friction and disputes, commercial contracts, which have legal effect, have attracted more and more attention. Contract translation belongs to the category of legal translation. Accurate translation of contracts plays an important role in the development of business, the protection of rights and obligations, and the resolution of disputes. However, commercial disputes in China's foreign economic and trade business are very common, and many disputes are caused by various problems in contract translation. Therefore, they should be guided by scientific translation theories. (Jin Di 1998，112)

This paper mainly includes 3 chapters. The first chapter is the introduction of business English contracts, including the definition of business contract, the categories of business contract, and the linguistic features of English business contract. (Jin Di 1998，115)

The second chapter introduces the theoretical framework of functional equivalence translation, including Nida's main principles and viewpoints of functional equivalence translation theory and the feasibility of applying functional equivalence principle to business contract translation. The third chapter is the main part of the article, namely the translation techniques to be adopted in translating English contracts under the guidance of functional equivalence theory. (Jin Di 1998, 115)

Chapter1 General Introduction of Business Contract

This chapter first introduces the definition of business contract and the categories of business contract, and then analyzes the linguistic features of English business contract from lexical, syntactic and textual levels respectively.

1.1 Definition of Business Contract

As an important link in foreign trade activities, business contracts have always been highly valued by people. Article 2 of The PRC Contract Law clearly stipulates that commercial contract refers to the agreement clauses that are formally concluded according to law, notarized and must be abided by jointly in order to determine their respective rights and obligations during certain commercial cooperation between the parties concerned. It can be seen from this that a commercial contract is the result of the consensus reached by the parties and is a civil legal act. A legally established contract shall take effect from the date of its establishment and shall be legally binding. This provides a legal guarantee for avoiding trade frictions effectively. (Ma Huijuan 2005, 24)

However, special attention should be paid to the fact that China's Economic Law on Foreign Contracts stipulates that commercial contracts can take many forms, such as formal contracts, letters of intent, memorandum, agreements, commissioned purchase orders, etc. But no matter what form it takes, it should be signed in writing. Since the oral agreement cannot be submitted to the court as evidence after the dispute occurs.(Ma Huijuan 2005, 24)

1.2 Categories and Structure of Business Contract

Based on different standards, business contracts can be divided into many categories. According to the contract maker, they can be divided into sales contract (made by the seller) and purchase contract (made by the buyer); according to the subject matter, they can be divided into technology transfer contract, processing contract, foreign labor contract, and agency agreement, etc; according to the details of the contract, they can be divided into sales contract, sales confirmation letter, purchase contract and purchase confirmation letter; according to the price terms used in the contract, they can be divided into CIF contract, FOB contract and goods arrival contract, etc. (Ma Huijuan 2005, 26)

Although there are many types of commercial contracts, the structure of commercial contracts is generally fixed, generally including three parts: preface, text and contract end. The first part is the preface, which generally includes the name of the contract, the parties to the contract, the date of signing and the place of signing. The second part is the main body of the contract, which mainly stipulates the rights and obligations of both parties to the agreement, the specific conditions of the traded goods, such as commodity name, quantity, total value, delivery date and validity period, port of shipment and destination, insurance and confidentiality clauses, payment clauses,etc. The third part is the end, which mainly includes the signatures of all parties to the agreement, the language of the contract, the number of copies of the contract and the explanation of the validity of the contract. (Ma Huijuan 2005, 27)

1.3 A Contrastive Analysis of Stylistic Features of Chinese and English Business Contracts

English business contract style is solemn with the highest degree of formality among all styles of English. A comparative analysis of the similarities and differences between Chinese and English business contract in terms of vocabulary, syntax and discourse will be made in this chapter. (Wang Yang 2009, 13)

1.3.1 Lexical Features of Business Contracts

As the most basic semantic constituent unit, vocabulary plays the most basic and important role in the whole contract text. For the characteristics of words can often reflect the characteristics of the whole text. Therefore, it is necessary to study the characteristics of vocabulary so as to lay a foundation for the study of the whole text. (Wang Yang 2009, 30)

First of all, the use of archaism is the most prominent feature in international business contract English. The extensive use of archaic words in business contracts and legal styles fully reflects their solemn and serious style, which is related to the social function of English style of business contracts and the particularity of international business. The archaic words most commonly used in business contract English are compound adverbs, such as herewith(与此一道), therein(在其中)，therein-after(在下文中), thereof(其), thereto(附随), whereas(鉴于). (Wang Yang 2009, 34)

In contrast, some classical Chinese words are often used in Chinese business contract terms, such as“兹、若”. This is to reflect the conciseness and clarity of the Chinese contract text. Strictly speaking, Chinese business contract terms are more straightforward, the classical Chinese vocabulary is less frequently used, and the stylistic features are not as obvious as English business contracts. (Wang Yang 2009, 36)

Secondly, the use of synonyms is another feature of English business contracts. Two or more synonyms are often used together in English business contracts. And his is to make the terms of the contract more precise and accurate, and to avoid ambiguities and omissions as much as possible, for example, by and between, sole and exclusive, make and enter into, etc. (Wang Yang 2009, 37)

However, we must note that synonyms are not commonly used in Chinese business contracts. This is mainly because of the differences in expression habits between Chinese and English and the differences in legal and cultural traditions between countries. (Wang Yang 2009, 38)

Thirdly, as a contractual document with legal effect, legal terms are also used in the contract. In formal English business contracts, drafters often use “convene” instead of “hold or assemble”; “dispatch” instead of “spread out or handout”; “terminate” instead of “stop”. Similarly, in Chinese business contracts, interpreters use“承诺”to indicate “commitment”;“撤销”to indicate“cancel”instead of “取消”;“裁决” to mean “decision” instead of “决定”. Finally, the contract contains many professional knowledges and terminologies. (Wang Yang 2009, 40)

1.3.2 Syntax Features of English Business Contracts

Besides vocabulary, the syntax of business contracts also has their own characteristics, such as common clauses, declarative sentences, passive voice, modal verbs, etc. The most obvious feature in business contracts is the use of subordinate clauses. And they are in obvious positions to explain, restrict and supplement the meaning of the main sentence. The positions of these clauses are relatively flexible. For example, attributive clause can be placed together with the central word or separated from the central word. A noun can be modified by multiple attributive clauses, and an attributive clause can also modify multiple nouns. The adverbial clause of time can be placed at the beginning, the middle or the end of the sentence. (Wang Yang 2009, 44)

In contrast, the positions of attributive clauses and adverbial clauses in Chinese are relatively fixed. The adverbial clause of time is usually next to the modified verb because there is no temporal change in Chinese verbs. Declarative sentences are clear in meaning, division of powers and responsibilities, objective and fair in stating facts, and conform to the requirements of business contract terms. Therefore, they are frequently used in Chinese and English business contracts, while interrogative sentences, imperative sentences and exclamatory sentences are seldom used. (Wang Yang 2009, 45)

Passive sentences are also quite common in business contracts. The passive voice is often used when there is no need to clearly indicate the behavior agent and the emphasis is placed on the object of the behavior. (Wang Yang 2009, 47)

1.3.3 Textual Features of English Business Contracts

The textual features of Chinese and English business contracts are mainly reflected in textual cohesion and textual structure. In business contracts, whether Chinese or English, contextual cohesion is realized by adding conjunctions or repetitions of words, which indicates the logical relationship between sentences and reflects the rigour and solemnity of business contract language. (Ma Huijuan 2005, 45)

The discourse structure of Chinese and English business contracts is basically the same, with highly stylized features. (Ma Huijuan 2005, 47)

This kind of consistency is not only to obtain formal uniformity, but also due to the requirements of meaning, so that readers have the impression that the contents expressed by clauses with the same sentence pattern are equivalent in the legal effect of the contract.① (Liu Miqin 1998, 310-312)

Chapter 2 General Study of Functional Equivalence Theory

This chapter introduces Nida's functional equivalence translation theory and the feasibility of applying functional equivalence principle to business contract translation.

2.1 The Development of Functional Equivalence Theory

Nida first proposed the “dynamic equivalence” theory, then further developed the theory, emphasizing the equivalence of two aspects, namely “formal equivalence”and“dynamic equivalence”. “Formal equivalence” emphasizes the form and content of the information itself and believes that the translation should be close to the original structure. “Dynamic equivalence”refers to“reproducing source language information from semantics to style with the closest (original) natural equivalent in the recipient language”.② (Nida, E. A., and J. D., Ward 1986, 113-120 )

Tan Zaixi（谭载喜） pointed out, in this definition, there are three key points: 1. Natural, the translation cannot have a translationese. 2. Closeness, referring to selecting the translation with the closest meaning to the original text on the basis of nature. 3. Equivalence, which is the core. (Tan Zaixi 2004, 23-27)

After the proposal of dynamic equivalence, many disputes have arisen. It is considered as free translation or live translation. In order to change people's misunderstanding of it, Nida pointed out:“Everything in the text is meaningful, including speech forms, so forms cannot be sacrificed easily.”④ (Nida, E. A 1993, 119-130) Therefore, he replaced “dynamic equivalence” with “functional equivalence”. There is no essential difference between the two, but the latter highlights the concept of “function”.

On the question of which level of equivalence should be reflected, Nida pointed out that in addition to content and form equivalence, style equivalence should also be considered. (Nida, E. A 1993, 119-130)

In addition, Nida divided functional equivalence into “maximum functional equivalence” and “minimum functional equivalence” since absolute equivalence is impossible to achieve. The so-called “maximum functional equivalence” means that the target readers can understand the original text in a way consistent with the original readers and further appreciate the original text while “minimum functional equivalence” means that the target readers can understand how the original readers understand and appreciate the original through their understanding of the target text. (Nida, E. A 1993, 154)

2.2 Researches on Functional Equivalence Theory

Abroad, Beekman(1972: 32) pointed out:“Nida's functional equivalence theory makes theorists and translators believe that a good translation must be able to convey the meaning and dynamics of the original text at the same time.”⑤ (Beekman 1974, 191-221)

Wilss(2001: 51) stressed:“Nida's functional equivalence theory can be applied to translation practice because it can achieve effective translation.”⑥ (Wilss 2001, 72-86) Venuti said:“Functional equivalence theory also eases the debate between translators on“domestication” and “foreignization” from the perspective of language and culture.”⑦ (Venuti 1995, 76-89)

At home, Jin Di(金堤) put forward“equivalence theory”on the basis of“functional equivalence theory”, and applied it to the translation of Ulysses, which illustrates the feasibility of“functional equivalence” theory in practical translation. Tan Zaixi made a comprehensive and systematic summary of the formation process of Nida's translation theory and its profound connotation. In addition, in the CNKI database, retrieval using“functional equivalence theory” as the key word shows that there are 2444 related articles in various core journals and magazines. (Jin Di 1998, 122)

2.3 Applicability of Functional Equivalence Theory to E-C Translation of Business Contract

At present, there are no authoritative translation principles and standards for commercial contract translation, but the three principles of contract translation put forward by Ma Huijuan(马会娟) are highly recognized: First, the words used are accurate and the translation is complete. The translator shall not add, delete or change any information contained in the contract at will. The language of the translation shall be accurate, complete and natural. Second, the organization is clear and the format is equivalent. The translation should correspond to the original text format as a whole and reproduce the structural features of the source language as much as possible. Third, the translation should be in line with the stylistic characteristics of the contract. (Ma Huijuan 2005, 134)

Functional equivalence theory emphasizes content equivalence, form equivalence and style equivalence. These three requirements are consistent with the three principles above put forward by Ma Huijuan respectively. Both of them limit the translation standards from the aspects of content, form and style. Therefore, the functional equivalence theory can be fully applied to the translation practice of business contracts. (Ma Huijuan 2005, 154)

Chapter 3 Business Contract Translation Guided by Functional Equivalence Theory

This part focuses on the translation techniques to be adopted in translating English contracts under the guidance of functional equivalence theory. Combining with actual translation cases, this chapter analyzes the common problems in contract translation and puts forward corresponding solutions. (Miao Xipu 2011, 78)

3.1 Equivalence at the Lexical Level

Vocabulary is the basic component of sentences and chapters. In the specific translation process, if vocabulary translation is not handled well, sentence and chapter translation will be impossible. (Miao Xipu 2011, 98)

3.1.1 Equivalence of Technical Terms—Literal Translation and Free Translation

The contents of business contracts involve all trades and professions, and there are many subject matters, including many professional knowledge and terminology, which is a big obstacle for many translators who do not know the professional knowledge of the industry. Therefore, before translation, translators should understand the relevant industries involved in the contract and master the necessary knowledge in the industry so as to avoid the layman's words and semantic errors in the translation, which will affect the accuracy and formality of the contract and cannot achieve functional equivalence. (Miao Xipu 2011, 116)

Example1:“The balance 80% (Eighty percent) of the contract value shall be paid against irrevocable L/C at 360 days sight to be accepted by both parties.”

译文：“合同金额的80%（百分之八十）以不可撤销信用证的方式在交单的360天予以支付。”

Many words in the contract appear in the form of letter abbreviations. As shown in this example,“L/C”is the abbreviation of letter of credit, which is translated literally into“信用证”. This is a well-established translation method in the industry, which can reflect both the equivalence of meaning and the professionalism of language expression. (Liao Ying 2005, 23)

Example2:“The seller shall present the following documents required for negotiation or collection to the banks.”

译文:“卖方应向银行提交议付或托收所需的下列文件。”

In this sentence,“negotiation”and“collection”are both technical terms of the contract, they are translated into“议付”and“托收” respectively, instead of“谈判”and“收取”. The expressions not only conform to the professional expression of the economic and trade industry, but also accurately reflect the meaning of the original text and achieve the meaning and style equivalence emphasized by the functional equivalence theory. (Liao Ying 2005, 34)

Example3:“UNIT PRICES: FOB Xingang, Tianjing USD 22 150.00 per unit (US Dollars twenty two thousand, one hundred and fifty only).”

译文:“单价: FOB天津新港, 每辆22150.00美元（贰万贰仟壹佰伍拾美元）。”

In this example,“FOB”is an abbreviation of “Free on board”. It can be translated into “FOB” by free translation or by shifting translation. This is mainly because the readers of business contracts themselves are professionals in the industry. They usually exchange price terms in the form of English letters and abbreviations in their daily work. Therefore, when translating such price terms, their source language expressions can be retained. (Liao Ying 2005, 43)

3.1.2 Equivalence of Archaism—Omission, Addition and Literal Translation

Archaisms are rarely used in modern English, but they are still common in business contracts. They can not only reflect the formal rigour of business contracts, but also highlight the conciseness and clarity of language. The archaisms most commonly used in English business contract are compound adverbs, such as herewith(与此一道), therein(在其中), hereinafter(在下文中), thereof(其), thereto(附随), whereas(鉴于), etc. (Miao Xipu 2011, 118)

Example1:“The parties hereto shall, first of all, settle any dispute arising from or in connection with the contract through amicable negotiation.”

译文:“合同双方首先应该通过友好协商，解决因合同而发生的或与合同相关的争议。”

In this example,“hereto”means“本协议的、本合同的”. It can be translated with omission. The contract subject relationship is clear, literal translation will only lead to redundant repetition of the translation, so there is no need to translate it. (Liao Ying 2005, 50)

Example2: Now, therefore, in consideration of the recitals set forth above and the mutual covenants, promises, and agreements contained herein, and other good and valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which are hereby acknowledged, the Parties do hereby agree as follows:

译文：因此，考虑到上述陈述和本协议中包含的共同契约、承诺和协议，以及其他良好和有价值的对价，双方特此达成如下协议，特此确认其接收和充分性。

In this example, herein usually means“此中，于此”. But such translation here will confuse readers. Therefore, we can adopt addition and translate it into“此协议中”. Although this expression is not as concise as“于此”, accuracy is the first requirement in contract translation. (Liao Ying 2005, 53)

Example3: After arrival of goods at port of destination, the buyer shall apply to China Commodity Inspection Bureau (hereinafter referred to as CCIB) for a further inspection as to the specifications and quantity/weight of the goods.

译文：货到目的港后，买方将申请中国商品检验局(以下简称商检局)对货物的规格和数量重量进行检验。

In this case, the original meaning of“hereinafter”is“以下，在下文中”. Its original meaning is directly inserted into the sentence, which not only accurately expresses the original meaning, but also makes the translated language natural and smooth, meeting the requirements of functional equivalence theory. (Liao Ying 2005, 63)

3.1.3 Equivalence of Formal Words—Literal Translation

“Functional Equivalence”emphasizes the transmission of reading experience, requiring the translator to transmit not only language functions but also legal functions, so as to enable the target readers to feel the reading experience of the original readers. (Miao Xipu 2011, 122)

Example1: The agreement does not operate as an acceptance of any conflicting terms and conditions and shall prevail over any conflicting provision of any purchase order or any other instrument of Customer.

译文：本协议不接受任何与本协议产生冲突的任何条款。若在乙方订单或任何文件中出现与本协议相冲突的条款，应均以本协议为准。

Example2:“Time of shipment: within 15 days after receipt of the advance payment and the L/C of balance value to be accepted by the × Bank.”

译文:“装运日期：收到预付款且剩余货款的信用证被××银行承兑后的15天内装运。”

In the first example, although the basic meaning of“胜过”is also expressed, it is usually translated into“以....为准” or “效力高于”in legal texts. In the second example, the common meaning of“accept”is “接受”, but in legal translation it is usually translated as “承兑”. Formal words are usually translated according to conventions, so the difficulty in translation lies not in the choice of translation strategies, but in the grasp of semantics and the reproduction of style. (Miao Xipu 2011, 113)

3.1.4 Equivalence of Juxtaposition—Contracted Translation

English business contracts often use two or more synonyms to ensure the uniqueness of words meaning. The functional equivalence theory emphasizes the equivalence of meaning and form, but in the actual translation process, the absolute equivalence between the two, that is, the “maximum functional equivalence”proposed by Nida, is impossible to realize. (Miao Xipu 2011, 115)

Example1:“The agreement is made and entered into on April 16, 2007 by and between Party A and Party B.”

译文:“此合同由甲乙双方于2007年4月16日达成。”

In this example,“made and entered into”and“by and between”are juxtaposed by two pairs of synonyms. When translating, these words only need translate once, which is called contracted translation. (Liao Ying 2005, 83)

Example2: This agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof and supersedes all prior agreements, understanding, warranties, representations, negotiations and discussion, whether oral or written, of the parties except as specifically set forth herein.

译文：此合同是双方就合同主体所达成的全部协议，将取代双方过往所有口头或书面的协议、理解、声明、保证、谈判和讨论，在此明确阐明的除外。

In this example, several synonyms are juxtaposed to make the terms of the contract include all relevant matters as much as possible so as to make the writing strict and clear. Here, we can adopt literal translation strategy, keeping the total number of words listed in the original text, and looking for the corresponding Chinese words to achieve the double equivalence of content and form. (Miao Xipu 2011, 116)

3.2 Equivalence at the Syntactic Level

Cliches are commonly used in official documents and usually have fixed translation methods. Passive sentences and subordinate clauses have long sentence patterns and complicated logical relations, which tests the translator's translation ability and logical expression ability. (Miao Xipu 2011, 122)

3.2.1 Conventional Phrases—Imitation Translation

There are many cliches in business contracts, which are common at the beginning and end of contracts. (Miao Xipu 2011, 139)

Example1:“In consideration of the mutual covenants contained in this agreement, the parties agree as follows:”

译文:“考虑到本协议中的共同承诺，协议双方约定如下:”

Example2: This Agreement may be executed in two or more counterparts, each of which shall be deemed an original and all of which together shall constitute one instrument.

译文：本协议可签署两个或两个以上的副本，每一副本构成本协议的一份原件，所有副本构成一份法律文件。

Although the original expression of each text is not the same, the basic meaning is the same. A relatively fixed translation method has been formed, so the translators should know the common expressions in advance, or look for the parallel text to imitate the translation. (Miao Xipu 2011, 140)

3.2.2 Equivalence of Passive Sentence

Passive voice is a typical language structure in English business contracts. It can effectively show the objectivity and fairness of contracts. However, unlike English, passive voice is seldom used in Chinese. Therefore, in translation, we usually use various translation strategies to convert passive voice into active voice. The most common translation strategy is conversion, that is, the object of the original text is converted into the subject, and the subject is converted into the object. (Miao Xipu 2011, 150)

Example1: This Contract is made by and between the Buyer and the Seller whereby the Buyer agree to buy and the Seller agrees to sell the commodity in attached Annex according to the terms and condition stipulated below:

译文：买卖双方同意按下述条款购买出售附件中的商品并签订本合同：

Example2: Agent shall be entitled to nominate mandate other third parties to act upon behalf of Agent in generating business to the Parties, as Agent’s sole discretion.

译文：代理人有权自行指定、授权其他第三方代表代理人为缔约方带来业务。

From the first example, “by and between” is used as adverbial in the sentence. The object“the Buyer and the Seller” is the originator of this sentence, which is transformed into the subject of Chinese, and the recipient of the action“this contract”is transformed into the object of Chinese, thus the passive sentence of English is transformed into the active sentence of Chinese. In addition, some passive sentences in business contracts can also be translated into active sentences without changing the subject of the original sentence, as shown in the second example. (Miao Xipu 2011, 158)

3.2.3 Equivalence of Long Sentence—Combination, Division and Reconstruction

Long sentences must contain many clauses and modifiers, and their writing ideas are quite different from those of Chinese. Therefore, how to split the sentences into several parts, how to extract the core meaning of complex logical relations and how to reorganize Chinese are the three major difficulties. (Miao Xipu 2011, 188)

Example1: Agent’s undertaking and obligation is to search, locate and refer (lead) potential and prospective clients/customers to Principal who are seriously interested, ready, willing and able to apply for the Product.

译文：代理人的责任和义务是为委托人寻找、定位和推荐（引导）潜在的、真正对本产品感兴趣、准备好且愿意申请的客户。

This is a restrictive attributive clause. We often adopt a combination method, translating the subordinate clause into“...的” and putting it before the modifier in the form of adjectives. This is mainly due to the structural differences between English and Chinese. The attributive elements in Chinese are not as flexible as the attributive clauses in English. (Miao Xipu 2011, 190)

Example2: The parties may not assign or transfer this Agreement or any of its rights and obligations under this Agreement without the prior written consent of the other party, which shall not be unreasonably withheld.

译文：未经另一方事先书面同意，缔约方不得出让或转让本协议或本协议项下的各项权利和义务，此要求不得被无理拒绝。

This sentence is a non-restrictive attributive clause. Since this clause and the antecedent are not closely related and generally play an explanatory role, we often use division method in E-C translation. That is to say, the two should be separated and naturally combined by repeating antecedents. (Miao Xipu 2011, 192)

Example3: Should Principal be reasonably sure that Agent violated this rule, or should any client/customer present proof of such violation, Agent will not be entitled to its omission for the particular client or group of clients and Principal may terminate this Agreement with immediate effect at its own discretion.

译文：如果委托人有理由确定代理人违反了此项规定，或如果有客户提供了其违反此项规定的证据，代理人将无权享这一客户或这一组客户的佣金，委托人可自行终止本协议，即刻生效。

This sentence is a adverbial clause. The structure of“should+subject+verb”belongs to the unreal conditional sentence. But there is no such usage in Chinese. Therefore, we can reconstruct the original text according to the logical structure of the original sentence and adjust the word order appropriately to make it natural and more in line with the Chinese expression habits. (Liao Ying 2005, 103)

3.3 Equivalence at Textual Level

The text consists of sentences, so the following focuses on the cohesion and format of the text. (Miao Xipu 2011, 218)

3.3.1 Text Cohesion

Text cohesion is realized through the use of conjunctions and lexical repetition, reflecting the rigour and solemnity of business contract language. (Miao Xipu 2011, 228)

Example: Thereafter, this Agreement shall be renewed automatically for successive additional one-year terms under the same terms and conditions unless either party chooses not to continue the relationship and provides written notice 30 days prior to the natural expiration of the existing one-year term.

译文：此后，本协议应以同样的条款自动延期一年，除非任何一方选择解除合作关系，并在一年合同期满前30天提交书面通知。

Here, explicit connectives,“thereafter, and, unless”are clearly translated, which is conducive to textual cohesion and indicates the logical relationship between sentences. Therefore, we can translate them into “此后、和/并、除非”, which not only realizes the formal equivalence between the translation and the original, but also achieves the semantic equivalence. (Liao Ying 2005, 213)

3.3.2 Text Format

As one kind of legal documents, commercial contracts are highly normative and have strict writing format. Therefore, attention should be paid to the corresponding format in translation. (Miao Xipu 2011, 238)

Contract No: ××××××

Date: Aug. ××,2013

The Buyer: ××××××( hereinafter referred to as ×××)

Legal Address: ××××××

Representative: ××××××

Tel/Fax: ××××××

The seller: ××××××( hereinafter referred to as ×××)

Legal Address: ×××××

Representative: ××××××

Tel/Fax: ××××××

译文：合同编号：××××××

日期：2013年8月×号

买方：××××××（以下简称××××）

注册地址：××××××

代表人：××××××

电话/传真：××××××

卖方：××××××（以下简称××××）

注册地址：××××××

代表人：××××××

电话/传真：××××××

Here, we should pay attention to the linear characteristics of the contract text, and keep the format of translation and original text in alignment during translation. Firstly, capital words with the first letter should be emphasized in terms consistent with Chinese expression habits. Secondly, the parts marked in bold or italics in the contract shall still be marked in bold or italics in the translation. (Liao Ying 2005, 223)

Conclusion

To sum up, according to the requirements of functional equivalence theory on translation quality, commercial contract translation should meet the following standards: In terms of content, first, the translation language should be natural and fluent and conform to Chinese expression habits. Second, pay attention to the professionalism of the language expression in the translation, avoid using colloquial expressions, and achieve the meaning equivalence emphasized by functional equivalence theory. (JIn Di 1998, 298)

In terms of format, we should pay attention to the linear characteristics of the commercial contract text and try our best to achieve the formal equivalence emphasized by functional equivalence theory. (JIn Di 1998, 298)

In terms of language style, the translation should retain the original language style as much as possible. The business contract language is professional and solemn, so the translation should reproduce the strict and formal legal style of the original text on the premise of ensuring accurate content and natural language. (JIn Di 1998, 298)

Under the guidance of functional equivalence theory, this paper analyzes and summarizes specific contract terms and puts forward countermeasures. Although the translation strategies given in this paper have certain universality, the research text is slightly narrower than that of the whole commercial contract text research. Due to the space limitation, the cases provided are limited. Therefore, the scope of the research text should be broadened and analyzed from a broader research perspective in future research. (JIn Di 1998, 310)

Reference

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The identity of translator in translation activities张毓婕 Zhang Yujie 202070080626 MTI英语笔译

Abstract

In translation activities, translators have freedom in the choice of texts to be translated and translation strategies. They also have freedom in the choice of ways to understand the author’s emotions and values and reproduce the connotations and cultural flavor of the text. And Only when translators truly realize what roles they should play in translation activities and play these roles well can they create high-quality translations. Therefore, the translation is deeply imprinted by the translator, and the roles of the translator have become an important issue that cannot be ignored in translation studies. And with the development of translation studies, the issue of translator's identity has received due attention. This article also discusses the issue of translator’s identity.

Key words

Identity of translator, Translation activities, Roles of today’s translator

题目

论翻译活动中译者的身份

摘要

翻译活动中，译者既可以在翻译文本、翻译策略的选择上发挥主观能动性，也可以在对作者情感和价值观的理解、语言的选择、文化风味的重现上发挥主观能动性。而只有译者真正认识到自己在翻译活动中应该扮演什么角色并且扮演好这种角色，他们才能创造出高质量的译作。因而译作深深地打上了译者的烙印，译者的身份角色成为翻译研究中不可忽视的一个重要问题。而随着翻译实践的发展，译者的身份问题受到了应有的重视，本文也对这一问题进行了探讨。

关键词

译者的身份，翻译活动，当今译者的角色

Introduction

It is vital for translators to play roles well in the accomplishment of high-quality translations. Therefore, the identity of translator is an important issue in translation studies and much attention should be paid to it. As for this paper, first of all, it makes an analysis of the importance and necessity of valuing the issue of translator’s identity. Then, it expounds different kinds of roles translators have played in the history. Next, it concludes the features of the changes of translator’s identity and its complexity. Finally, from the perspective of today’s translators, it shows what roles today’s translators should play with today’s development of society and technologies, so as to explain how can we make more contributions to culture and development of the world.

1.The Importance and Necessity of valuing the issue of translator's identity

Two scholars Zhong Weihe and Zhou Jing made the following overview: as the subject of translation, translators need to respect the objective translation environment and fully understand the cultural needs of the target language, and they must also show their self-consciousness through subjective initiative. For example, they can show it through language operations, cultural characteristics, artistic creations, aesthetic standards, and humanistic characters. In addition, they must give full play to their autonomy, initiative, purpose, creativity, and acceptance. This is the subjectivity of translation. （Zhong and Zhou, 2006）

The two scholars not only pointed out the objective conditions that translators need to consider in translation activities, but also further explained that translators need to stimulate their subjective initiative and creativity, which is very enlightening. The translator’s activity is the specific translation behavior, that is, the conversion between two different languages and cultures. He can be creative and active in the choice of the text to be translated, the order of translation and translation strategies. The translated version is also deeply imprinted by the translator. Although the translation is derived from the original, it is no longer the original and have a new life. In addition, the translator can not only give the original work a new look, but also decide which new look to give it, so that it will be presented to the target language readers in an acceptable appearance. Therefore, the identity of the translator runs through the entire translation activity and is closely linked to the original and translated works. It is an important issue worthy of our attention.（Zhong and Zhou, 2006）

2.Different Kinds of Roles Translators Have played in History

2.1 The Identity of Translator Under the Source Language Centralism

Under the source language centralism, the purpose of translation is to reproduce the author’s original meaning and the highest standard of translation is being faithful to the original text. In these translation theories, translators’ cultural status is marginalized, and many of these translators are invisible, given various kinds of humble titles and roles.

2.1.1 Translator as a Servant

There are certain common cognition and understandings of the identity of translators in China and western countries. Due to their long-exist limitations in public awareness of translation activities and the low social status of translators, translators were once generally regarded as playing the "servant role" both in the East and the West.

John Dryden compares a translator to a slave, thinking that the "slave" can only work in someone else's manor, manuring and pruning the grapes, while the wine produced belongs to the owner. （Tan, 1991）

American modern translator Weinberger complained that although his translation works had attracted millions of readers, there was no his name on the cover of the translations, so he was merely an unsung hero.

Yang Jiang also said in her book Experience of Failures-Trial Translation "At least, this is a hard job, because translators as servants have to follow the master and cannot be self-assertive. Moreover, a servant serves two masters at the same time: one is the original text, and the other is the readers of his translation." (Jin and Huang, 2019)

The identity of servant requires translators to be completely faithful to the original text, adhere to the source-centered and author-centered theory, and not be affected by their own emotions and values. Playing this kind of role, the translator should only faithfully convey the connotation of the text and the author's original intention, so the translator is like a slave in shackles without personal freedom, and can only follow the author in anywhere. Of course, it is true that translators’ playing a role as a servant can help translators to faithfully restore the author’s intention and not distorting his original meanings to meet the requirements of “faithfulness” and “loyalty”, but this kind of theory ignores the translator’s subjectivity and will place translators in a very low social status. Just as an ancient craftsman did not have the right to sign his name on his carvings, a translator also doesn’t have this kind of right and is neglected in their translations.

Therefore, this theory reveals various prejudices and disregard of public to translators. And even in today’s China with prosperous economy and society, most people still hold the view that translation is merely the mechanical conversion of the source language and the target language. They believe that if they understand English, they are absolutely qualified for the job of translation. At the same time, a lot of issues such as a chaotic translation market, low salary for translators, talent shortage in translation and gloomy employment prospects are very prominent. What’s more, even in the Chinese translation circles, there are long-exist serious problem of "seeing things but not people". Translators have a low status in the literary world and are treated with indifference and contempt. And their fruits are not valued or even recognized on many occasions.

2.1.2 Translator as An Invisible Person

One topic that has been heatly debated for a long time in the translation world is that whether translators should be invisible or visible in translation. The translator's "invisibility" and "visibility" have their own purpose and theoretical basis respectively, but both "invisibility" or "visibility" are translators’ own choices made after deliberations.

Venuti, the translation theorist of deconstruction, explained invisibility in his monograph The Translators Invisibility A History of Translation with Norman Shapiro's words and he thought that the translation should be transparent so that it does not look like the translation. A good translation is like a piece of glass. There are only small imperfections on the glass like scratches and bubbles. And the ideal is to have nothing. The translation should never cause readers to feel that they are reading the translation. (Venuti, 1995)

Qian Zhongshu also had similar points of view and stated in the article The Translation of Lin Shu that "The highest standard of literary translation is 'sublimation'." In translation, if you can not only not show the traces of being blunt and far-fetched due to the differences of language habits, but also completely preserve the original flavor, then it will meet requirements of "sublimation". In the seventeenth century, someone praised this kind of translation as "the transmigration of souls" of the original text, whose body was changed and the spirit remained the same. In other words, the translation should be so faithful to the original that it does not read like the translation, because the original work will never read as if it is translated from somewhere else. （Qian，1984）

The French translation theorist Munin once wrote in his translation monograph Les Belles Infideles "The ideal translator, as defined by Gogol, should turn into a glass, so transparent that readers can't even feel its existence."

The "invisible" identity of the translator means that the translator can reproduce the spiritual essence and style of the source text naturally, so as to achieve the "transparency" of the translation and the "invisibility" of the translator. The translation needs to be fluent and natural, in line with the reading habits of the target language readers, and translators should avoid obscure word choice and mechanical sentence conversion. While reading the translated text, readers should not feel the existence of the translator and the influences he exerts on the text. And when the translator is nowhere to be seen and felt in the text, we can say that the translator's "invisibility" has been achieved. This requires translators to pay attention to three points that are often emphasized in traditional translation theories: one is that the translator should not incorporate their own emotions and values in the translation; the second is that the translator should not show his or her own personality in the translation; the third is that in translation the author should be based on the original text and follow the author in each choice. （Xu，2003）

2.1.3 Translator as a Painter

Dryden once compared the translator to a painter. He advocated the translation view of comparing translation to painting. In translation, a translator should regard the original text as a model, and use his own colors to express the power and effect of the original text. The earliest Chinese translator who used metaphor like this was Chen Xiying. He believed that translation is the same as a painting, although imitation is the most important, the colors used in the copy of a painting and the painting itself are the same. While the languages and strategies used in the original text and the translated version are totally different. On the other hand, a person who can appreciate the original painting has the ability to appreciate the copy one, while most people who can read the original book cannot read the translated version, and most people who can read the translation cannot understand the original text. This is the first difficulty the translator will face. And Chinese are much more familiar with Fu Lei’s statement, “In terms of effect, translation should be like a painting, and what you should restore is not the form but the spirit.” This theory extracts the common characteristics of translation and painting, and vividly elaborates the process and details of translation activities.

2.2The Identity of Translator Under the Translator Centralism

In 1980s, there was a cultural turn of translation studies in western countries from language translation to cultural translation. Translation theorists began to study translation with valuable theories from other subjects such as Semiotics, Hermeneutics, Philosophy, Literature and so on, which helped them to improve the traditional translation models. The subjectivity of translators were valued at that time and there appeared various kinds of roles of translators which emphasized the creativity, imagination, and activity of translators.

2.2.1 Translator as a Manipulator

The manipulator status of the translator originated from the manipulation school. Manipulation school was an important part of the cultural school of translation studies in the 1980s. It was developed in the category of comparative literature. The main representatives are Hesman and Lefevre. Hesman said: From the perspective of the target text, all translations are manipulations of the original text for a certain purpose. Lefevre combines translation studies with power, ideology, patronage, and poetics and believed: “Translation, of course, is a rewriting of the original text. Rewriting is manipulation.” （Lefevere, 2010）The manipulation school is different from those schools that put "loyalty" and "faithfulness" in the most important place. Its representatives believe that translation is the manipulation and rewriting of the original text, the translator is the manipulator of the text, and the translation and the original text are both important. This theory is contrary to the original work-centered theory and author-centered theory, and is subversive to the previous translation theories. It shifts the focus of translation from the original author to the translator, which is conducive to improve the status of translators. They also particularly emphasized the status of culture in translation and the significance of translation to culture. They believed that the purpose of translation is not to simply complete the conversion of words, phrases and sentences, but to achieve cultural correspondence, so that the cultural meanings conveyed by the translation is consistent with the cultural meanings in the original text.

2.2.2 Translator as a Writer

Women and translation have been long connected with each other for both of them occupy very humble positions. The traditional view holds that translation is considered as a secondary work dependent on and subservient to the original text, just as women are inferior to men under patriarchal power.

Feminist translation theory came into being in a wave of opposition to this kind of traditional thought. It combined feminism and translation, and its representatives put forward many translation viewpoints influenced by feminism, providing a new perspective for translation studies and subverting the traditional translation theory. The representatives of feminist translation theory include Sherry Simon, Lori Chambelain, Luise von Flotow, etc. Thus, translation studies began to distrust the traditional hierarchical order and gender roles, and began to question the faithful rules and universal standards of meaning and value. They believed that translators should not be faithful to the original text or the author, but the identity and discourse power of women. The purpose of translation is to make language speak for women, improve their status and liberate women through language. Feminist translators revealed many sexist words and phrases in translation, re-examined the relationship between the original text and the translated version, advocated rewriting translation strategies, and required feminist intervention and rewriting of the original text. In this way, feminist translation theorists improved the status of translators and helped them to go to the front of the stage from behind the scenes, playing the role of an author.

2.2.3 Translator as a Conqueror

As a social practice activity, translation is also a product of political thoughts and ideologies in a sense. When translators deal with cultural phenomena in translation, they will always be consciously or unconsciously affected by their political stance and ideologies, and the translator’s cultural identity and cultural attitude are always political. Therefore, the translated text is not exactly equivalent to the original, because in the process of translation, translators will add their own feelings and values to the translated version. What's more, some people think that translators are aggressors, and the purpose of translation is to impose one culture on another, such as the translations serving as a tool for the construction of subjectivity of colonialism in the process of colonization and maintaining cultural hierarchy after the end of the colonial era. This type of translation is used as a tool for political purpose and is just like a conqueror.

2.2.4 The Translator's "Independent" Status

Post-colonial research in the field of modern translation believes that translation has three functions: (1) the means of colonization (2) the lightning rod for cultural inequality (3) the tools of decolonization.(Robinson, 1997) As is mentioned above, when translators deal with cultural phenomena in translation, they will always be consciously or unconsciously influenced by their own political stance and ideologies, and thus become a tool for cultural expansion and maintaining cultural hierarchy in the colonial era. Similarly, this tool can also be applied to the activities of anti-colonialism. In fact, in the process of anti-colonialism, translation has also played an important role, providing a stage for anti-colonialism activities and becoming a tool used by the colonized to get rid of the colonial yoke and weaken cultural hegemony.

2.2.5 Translator as a Creative Rebel

The term creative rebellion comes from French literary sociologist Robert Escarpit. He holds the view that translation is rebellious, because it puts the work in a completely unexpected reference system (referring to language); Translation is creative, because it gives the work a new look and makes it more comprehensive. So that readers can have a brand-new literary exchange.（Escarpit, 1987）On the one hand, this theory believes that translation is creative in the process of translation, in order to restore the original contents and cultural flavor, the translator must use his creativity and imagination to find suitable words and styles in the target language to stimulate readers to have similar associations. This is a kind of creative work that can give the original work a new life in a new language. On the other hand, translation is rebellious. When using the target language to restore the connotations of the original text, the translator must discard some of the original form. Creative rebellion can be divided into three types: the creative rebellion of the translator, the creative rebellion of the recipient, and the creative rebellion of the receiving environment. The creative treason of the translator can be conscious and unconscious, such as personalized translation, mistranslation, omission, compilation, adaptation and so on.

2.2.6 Translator as a Language Quality Controller(Li and He, 2018)

In recent years, with the development of the world economy and internet technology, computer-assisted translation has become more and more popular. It has overturned the traditional translation model and most of the work of language conversion is completed by computers instead of translators. However, although the computer can complete the task of translation, the translated texts usually don’t have a very high quality and need to be improved by human translators. Especially in literary translation, as we all know, when translating a literal work, translators need to have sufficient cultural background knowledge, and in the process of literal translation, they must put themselves into the author’s context and fully understand his emotions, attitudes and values in order to create translations with high quality. This is something that computer translation software are unable to achieve. Therefore, translators play the role of processing, modifying, and polishing the texts produced by computers. They are the controllers of language quality, making up for the flaws in the translation given by the computer, ensuring the fluency of the translation and choosing an appropriate style for it. This identity of the translator does not mean that the translator is marginalized again and in a low position. On the contrary, translators are playing an irreplaceable role in ensuring the quality of translation.

3.The Features of the Changes of Translator’s Identity and Its Complexity

3.1 The Identity of Translators Changed from Invisible to Visible, from Subordinate to Dominant, from Author-centered to Translator-centered.

At the beginning, due to the limitations of people’s understanding about translation activities, translators had low social status, and most of them played the roles of "invisible man", "slave", "servant" and "painter". The author and the original text were the center of translation activities, while the translators were marginalized.

Later, with the cultural turn of translation studies, translators gradually got rid of the shackles, moved from behind the scenes to the front stage, and became the subject of translation activities. （Yao, 1996）This feature is reflected in translation views of manipulation school, feminist translation theories, creative treason translation views and post-colonial translation views. At that time, translators played many other roles, such as "manipulator", "writer", "creative rebel", "conqueror “and so on.

Nowadays, with the rise of computer-assisted translation technology, translators have gained more roles such as "language quality controller", "learners of new technology and new knowledge" and so on. Although part of the translator's work is done by a computer now, this is not a manifestation of the translator's marginalization again, but a manifestation of the translator's freedom and subjectivity.

Therefore, translators today should grasp the trend of the evolution of the translator's identity, give full play to their subjective initiative in translation practice, and avoid becoming servants or slaves of the original text. At the same time, this does not mean that the translator can distort the author’s original meaning arbitrarily. Translation is just like “dancing with shackles". On the one hand, we should be faithful to the author and adhere to certain translation principles. One the other hand, we can adjust our translation strategies according to our purposes of translation and find a good way to restore the feelings, values and attitude of the original author as well as cultural flavor of the original text. In this way, the translator can present a high-quality translation to readers.

3.2 The Identity and Status of Translators are Closely connected with the Era

Throughout the history of translation studies at home and abroad, the role of the translator was ignored in the early translation studies due to the limitations of the times, and translators had a low cultural and social status. It was not until the cultural turn in the 1970s that translators truly moved from behind the scenes to the foreground. We can say that the shift of the focus of translation studies and the change of the identity of translators are deeply influenced by the time and cultural backgrounds. For example, in the 1970s, the slogan "women must be liberated from language, and women's liberation must start with language" emerged and translation had always been in a position similar to that of "women" in its own hierarchical structure. Therefore, the feminist translation theory rose and its representative translation theorists revealed discriminations in the field of translation, and liberated women by liberating translation. Another example is that many translated works under colonial expansion and anti-colonial struggle have obvious ideological characteristics, and translators of that time hoped to use culture as a tool to achieve certain political goals.

3.3 Complexity of Translation Activities and the Identity of Translators

In different times, the identity of translator is complicated. Faced with different works, the identity of translator changes, because translators different purposes and needs when translating different works. Even when the translator is only faced with one work, in many cases, the identity of the translator will not be a single one, but a combination of multiple identities. It is the integration of these identities that makes the translation more smooth and complete. For example, with the rise of computer-assisted translation technology, translators have multiple identities such as "learner of new knowledge and new technology", "selector of the style", and "controller of language quality". Translators can play different roles for different translation purposes and requirements as well as in different steps of translation.

4. The Roles of Today’s Translators

4.1 Dancers in Shackles.

Historically, there are many arguments about whether translators should be visible or invisible, a servant or a master. From today’s point of view, translators should keep a balance between them. They should not merely follow the author’s steps, and be the “servant” of the original text, nor should they believe that they can distort and rewrite the original text arbitrarily. Instead, they should act as a dancer in shackles. The translator should not only be faithful to the original text, adhere to specific translation standards and principles, carefully consider the choice of words and sentences, but also give full play to his subjective initiative and choose the most appropriate, natural and easily acceptable languages to convey the connotations of the original text.

4.2 Megaphones of Real Problems.

Feminist translation theory combined feminism with translation, and at that time translation became a tool for women to fight for independence and liberation. This reflects that translations are instrumental in reflecting social problems and seeking appropriate solutions to them. Excellent translation theorists can not only pay attention to the text translation itself, but also pay attention to the reflecting and solving of realistic issues in the field of translation and using translation as a tool to reasonably convey their appeals to the public on behalf of a specific group.

4.3 Learners who Keep up With the Time.

Translation is progressing with the time developing. If you stand still, you will lose out, and so will translators. They need to continuously learn new translation theories and accumulate more experience in practice in order to create excellent translation works. In addition, they must continue to learn new technologies and other new knowledge, such as computer-assisted translation technology, so that they can not only keep the traditional translation model in mind, but also find better ways to translate. In this way, they can adapt to the society and technological development more easily, and create high-quality translated works more efficiently. What’s more, translators should also pay attention to hot issues happened around the world, because translators should not only practice their translation skills, but also learn more new culture, which is vital in translation in the future.

4.4 Promoters of Cultural Communication.

Translators are the bridges between the source language and the target language, the author and the readers. Translators with profound knowledge in language skills and cultural backgrounds can accurately grasp the connotations of the original text, reproduce the original style, convey cultural messages, and bring readers to foreign authors with unique emotional attitudes and values. With the globalization, today's world is characterized by frequent economic, political, and cultural exchanges between China and the West. Translators play the role of cultural communicators of the world. But this is different from the “conqueror” in the context of colonial expansion in the past, because China has long respected the diversity of world culture and treated the culture of every country and nation equally, so the purpose of translation activities for today’s translators is not cultural aggression but spread valuable Chinese culture to other countries and receive the essence of other countries' cultures. The role of today’s translators is the promoter of communication of cultures.

Conclusion

The identity of translator is an important issue of translation studies. Throughout the history, translators have played various kinds of roles in translation. At the beginning, translators had a low cultural status and are given such roles as “servant” and “invisible man”. And the subjectivity and creativity of translators were ignored in translation studies. Later in 1970s, with the cultural turn in translation studies of western countries, translators got much more attention and walked from behind the scenes to the front stage, and various kinds of roles are given to them such as: “manipulator” “writer” “creative rebel”. The status of translators had been improved. Then with the development of society and technology, translators are playing more roles such as “language quality controller” “new learner” and “selector”. From the changes of the translators’ identity, we can conclude many features of it and realize what roles should today’s translators play in order to give full play to their creativity and subjectivity, so as to create wonderful translated versions.

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Study of Domestication and foreignization in Cross-cultural Translation 顾东方 Gu Dongfang 202070080635 Interpretation英语口译

顾东方 Gu Dongfang

Abstract

In today's economic globalization, international cultural exchanges are expanding, and translation as a communication tool is also crucial. As a form of cross-cultural and cross-linguistic communication, translation is a kind of communication and interaction between two cultures with very different social backgrounds and cultural traditions. Therefore, in cross-cultural translation, the application and selection of translation strategies should not only reflect the translator's style, but also directly affect the audience of the translated work among the target language readers. In 1995, Lawrence Venuti, a famous American translation theorist, proposed two translation strategies, domestication and foreignization .

In The Invisibility of Translators. domestication and foreignization are both opposed and unified, i.e. there is no such thing as absolute domestication or absolute foreignization. This paper will discuss the selection and application of domestication and foreignization in cross-cultural translation, based on the two translation strategies themselves and actual translation cases, so that translators can use these two translation strategies more flexibly in translation to better convey the meaning of the original texts and make the translations reach more readers, and thus promote the communication between different cultures.

Key words

domestication and foreignization; cross-cutural; translation strategies

摘要

在经济全球化的今天，国际间文化交流也在不断扩大，而翻译作为一种交流工具也显得至关重要。作为一种跨文化、跨语言交际的形式，翻译是一种社会背景与文化传统很不相同的两种文化间的交流与交往。因此，在跨文化翻译中，翻译策略的运用与选择不仅仅要体现出译者的风格，也会直接影响译作在目的语读者中的受众程度。美国著名翻译理论学家劳伦斯韦努蒂于1995年在《译者的隐身》中提出了归化与异化两种翻译策略。归化与异化，既对立又统一，也即绝对的归化或者绝对的异化都是不存在的。本文将从归化与异化这两种翻译策略的本身出发，并结合实际翻译案例，来探讨归化与异化在跨文化翻译当中的选择与运用，使得译者能够在翻译中更灵活地使用这两种翻译策略，更好地传达出原作的意蕴，使译作受众于更多的读者，以此促进不同文化之间的交流。

关键词

归化与异化；跨文化；翻译策略

Definitions of domestication and foreignization.

Domestication is to localize the original language and focuses on the target language or readers by conveying the original text in the way target readers are familiar with. In order to close the readers of target texts.Domesticated translation requires the translator to speak like a native author, and the translation must become authentic to the native language if the original author is to speak directly to the readers. It helps the reader to better understand the translation and enhances the readability and enjoyment of the translation.

Foreignization is that the translator tries not to disturb the author as much as possible, so that the reader can get closer to the author". In translation, it means to accommodate the linguistic characteristics of foreign cultures, absorb foreign expressions, require the translator to approach the author, and adopt the expressions corresponding to the source language used by the author to convey the original content. The purpose of the foreignization strategy is to consider about the differences in national cultures, to preserve and reflect the characteristics of foreign nationalities and linguistic styles, and to preserve the exoticism of the translated text for the readers.（Wang Ying 2007）

The relationship between literal translation and free translation ,and domestication and foreignization.

Historically, foreignization and domestication can be seen as extensions of, but not identical to, literal and free translation. The terms "literal translation" and "free translation" are English translation version. Literal translation is a kind of method or text that keeps the original content and the form of the original text. Free translation means that it keeps only the content of the original text, not the form of the original text. Literal translation appeared during the May 4th Movement, emphasizing the need for faithfulness to the original text so that the translation can be "expressive" and "elegant".

Literal translation does not mean translating word for word in mechanical way. Since English and Chinese have different structures, it is impossible to translate them word for word. Literal translation is to fully and accurately clarify the meaning of the original work, without any distortion or random addition or deletion of the original ideas to maintain the original style. Sometimes even the original mood or emotion, such as anger or embarrassment, sarcasm or irony, joy or happiness, should not be ignored.

The free translation, on the other hand, starts from the meaning and requires only the main idea of the original text to be expressed without excessive attention to detail, but a natural flow of the translation. In translation, if we cannot directly adopt the structure and expression of the original, we must change the sentence structure and expression to convey the meaning of the original according to the form and characteristics of the expression.

Since there are many differences between the original language and the translated language in word order, grammar, changing forms and rhetoric, we can only use appropriate ways to convey the meaning of the original and reproduce the effect of the original. Mr. Jing-Shen Zhao once said, "A smooth and fluent version is better than one that focuses only on fidelity to the original". Obviously, Mr. Zhao was in favor of foreignization, and so did Mr Yan Fu.

Foreignization has been used in many works of Yan Fu, for example, the Evolution and Ethics is a typical example . In literal translation, faithful to the original form should be placed first, followed by faithful to the original content, again the fluency and popularity of translated language; while in free translation, faithful to the original content should be placed first, translation language fluency and popularity of the second, but free translation is not limited to the form of the original.

Some scholars often discuss literal translation, free translation and domestication and foreignization together, which is understandable, but it is necessary to make a distinction. Based on the level of language and culture,domestication and foreignization focus more on the use of language from the perspective of cultural differences and are a kind of translation strategy, while literal and free translation is a translation technique, which is only at the level of language.

There may be only one main translation strategy for a text or a work, but each strategy may use both literal and free translation methods, and each method serves the general direction of the translation strategy. The choice of the main translation strategy depends on the purpose of the translation, if it is to maximize the understanding of foreign cultures or cross-cultural comparative study, then the main focus is on foreignization; if it is to understand the information or story development through reading, then the domestication may be the best choice.

Taking the translation of the famous work Dream of the Red Chamber as an example, there are two versions by two masters, Yang Xianyi and Hawkes, the former adopts foreignization to deal with the cultural factors in the language, that is, to keep the source culture as much as possible in the translation, while Hawkes adopts domestication in order to avoid the conflict between two different cultures, Chinese and English.(Wang Ying 2007)

The history of the development of domestication and foreignization abroad.

The German translator Schleiermacher, in his work, On the Different Methods of Translation, elaborated the need for translations to bring the reader as close as possible to the original author, and for the first time introduced the concepts of domestication and foreignization.

At the same time, in the British academic circles of the time, domestication was the main translation strategy, but Francis Newman in England, when discussing the translation work on Homer, advocated that translators should consciously translate in the ancient language to emphasize the heterogeneity of the work.

In the 1960s A.D., Nida proposed the theory of domestication for the first time in many structuralist theoretical works, and since then the climax of the debate on domestication and foreignization rose on the stage in western translation field . In Nida's view, domesticated translation does not need to stick to the form of the original text, but only needs to express the content with the closest and most natural equivalent in the translated text to achieve equivalence.

The French theorist Antoinette Bellman deplored the tendency of eliminating foreignization in translation through the strategy of "domestication". He said: "The proper theoretical goal of the translation action is to accept heterogeneity as it is." This view seems to have an impact on Venuti's strategy of "foreignization" .

In his book The Invisibility of the Translator, Italian scholar Venuti discusses the "invisibility" of the translator by combining the two translation strategies of domestication and foreignization for the first time. He strongly advocates foreignization and questions domestication, arguing that domestication is essentially a means of cultural colonization by Western colonizers. At the same time, he also suggests that the purpose of translation is not to eliminate linguistic and cultural differences in translation, but to express linguistic and cultural differences.(Liu Ping 2008)

Domestic development history on domestication and foreignization

The earliest translations of Buddhist scriptures have included the debate between assimilation and dissimilation. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the translator Zhiqian pioneered the translation style of using free translation instead of transliteration, which had far-reaching significance and influence in history.

At the end of the 19th century, several other great translators emerged in Chinese history, and Yan Fu was one of them. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, foreign powers invaded extensively and the Chinese nation faced an existential crisis, under such a background, Yan Fu believed that translation must be carefully chosen based on the social and historical reality of the country into which it is translated. In the translation, the translator should take the literary tradition of the nation and the specific historical and cultural purpose as the main purpose, combining the cultural and linguistic background of the readers.

The translator should not focus on how to be "faithful to the original", but how to adapt to the social and cultural choices of the time. With the rise of the May 4th New Culture Movement, many translators tried to learn from foreign literature in order to transform literature and society.Lu Xun's most famous dictum relating to translation was "I'd rather be faithful than smooth", and advocated "preserving the foreign flavor as much as possible" and "the need for exoticism".

After the founding of New China, China's translation industry entered the third high point, and a large number of Western and Soviet works were introduced, which was connected with the spiritual needs of people at that time. After the reform and opening up, with the influx of Western translation ideas, "foreignization" has emerged. Many scholars have put forward the idea that "Foreignization is primary while domestication is supplementary".(Liu Ping 2019)

Domestication and foreignization of cultural exchange translation

The relationship between culture and language

In a broad sense, culture refers to the material and spiritual wealth created and accumulated by human beings in the course of social development; in a narrower sense, it refers to the ideology of society and the system of organizational constructs that corresponds to it. Culture has the following four basic characteristics 1) culture is owned and shared by all members of a society; 2) culture is acquired rather than inherited; 3) culture is biologically based; and 4) culture is based on a symbolic system.

The relationship between language and culture is between the part and the whole; language is a subsystem of culture, and language cannot exist apart from culture; it embodies all the beliefs and emotions of a cultural group. Language and culture interact and influence each other and are inseparable. Based on the close relationship between language and culture, more consideration should be given to cultural factors in translation research, which means that translation research should be carried out in a more macro context.

Translators should be aware of enough cultural differences when dealing with the cultural differences between the original language and the target language. Due to the cultural differences between English and Chinese, many English and Chinese phrases, although literally having the same or similar meanings, are inherently different. Therefore, a word-for-word translation without considering cultural factors can lead to ambiguity.（Wang Hongwei 2002）

Translatability and untranslatability of cultures

On the one hand, the similarity of human experience worldwide contributes to the translatability of cultures. In this regard, Nida has said that "all human beings eat, work, sleep and procreate, and they produce objects such as furniture, tools and vehicles. They also organize themselves into families, clans, internal and external groups, nations and inter-national organizations. They have a conscious similarity in their views of the universe, values, religion and supernatural forces.

In fact, the different groups of people in the world have much more in common with each other than they do with each other." It is the similarity of the cultures of different peoples that allows people of different cultures to understand each other and makes translation possible. Nida thus states, "Linguists and anthropologists have discovered that what binds human beings together far outweighs what alienates them, and this is the basis for generating communication." Many expressions that are unique to one culture can be found almost identically in a culture and become the best evidence of cultural translatability.

On the other hand, each people has a culture that is distinct from the others, which hinders mutual understanding with the others and may even cause cultural shock. Due to different cultural inheritances, the languages of different nationalities have their own symbol systems and lexical, syntactical and grammatical characteristics, which often make them untranslatable. For example, the Chinese phrase "客上天然居，居然天客" is one of the examples of untranslatable culture.(Wang Hongwei 2007)

Factors influencing cultural translation strategies

Motives and objectives of translation

Different motivations and purposes for translation lead to different translation principles and methods

Text type

Different texts influence the choice of translation strategies. According to Christiane Nord, translation can be divided into instrumental translation, which refers to the means of transferring information from the source language to the target language, and documentary translation, which refers to the means of transferring information about communication activities from the source language to the target language. This type of translation emphasizes the transmission and conveyance of information and mainly includes non-literary writing, including advertising, media writing, scientific writing, propaganda and announcements, etc. With this method of translation, which is guided by the culture of the target language, the information that needs to be conveyed can be better expressed and accessed.

The other type of text is documentary translation. This type of translation refers to the presentation of real communicative activities and information to the target language readers. The term "documentary translation" is appropriate for translating (language-)-specific expressions, where translation of language and content are equally important. eter Newmark distinguishes between communicative and semantic translation of such texts, emphasizing the "strength" and "clarity" of the message. " in order to achieve the same effect on the readers of the original language as on those of the target language.

Although this type of translation is a subjective process, the translator will attach great importance to the effect of the translation on the reader's mind. By reorganizing and rearranging the order of sentences, the translator will eliminate obscurities and ambiguities in order to achieve "strength" and "clarity". Most non-literary writing, informative articles and books, as well as textbooks, bulletins, standardized writing, and novels are suitable for this type of communicative translation; because it emphasizes the need to have the same effect on both the original and target language readers, it often uses expressions that are customary and easily understood in the language in which they are written.

Thus, communicative translation is equivalent to naturalized translation, where the translator's preference for idiomatic expressions is produced or determined by the translator's preference for the target language. Semantic translation attempts to get as close as possible to the exact meaning of the original text in terms of wording. Semantic translation focuses on the expression of the exact meaning of the content in order to preserve as accurate a style of the original text as possible.

This type of translation is an objective process during which the translator focuses only on whether the translation is precise and retains the flavor of the original text. In this type of translation, the translator tries to preserve the semantic and syntactic structure of the original text, as well as the tone of the original text, etc. semantic translation applies to autobiographies, private correspondence, personal emotional texts and quotations. A semantic translation is equivalent to an alien translation in an attempt to achieve the preservation of the flavour of the original, due to the translator's original language preference.(Wang Hongwei2007)

Acceptance by readers

In the past, traditional translation theories placed one-sided emphasis on extra-author-centred and text-centred research, neglecting the involvement of translators and target language readers. Modern reception aesthetics considers the reader not as an unimportant and unnecessary perspective, but as a historical, active and creative factor in the relationship between author, text and reader.

This is why different people have different interpretations of the same text of Hamlet. Naida was influenced by the acceptance of the aesthetic sub. His theory and practice of translation are very much focused on the readers' reflection. He pointed out that "Judging the validity of a translation does not stop at the comparison of word meanings, grammar and rhetoric; what is important is the extent to which the recipient is able to understand and appreciate the translation correctly."(Wang Hongwei2007)

Cultural Schools of Translation

In 1990, the representatives of the cultural school of translation, Bassnett and Lefevere, in their co-edited book Translation, History and Culture, formally proposed the slogan of "Cultural Turn of Translation", which also marked the official emergence of the cultural school of translation. In the following years, they published several monographs, individually or together, discussing about the relationship between translation and literature, ideology, rights and culture.

In the following years, they published several monographs, either individually or jointly, to discuss the relationship between translation and literature, ideology, rights and culture. Unlike the literary or linguistic schools of translation in the past, the cultural school is a school with a strong "revolutionary" element in translation theory, and some people even consider their views to be "subversive" to the previous translation theories.

This is mainly because they especially emphasize the status of culture in translation and the importance of translation to the spread of culture and the promotion of social and cultural progress. Other translators, such as Lambert and Robyns, argue that translation is more accurately regarded as a communication activity between two cultures than as a bilingual conversion activity.

Therefore, they believe that translation activity is a cultural conversion. In recent years, Chinese scholars have done some research and reflection on the essence of translation. In the researches of many scholars, under the current globalization environment ,the importance of translation to cultural exchange and communication is getting more and more attention from people.

For example, Lv Jun proposes that "translation is a kind of cross-cultural information exchange activities, and its essence is dissemination. To a certain extent, the viewpoint of Chinese scholars and the Western cultural schools can be said to echo each other. Language is not only a carrier of information, but also a carrier of culture. Therefore, in essence, translation as a kind of inter-linguistic communication, it is not only the conversion of language information , but also the transplantation of cultural information. Therefore, in essence, translation is not only a language information conversion, but also a cultural communication activity.(Wang Hongwei2007)

Application of domestication in English-Chinese Translation

Chinese famous writer Mo Yan has won the Nobel Prize for Literature for a series of works including Fatigue of Life and Death (2006) and Frog (2009) and American sinologist Ge Haowen should also be credited , who was called “the only midwife of Mo Yan’s works”.Ge's translation of Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out reflects his consistent principle: "The author is writing for the Chinese, while I am translating for foreigners,translating is a process of rewriting”. Ge Haowen did a lot of rewriting and compilation based on respecting the original work, and in the translation of Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out, the domesticated translation reflects his relentless pursuit of "accuracy", "readability" and "acceptability". (Zhou Yongkun 2019)

例一： 常言道‘螃蟹过河随大流’，‘识时务者为俊杰’，不要顽固不化，不要充当挡路的石头，不要充硬汉子。

Join the commune and stop working for yourself, end your quest for independence.Stop being headstrong,and an obstructionist.

“螃蟹过河随大流” is a two-part allegorical saying in Chinese folks . It means "following the majority of people to speak or act". A post-slip is a short, witty phrase that can be used as a philosophical and wisdom-boosting phrase. A man who knows the times is a hero" is an idiom derived from a historical allusion, meaning "only those who can recognize the trend of the times can become heroes and heroines". Ge Haowen domesticated these two slang expressions: first, because they have the same meaning as the one that follows: "Don't be stubborn ...... don't be a tough guy anymore", which is used to kindly advise people who are unable to see the current affairs of the day, but are still stubbornly stubborn.

The deletion of these two daily phrases does not affect the main content of the narrative and the expression of ideas in the context. Secondly, there is the concern that the translation may not produce the desired effect of depth, image, and humor as the source language. And then there is the fact that the target language readers are relatively unfamiliar with Chinese slang, so it is better to delete it directly than to translate it to increase the readers' reading burden and affect their understanding and grasp of the whole text. Ge Haowen's domesticated translation method reflects his holistic view of discourse as a unit

例二：但一个二十多岁就当了县级领导干部的人，和农村姑娘结婚的可能性几乎是零，无论她貌如西施还是色比婵娟。

There was no chance that a leading country-level cadre in his twenties would ever actually marry a peasant girl , no matter how pretty or fetching she might be.

Wang Zhaojun ,Xishi, Diao Chan and Yang Yuhuan were the main characters with unique beauty at that time in historical illusions ,named as “Four Beauties in ancient times”.In the original work, Mo Yan chose only two historical figures, "Xishi" and "Chanjuan", to contrast and emphasize the beauty of rural girls. In the process of translation, Ge did not translate "Xishi" and "Chanjuan", nor did he make any commentary, but took into account the target audience's alienation from the historical allusion to the Four Beauties.

Therefore, he adopt a domesticated translation method to make a simplification, breaking the constraints of the original language and enhancing the readability of the translation, without deviating from the original meaning.(Zhou Yongkun 2019)

In the above example, when dealing with unfamiliar allusions or common sayings and proverbs, Ge Haowen boldly rewrote and deleted them, translating the work from the reader's point of view, so that the target readers will be pleased with his translation.

5.2 The Application of Foreignization in English-Chinese Translation

The nature of foreignization is such that it deals with elements of the original language that are culturally distinctive, and the result of the translation is to bring in new forms of expression that are different from the mother tongue and the cultural connotations attached to them. Language is an open system with a strong capacity for absorption and inclusion.

With the deepening of communication among countries and peoples, various languages have been enriched to different degrees, and variant translation plays a more important role in this process. In Chinese, the terms "internet", "gene", "blue print", "blue print" and "blue print" are used to refer to the "Internet", "gene", "blue print" and "blue print". "Time is money", "ivory tower", "washroom".... (crocodile tears), "black humor" , and "qi gong" ), "taijiquan" , "kong fu" , "typhon”

These words did not originally exist in the Chinese and English language systems. However, translators make a large number of words with exoticism in the way of foreignization more popular and acceptable among the massive culture . Therefore, foreignization is not only beneficial to introduce local history and culture to foreign countries, but also gives local readers the opportunity to understand foreign customs and realize the purpose of cross-cultural communication. （Wang Ying 2007） 例一.打破铁饭碗

Break the”iron rice bowl”

"Iron rice bowl" is a Chinese idiom, in Chinese we compare "rice bowl" to an occupation, while "iron rice bowl" refers to a stable job, no doubt, it is difficult to convert such words with obvious Chinese characteristics into the target language through the method of "domestication", but foreignization not only retains the imagery of the source language, but also introduces the unique culture of China to Western readers.

例二.下海

A.to jump into the sea of business

B.To turn professional

In the early days of reform and opening up, the word “jumping into the sea of business” was popular, mainly meaning the trend of doing business.For this new phenomenon ,translators adopt different methods. Text A used foreignization and direct translation while the later domestication. In comparison, the former was more expressive and vivid, conveying the meaning of source language in a proper way.

Domestication and foreignization is more apparent in the literary translation. Here I will take the translation of Dream of the Red Chamber as an example and compare the translations of Mr. and Mrs. Yang Xianyi ,and Mr. Hawkes. The translation of Dream of the Red Chamber by Yang Xianyi and his wife is a typical representative of foreignization, which is highly praised by domestic readers, but some scholars have conducted a survey and found that it is far inferior to the British sinologist David Hawks in terms of the number of borrowed readers, citations and reprinted editions. Why the "cold shoulder"? Let's find out by comparing and analyzing some examples of the two translations.

例一.刘姥姥道: “这倒不然。谋事在人，成事在天。咱们谋到了，靠菩萨的保佑，有些机会，也未可知。”

A.“ Don’t be so sure,” said Granny Liu. “Man proposes, Heaven disposes. Work out a plan,trust to Buddha,and something may come of it for all you know.”

B.“ I wouldn’t say that.”said Grannie Liu.”Man proposes, God disposes.It is up to us to think of something. We must leave it to the good Lord to decide whether He’ll help us or not. Who knows, he might give us the opportunity we are looking for.”

Dream of the Red Chamber is a literary work full of Buddhist and Taoist thoughts. Yang Xianyi and Hawks have different approaches to the phrase“谋事在人，成事在天”， which also reflects different religious thoughts. In Yang's translation, "God" is replaced by "Heavenly Father," which is in line with the Chinese religious belief that Heavenly Father in control of everything, while retaining the religious flavor of the source culture.

However, Hawks gave priority to the religious background and acceptance of the English readers, so he adopted the English proverb directly without any modification, thus transforming the Buddhism and Taoism in the East to Christianity in the West, in accordance with western religious belief and thinking ways.

The two translations have their own merits. The choice of translation strategies is based on different objectives. Mainly depending on the foreignization stategy, Mr. and Mrs. Yang tried to spread Chinese literature classics and convey Chinese traditional culture originally.However, they didn't get the desired results.One of the main reasons is that Mr. and Mrs. Yang regard faithfulness as the first priority and overemphasize the foreign culture of the translated works, neglecting to consider the reception environment and the recognition of the target readers.（Wang Ying 2007）

Conclusion

With the continuous expansion of international cultural exchanges, the human cultural gap is gradually narrowing, language as an important carrier of culture has also been affected by the same, an appropriate increase in the use of "foreign" translation,can not only inject the new elements into domestic culture, but also promote the spread of local culture, achieve cross-cultural exchange and accelerate the process of "cultural globalization".

It should be pointed out foreignization is not at the expense of forgetting one's own culture, on the contrary, it is based on the familiarity with other cultures, and then carry out painstaking, creative translation work. To give more attention to "alienation" translation is not to deny, reject the domesticated translation method, because domestication and foreignization play an irreplaceable rol in the target language and culture.Therefore, the two translations will always co-exist and complement each other. Flexible use of foreignization and domestication is the real way of addressing the cultural conflicts. (Xiong Bing 2003)

Reference

Wang Ying王瑛. "跨文化翻译中的归化和异化." 内蒙古财经学院学报(综合版) 03(2007):83-87.

Zhou Yongkun周永堃. "归化异化在跨文化翻译中的选择与运用——以《红楼梦》和《生死疲劳》为例." 邵阳学院学报(社会科学版) 18.01(2019):103-108.

Wang Hongwei王红卫. "跨文化交际翻译方法:归化和异化策略." 西南民族学院学报(哲学社会科学版) 9(2002):250-253.

Xiong Bing熊兵. "文化交流翻译的归化与异化." 中国科技翻译 16.003(2003):5-9.

Liu Ping刘苹. "中国翻译史上的归化和异化." 滨州学院学报 24.001(2008):74-75.

--Gudongfang (talk) 00:31, 22 December 2020 (UTC)Gu Dongfang

The Translation Strategies of Chinese Political Discourse under the Standard of "Political Equivalence", 高明珠 Gao Mingzhu, MTI 英语笔译

Abstract

With the development of globalization, the political exchanges among countries is more frequent, and the translation of political discourse has gradually become one of the heated topics in the translation field. The translation of political discourse is challenging, not only because it is related to important issues such as the relationship between countries, national status and political attitudes, but also because political vocabulary is developmental and new words are constantly coming into the political vocabulary, and some political words will add new connotations with the development of the times. In addition to the above characteristics, Chinese political discourse has many affixes, abbreviations, four-character phrases, metaphors.In 2008, Yang Mingxing and other scholars put forward the "Political Equivalence" based on Eugene Nida's "Functional Equivalence" theory for the translation of Chinese political discourse, which pointed out that the translation of political discourse should follow the three principles of "political", "dynamic" and "balanced". On the basis of some related papers, this chapter will sum up the specific strategies such as supplement, omission, keeping or converting analogical body, adding explanation and narration for translating Chinese political discourse with characteristics of having lots of affixes, abbreviations, four-character phrases and metaphors following the guidance of "Political Equivalence".

Key words

political equivalence; Chinese political discourse; translation strategies

摘要

随着全球化的发展，各国间的政治交流愈加频繁，政治话语的翻译也逐渐成为翻译界讨论热点之一。政治话语的翻译是具有挑战性的，不仅是因为它关系到国与国之间的关系、国家地位、政治态度等重要问题，而且因为政治词汇是发展性的，政治词汇中会不断有新的词汇涌进，且某些政治词汇会随着时代的发展而增加新的内涵。而中国政治话语除了具有以上特点，它还有多词缀、缩写、四字短语[1]，多用隐喻等修辞手法的特点。2008年，杨明星等学者针对中国政治话语的翻译，基于尤金·奈达的“功能对等”理论提出了“政治等效”翻译标准，该标准指出政治话语的翻译要遵循“政治性”、“动态性”、“平衡性”三大原则。本文基于相关文献，总结出在该标准下，对中国政治话语在具有多词缀、缩写、四字短语及多采用隐喻这几个特点下的翻译可采用的具体的翻译策略，如增补法、省略法[1]、喻体保留法（完全保留、部分保留）、喻体转换法、喻底补充法、喻义直叙法[2]等。

关键词

政治等效; 中国政治话语; 翻译策略

1. Introduction of Background

Political discourse is a vehicle of communication or one kind of discourse behaviors used to articulate a country's foreign policy, governance mechanisms or political ideas, including both oral and written expression. Oral expressions includes leaders' speeches, the contents conveyed by various government agencies' press conferences, and written expressions includes diplomatic documents, white papers, legal provisions, treaties, agreements and communiques issued by relevant state agencies. With the improvement of China's comprehensive national strength and the continuous expansion of its global influence, the study of the translation standards, principles, strategies of Chinese political discourse has become an important topic in the field of translation. A study in 2019 has shown that domestic political discourse translation studies started in 2000 and entered a stage of rapid development with the convening of the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012. The current research hot spots of political discourse translation include the translation of Xi Jinping's speeches and works, the application of various translation laws and interpretive theories, the principle of political equivalence and the theory of ecological translation(Chu Xingjun 2020,36).

2. The Significance of Translating Political discourse

This chapter holds that the significance of political discourse translation mainly involves two aspects----politics and linguistics. Firstly, in terms of politics, translating political discourse is to promote the political communication between countries and show the country's political attitudes, theories and policies to the outside world. Political discourse translation plays a significant role in promoting the relationship between the countries, taking one’s stand, safeguarding one’s national interests and shaping one’s national image and so on. Secondly, in terms of linguistics, political terms are developmental. With the advance of the times and the rapid development of the world, new political terms will constantly emerge, which is also the process of language expansion. The study of the translation of new words is not only an obligatory task for translators, but also of great significance to the development of translation studies.

3. The Difficulties in Translating Political discourse

The difficulties are mainly reflected in three aspects. Firstly, the translator should correctly understand the political connotation of the source language and translate it faithfully to the target language. Secondly, different expression ways between two languages. There are quite few equivalent words in both languages, so when translating the source language as the target language, the expression habits of the target language users should be taken as account, so as to facilitate the target language users to accurately understand the original meaning. In particular, Chinese political discourse is often presented metaphorically which may not be easy for foreigners to understand, thus when translating such words, methods that we can adopt not only include literal translation, transliteration plus explanation, but also sometimes it would be better to translate those words on the basis of the target language’s culture to make the translation more vivid and help readers understand the meaning accurately. In a word, be more flexible in adopting methods according to different cases; Finally, the same political term may have different meanings in different contexts, or it may require translators to adopt different translation methods in different contexts. In addition, the connotation of some political terms will develop with the advance of the times. Therefore, translators should keep up with current events and deal with them flexibly in translation.

4. The Connotations of Political Equivalence

(1)The proposal and connotation of the "political equivalence" standard

In 2008, US Department of Defense mistranslated the term "韬光养晦" which led to the propaganda "China threat theory". Therefore, based on Eugene Nida's functional equivalence theory, a scholar, Yang Mingxing, proposed the translation concept of "political equivalence" for the first time from the perspective of international relations and diplomatic analysis (Yang Mingxing 2008, 05). The connotation of this concept mainly involves three aspects: firstly, the translator needs to truthfully convey the political ideas of the source language as well as the speaker; secondly, when translating, the translator should choose the target language according to the expression ways that the target language users get used to, so that the information and political thoughts brought by the target text to the target language users are equivalent to those brought by the source text to the source language users; Thirdly, in different contexts and historical backgrounds, the connotations of political discourse will be different. Translators' translation should keep pace with the times and be determined in accordance with the situation (Yang Mingxing 2008, 05).

In 2012, Yang Mingxing and other scholars further proposed three prominent principles or characteristics of the "political equivalence" translation standard: political, balanced and dynamic. Among them, political nature, namely accurately grasping the political connotation of the source language, is the most prominent characteristic, which is determined by the strong political color of the political terms themselves. Balance means to maintain a balance among source language, target language, speaker and audience without focusing on any one of them, and strive to make the effect produced by the translation in the foreign readers be similar or equivalent to that produced by the original text in local readers. Dynamic means that the equivalent process mentioned above is a dynamic equivalent process. As political terms’ connotation changes with the advance of the times and varies from different contexts, translators need to keep pace with the times, follow up the connotation development of political terms, and translate flexibly according to different situations.(Yang Mingxing, Yan Da 2012, 35)

In 2018, Yang Mingxing and other scholars proposed a compound translation standard of "political equivalence + aesthetic representation" on the basis of the translation standard of "political equivalence" (Yang Mingxing, Qi Jingjing 2018,15). This standard was put forward in the context of the appearance of ancient poetry in political discourse. In addition to meeting the requirements of "political equivalence" mentioned above, this standard also requires to take the literary beauty of ancient poetry and prose, such as rhythm, form, artistic conception, etc as account.

In January 2020, Yang Mingxing and other scholars proposed another compound translation standard of "political equivalence + image representation" based on the frequently used the rhetoric device metaphor in political discourse(Yang Mingxing, Zhao Yuqian 2018,41). The purpose of realizing "image reproduction" and "aesthetic reproduction" is basically similar, both of which are to reproduce the aesthetic experience of the original text.

In October 2020, Yang Mingxing and some other scholars made a review of several major diplomatic events in the Sino-British diplomatic history and put forward that the realization of the "political equivalence" standard should not only rely on the translator's ability, but also have some connections with the national policy of translation, translation system and equal speaking rights between two countries, among which equal speaking right is the key to realize "political equivalence"(Yang Mingxing 2020,05).

(2)The differences between “political equivalence” and “functional equivalence” put forward by Nida

"Firstly, the 'equivalence' emphasized by Nida does not pay enough attention to the political connnotations of the original text in translation, ignoring the particularity of diplomatic or political discourse, and that whether the original text and translation are quite consistent in political standpoint and political connotation. Secondly, although functional equivalence pays attention to the information equivalence between the original text and the translated text, it does not pay enough attention to the real intention of the speaker or the writer of the original text, because the literal meaning of the original text cannot be equal with the political standpoint and ideological connotation of the speaker or writer. Thirdly, the concept of 'dynamic' proposed by Nida in 'functional equivalence' theory ignores the dynamic changes in context and connotation of original text and translation. However, for diplomatic or political discourse, the connotations of the political terms do not remain unchanged. It changes constantly with the speaker's context, political tendency and historical background at that time. On the other hand, the target language is also dynamic, because the meaning and usage of the target language are constantly changing, the translator must keep track of the latest development of the target language and the domestic political and cultural background of the target audience "(Yang Mingxing 2008, 05).

In a word, the translation standard of "political equivalence" is an important theory aiming at the translation of foreign affairs, diplomacy and political discourse, providing theoretical guidance and normative requirements for the translation of political terms.

5. Requirements of “Political Equivalence” for Translators

First of all, translators should grasp not only the meaning of the original text, but also the political intention of the speaker or the writer, because sometimes the literal meaning of Chinese words in the political discourse cannot fully represent the real intention of the speaker or the writer.What translators should do is to learn more about the related background knowledge before translating and keep pace with the worldwide current events in daily life, and choose the proper translation strategies according to specific situations to make the translation be in line with the context and political background of the speaker or the writer as well as the audience or reader, which is the key to the realization of "political equivalence".(Yang Mingxing 2008, 05)

Secondly, translators should treat both the source language and the target language equally, and grasp the relationship between the speaking country and the receiving country. The translation of political discourse should not only aim at correctly understanding and expressing China's political thoughts, but also fully consider the national emotions, language habits and identity psychology of the receiving country, which requires the proper selection and use of the target language. If the translation only focuses on one side, it will be difficult to achieve "political equivalence" and even cause political events.(Yang Mingxing 2008, 05)

Thirdly, translators should know well about the differences between English and Chinese customs, cultures, national emotions and ideologies.As we all know, translation is not only the transformation of language symbols, but also a kind of cross-cultural communication behavior. The translation of political discourse is closely related to the cultural background of language. Due to the differences between China and West in way of thinking and language environment, the corresponding words in English and Chinese may have different national emotion and political connotation.For example, sometimes we may meet idioms, metaphors, allusions, myths and fables in the political discourse which are the quintessence of a nation's language with its own characteristics. They formed and developed on the basis of different culture and living environmnet, so it is necessary to strictly distinguish their differences in cultural connotation and political orientation which are the difficulties and key points in political discourse translation.(Yang Mingxing 2008, 05)

Fourthly, translators should also know well about the differences between the two languages.In English, there are many grammatical rules different from from those of Chinese, such as tense, voice, subjunctive mood, singular and plural, case, article, etc. If translators deal with these special expressions improperly, these expressions will hinder the realization of the "political equivalence" in translation. (Yang Mingxing 2008, 05)

Fifthly, to achieve "political equivalence" in translating political discourse, translation strategies should not be single, rigid but flexible and diversified. In addition, the translation either cannot be confined to the primitive form of the original text and the original or even several extended connotations of the words in it,instead,translators should recognize the real connotations of the political terms according to the context and different occasions. Translators should make the necessary adjustment and bold choices in supplement and omission to the language form of the original text in accordance with the context and the real thoughts of the speaker or the writer and the background of the political relationships between the two countries.(Yang Mingxing 2008, 05)

lastly, translators should ensure the political correctness in the translation of political discourse using their knowledge reserves. Many countries have such sensitive issues as appellation, ethnicity, religion, sovereignty and territory. These are the "minefields" of political translation. When translating, one must handle it carefully and respect the language and cultural habits of the other party, otherwise it will easily lead to "translation storm" and affect the "political equivalence" of translation. (Yang Mingxing 2008, 05)

6. Translation Strategies under The Standard of Political Equivalence

Under the guidance of the standard of "political equivalence", the following translation strategies are provided for reference on the characteristics of Chinese political discourse.

(1) Characteristics of Chinese political discourse

Affixes are often seen in Chinese political discourse such as “化” in "现代化" and "城镇化", so are abbreviations like "‘十四五’规划", "四个自信", etc., and four-character phrases such as "和平共处", "和而不同", etc. Besides, metaphor is also used frequently in Chinese political discourse such as "‘老虎’、‘苍蝇’一起打", among which "老虎(tiger)" and "苍蝇(flies)" refer to officials accused of bribery and corruption. Therefore, how do we translate these words that have Chinese language characteristics but need us to take their political implications as consideration? Pointing at these characteristics, some scholars have proposed specific translation strategies based on the "political equivalence"standard.

(2) The strategies of supplement and omission for affixes, four-character phrases and abbreviations(Wu Jing 2014, 30)

① supplement

The supplement strategy is to add words appropriately in the translation so as to convey the meaning of the original text accurately. When Chinese political terms are translated for foreigners, this strategy is mainly applicable to two situations. Firstly, the abbreviation, which is a refined utterance of many political words for the convenience of memory. When the target language users don’t have relevant knowledge or language background about those abbreviations, supplementary explanation plays its role. Secondly, four-character phrases. Four-character phrases are typical examples of Chinese expressions. In order to conform to the expression habits of the target language, these condensed words should be supplemented and explained so that the audience can understand the meaning of the original text correctly.

The strategy of supplement can be applied to the following situations: firstly, supplementing relevant knowledge background. For example, “‘十四五’规划”is translated by China Daily as “the 14th Five-Year Plan(2021-2025) for economic and social development”. In the translation, “十四”is translated as “the 14th” and“五” is translated as “Five-Year”, which adds category words to those numbers and time horizon as well as the nature of the plan to the content; Secondly, supplementing detailed content to abbreviations. For example,“四个自信”is translated as “confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

②Omission

English and Chinese belong to two kinds of language families, having great differences from vocabulary to the sentence structure, expression ways, etc. There are quite few equivalent words in the two languages, so in order to make the translation smoother and be more in line with the expression ways of the target language, translator can use the strategy----omission, namely omitting those expressions without practical significance but hindering translation work, on the basis of being faithful to the original text.

The strategy of omission is often used in the process of translation from Chinese to English, and the translation of Chinese political terms is no exception. For emphasis, Chinese political leaders often use parallel sentences or repeated words, so we can omit those repeated words in the translation. For example, “治理赤字、信任赤字、发展赤字、和平赤字仍然在扩大。”can be translated as “Governance, trust, development and peace deficits continue to grow.” In addition, there are situations where multiple sentences express the same meaning, in which omission is also available without changing the meaning. For example, “改善人民生活，增进人民福祉。”can be translated as “improve people’s livelihood”.

(3) Translation strategies for metaphor

Metaphor refers to the use of known figurative concepts to explain abstract concepts in diplomatic discourse. The translation standard and strategies of metaphor are determined by their inherent special attributes, which are not only the key factors to select their translation strategies, but also the important yardstick to test whether those strategies are applicable(Yang Mingxing, Zhao Yuqian 2020, 41). Metaphor is an objective phenomenon that has existed in political discourse for a long time. Its special attributes are reflected in political discourse, such as high political sensitivity, high cultural load and strong national characteristics. In view of the strong political sensitivity of diplomatic discourse, plain and direct words in political discourse is often empty of words, which is difficult to produce obvious communicative effect in foreign relations. In most cases, metaphorical discourse can be used to imply and disseminate a country's diplomatic ideas, attitudes and positions to achieve better communication effects (Yang Mingxing, Zhao Yuqian 2020, 41).

Through reading relevant papers, this chapter finds that the translation strategies proposed by scholars for metaphorical rhetoric in political discourse are mainly as follows(Long Xinyuan, Li Qiuxia 2020, 27):

① Literal translation of the metaphorical entities

Although English and Chinese belong to different language families, and the cultural background and geographical area on which they live are also different, language is created by human beings, and human emotions always have something in common. At the same time, human beings live in the same world, especially in an increasingly integrated world like today, where the communication between human beings and the collision between cultures are inevitable. As a result, we are becoming more tolerant and understanding of different cultures and languages. When translating metaphorical words with cultural characteristics, we can render the metaphorical words in literal translation under the condition that the audience can understand them correctly, which is easier to arouse emotional resonance and cultural identity.

For example, “新时代的长征路” is translated as "Long March of the new era". The original text compares China's development path in the new era to the new Long March. In Chinese history, the Long March was a bloody road trodden by the communist party of China to save the country and its people. On the one hand, the literal translation of "The Long March" retains the historical allusions used in the original text, so that the audience can understand its meaning only by a simple association. On the other hand, it is more conducive to show the national spirit of China.

② Substitution of the metaphorical entities

After all, the differences between languages far outweigh the similarities, so sometimes adopting literal translation in the text by using metaphor does not make the audience clear, but may mislead the reader. However, different metaphorical entities are often used to express the same abstract concept between Chinese and English. At this time, in order to make the audience better understand and accept the original metaphor, translator can replace the original metaphorical entities with those referring to same thing in the target language, which can also improve the external communication effect of Chinese political discourse.

For example, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying once said:”The US wants to make China a scapegoat(对于美国的花式‘甩锅’，我们不想接也不能接。).”“甩锅”is an internet buzzword in China used to vividly express the meaning of shifting the blame onto someone else. And the word“scapegoat” originates from an allusion in the Bible which has the same meaning with the Chinese word “甩锅”(Yang Mingxing, Zhao Yuqian 2020, 41), so translator made a conversion between the two words. In this way, English readers can better understand the political connotation of the original sentence. However, if adopting literal translation, English readers will not understand it.

③literal translation+explanation

In some other cases, where either literally translating those metaphorical entities or using corresponding ones to substitute them cannot eliminate the language barrier caused by cultural differences, then translator can adopt the strategy of “literal translation + explanation”, which is to literally translate the metaphor entity and then add explanation to it. In this way, the translation not only maintains the cultural characteristics of the source language while enabling English readers to be clear with the meaning of them, but also contributes to the spread of Chinese culture to the outside world.

For an instance, “不能腐的笼子越扎越牢”is translated as “the cage of institutions that prevents corruption has been strengthened”. The Chinese words “笼子”refers to the strict management institutions against corruption set up by the Chinese government. Comparing the institution to the cage makes the action of fighting against corruption become more vivid. However, for English readers, it is hard to understand the original political connotation according to a simple word “cage”, so translator needs to add some explanations like “the cage of institutions that prevents corruption.” As a result, the meaning is clear and vivid.

④abandoning the figurative body and translate its connotation directly

Metaphor, as a figure of speech, is highly culture-loaded, while political discourse is a kind of words with high political sensitivity. These characteristics make the translation of Chinese political discourse more difficult, and it is inevitable that translators may encounter the situation where they cannot easily balance and take all these characteristics into consideration. At this time, the translator should choose to abandon the figurative body and keep the metaphorical meaning, after all, it is the first ipriority to convey the correct political implication.

For example, “保障‘米袋子’、‘菜篮子’安全”is translated as “ensure the security of grain supply and non-staple food supply”,among which the Chinese words “米袋子(rice bag)”and“菜篮子(vegetable basket)”refer to major grain supply and non-staple food supply respectively. Since rice is the staple food in most parts of China while vegetable is the complementary food, such a metaphor is very vivid and down-to-earth. However, it's hard for foreigners to understand the meaning of "rice bag" or "vegetable basket" without a similar living environment, so we have to discard the original figurative body and translate its meaning directly.

7. Conclusion

From the summary of the above-mentioned translation strategies pointing at different situations in translating Chinese political discourse, it can be seen that every strategy follows the three principles under the standard of "political equivalence” ---- political, balance and dynamic. Every translation strategy takes the correct transition of the political implications of the original text as the first rule, namely being political; and then keeps the cultural or linguistic characteristics of the original text as much as possible, namely keeping balance; additionally, adopting appropriate translation strategies according to different contexts or situations, namely being dynamic.

The translation of political discourse has its unique characteristics and is of great importance, so it is necessary to be careful in choosing translation strategies. Translators should not only have high linguistic literacy and fair political standpoint, but also keep up with current events, correctly and fully understand the political meaning of the original text, and make specific analysis according to different contexts and occasions to adopt the most appropriate translation strategies.

8. References

楚行军. 中国政治话语翻译研究二十年(2000—2019)[Studies on the Translation of Chinese Political Discourse over the past 20 years(2000-2019)]——基于中国知网的分析[J]. 焦作师范高等专科学校学报,2020,36(03):24-27+40.

吴静. 基于“政治等效”的中国政治新词翻译策略解析[An analysis of translation strategies of Chinese new political terms on the basis of "political equivalence"][J]. 兰州文理学院学报(社会科学版),2014,30(01):95-98.

龙新元,李秋霞. “政治等效+认知趋同”：认知翻译观视阈下的政治文本翻译研究["Political Equivalence + Cognitive Convergence" : A Study of political Text translation from the perspective of cognitive Translation][J]. 天津外国语大学学报,2020,27(05):104-120+161.

杨明星. 论外交语言翻译的“政治等效”——以邓小平外交理念“韬光养晦”的译法为例[The application of "Political Equivalence" in diplomatic Language Translation -- Taking Deng Xiaoping's diplomatic idea "韬光养晦" as an example][J]. 解放军外国语学院学报,2008,(05):90-94.

杨明星,闫达. “政治等效”理论框架下外交语言的翻译策略——以“不折腾”的译法为例[Translation strategies of diplomatic language under the framework of "Political Equivalence"-- Taking the translation of "韬光养晦" as an example][J]. 解放军外国语学院学报,2012,35(03):73-77.

杨明星,齐静静. 外交修辞的复合性翻译标准:“政治等效+审美再现”——以国家领导人外交演讲古诗文为例[The composite translation standard of diplomatic rhetoric: "Political equivalence + aesthetic reproduction" -- taking the ancient poems and essays in diplomatic speeches of national leaders as an example][J]. 中国外语,2018,15(06):89-96+109.

杨明星,赵玉倩. “政治等效+”框架下中国特色外交隐喻翻译策略研究[A research on translation strategies of metaphors in diplomatic discorses with Chinese characteristics under the framework of "Political Equivalence plus"][J]. 中国翻译,2020,41(01):151-159+190.

杨明星,张琰. 中英外交翻译中“政治等效”与话语平等辩证关系分析——从马戛尔尼使华到共建“一带一路”(1792-2019)[Dialectical relationship between "political equivalence" and discourse equality in diplomatic translation between China and Britain -- from macartney's mission period to "One Belt And One Road" period(1792-2019)][J]. 上海翻译,2020,(05):24-29+94.

Classification, Chinese translation methods and Strategies of Russian Proverbs - 张虎 Zhang Hu 202020080666 俄语语言文学

张虎 Zhang Hu 202020080666

Abstract

Russian proverbs are produced under the specific cultural background and have rich cultural connotations. They are an important part of Russian language and culture. However, there are great cultural differences between Russian and Chinese, and the language forms of Russian and Chinese proverbs have their own characteristics. This chapter attempts to classify Russian proverbs and explore the translation methods and Strategies of Russian proverbs.(This chapter only discusses the Chinese translation of Russian proverbs and the English translation of proverbs is for reference only.)

Key words

Russian proverb，classification，Chinese translation methods，translation strategies

题目

俄语谚语的分类、汉译方法及策略

摘要

俄语谚语于特定的文化背景下产生，具有丰富的文化内涵，是俄语语言文化的重要组成部分。 而俄汉两族文化差异较大，俄汉谚语语言形式各具特色，俄语谚语的翻译问题成为一个难题。本文试对俄语谚语进行分类，探究俄语谚语的翻译方法及翻译策略。

关键词

俄语谚语；分类；汉译方法；翻译策略

1. Introduction

Proverbs are a genre of folk literature（Wang Yanrong 2013,114) , and they are simple, popular and meaningful fixed sentences commonly used by the people. Generally speaking, proverbs are rhythmic in form, including various life phenomena in content, rich in educational significance, vividly reflecting the cultural connotations and characteristics of a nation, and are the result of wisdom of the broad masses of people and the essence of a national language（Zhou Changyu 2006,5). Therefore, understanding proverbs is an effective way to understand a nation. Proverbs of different nationalities have their own characteristics. The translation of proverbs among different nationalities has become an important issue in translation studies. This chapter attempts to explore the translation methods and principles of Russian proverbs.

2.Classification of Russian proverbs

The formation of Russian proverbs is inseparable from the production, life, customs, religion, culture and history of the nation, and has a distinctive national style. The Russian and Chinese languages belong to different language systems, and there is a big difference in the way of expression. In order to fully understand Russian proverbs and grasp the translation methods of Russian proverbs, this chapter first compares Russian and Chinese proverbs, and divides Russian proverbs into three categories based on the degree of consistency between Russian and Chinese proverbs, namely “complete consistency” and “partial consistency” and “complete inconsistency”（Wang Yanrong 2013,114).

2.1 Complete consistency

"Complete consistency" means that Russian proverbs and Chinese proverbs are completely consistent in terms of thinking and figurative meaning. Such Russian proverbs can be found in Chinese that fully correspond to them. The number of such proverbs is relatively small, but they reflect the cultural commonality between the Russian and Chinese languages, indicating that the two peoples are similar in cognitive mode, thinking mode and personality characteristics between the two countries(Chen Ying 2000,89/Wang Yanrong 2013,114).

For example, there is an ancient Chinese proverb in the Biography of Zhao Chongguo, The History of the Former Han Dynasty in ancient my country “百闻不如一见.” The meaning of this sentence is “it is better to see once than to hear a hundred times,” which expresses that hearing more is not as reliable as seeing it. And there is a widely used proverb in Russian “Лучше один раз увидеть, чем сто раз услышать.(Jia Shufen 1996,146)” They are completely consistent and show that the people of the Russian and Han ethnic groups have the same understanding of the importance of “seeing with their own eyes.”

Another example is “Из искры возгорится пламя” in Russian. It was first written by Decembrists, famous Russian poet, A. I. Odoevsky(А. И. Одоевский) in reply to Pushkin’s support of Decembrists’ revolution, and was later written by Lenin. The application in Iskra is well known and circulated. The Chinese counterpart “星星之火, 可以燎原(A single spark can start a prairie fire)” is widely known and become a proverb because of Mao Zedong's articles(Chen Ying 2000,89).

Similarly, "Беда не приходит одна." and "祸不单行(Misfortune never come alone)(Jia Shufen 1996,6)", "Сытый голотного не разумеет." and "饱汉不知饿汉饥(Fatty people do not know hungry people are hungry)(Jia Shufen 1996,378)", "Близкий сосед лучше дальней родни." and "distant relatives are not as good as neighbors", “Одно дерево - не роща, одна птица - нестая” and "孤树不成林，孤鸟不成群(A single tree does not form forests, a lone bird does not form flocks)(Wang Jinhua,Zhang Li 2006,76)", etc., are completely consistent in image and meaning.

2.2 Partial consistency

"Partial consistency" means that Russian proverbs are the same or similar in thinking, cultural image or meaning to Chinese proverbs. Such Russian proverbs can find corresponding or related proverbs in Chinese to a certain extent. The large number of such proverbs reflects the differences in the understanding of different things and phenomena between nations(Chen Ying 2000,89/Wang Yanrong 2013,114).

For example, the Russian proverb "Расти как грибы после дождя" means "grow like mushrooms after rain", which means that things develop rapidly. Due to factors such as geographical location and natural environment, Russia is rich in mushrooms, and mushrooms grow rapidly after rain in Russia. In the same way, our country's "雨后春笋(bamboo shoots in spring)" have also grown rapidly, becoming a proverb that expresses the rapid development and emergence of things(Chen Ying 2000,90). This pair of Russian and Chinese proverbs uses the same thinking mode and different cultural images to express the same meaning.

Another example is the Russian proverb "Первый блин комом." It means that the first time you make a cake, you will always make a dough, which means that the first attempt is always easy to fail. The "блин" in the proverb is the unique Russian food "Russian pancake", which reflects the distinctive national characteristics. In Chinese, the proverb "三脚难踢，开锣的戏难唱(It's hard to kick the first three feet, and it's hard to sing the gongs)" uses images such as "三脚(three feet)" and "开锣的戏(plays with gongs)" to express that things are difficult at the beginning of attempts, and that "万事开头难(everything is difficult at first)" meaning. The two are very similar in their embodied meanings. Some other examples included in this category are:

(1)Два медведя в одной берлоте неуживутся. 一个洞穴中不会住两只熊(Two bears in one berlot won't get along)(Lei Yumei 2014,114).

(2)И Москва несразу строилась. 莫斯科不是一下就建成的(And Moscow was not built immediately)(Chen Ying 2000,89).

(3)Гром не грянет, мужик не перекрестится. 不打雷，农夫不祷告(Thunder won't strike, the man won't cross)(Yang Min 2017, 202).

(4)Скарть со стола, и дружба сплыла.桌布一撤，友谊全无 (Scrap off the table and friendship floated away)(Lei Yumei 2014,114).

These Russian proverbs correspond to the Chinese "一山不容二虎(The mountain cannot accommodate two tigers)", "一口吃不成个胖子(You can't make a fat man with one bite)(Chen Ying 2000,90)", "临时抱佛脚(Temporary holding a Buddha's feet)", and "人走茶凉(No sooner has the person gone away than the tea cools down)(Lei Yumei 2014,114)". These sets of corresponding Russian and Chinese proverbs have different cultural images, but the meaning is the same.

2.3 Complete inconsistency

There are some Russian proverbs that have nothing to do with Chinese proverbs either in image or meaning. Such Russian proverbs can be classified as "completely inconsistent"(Chen Ying 2000,89/Wang Yanrong 2013,114). The Russian and Chinese ethnic groups have their own unique national cultures. The differences in political economy, geographical environment, climate characteristics, vegetation, animals, historical allusions, living customs, religious beliefs, etc. have given birth to a series of ethnic proverbs(Yang Min 2017, 200).

For example, the literal translation of the Russian proverb "Дело-табак" is "事关烟草（it's about tobacco.）" What does it mean? It turned out that the boatmen on the Volga River used to hang tobacco bags around their necks to prevent the tobacco from getting wet. This sentence was used to remind people that the water depth is close to the neck. It has now been used to express "things are bad, the situation is not good". (Chen Ying 2000,90)

Another example is the Russian proverb "Хвалилась синица, что море зажжет." literally translated as "山雀吹嘘要把大海点燃(The tit boasted to light the sea)". This proverb comes from an allusion in Krylov’s fable: "The tit yelled everywhere that it was going to burn the sea. The news reached the animals' ears. Everyone ran to see the result, but the sea did not dry up. Everyone ran to see the result, but the sea did not dry up. "This proverb satirizes those who like to brag, but can't get things done. Such ethnic-specific proverbs are sometimes difficult to understand, and it is necessary to trace their roots to understand their meaning(Zhou Changyu 2006,40).

These three types of Russian proverbs and Chinese proverbs have different levels of consistency in content, and the degree of difficulty of understanding also varies. Therefore, in the translation process, it is necessary to select one or a combination of multiple translation methods for translation according to different proverb classifications to achieve the purpose of "prescribe the right medicine".

3. Chinese translation methods of Russian proverbs

Chinese and foreign translation theorists have put forward different opinions on translation standards. From Yan Fu's "Faithfulness, Expressiveness, and Elegance" to Qian Zhongshu's "Concept of Transcendence"; from Qu Qiubai's "Concept of Equivalence" to "Functional Equivalence" by the famous American translation theorist Eugene A•Nidar Or "dynamic equivalence". We can see that the central point in their proposition is that the translation should faithfully express the meaning of the original text and reflect the appearance of the original text(Sheng Yichao 2009,110).

On the basis of this important point of view, we analyze the classification of Russian proverbs and apply various methods comprehensively in order to obtain a more perfect translation. Specifically, there are the following methods: translation method, set translation method, literal translation method, free translation method, borrowed translation method, and added word and annotation method(Zhou Changyu 2006,40).

3.1 Equivalent translation(对译法)

"Equivalent translation" is directly using Chinese proverbs corresponding to Russian proverbs for translation. When using this translation method, the information conveyed by the literal and image meanings of Russian and Chinese proverbs should be the same. This translation method can correctly convey the pragmatic information contained in the image of the original language, enhance the readability of the translation, while completely retaining the rhetorical color of the original language, so that readers can understand the original text most accurately(Zhou Changyu 2006,40).

This translation method is applicable to the "completely consistent" Russian proverbs mentioned above. For the Russian proverbs listed in 1.1, the existing proverbs in Chinese proverbs can be directly used as translations, and for example:

(1)Век живи, век учись. 活到老,学到老。(Live and learn.)

(2)Капля камень точит. 滴水穿石。(Constant dripping wears away a stone.)

(3)Куй железо, пока горячо. 趁热打铁。(Strike while the iron is hot.) (Jia Shufen 1996,135)

3.2 Corresponding and literal translation

In the Translatology Dictionary , the translation method “corresponding” is interpreted as the mutual translation of synonymous idioms. If the content, form, and rhetoric color of the target language roughly match the target language, then it is possible to adopt this method(Fang Mengzhi 2003,111). If the images and metaphors are the same or similar, this translation method is more appropriate; while the literal translation method is based on the form of the original text, which retains the metaphor, image and national characteristics of Russian proverbs. These two methods can be used simultaneously in translation practice.

“Corresponding” is suitable for the translation of "partially consistent" Russian proverbs introduced in 1.2 of this chapter. "Partially consistent" Russian proverbs can be found in Chinese with corresponding proverbs with different images but the same or similar meaning. At this time, if the “equivalent translation” is adopted, readers will be misunderstood and the translated language will lose the national characteristics of Russian proverbs. Therefore, when translating such proverbs, the original image should be kept as much as possible and the expression form of Chinese proverbs should be used. In addition to the examples already mentioned above, there are similar ones:

(1)Ложка дёгтю в бочку мёду. 一勺焦油坏了一桶蜜(A spoonful of tar breaks a bucket of honey), referring to the Chinese proverb "一粒老鼠屎坏了一锅汤(A mouse poop breaks a pot of soup)"(Jia Shufen 1996,145)

(2) Нет дыма без огня. 无火不生烟(No fire, no smoke)， refers to the Chinese proverb "无风不起浪(No wind, no waves)"(Jia Shufen 1996,240).

(3) Шила в мешке не устаишь. 口袋藏不住坠子(Pendant cannot be hidden in the pocket）, refers to the Chinese proverb "纸包不住火(Paper cannot keep fire)"(Jia Shufen 1996,303).

Such Russian proverbs refer to the expression form of Chinese proverbs. On the basis of retaining the language structure characteristics of Russian proverbs, they do not lose the national cultural characteristics of Russian proverbs. They are successful translations. “Corresponding” uses the expression form of Chinese proverbs to make the translation easier to be accepted by readers. While using the translation method “corresponding”, in fact, the literal translation method is also used. The two are closely combined to maximize the original image and style(Zhou Changyu 2006,39).

3.3 Free translation and loan translation

The national cultures of China and Russia are quite different. When Russian proverbs and Chinese proverbs use completely different figurative images, the figurative images in the literal original text will make the translation difficult to understand and accept, or cause misunderstandings. Using “corresponding” to translate Russian proverbs may cause deviation in understanding. In order to accurately convey the meaning of the original text, free translation can be used for translation at this time. Free translation refers to a translation method that readjusts the structure of the original text on the basis of the meaning of the original text and expresses the meaning of the original text clearly in a new way of expression.

For example, the Russian proverb "Язык до Киева довезёт. 舌头（语言）把你带到基辅。(The tongue (language) brings you to Kiev)" Kiev is an ancient city in the former Soviet Union. In ancient times, Kiev was called the mother city of the Russians and one of the most famous cities (Chen Ying 2000,90). Therefore, as long as you ask for directions, you will find Kiev. Therefore, this Russian proverb actually emphasizes the importance of "язык". The literal translation will obviously make readers puzzled. However, it can be translated as "有嘴走遍天下（With a mouth to travel all over the world）" through free translation, which is more appropriate and easy to understand(Zhou Changyu 2006,39).

"На воре шапка горит(Jia Shufen 1996,176)." is literally translated as "小偷的帽子着火(The thief's hat is on fire)". If you don’t understand the source of the proverb, you cannot understand its meaning. This proverb originated from a story: Someone found a thief stealing, so he shouted in the crowd, "The thief's hat is on fire." When the thief heard it, he involuntarily looked at his head and exposed himself and was arrested. . Through free translation, this proverb can be translated as "the thief has a guilty conscience", so that the meaning of the original text can be more accurately conveyed to the reader(Zhou Changyu 2006,39).

There are always commonalities and individualities in Russian and Chinese national cultures. Therefore, as mentioned in 1.2, there are cases where Russian and Chinese proverbs express the same or similar meanings in different cultural images. In this case, when the differences between Russian and Chinese proverbs are too prominent, you can also consider loan translation to translate, that is, by analyzing the internal meaning of Russian proverbs, borrowing Chinese proverbs with different images but expressing the same meaning for translation(Zhou Changyu 2006,39). E.g:

(1) Семь раз примерь, один раз отрежь.三思而后行(Jia Shufen 1996,345)。(Look before you leap.)

(2) Всякая лисица свой хвост хвалит. 王婆卖瓜，自卖自夸(Jiang Xiuhua 1999,166)。(Every cook praises his own broth.)

(3) Горбатого могила исправит. 禀性难移。(Human nature is hardly changed.)(Ye Fanglai 1987,102)

Using this translation method, the translation is not exactly the same as the original, and the content and form of the two are also very different. This distinguishes the loan translation method from the equivalent translation counterpart translation method and the “corresponding”. In fact, the loan translation method can be regarded as a variant of the free translation method, because the loan translation is actually an expression made by re-adjusting the structure of the original text on the basis of understanding the meaning of the original text. But it should also be distinguished from free translation, because the loan translation method borrows the proverbs already in Chinese. This method has lost the image in the original proverb and cannot be called a perfect translation method. It should be avoided as much as possible(Zhou Changyu 2006,39).

3.4 Addition and annotation

Addition and annotation are compensatory translation methods, which supplement and reveal the cultural information in the original text.(Wang Yanrong 2013,114), the two explanations in the translatology dictionary are "to add some words according to the needs of semantics, rhetoric or syntax in translation, so as to faithfully and smoothly express the ideological content of the original text." And a translator's compensation method in order to fully express the original semantics and style in the process of translation is to help achieve the equivalence of translation. (Fang Mengzhi 2003,111)

Many Russian proverbs may produce pragmatic failure after literal translation. In order to avoid this failure, we can use the method of adding words or adding notes to introduce the image and cultural background of the original text in the form of annotation. This method makes the translation more vivid and intuitive, while retaining the image of the original text, showing the national characteristics of Russian proverbs(Zhou Changyu 2006,39).

For example, the Russian proverb "И на солнце есть пятна." is literally translated as "太阳上也有黑点。(There are black spots on the sun.)" This translation is obviously difficult for readers to accept and understand, but if the Chinese proverb "金无足赤，人无完人(Gold can't be pure and man can't be perfect.)" with the same meaning is added after it to reveal its connotation, “太阳上也有黑点—金无足赤，人无完人。(There are also black spots on the sun—Gold can't be pure and man can't be perfect.)” This form of translation can allow readers to understand the meaning of the proverb clearly and keep the original image in Russian proverbs(Zhou Changyu 2006,40).

Another example is "В Тулу со своим самоваром не ездят." literally translated as "不要带着茶炊去图拉。(Don't take a samovar to Tula.)" This Russian proverb has a strong Russian national color. Tula was once famous throughout the country for the production of samovars, and was the center of Russia's metallurgical industry and metal manufacturing. Taking the samovar to Tula, which is rich in samovars, actually means "make an unnecessary move". This proverb is very vivid. Russians can naturally understand and understand its meaning, but as Chinese readers who do not understand Russian culture, it may be difficult to understand the literal translation of this proverb.

Therefore, this proverb can be translated as "带着茶炊去图拉—多此一举(Bring a samovar to Tula--make an unnecessary move)", or add a note in brackets: "Tula is famous for making samovars." In this way, readers can not only understand the meaning of proverbs, but also intuitively feel the cultural elements of Russia. It can said as killing two birds with one stone(Zhou Changyu 2006,40). This translation method is often used in the situations described in 1.3. Examples also include:

（1）За двумя зайцами погонишься ни одного не поймаешь. 一人追双兔，到头两手空—一心不可二用。(One man chases two rabbits, and in the end two hands are empty--no man can do two things at once.)

（2）На языке мёд а в сердце лёд. 嘴上甜似蜜,心里冷若冰—笑里藏刀。(Sweet as honey on the mouth, cold as ice in the heart--hide a dagger in a smile.)

The above-mentioned several Chinese translation methods of Russian proverbs have their own advantages and disadvantages. In the practice of Russian proverb translation, we should not be limited to one of them. We should make a specific analysis according to the specific situation, flexibly use different translation methods, and learn from others' strong points, so as to achieve a harmonious translation.

4. Translation strategies of Russian proverbs

Russian proverbs are concise in language, rich in meaning, vivid in image, beautiful in rhythm and strong in national color. It is not easy to translate them into Chinese accurately and vividly. In the practice of Russian proverb translation, we should pay attention to the translation strategies in addition to the flexible application of various translation methods.

4.1 Trace the origin and accurately interpret

There are great cultural differences between Russian and Chinese. When interpreting Russian proverbs, translators are likely to stay on the surface of the text and interpret the meaning from the text, resulting in misunderstanding and translation errors. Therefore, when translating Russian proverbs, especially those with historical or national background, we should carefully examine their allusions, trace back to the source, and accurately interpret the hidden meanings of proverbs.

For example, the Russian proverb "Недосол на столе, а пересол на спине." is literally translated as "菜淡了在桌上，菜咸了在背上。(The dish is light on the table, and the dish is salty on the back.)" This proverb can be traced back to the time of serfdom. Salt was a very valuable thing at that time, and those who wasted salt will be punished. Russians usually have salt shakers on their tables. If the dishes are weak, you can add salt at will, but if they are salty, the cook will be punished by whipping his back. Therefore, the basic meaning of the proverb is that if the dish is cooked, salt can be added, and if the dish is salted, the cook will be beaten. (Ma Weiqun, Zhang Xiaoyun 2008,149) However, this proverb was once translated as "多一事不如少一事(One thing more is worse than one thing less)" or "宁缺毋滥(It is better to leave a deficiency uncovered than to have it covered without discretion)". This kind of translation is obviously not appropriate. It is "taking the words too literally" without understanding the historical background(Ye Fanglai 1987,101).

Similar proverbs include "Была бы спина, а то будет вина." literally translated as "只要有脊背，就会有过错(As long as there is a back, there will be fault)" , this Russian proverb also contains the cultural image of "back". As mentioned above, whipping the back was a common punishment method at that time. At the same time, since the whipped person violated the discipline, not the law, there was a certain degree of randomness in determining the punishment object and the degree of punishment. (Sheng Yichao 2009,110)

Therefore, this proverb actually expresses the meaning of "欲加之罪，何患无辞(Give a dog a bad name and hang him)". If you don't know Russian history, you can't understand the meaning of this proverb. Therefore, it is very important to study the allusions of proverbs and understand their deep cultural meanings.(Sheng Yichao 2009,110)

4.2 Retain characteristics and respect national culture

Proverbs are the cultural crystallization of a nation and have distinctive national characteristics. When translating Russian proverbs, attention should be paid to the comprehensive use of multiple translation methods, to maximize the retention of national characteristics, not only to restore the original image and style, but also to reflect the national cultural connotation, while taking into account the reader's understanding and acceptance. At this time, we may use the methods of addition and annotation mentioned above, and try to avoid over-domestication of Russian proverbs, and respect the national culture. We should analyze it in the specific original text and translate it flexibly(Zhou Changyu 2006,42).

For example, the Russian proverb "Не всё коту масленица, бывает и великий пост." is literally translated as "a cat does not celebrate the festival of Marriage every day, and it always has a Lent." Readers who do not understand the Russian national culture may not understand the meaning of this proverb, if you add a comment at this time, “In Russian festivals, the 7-day Maslenitsa can best reflect the traditions of the Russian nation. (Sheng Yichao 2009,110)

The “Ross-Robs Festival” originated from the Orthodox Church. The 40-day fast in the Orthodox During the period, people are forbidden to eat meat and entertainment. Therefore, in the week before the start of Lent, people indulge in joy and every family pay close attention to eating meat to make up for the ascetic life during the fast period."If the background cultural knowledge contained in the proverb is revealed, readers will be able to more clearly understand the meaning of the proverb "good times will not last long, and a feast is hard to come by".(Sheng Yichao 2009,110)

Another example is the proverb "Не учи рыбу плавать. 不要教鱼儿游泳(Don't teach fish to swim)". Some people have translated the proverb as "不要班门弄斧(Don't go to teach hewing to the God of Carpenters)". This translation borrowed and translated the image in the original text into a well-known allusion(“班门弄斧”) image in Chinese people. The distortion of the cultural connotation in proverbs is excessive domestication, so it is not appropriate.(Zhou Changyu 2006,42)

4.3 Pay attention to expression and focus on language use

On the one hand, as a unique language form, proverbs are popular among the people, and they are a kind of spoken language style with the characteristics of spoken language style. Therefore, in the translation of Russian proverbs, the characteristics of easy to understand and easy to speak should also be reflected in the translation; On the other hand, as the famous Russian linguist A. A. Potebnya（А. А. Потебня） said, proverb “is a short literary work”. Proverbs are also a kind of folk literature, which is actually a literary form. We should pay attention to the aesthetic characteristics of proverbs in translation(Zhou Changyu 2006,43).

For example, if the proverb “Не учи рыбу плавать.” mentioned above is translated as “不要教鱼儿游泳(Don’t teach fish to swim)”, obviously the literal translation method will accurately retain the original metaphorical image while retaining the colloquial nature of the proverb. It is easy to understand and the translation of "不要班门弄斧(Don't go to teach hewing to the God of Carpenters)(“班门弄斧”is an Chinese allusion)" is blunt and overly written(Zhou Changyu 2006,43).

Another example is "Слово серебро, молчание золото" literally translated as "雄辩是银，沉默是金(eloquence is silver, silence is gold)" to express the phonology in the original text very well and make people read it catchy. If the Chinese proverb "是非只为多开口，烦恼皆因强出头(Right and wrong just for more mouth, worry all because of strong)", although the meaning is the same, it loses the metaphorical image and popularity of the original text; as for the aesthetic characteristics, the translation of the Russian proverb "Красна птица пером, а человек умом." "鸟美在羽毛，人美在头脑(The beauty of birds is in the feathers, and the beauty of people is in the mind.)" This translation adopts the method of literal translation, while preserving the original image, it also restores the structure of the original text and the rhetorical symmetry, which conforms to the aesthetic characteristics of the original text(Zhou Changyu 2006,44).

5. Conclusion

In short, Russian and Chinese are two very different languages, and the proverbs of the two ethnic groups also have their own characteristics in language form. The translation must take into account the unique style, connotation and meaning of the original text at the same time, while maintaining the fluency of sentences, perfect expression, and achieving the harmony and unity of sound, rhyme and meaning. It is by no means easy, and it is a major test for translators. Translators should not only have a thorough understanding of the original text and the cultural background of the original text, and be proficient in tempering words, but also should flexibly use various translation methods, master translation strategies, and strive to accurately express the profound meaning of Russian proverbs.

6. References

[1]Jia Shufen.贾淑芬.(1996). 简明俄汉语谚语词典[A Concise Dictionary of Russian and Chinese Proverbs]. 辽宁大学出版社[Liaoning University Press].

[2] Ye Fanglai.叶芳来.(2005) 俄汉谚语俗语词典[A Dictionary of Russian and Chinese Proverbs].商务印书馆[The Commercial Press].

[3] Yang Min.杨敏.俄汉谚语翻译中的形象处理.(2017).[Image processing in the translation of Russian-Chinese proverbs]. 文化学刊[Journal of Cultural Studies]200-203.

[4]Wang Xingsong王兴松. (2016). 浅谈俄语谚语的翻译.[On the translation of Russian proverbs].读书文摘[Reading Abstract]78.

[5]Lei Yumei.雷玉梅.(2014).文化视角下的俄语谚语翻译.[Translation of Russian proverbs from a cultural perspective]. 边疆经济与文化[Frontier Economy and Culture]113-114.

[6] Ma Weiqun, Zhang Xiaoyun. (2008). 马为群，张晓云．谚语版俄语语法教程.[Proverbs Edition Russian Grammar Course]. 哈尔滨工业大学出版社.[Harbin Institute of Technology Press].

[7] Wang Yanrong.王艳荣.(2013).俄语谚语的翻译方法. [The translation method of Russian proverbs]. 安徽文学[Anhui Literature (second half of the month)]114.

[8] Zhou Changyu.周长雨. (2006).俄语谚语的汉译问题. [Chinese translation of Russian proverbs]. 哈尔滨工业大学.[Harbin Institute of Technology].

[9] Sheng Yichao.盛义朝.(2009).俄语谚语翻译初探. [A Probe into the Translation of Russian Proverbs]. 吉林省教育学院学报.[Journal of Jilin Province Education College] 110-111.

[10]Chen Ying.陈颖.(2000).从俄汉谚俗语的对译看民族个性. [Looking at the national personality from the translation of Russian and Chinese proverbs].黑龙江教育学院学报. [Journal of Heilongjiang Institute of Education]89-90.

[11]Wang Jinhua, Zhang Li.王金花,张丽.(2006).俄语谚语翻译中有关问题的探讨 [Discussion on Related Issues in Russian Proverb Translation]. 内蒙古财经学院学报(综合版)[Journal of Inner Mongolia University of Finance and Economics (Comprehensive Edition)]76-78.

[12]Yu Jun.于军.(2008).浅析俄语谚语及其汉译问题.[Analysis of Russian proverbs and their Chinese translation]. 考试周刊.[Examination Weekly]226-227.

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An Analysis of Liaison Interpreting from the Perspectives of Reception Aesthetics and Translator-Centered Theory 李璐伊 Li Luyi 202020080612 亚非语言文学

李璐伊 Li Luyi 202020080612 亚非语言文学

Abstract

In a time of increasing intercultural communication, the working scenes of liaison interpreters are increasingly complex, and the role of interpreters are still controversial. From the perspective of aesthetics of reception and translator-centered theory, this paper analyzes the role positioning of liaison interpreters in terms of customers' expectations on the role of interpreters and their own understanding of the role of interpreters, and develops corresponding strategies for different types of liaison interpreters.

Keywords

Liaison Interpreting；Positioning of Interpreter；Reception Aesthetics ；Translator-Centered Theory

摘要

在跨文化交际日益频繁的今天，联络口译译员的工作场景日益复杂，而其角色定位还存在争议。本文拟通过接受美学和译者中心论的视角分别从客户对口译译员的角色期待以及口译译员自身角色认识两方面分析了客户对口译员的角色期待和口译员对自身的角色定位，并针对不同联络口译类型制定了相应的应对策略。

关键词

联络口译；译员角色定位；接受美学；译者中心论

1.Introduction

1.1.Research Background and Significance

In a broad sense, where there is a society, there is intercultural communication, which usually refers to the communication activities carried out by people in different cultural backgrounds. With the acceleration of globalization in recent years, intercultural communication has become increasingly frequent and complex. Susan Bassinet once argued that translation is by no means a purely linguistic act, it is deeply rooted in the culture in which the language is spoken, and that translation is the communication within or between cultures.

This view is also reflected in his book Translation, History and Culture“Translators are allowed more liberties on what one might be tempted to call‘the purely linguistic level,’ certainly if the translation is not meant to‘represent’ the original in the translators' culture, but simply to help translators refine their knowledge of their own language.”(Bassnett, Susan; Lefevre, Andre 1996,4).

As an important bridge in intercultural communication, interpreting is real-time, which requires interpreters to adjust their interpreting strategies in the new era to meet the increasing demand for interpreting.

Translation studies is a relatively young research field, the current translation studies work an obvious trend to written translation studies, with less attention in the study of interpreting, this is probably due to the earlier tradition of the translation studies -- In the past, people only discussed the translation strategies of literary classics. As for this point, some scholars have proposed before that "in terms of translation theory research itself, only written translation theory research is paid attention to rather than interpreting research, especially the study of specific problems in the process of interpreting by interpreters" (Liu Yingjun 2014,141- 143).

We believes that the reasons for this situation are as follows: first, the corpus of written translation recorded in the form of words are easier to preserve than the interpreted corpus, and the research is also easier to retrieve the corpus of written translation; Second, Culture-related content is more common in translation than in interpreting. In addition, at present, the entry point of interpreting studies on cultural issues in liaison interpreting is often limited to a specific interpreting setting. For example, Zhao Xiaomei makes an analysis of the role of medical liaison interpreters, and believes that interpreters should abandon the tradition of complete neutrality in the process of interpreting (Zhao Xiaomei 2020, 105- 108). However, different interpreting settings have different requirements for interpreters, so the study confined to a specific scene does not accord with the actual situation that interpreters must be in multiple settings to interpret.

In addition, many Chinese liaison interpreting studies are practice reports of MTI majors, lacking systematic theoretical discussion. Against such a background of translation studies, it is very necessary to study liaison interpreting from the perspective of receptive aesthetics and "translator-centered theory". The value of this study lies in: first, it provides a new theoretical perspective for liaison interpretation analysis; Second, it provides coping strategies to solve the cultural barriers of interpreting in intercultural communication.（Wang Shaolong 2020,39-40/Mao Zhen 2020,33-34）

1.2.Definition of Liaison Interpreting

Generally speaking, interpretation is divided into consecutive interpreting and simultaneous interpreting according to its working mode, while it is divided into two-way interpreting and one-way interpreting according to the direction of interpreting. The liaison interpreting we discuss here is a typical two-way interpreting. We generally believe that liaison interpreting is a kind of interpreting which is different from conference interpreting and has a variety of working scenes, and it's working mode is mainly consecutive interpreting. Henri van Hoof, when talking about liaison interpreting earlier, described it as an interpreting practice existing in business negotiations (Franz.Pǎchhacker 2010,12).

This is the early propositions which business interpreting is equivalent to liaison interpreting, and in the later long period of time has been recognized and widely used, but this description has obvious limitations. With the development of society and the diversification and complexity of interpreting settings, the connotation of liaison interpreting has been expanded to include various forms of interpreting within the society or within the community. Later, R. Bruce W. Anderson (1976/2002) generically described liaison interpreting as a "tripartite communication" model, which is characterized by the emphasis that liaison interpreting is an activity in which two monolingual speakers communicate through a bilingual interpreter (Franz.Pǎchhacker 2010,14).

Of course, this definition is more in line with the current practical understanding of liaison interpreting, but it is also difficult to distinguish the specific forms of liaison interpreting because of the high generality of its description. According to Anderson's point of view and the definition of conference interpreting, liaison interpreting is a "bilateral interpreting" within the society, rather than an international conference interpreting for representatives of several countries. Therefore, not only business interpreting, but also legal interpreting and guide-interpreting should be included in liaison interpreting.

1.3.Research Method

Based on the "reader-centered theory" of reception aesthetics and "translator-centered theory" of "Eco-translatology", this paper mainly adopts the method of literature research and takes liaison interpreters as the object to discuss customers' expectations on the role of interpreters and interpreters’ awareness of their own role, so as to seek interpreting strategies in different situations of liaison interpreting.

2.Reception Aesthetics and Translator-Centered Theory

2.1.Reception Aesthetics

Reception aesthetics, also known as reader-centered theory, is a critical approach in literary studies, developed in the 1960s by H.R. Jauss and Wolfgang. Iser. This theory is different from the previous critical method which is centered on author or works. It turns to the critical method which is centered on readers' aesthetic acceptance and aesthetic experience. Phenomenology and modern hermeneutics are the theoretical basis of reader-centered theory, and the term "reception aesthetics" was first introduced in Hans Robert Jauss's essay Literary History as a Challenge to Literary Theory, which is a manifesto for reception aesthetics to become an independent school.(Jin Huxiong 2002, 264-267)

Izer once said, "Reception aesthetics advocates the reader's initiative and creative ability. Reading is not a passive perception but an active creative activity. The transformation of the reader's role can be said to be an epoch-making transformation in the development of literature"(Guo Hongan 1997，338-339).

There are several important concepts in reception aesthetics. The first is the "the horizon of expectations"， which Jauss coined. Jauss believes that due to the complex reasons of individuals and society, readers who are the subject of receiving literature often have established thinking orientation and concepts in their psychology before and during the process of literature reading.(Wang Tong 2020, 198-199)

The second concept is the "response-inviting structure", which was proposed by Iser. Iser considers the meaning of a text to be indeterminable, so the meaning of a text would never have been generated by itself, but there is a "text blank" in the text that only the reader can fill.(Jin Huxiong 2002,274)

"Text blank" can induce the reader to think aesthetically. Reception aesthetics in interpreting is reflected in that the success of a interpretation product largely depends on the response of the recipient to the work and whether the recipient has generated aesthetic pleasure, and the evocation of the text and the satisfaction of the recipient have become the criteria for evaluation of interpretation products. From the perspective of reception aesthetics, interpreting serves the recipient completely.

2.2.Translator-Centered Theory

The concept of "translator-centered theory" is closely related to "Eco-translatology" put forward by Professor Hu Gengshen. "Eco-translatology" is a new concept, and there are still many controversies and misunderstandings about it among Chinese scholars. In the opinion of Leng Yuhong, "If we want to construct a systematic and complete “Eco-translatology Theory”, the first thing to be overturned must be the 'translator-centered'!" (Leng Yuhong 2011, 72-73).

The main reason for his conclusion is that he has a misunderstanding of "translator-centered". Leng Yuhong believes that the "translator-centered" puts the "translator" above the "original text" and the "recipient", and takes the translator to an extreme like “translation-center theory”.

Some other scholars believe that, on the one hand, the "translator-centered theory" fails to break through the dichotomization of subject and object; on the other hand, it is interpreted from the perspective of concrete operation instead of philosophical reasoning. Therefore, it lacks an organic connection with the anti-centrism and equality core contained in the Oriental ecological wisdom.(Luo Dijiang 2017， 65)

Then professor Hu retorted, the "translator-centered" concept, in the process of translation is mainly reveals the "leading" role of the translator in the translation process, specifically refers to the translator in the translation process must first "adapt to" the ecological environment of translation, and then, the translator in according to the ecological environment of translation to decide on the "choice" of translation , which includes the translator "selective adaptation" and "adaptive selection" and so on, all the translation behaviors of translation activity is determined by translator, this is the core and intention of "translator-center theory . In other words, the translation system is pluralistic, and the translator should actively adapt to the environment in the process of translation, instead of destroying the relationship between each subject in the translation system to reach the dominant position. Professor Hu also emphasizes the distinction between "translator-centered theory" and "subjectivity" in order to emphasize the dynamic role that translators can play in translation.(Hu Gengshen 2013, 208, 218-219)

Yin suiqiong also believes that ecological paradigm is not a commonality between translation studies and natural ecosystems, but a feature shared by all social science research systems. Hu said that Yin's erroneous conclusion is based on a misunderstanding of the concept of "paradigm", and that “Eco-translatology” and its "translator-centered theory" are the common beliefs of recent translation scholars, rather than emphasizing that they are unique to translatology and natural ecosystems.(Yin Suiqiong 2017, 56-62/ Hu Gengshen 2017, 63-68)

In addition, there are many arguements about “Eco-translatology” and "translator-centered theory" in China, we think that the “translator-centered theory” under the perspective of “Eco-translatology” not mean that "translator" above the "source language" and "recipients", but hope from the perspective of "translator" thinking about the problems in the translation process and the solution to the problem, emphasizes the "translator" actively adapt to the social scene and positive response to this strategy.

Then, what is the relationship between the "reader-centered theory" of reception aesthetics and the "translator-centered theory" of Eco-translatology studies? We think that the two are dialectical unity, reception aesthetics require the translator to fully consider the recipient's cultural quality and cognitive levels, but completely according to the requirements of the recipient to make the choice of translation strategy and translation quality evaluation is too biased, because recipient's aesthetic of translation products too subjective and lack of professionalism, and "translator-centered theory" advocate that the difficulties encountered in the translation should be solved by translators according to their professional judgment and also encourages translators to seek more change through its own development strategy.

Of course, "reader-centered theory" and "translator-centered theory" are not diametrically opposed, and translator-centered theory also requires translators to consider the needs of recipients of translation products. It can be said that "reader-centered theory" is a reference item of "translator-centered theory", and "translator-centered theory" is a further development of "reader-centered theory".

3.Positioning of liaison interpreter

In the field of interpretation, there have always been different opinions on the principle of fidelity of interpretation products: some people believe that "sentence by sentence translation" should be carried out, and interpretation products should be faithful to the original text in form. That is, the interpreter should "be like a megaphone" ; Some people believe that interpreters should take into account the cultural context in which communication takes place, and that interpretation products should be faithful to the "meaning" of the original text, that is, the central meaning expressed by the speaker .(Franz.Pǎchhacker 2010,153)

However, there are significantly more supporters of the latter than the former. This is similar to the debate on the principle of translation in translation studies: literal translation v.s. free translation. The discussion of translation principles is generally focused on literature. At present, we generally believe that different translation strategies should be adopted according to different literary genres and themes. It is also similar in the study of interpretation. Liaison interpreters should adopt different interpreting strategies according to different interpretation scenes and themes. The difference between liaison interpretation and translation comes from R. Bruce W. Anderson's "tripartite communication" theory.(Franz.Pǎchhacker 2010,14）

Liaison interpreters are directly facing customers when interpreting, and their interpreting products will be delivered to customers in a timely manner, so the quality of their translation products depends entirely on customers' judgment at present. So when we think about the role of the liaison interpreters, one of the most important references is what the client expects of the interpreter. In addition, the interpreter acts as a bridge between the two sides in communication, and the role of the liaison interpreter is more prominent than that of other types of interpreters.

Therefore, the positioning of the interpreters on themselves is also very important. In addition, another characteristic that distinguishes liaison interpreters from other types of translators is that liaison interpretation is often in a dynamic and diversified scene, unlike other translators who are only in a single translation setting. Therefore, analysis of the interpreting setting is also a part that cannot be ignored when discussing the role positioning of the interpreter.

3.1.Client's Expectation of the Interpreter's Role

From the perspective of reception aesthetics, clients will estimate and expect interpretation products in advance according to their reading experience and aesthetic taste. Donova-Cagigos talked about the measurement and judgment of interpretation quality, and believed that if "faithfulness" could not be quantified, it could only be relevant to specific communicative occasions so the results of the clients expectation investigation, such as the user's preference for the delivery of the main idea over the full translation, can be used as an important criterion for rating accuracy and omission.(Franz.Pǎchhacker 2010，169)

This requires the liaison interpreter to adjust his/her role to the client's expectations. Each user's knowledge base, education level and other aspects of the difference will lead to their expectations of liaison interpreters change. We divide clients' expectations on interpreters into two categories: one is that interpreters are expected to interpret faithfully, neutrally and impartially, without mixing their own interpretation with concise output of source language information; The other is to expect interpreters to add their own explanations through omission, addition and other interpreting techniques when interpreting source language information, so as to make interpreting products better understood.

The role expectations of the above two kinds of clients depend largely on the nature of the clients and the purpose for which the clients accept the interpretation. The first kind of clients who hope interpreter completely follow the principle of "faithfulness" , have a comprehensive understanding of the areas involved in interpretation, they receive interpretation mainly for the purpose of obtaining extended knowledge of known fields or general information, or because of the limitation of interpretation theme requires an interpreter to stay neutral, such as legal interpreting.

In this regard, Collados Aís studied the requirements on the interpretation quality standards of the interpreting clients who are experts and found that the subjects did not give low marks to the content errors in the "pleasant to hear" interpretation, but scored them according to other standards. The principle of "faithfulness", which the clients attach most importance to, did not play a corresponding role in the evaluation.(Franz.Pǎchhacker 2010，171)

The second group of clients expect interpreters to go beyond "translation machines" and become helpers who can answer their own questions and facilitate communication. Such clients generally have little knowledge of the fields involved in the interpreting content, and the purpose of receiving interpreting of them is to understand a completely unfamiliar knowledge field and acquire as much new knowledge as possible.

In practice, most clients prefer the latter, which is also determined by the nature of liaison interpreting. One characteristic of liaison interpreters is that interpreters often act as "escorts" (Zhan Cheng 2010,3).

As an example, the author accompanied the "Confucius Institute" visiting group of South Korea's Wonkwang University during undergraduate years., for the purpose of cultural communication, the school asked the author with the delegation visit to cultural sites such as Hunan Provincial Museum, the author's main role in the trip is interpreter, but due to the particularity of interpreting theme, the author needs to explain the names of cultural relics and supplement relevant historical knowledge to the delegation members, so while interpreting, the author also plays the role of a tour guide.

3.2.The Interpreter's Position on Themselves

In the perspective of Foucault's power theory, the interpreter is no longer the traditional "transmitter", and the subject consciousness of the interpreter is highlighted. In the practice of interpreting, the interpreter's cognition of his/her status, ability and value is an important manifestation of the interpreter's subjectivity (Wang 2019,14). In liaison interpreting, as a person directly involved in communication and proficient in bilingualism, the liaison interpreter must have the advantage of adopting appropriate interpretation strategies according to power distribution in a communication. From the perspective of "translator-centered theory", liaison interpreters also have the obligation to adapt to different interpreting environments and coordinate the discourse of communication parties. Then the following situations usually occur:

In order to ensure the quality of their interpretation products and promote the progress of communication, liaison interpreters tend to go beyond the act of interpretation itself and make supplementary explanations of the content of interpretation that may cause communication barriers, either intentionally or unintentionally. Or when the interpretation content is of a strong national or national nature, liaison interpreters will inevitably have a tendency to protect the rights of their own country and nation and increase the discourse power of their own country and nation.

Of course, in general, interpreters will try their best to follow the principle of "faithfulness" in interpretation, and the ratio of "faithfulness" to "creativity" depends on the "choice" made by the liaison interpreter according to the translation environment.

3.3.The Role of Interpreter under Different Liaison Interpreting Types

"There is no absolute or unambiguous criterion for determining whether a method of interpreting is' good 'in all respects. Different types of interpreting activities have different target structures, different concerns, needs, expectations, and different levels of participation by all parties involved, which means that there are a variety of requirements for interpreters ".（Franz.Pǎchhacker 2010，172）

Therefore, the author believes that when discussing the role of the liaison interpreter, the role of the interpreter should be analyzed according to the different interpretation types. Next, the author intends to take business interpreting, guide-interpreting and legal interpreting as examples to analyze the roles of interpreters suitable for different interpreting type.

3.3.1.Business Interpreting

Business interpreting is different from other liaison interpreting. First, business interpreting usually takes place in the context of cooperative project negotiation. In communication, the monolingual speakers respectively represent the interests of their enterprises and, usually, the interests of the countries where the enterprises are located.Secondly, the communicative parties usually have the purpose of long-term cooperation. Third, the content of business interpreting usually contains a large number of professional terms and figures; Fourth, business interpreters are usually permanent employees of one side of the communication. Fifthly, advanced diction is usually used in business interpretation.

Due to the above characteristics of business interpreting, it is necessary for liaison interpreters to have the following accurate understanding of their role positioning.

First, business interpreters are channels to convey "meaning". This is the basic professionalism of an interpreter. Liaison interpreting is also known as bilateral interpretation. The existing bilateral interpretation model is based on the "tripartite communication" model. As one of the three parties, the liaison interpreter, like the Internet connecting two terminals, undertakes the task of processing the communication information between the two parties.

Second, business interpreters are debaters for the benefit of their clients. Because of the long-standing relationship between liaison interpreters and clients, clients tend to treat the interpreters they hire as their "inside" colleagues.In many business communication situations, clients represent the interests of their own enterprises and are in a fast-changing vanity fair, and the business interpreters employed by them, as bilingual and with certain knowledge of the business, are bound to be the target for clients to seek help.(Zhang Meng 2014，29)

Third, business interpreters are mediators of the negotiation atmosphere. In business negotiations, it is often the case that the two parties in communication fight for their own interests and the negotiation comes to a deadlock. Business interpreters have the obligation to use interpreting strategies and techniques to soften the atmosphere and act as a buffer when both sides are using increasingly extreme language and tone.

Fourth, a business interpreter is also a professional "business practitioner". Business interpreters are professional "business practitioners" who are the second most important role besides "interpreter". This is also based on the first point of the basic role of the interpreter positioning. Sometimes the two sides of communication have different professional terms for the same concept. In order to facilitate the smooth communication between the two sides, usually the interpreter needs to be familiar with the relevant terms and interpret them quickly and accurately. In other words, it requires not only a good command of a foreign language, but also a good knowledge of business.（Zhang Meng 2014，29）

3.3.2.Guide-interpreting

In addition to the business interpreting and legal interpreting mentioned by Pǎchhacker in the classification of interpreting, guide-interpreting is also distinguished from other liaison interpreting in that it has the most prominent intercultural characteristics and the emphasis of interpretation is on the inheritance of the culture reflected in the source language. In a sense, the role of a guide-interpreter is similar to that of a diplomat, who not only needs to make tourists understand the history and culture of China, but also needs to answer their questions accurately and timely. As a result, guide-interpreters should pay more attention when making role positioning.(Jia Zhiyong 2017，223/ Franz.Pǎchhacker 2010,160-162)

First, guide-interpreters are facilitators of communication. In the tourism-themed interpreting work, the interpreter's duty is to help tourists and tour guides communicate, which is also the embodiment of the interpreter's "bridge" role in the field of tourism. So in some cases, it is necessary for an interpreter to supplement the source language, such as when a Chinese tour guide introduces a mountain to English-speaking tourists and says:

ex）“大家现在看到的山远看像一条卧龙，因此取名卧龙山。” And then the interpreter can interpret this sentence as:

1）*"The mountain you see now looks like a sleeping dragon from a distance, so it was named Wolong Mountain."

2）"The mountain you see now looks like a sleeping dragon from a distance, so it was named Wolong Mountain. ‘Wolong’ means sleeping dragon."

Obviously, the first interpreting product does not convey the original intention of the tour guide to the tourists. The tour guide's original intention is to let the tourists know that the name of the mountain has something to do with its appearance. However, if the name of the mountain is transliterated directly without supplementary explanation, the tourists will still not understand the connection between the name of the mountain and its shape.

Second, tour interpreters are "cultural brokers". Besides interpreting the words of tour guides to tourists, interpreters should also properly explain some incomprehensible cultural phenomena to tourists. For example, a tour guide introduces the Palace Museum in Beijing to foreign tourists.(Franz.Pǎchhacker 2010,161)

The Palace Museum in Beijing is a completely symmetrical building built along a central axis. The ancient Chinese, influenced by Confucianism, believed that a completely symmetrical building could foil the majesty of the emperor. If the interpreter only changes the language of the original when interpreting this sentence, it will not make the foreign tourists understand The Chinese Confucian culture correctly. Because the guide as well as Chinese tourists learn at an early age and contact with Confucianism, so the Chinese subconsciously has "symmetrical architecture", "Confucianism" and "Confucianism" link up without the need for further explanation, but as an interpreter should be aware that foreign tourists are likely to have no contact with Confucianism, also don't know "symmetrical architecture" and "Confucianism", so when the tour guide has no further explanation, the interpreter is necessary for additional instructions, play the role of a "cultural agent".

Third, guide-interpreters are the keepers of the atmosphere. The working scenes of guide-interpreters are informal, such as scenic spots and hotels, so the intonation and wording of interpreters should be in line with the current atmosphere. If the intonation is too plain and the wording is too serious, foreign tourists will find it difficult to adapt to it, and the interpreting products of interpreters will also "reject" the interpreting settings.

Fourth, guide-interpreters are "experts" in the tourism industry. Similar to a business interpreter, a guide-interpreter requires a comprehensive and detailed knowledge of the relevant field, which is the basis for the interpreter to act as a "culture broker".

Fifthly, there is another special case in which a guide-interpreter may be both an interpreter and a tour guide. When the author was an undergraduate, the author acted as an interpreter for the "Confucius Institute" delegation of Wonkwang University in South Korea, mainly following them to various cultural tourist attractions. Since the author had been to relevant scenic spots for many times, the author acted as a dual role of "interpreter" and "tour guide" without employing professional guides.

3.3.3.Legal Interpreting

Legal interpreting refers to interpreting under legal settings, including judicial interpreting and quasi-judicial interpreting. Judicial interpreting refers to "interpreting under court settings", while quasi-judicial interpreting refers to interpreting taken place outside the court and closely related to court procedure (Zhao Junfeng，Dong Yan 2020,70).

In distinguishing between international and community settings, Pǎchhacker points out that court interpreting is "the most obvious binding setting for community interpreting". (Franz.Pǎchhacker, 2010,177) The author takes courtroom interpreting as an example for analysis. In court interpreting, the situation of interpretation is more serious than that of other types of interpreting, because of the rigor of the law, the interpreter should also be more precise in the wording and sentence construction. The roles of court interpreters are as follows:

First, an invisible interpreting machine. In most court interpreting, the restrictions imposed by the legal system on interpreters are often contrary to the standards advocated by the interpreting profession (Franz.Pǎchhacker 2010,178). In order to maintain the rigor of the law, court interpreters are required to be "invisible" and interpret word by word, so the nature of the law gives court interpreters a role positioning that distinguishes them from other types of interpreters -- "artificial intelligence interpreting machine" with high accuracy.

Second, conflict mediators. This role is due to the large power gap between legal practitioners such as judges and non-legal practitioners such as defendants and plaintiffs in the courtroom. In tense court debates, interpreters often act as conflict mediators in order to keep communication going.

Third, intercultural agents. In fact, it is not only guide-interpreting, there will be more or less cultural barriers in any intercultural communication, and court interpreting is no exception. There was a famous case in which a Chinese-grandmother who lived in the United States gave "刮痧" to her sick grandson. Her son-in-law mistakenly thought that she had abused the child, so she was brought to court. The grandmother argued in court that it was only "刮痧", and the interpreter made additional explanations and said："‘刮痧’is a traditional Chinese medicine therapy" in order to make the American judge understand "刮痧" , and the case was finally dismissed. This example well demonstrates the important role of interpreters as intercultural agents in court interpretation. (Du Mengmeng, Tan Jianying 2013,106-107)

Fourth, legal "experts". In order to ensure the accuracy of the interpreting and the accurate understanding of legal terms by the listener of the TL, interpreters usually need to master a large amount of legal knowledge and relevant vocabulary accurately, and be able to provide basic answers for the listener lacking legal knowledge when necessary.

To sum up, the role of an interpreter is generally related to the above three aspects. In other words, due to the limitations of client's expectation and interpreter's own knowledge and setting, interpreters need to make "adaptive selection" and "selective adaptation" to different interpreting environments according to client's expectation and interpreter's own knowledge. The role positioning of the interpreter affects the interpreting strategies that the interpreter chooses in the actual interpreting process, so the balance between "reception aesthetics" and "translator-centered theory" in different interpreting settings is of vital importance.

4.Interpreting Strategies in Different Interpreting Settings

4.1.The Influence and Application of Reception Aesthetics and "Translator-Centered Theory" on Interpreting Strategies

As mentioned in the previous section, there are two main types of interpretation customers: those who expect faithful interpreting and those who expect supplementary interpreting. When interpreters fail to communicate with clients in advance and adjust their interpreting strategies according to clients' expectations, they will often produce interpreting products deviating from clients' needs, thus leading to errors in the transmission of interpreting information and resulting in interpreting barriers. The influence of such factors can be largely eliminated by preparation before interpreting.

In the pre-interpretation preparation stage, interpreters can understand the cultural background of clients in advance or directly communicate with clients to understand their needs. Only by integrating interpretation products with clients' expectations can they be regarded as successful interpreting products. However, in practical interpreting, interpreters also encounter another kind of difficulty, that is, clients have aesthetic expectations of interpreting products and expect interpreters to make detailed explanations of relevant information.

We know that the aesthetic value of an interpreting product derives from the "places of indeterminacy" of the product. Generally speaking, it is the space to appreciate an interpreting product, similar to the "blank space" in a Chinese painting. A balance should be struck between the degree of supplementary explanation and the degree of artistic "white space" in interpreting, which is difficult to grasp precisely because the clients who often make such requests do not have an accurate definition. In order to deal with this problem, interpreters have to make perceptual judgments based on their rich practical experience. Of course, it is not feasible to develop interpreting strategies based entirely on clients' expectations.

Lv Jun once put forward, "Every reader has different natural talent, endowment, experience and cultivation, so the works will present different meanings to each reader... If based on such a theory, how can we draw the conclusion of ‘principle of equivalence’?" This is also the paradox between reception aesthetics and Nida's ‘functional equivalence theory’" (Lv Jun 1997，51).

As interpreters are participants in intercultural communication, their own factors must have a great impact on the quality of interpreting. The author believes that the problem of interpreting obstacles caused by interpreters' own factors can be solved through the "translator-centered theory" in "Eco-translatology". The "translator-centered theory" requires interpreters to develop themselves, that is, interpreters should change their interpreting circumstances and improve their interpreting ability, so as to obtain freedom of choice to ensure their central position in interpreting activities.(Luo Dijiang 2019，219)

Interpreters can expand their power in interpreting activities by improving their interpreting ability and using interpreting techniques. According to Pǎchhacker, there are two ways to improve interpreting skills: personal qualities and professional skills. Personal quality includes biological individual function and psychological quality. Professional skills mainly refer to bilingual skills. First of all, how to improve personal quality and ability. Apart from the inherent intelligence factor, interpreters should actively improve their psychological quality, which is a necessary guarantee for the smooth progress of interpreting.（Franz.Pǎchhacker 2010,181）

In case of difficulties, interpreters should not be flustered, but should actively take various countermeasures to overcome or temporarily avoid the difficulties to ensure the quality of the overall interpreting products. Zhan Cheng suggested that interpreters could simplify this by seeking help from the speakers (Zhan Cheng 2010，153-154).

In addition, the author believes that the predicament of interpreting can also be solved by "imitation words"， which is a special kind of loanwords. Take Chinese-Korean interpreting for example. In the Hunan Provincial Museum, there is a collection called "纪念木牍", which is a piece of wood used for writing in ancient China to records the time of some events, a time when the interpreter didn't know its corresponding proper nouns, can according to its pronunciation rules imitate a word - "기년목독". Since both countries belong to the same cultural cycle of Chinese characters , Koreans learn basic Chinese characters from an early age, so they can understand the meaning and use of the imitated words even if they are not accurate.

There is also a case in French where the word science-fiction is directly interpreted into English. This is very useful for solving the sudden interpreting obstacles encountered in the process of interpreting.(Munday, J 2014, 80)

In terms of improving professional skills, before the beginning of interpreting, interpreters should have a systematic system of interpreting notes, which should be as concise as possible to improve the efficiency of interpreting symbols, and should be used to test the practicality of symbols in practice. Interpreters should also accumulate professional knowledge and vocabulary in various fields in daily life, and be familiar with the interpreting content and background knowledge before starting an interpreting.

At the end of the interpreting work, the interpreter should review the difficulties encountered in the interpreting activities and think positively about the solutions to avoid repeating the past mistakes. With the development and progress of science and technology, modern science and technology have been widely used in the field of interpreting. Using digital recording technology, the interpreters can replace the notes in the interpreting by simply using portable devices such as computers to attach the source words to the digital audio tape and then playing them through headphones (Franz. Pǎchhacker 2010, 186).

In addition, modern technology can also be used to build artificial intelligence corpus, which can be used to classify corpus according to different translation topics.

4.2.Interpreting Strategies in Different Settings

Whether it is business interpreting, guide-interpreting or legal interpreting, interpreters are faced with the choice of "faithfulness" and "creativity". However, different types of liaison interpreting have different "interpreting ecological environments". The author analyzed the interpreting strategies applicable to these three types of liaison interpreting respectively.

The clients of business interpreting have unclear requirements on interpreting products, which require interpreters not only to profit for the company but also to regulate the atmosphere, while the ecological environment of business interpreting requires interpreters to be both "faithful" and "creative". Therefore, the interpreter has to adjust the strategy according to the specific interpreting content at any time. When both sides of the communication are negotiating for benefits, the interpreter should adopt the strategy of “faithfulness” rather than “creativity”; when the two sides are chatting, the interpreter should adopt the strategy of “creativity” rather than “faithfulness”; and when the two sides enter into a deadlock, the interpreter should use the "creative" interpreting to ease the atmosphere.

In guide-interpreting, the interpreter's role as "cultural broker" and "atmosphere maker", clients are usually expect interpreters interpret products for their own pleasure, so in the interpreting process of the guide-interpreting, interpreters should be as creative as possible through omission or addition, lively tone and appropriate word choice to achieve clients' expectations. At the same time, interpreters should not completely rebel against the principle of "faithfulness" without regard to the content of the SL.

Although interpreters also play the role of intercultural agents in legal interpreting, their more important role is interpretation machine for legal provisions. The ecological environment of legal interpreting is in a highly tense and rigorous atmosphere, which requires interpreters to adapt to the rigorous atmosphere and try their best to interpret sentence by sentence.

5.Conclusion

In this paper，we discussed how interpreters should adapt to the interpreting environment and make correct translation strategies from the perspectives of reception aesthetics and "translator-centered theory".

The first part of this paper is an introduction, which introduced the definition of liaison interpreting, the current situation of interpreting studies in translation studies and the significance and methods of this study. The second part introduced the two perspectives of this research -- reception aesthetics and "translator-centered theory". The third part analyzed the influence of two perspectives on the role positioning of liaison interpreters and the different types of liaison interpreters. The fourth part puts forward how to adjust translation strategies and how to use translation techniques to achieve the balance between "faithfulness" and "creativity".

We believes that in the context similar to business interpretation, contact interpreters should adjust the translation strategies of "faithfulness" and "creativity" according to the constantly changing interpretation content. In the guide-interpretation, interpreters should pay more attention to the "creativity" of interpretation products on the basis of "faithfulness", so as to bring tourists more relaxed and pleasant experience. In legal interpretation, due to the rigor and inviolability of the law, interpreters should try their best to interpret "word by word". Only in certain circumstances can they provide necessary explanations for both sides of communication by adding interpretation content.

This paper also puts forward other specific strategies. Interpreters can reduce errors in interpreting by communicating with customers in the preparation stage. In the process of interpreting, the translation strategies can be flexibly adjusted by adopting various translation techniques, such as addition and omission. After the end of interpretation, we can reflect on the mistakes and make an interpreting corpus to avoid repeating the mistakes in the future.In a word, interpreters should strike a balance between "faithfulness" and "creativity" by relying on their professional quality and customers' expectations, which is the only way to improve the quality of interpretation products.

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--Li Luyi (talk) 17:23, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

Translation Appreciation

Study on Xu Chi's Translation of Walden from the Stylistic Perspective 袁诗琦 Yuan Shiqi 202020080664 英语语言文学

袁诗琦 Yuan Shiqi no.202020080664

Abstract

Walden is a classic literary work of Henry David Thoreau, which has become a classic work in American literature. Chinese translator Xu Chi first translated it into Chinese, and since then Walden has been retranslated and republished for many times in China. The version of Walden translated by Xu Chi is the most widely spread and the most influential one in China, and it is regarded as a classic translation. There have been a lot of studies on Walden both at home and abroad, such as studies on ecology of the book, studies on birth background and living conditions of the author Henry David Thoreau, and systematic studies on Chinese translation version of Walden under different theoretical frameworks. However, there are relatively few studies on Chinese translations of Walden from stylistic perspective. This paper will focus on lexical, syntactic and rhetorical features of Xu Chi's translation and analyze their stylistic effects. It is hoped that this study will be of certain value to translation studies of Walden and literary translation criticism from the stylistic perspective.

Key words

Walden, Chinese Translation of Walden by Xu Chi , Stylistics

题目

从文体学角度看《瓦尔登湖》徐迟译本

摘要

《瓦尔登湖》是亨利·大卫·梭罗的经典文学作品，已经成为美国文学宝库中的经典之作。中国译者徐迟首先将其译入国内，此后《瓦尔登湖》多次被重译再版。在中国，徐迟翻译的《瓦尔登湖》汉译本流传最广、影响最大，而且一直被推崇为“译文经典”。对于《瓦尔登湖》的研究，在国内和国外有很多，例如对散文涉及生态的研究，对于作者亨利·戴维·梭罗出生背景和生活状况的研究，以及不同的理论框架下对于《瓦尔登湖》中文翻译版本的系统研究。但是从文体学角度研究《瓦尔登湖》中译本的不多。本文着重探讨徐迟译本在词汇、句法、修辞层面上的特征，分析其文体效果。希望本研究对《瓦尔登湖》的翻译研究及从文体学视角开展文学翻译批评具有一定的参考价值。

关键词

《瓦尔登湖》、徐迟中译本、文体学

Introduction

Introduction to Henry David Thoreau and Walden

Introduction to Henry David Thoreau

Walden is a collection of essays written by American writer Henry David Thoreau. Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817 and died in 1862. He was a famous writer, philosopher, representative of Transcendentalism, abolitionist of slavery and naturalist in the United States. He advocated returning to original mind and being close to nature. Thoreau created more than 20 first-class prose collections in his whole life. His essays are concise, powerful, simple and natural which represent a unique style among American proses in the 19th century. In 1845, he lived in seclusion by Walden lake, two miles away from Concord, at there he cultivated his own land, ate food grown in his land and experienced a life that is simple and close to nature. Thoreau loved and appreciated nature and he immersed himself in nature. He advocated simple life, so he abandoned all material enjoyment and pursued spiritual enrichment.

Introduction to Walden

Walden is a record of Thoreau's life when he lived alone by Walden lake. Walden is composed of 18 essays, which records Thoreau's hands-on life by walden lake for two years from 1845 to 1847. This book advocates simple life, appeals readers to return to nature, and expresses Thoreau's love for nature. The simple way of life in the book reflects Thoreau's view of nature.This book has certain philosophical significance as well as artistic and aesthetic value. Walden is a Transcendentalist classic and is recognized as the most popular non-fiction work in American literature. After more than 100 years of circulation, this book has become a classic in American literature. So far, it has been published in more than 150 editions and translated into more than 40 languages. Thoreau's own practices in reality and his works both reflected his ideal, that is returning to nature. In his works, he constantly pointed out that most of modern people are trapped by their families, works and various material needs, thus they lost their spiritual pursuit and lived a materialistic life. Thoreau persisted in pursuit of spiritual happiness and rejected material comforts. This is why Thoreau lived a simple life by Walden lake, enjoying a life of leisure while his neighbors pursued a life of wealth and material comforts, enslaved by their own desires.

Introduction to Xu Chi and His Translation of Walden

Introduction to Xu Chi

Xu Chi is famous for his poems, essays and reportage. He was once awarded by Mao Zedong's inscription "Poetry expresses ambition", and he was known as "Contemporary Chinese Goethe" and "Father of Reportage". Another little-known identity of this famous Chinese writer is being as a translator. He not only wrote poems, essays, reportages, novels and reviews, but also translated and introduced a large number of foreign literary works, with a total of 10 million words in his life (Yao Junwei 2005, 145).

Introduction to Xu Chi's Translation of Walden

In 1949, Xu translated Walden into Chinese called "华尔腾". However, his translation failed to elicit widespread attention. Because at that time, people all over China were immersed in the joy of gaining liberation from feudalism and imperialism, so that Walden which promotes tranquility and transcendentalism, was ignored.

In 1982, Xu Chi retranslated it and titled it "瓦尔登湖", which was so popular that it was republished for many times since then. Xu Chi's version of Walden chosen in this study is its second edition, published in 1982, to which Xu Chi added a preface to present information about Thoreau and comments on Walden. To some extent, readers are able to have a glimpse of Xu Chi's own emotions and thoughts in his translation of Walden (Yao Junwei 2005, 145). Xu Chi usually selected and translated works that were close to his own nature and could move him, because only in this way, could he have more resonance with the writers and their works and thus he could reproduce the style of the original author. For Xu Chi, he expressed his own feelings and thoughts through translating these writers'works to a certain extent.(Yao Junwei 2005, 146).

Only when his soul was in harmony with Thoreau's work, did Xu Chi love this book so much and he decided to translate this book. It was in the summer of 1949 that Xu Chi began to translate Thoreau's Walden. Because Xu Chi was extremely fond of this book, he spent lots of efforts in translating this famous work. In the first stage of translation, he tried to understand the meaning of the original work, hoping to be able to deeply understand the original work. He confessed that it was a very profound book which is full of translation challenges. He was very busy during the day, so he sometimes did not have time to read it. Because this book was too difficult to understand, Xu Chi found that it seemed that this book was not so interseting and attractive to him, and it seemed that it was of no benefit to translate it. However, later he found that his mood gradually became peaceful after dusk. When he read this book at this time, he felt it quite interesting. The language was amazing, the words were shining, and his heart was touched. When the night became quiet, the book became not so obscure and he could not help but be fascinated by it (Yao Junwei 2005, 145).

Walden is Xu Chi's most successful translation. He translated it first in 1949, then again in 1982 and finally in 1996. In recent ten years, there have been more than 20 new translations of Walden in recent years, but Xu Chi's translation is still regarded as the best translation and the first choice for many presses to publish as Chinese translation of Walden. Although there are many Chinese translations of Walden, most of them take Xu Chi's translation as a reference , which indicates the authority of Xu Chi's translation (Wang Zhao 2009, 147).

Style and Styllistics

Style

Originated from Latin or Greek word "stile" or "stilus", "style" originally refers to a sharp instrument made of metal or bone, used as a writing tool, and later symbolizes a way of writing. At first, it was mainly used in writing. As time goes by, its application has been broadened into areas like music, dance, painting, fashion, behavior,literature, architecture and so on. As it has been mentioned in the introduction part, the research object Walden is a piece of literary work, consequently, this thesis will mainly study literary style (Hu Zhuanglin 2015, 374). Since ancient times, style has always been the object of people's study. Aristotle, Cicero, Demetrius, and Quintilian all used style as an appropriate decoration for thought. This view prevailed throughout the Renaissance, when devices of style could be classified. An essayist or orator needs to construct his or her point of view by means of exemplary sentences and prescribed kinds of "figures" that conform to his or her mode of discourse (Hu Zhuanglin 2015, 375).

For a long time, the definition of style has remained varied, and different scholars have given different definitions of it. It is unnecessary and impractical here to list them all. Some definitions will be given below to help us understand what style is.

One of the most successful attempts to define "style" in a comprehensive way is Leech and Short's definition. They offer a list of the items forming the basis of their own concept of style, which can be summarized as follows: (a) Style is a way in which language is used; therefore it consists in choices made from the repertoire of the language. (b) A style is defined in terms of a domain of language use (e.g. what choices are made by a particular author, in a particular genre, or in a particular text). (c) Literary stylistics is typically concerned with explaining the relation between style and literary or aesthetic function. (d) Stylistic choices is limited to those aspects of linguistic choices which concern alternative ways of rendering the same subject matter. (Leech and Short 1981)

Another example is Nida Eugene's definition. He pointed out that translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, firstly in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. So in translation of literary works, the author's style should be represented through the translator's style, and the translator's style should depend on the style of the author. Many translators are good at representing different writers'styles and yet has its own unique translation style (Nida Eugene 1982, 12).

The broad view of style includes the elements of linguistic style and non-linguistic style. Among them, the elements of language style mainly include the means of linguistic style, such as pronunciation, vocabulary, grammatical structure and rhetorical devices, and the elements of non-linguistic style include the author's emotion, the author's imagination and the author's intelligence. The narrow sense of style only involves the author's means of linguistic style. (Lv Jun & Hou Xiangqun 2001, 320).

In conclude, translation, especially literary translation as an cross-cultural process dose not only focus on the content of source text but also the style which is about how the writers write. Therefore, it is essential for a translator to know how to figure out the style of source text and reproduce it with target language.

Styllistics

Stylistics is a comprehensive frontier discipline that studies the characteristics, essence and laws of text forms. It is an interdisciplinary subject, which is in the ascendant between linguistics, literature and art, aesthetics, psychology and other disciplines. Its object of study is the style of language.

It is difficult to determine when stylistics became a field of academic study. It can be argued, however, that it was not until the late 1950s that stylistics began to make significant and measurable progress. This is a young frontier discipline that is growing over time. Stylistics has developed into a well-targeted and technically effective interdisciplinary field of study, which is expected to provide useful insights for literary criticism and literature teaching. It has also been influencing translation criticism. Modern stylistics provides an important theoretical basis for translation studies. As far as the development of the subject of translation is concerned, stylistics has been recognized for its value and function (Hu Zhuanglin 2015, 376).

Language Style and Stylistic Features of Walden

Walden is a masterpiece of prose style. It is concise, eloquent and profound in thought. Thoreau'language style of Walden can be summarized as plain, natural, concise, powerful, and unique. Walden is also a book which aims directly at the reader. Anyone who reads this book will feel like they are listening to and sharing Thoreau's ideals. However, this book is not easy for readers to understand, especially those who read it for the first time. Because Walden are manifested in four aspects: rich vocabulary, complex syntax and various rhetorical devices (Zhang Jianguo 2005, 107).

So it is helpful for translators to understand the original text and reproduce the stylistic equivalence in the translation. Therefore, the translator should fully understand Thoreau' stylistic characteristics, which is the premise of reproducing his language style in the target language.

Stylistic Features of Walden

Lexical Features of Walden

Degree of Formality

In Walden, Thoreau used concise words to demonstrate his own ideas, natural scenery and cultural customs of Walden Lake. Unlike official documents, regulations, or academic creations, Thoreau's choice of words suggests that general style of Walden is not that formal. This section aims to analyze the degree of formality of nouns, adjectives, and verbs in the Xu Chi’s translation.

First, let us see a example of translation of nouns in Xu Chi's version. Example 1： …；where the washing is not put out, nor the fire, nor the mistress, and perhaps you are sometimes requested to move from off the trap—door; when the cook would descend into the cellar, and learn whether the ground is solid or hollow beneath you without stamping．(Thoreau 2012, 277—278) Xu Chi’s Translation：在那罩，洗瀣物不比晒在外面，炉火不熄，女主人也不会生气，也许有时要你移动一下，让厨子从地板门里走下地窖去，而你不用蹬脚就可以知道你的脚下是虚是实。 (徐迟 2009, 270)

As can be seen from the above, "washing" in Xu Chi's translation is understood as "洗瀣物". "washing" is a common word English-speaking people use in their daily lives. However, "瀣" is not a word Chinese people encounter very often in their daily conversations. Although the word "洗瀣物" reproduced the content of "washing" but it can not reflect the degree of formality of the original word. Thus it fail to deliver the casualness reflected by the original text．

Because Walden is full of depictions of landscape, adjectives are indispensable in Thoreau's creation of various images and pictures, as well as his insightful comments. So let us look at a example of it. Example 2： Often the poor man is not so cold and hungry as he is dirty and ragged and gross．(Thoreau 2012, 85) Xu Chi's Translation：往往是那个穷人，邋遢、褴褛又粗野，但并没有冻馁之忧。(徐迟 2009, 83)

In original text, the first adjective "poor" is used as an antecedent modifier and the other five adjectives are used as predicates. With the six adjectives being short and plain, the original text is generally of informal style. Xu transfered "cold and hungry" into a four-character noun phrase "冻馁之忧" which means which appears uncoordinated with three adjectives "邋遢", "褴褛" and "粗野" being placed before the noun phrase "冻馁之忧". What is more, this phrase is somewhat old-fashioned and is too formal to keep in line with the original style．So, it is not appropriate to reflect the original style.

Verbs are also frequently employed in Walden to depict the fighting between animals or other activities. The degree of formality marked by verbs is the target of the following analysis. Example 3： I took up the chip on which the three I have particularly described were struggling, carried it into my house, and placed it under a tumbler on my window-sill, in order to see the issue．(Thoreau 2012, 262-263) Xu Chi's Translation： 我特别描写的三个战士在同一张木片上搏斗，我把这张木片拿进我的家里，放在我的窗槛上。罩在一个大杯子下面，以便考察结局。(徐迟 2009, 256)

As we can see from the example, these verbs in the original text are concise and they are common in our daily speech. They come mainly from Anglo-Saxon English and have informal stylistic characteristics. Therefore, the style of the original text is informal and should be preserved in Chinese translation. In this sentence, Thoreau prepared to wait and see how the battle between the ants would go on after a series of arrangements. Xu Chi translated the word "see" into "考察" which sounds serious and formal, because "考察" means carefully checking certain items or situations, and is often used in formal situations, such as "考察人" or "考察情况". So, Xu's version deviates from the original natural and informal flavor.

Expressive Meaning

The lexical meaning of a word or lexical unit may be thought of as the specific value it has in a particular linguistic system. But it is rarely possible to analyze a word, pattern or structure into distinct components of meaning; Nevertheless, it is sometimes useful to play down the complexities of language temporarily in order to appreciate them and to be able to handle them better in the long run (Zgusta 1971, 67).

Roman Jakobson coined the term expressive or emotive as one of the functions of language. He described it as the function focused on the ADDRESSER [speaker], which aims a direct expression of the speaker's attitude toward what he is speaking about and gives interjections as the prime example of this function (Jakobson 1960, 354).

It is worthy of our attention that differences between words in terms of expressive meaning are not simply equal to a matter of whether an expression of a certain attitude or evaluation is reproduced or not. The same attitude or evaluation may be expressed to widely varying degrees of forcefulness. Here is a exampe. Example 4：It is said that a flood-tide, with a westerly wind，and ice in the Neva, would sweep St. Petersburg from the face of the earth. (Thoreau 2012, 22) Xu Chi's Translation：据说，涅瓦河要是涨了水，刮了西风，流来的冰块可以把圣彼得堡一下子从大地的表面上冲掉的。 (徐迟 2009, 21)

According to the Oxford Advanced English-Chinese Dictionary, "sweeping" is the act of a sudden movement (of weather, fire, etc.) in an area or in a particular direction. In the original context, the combination of "flood tides", "westerly winds" and "ice" was destructive and therefore it is clearly detrimental to St.Petersburg. So the word "sweep" here reflects the speaker's negative attitude towards the possible outcome. Obviously, the word "冲掉" in Xu Chi's translation is a neutral term and does not reflect the speaker's attitude or feelings towards the potential disaster caused by flood tide, westerly winds and ice. Xu ignored the author's emotional attitude, thus ignoring the influence that these forces may cause and thus he did not produce equivalence of "sweep".

Syntactic Features of Walden

Raffel (1994) points out that "the syntax of prose shows the style of the author, and the reproduction of the original style is the key to prose translation which stresses not only what message says, but also how the message is said." So, the syntactic features of Walden should not be ignored.

In the original text, there are many short sentences with neat structure and harmonious rhythm. Xu Chi did not change the original structures in translation and he adopted the method of literal translation. The so-called literal translation is to retain the content and language expression habits of the original text as well as the form and style of the original text. Since both Chinese and English are discourse systems, literal translation can be a good way to deal with them. Example 5: It is no dream of mine, To ornament a line; I cannot come nearer to God and Heaven, than I live to Walden even. I am its stony shore, and the breeze that passes o’er; In the hollow of my hand, are its water and its sand, and its deepest resort Lies high in my thought. (Thoreau 2012, 137) Xu Chi’s Translation: 这不是我的梦，用于装饰一行诗;我不能更接近上帝和天堂甚于我之生活在瓦尔登。我是它的圆石岸，飘拂而过的风;在我掌握的一握，是它的水，它的沙，而它的最深邃僻隐处,高高躺在我的思想中。 (Xu Chi 2012, 151)

This paragraph has a neat structure and neat antithesis, and it has pleasing and harmonious rhythm. The original text is composed of ten verses. Xu Chi retained the original format, which can increase the depth and appeal of the translation, thus producing artistic effect and aesthetic value. And he paid attention to the rhythm of the original text and retained it in his translation, which makes his translation closer to the original text.

Rhetorical Features of Walden

Metaphor

According to the Webster dictionary, "metaphor" means a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money). Example 6: Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. (Thoreau 2012, 7) Xu Chi's Translation: 和我们的自知之明相比较，公众舆论这暴戾的君主也显得微弱无力。 (徐迟 2009, 6）

The ontology and metaphor in this sentence are "public opinion" and "weak tyrant". There must be something similar between them. The following statement gives the reason:"compared to our own private opinions". People are used to focusing on themselves in front of others, so public opinion is slightly weak. The use of metaphor here shows Thoreau's wisdom and thorough understanding of human nature. Xu Chi dealt with this metaphor perfectly, expressing the meaning of the original text.

Pun

Puns are deliberately declared polysemous words or homonyms created with double meanings in a certain language environment, with implicit, humorous and profound effects. Newmark (2001, 217) pointed out that "pun translation is unimportant but fascinating".

The use of puns in Walden is remarkable. The basic function of pun in Walden is to express logical relations. Because puns can express two layers of meaning in a word, a phrase or a sentence, they are often used as a link between the preceding text and following text. A key problem that haunts the reader when reading Walden is the lack of connection between two passages. A clear logical relationship is a prerequisite for expressing special effects, such as rhetorical and aesthetic effects. Therefore, the improper translation of puns will seriously affect logical coherence of the text and its rhetorical and aesthetic effects.

Example 7： If the name was not derived from that of some English locality - Saffron Walden, for instance, one might suppose that it was called originally Walled-in Pond. (Thoreau 2012, 209) Xu Chi's Translation: 如果这个湖名不是由当地一个叫萨福隆•瓦尔登的英国人的名字化出来的话，—那么，我想瓦尔登湖原来的名字可能是围而得湖。(徐迟 2009, 172)

This classic example of puns has been discussed many times. Thoreau suggested that "Walden" might come from "Walled-in". "Walled-in Pond", as a homophonic pun, serves as the logic link of the whole paragraph. Xu Chi wisely translated it as "围而得", retaining not only the similar pronunciation but also the similar meaning. "围而得" maintains the logical relation of the whole paragraph. It is eye-catching and stimulates readers to think more about Thoreau's intentions to use this word.

Personification

Personification refers to the practice of representing objects, qualities as a human being in art and literature. People subconsciously tend to reflect non-human things as human beings in order to express their feelings and thoughts. In Walden, many natural objects, ranging from the lake to little ants are personified. There is a example below.

Example 8： This further experience also I gained：I said to myself, I will not plant beans and corn with so much industry another summer, but such seeds, if the seed is not lost, as sincerity, truth, simplicity, faith, innocence, and the like, and see if they will not grow in this soil, even with less toil and manurance, and sustain me, for surely it has not been exhausted for these crops. (Thoreau 2012, 186-187) Xu Chi's Translation: 我还获得了下面的更丰富的经验：我对我自己说，下一个夏天，我不要花那么大的劳力来种豆子和玉米了，我将种这样一些种子像诚实、真理、纯朴、信心、天真等等，如果这些种子并没有失落，看看它们能否在这片土地上生长，能否以较少劳力和肥料；来维持我的生活，因为，地力一定还没消耗到不能种这些东西。 (徐迟 2009, 182)

Thoreau shares his experience of growing beans and his plan for next summer with readers here. As we know, words like "sincerity", "truth", "simplicity", "faith" and "innocence" usually refer to qualities of humans. But here, these words are adopted to describe the characteristics of seeds. Xu Chi reproduced the rhetorical feature of the original text very well.

Conclusion

The language of Walden is rich in vocabulary with complex and diverse sentence structure and the use of various rhetoric devices makes the translation work more difficult. To sum up, Xu Chi's translation appears more formal than the original text and some words of his translation can not reflect the expressive meaning of the original one. It is found that Xu Chi tended to use words with typical features of his time which seem out of date at present. But due to the time he lived in, we believe that Xu Chi's translation satisfied the need and linguistic expectation of the target readers of his time which has its significance. We also found that sentences in Xu Chi's translation follow the syntax of English language. Xu Chi kept the structure beauty of the original work properly, respected the original work and kept the structure orderly, directly conveying Thoreau's thoughts and feelings. And Xu Chi indeed do well in reflecting rhetorical features of the original text, which is refered by many translators later. In general, Xu Chi's translation is close to the original text in style and language characteristics and is a classic translation of Walden.--Yuan SHiqi (talk) 12:59, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

References

Leech.G.N. & M. H. Short. (1981). Style in Fiction：A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

Newmark P. (2001). A Textbook of Translation. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Press.

Nida Eugene. (1982). Translating Meaning. Sandimas: English Language Institute. 12.

Raffe. (1994). The Art of Translating Prose. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press．

Roman Jaobson. (1960). “Linguistics and Poetry” in Style and Language. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Thoreau Henry David. (2012). Walden. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, INC.

Hu Zhuanglin 胡壮麟. （2015). 语言学高级教程 [Advanced Course in Linguistics]. Beijing：Peking University Press

Lv Jun & Hou Xiangqun 吕俊,侯向群. (2001) 《英汉翻译教程》[English-chinese Translation Course].Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.320.

Wu Siying & Li Jing 吴巳英,李靖. (2011). 外国文学翻译体例的时代演变——基于《瓦尔登湖》不同译本的比较. [The Time Evolution of Foreign Literary Translation Styles: Based on the Comparison of different versions of Walden]. 湖南农业大学学报（社会科学版) Journal of Hunan Agricultural University (Social Science edition) 12 83-87.

Xu Chi 徐迟. (2009). 瓦尔登湖. [Walden]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

Yao Junwei 姚君伟. (2005). 徐迟与美国文学在中国的译介[Xu Chi and the Translation of American Literature in China]. 外国文学研究 [Study of Foreign Literature] 4 145-149.

Zhang Jianguo 张建国. (2005). 梭罗《瓦尔登湖》的语言风格探析 [Analysis on language Style of Walden By Thoreau]. 河南商业高等专科学校学报 [Journal of Henan Commercial College] 03 106-107.

The Implications of Luther's Translation Principles amid Renaissance for Modern Literature Translation. 王美玲 Wang Meiling MTI 英语笔译

王美玲 Wang Meiling

Abstract

The Renaissance is the fourth peak in the history of Western translation and a great development in the history of Western literature. During the 16th century and the period following the Renaissance in Europe, translation reached an unprecedented climax in the fields of thought, politics, philosophy, literature and religion. At that time, the German translation of the Bible by the Martin Luther is the most well-known one in the whole translation circle, and its influence is unique and long-standing in Germany as well as in the whole Europe continent. Since the Reform and Opening-up, China has gradually stepped into the center of the world arena, and its literary works bearing the quintessence of Chinese culture has become a crucial bridge connecting the rest of the world with China. Despite the rise of machine translation, it can never replace the overwhelming role of human translation in the literary translation. Luther’s translation thoughts have exerted an important influence on the development of Western translation theories, so what sparks can be drawn between his translation principles and Chinese modern culture and literary works? This paper makes a brief comment on the main translation activities of renaissance, then compares the translation thoughts of Luther and Lu Xun, and applies Luther’s detailed translation principles to the actual translation practice. Finally,some thoughts are acquired.

Key words

Renaissance; Luther; literary works; translation principles; influence;

摘要

文艺复兴运动是西方翻译史的第四次高潮，也是西方文学史上的一次大发展。文艺复兴在欧洲普遍开展的16世纪以及随后一个时期，翻译活动达到了前所未有的高峰，深入思想、政治、哲学、文学宗教等各个领域。在整个翻译界，德国马丁·路德的《圣经》德译本是该时期最负盛名的译本，其影响不论是在德国乃至整个欧洲都是独一无二且源远流长的。改革开放以来，中国日益走进世界舞台中央，承载着中华文化精髓的文学作品成为了中国连接世界的重要桥梁。纵然机器翻译兴起，但绝不能替代人工翻译在文学翻译领域的绝对性地位。路德的翻译思想对西方翻译理论的发展产生了重要影响，那么其翻译思想和理论原则与中国当代文化及文学作品又能擦出什么样的火花呢？本文将通过对文艺复兴时期的主要翻译活动进行简评，再对比路德与鲁迅的翻译思想，接着将路德的翻译细则运用到实际的翻译实践中，最后得出一些思考。

关键词

文艺复兴；路德；文学作品；翻译原则；影响；

1.Introduction

The Protestant Reformation Movement in Germany in the 16th century ushered in a new era of translation and dissemination of Bible. Under the protection of Protestantism, Martin Luther devoted himself to the German translation of the Bible. By the time of 1544 Luther’s death, 430 versions of his Bible translation had been published. In order to make common people more directly understand the meaning of the Bible, Martin Luther translated it in national language. He insisted on his translation thought and fought against the church power and his opponents. He made unremitting efforts in the great project of the Bible translation, which promoted the unification of German language and created a graceful literary language.His translation thoughts are still of great significance to the current translation theory and practice."First of all, from a historical point of view, translation has two main functions in promoting the birth and development of national culture and the transformation of national culture into world culture: one is to promote cultural exchange; the other is to disseminate ideas."（Tan Zaixi，2004：10）

Since the beginning of reform and opening-up, China has gradually stepped onto the world arena. China persists in its cultural development geared to the needs of the world and actively promotes cultural development to the world. Literary works bear the essence of Chinese culture, whose export is an crucial way to spread Chinese culture to the world. Over the years, despite the rise of machine translation, which has a certain practical role, it can not replace the overwhelming role of manual translation in literary translation. So what significance does Luther’s translation thoughts and principles have in guiding modern translation theory and practice, especially in the field of literary translation?

2.Brief Comments on Translation Thoughts in the Period of Renaissance

Translations must respect the original text and combine content and form, free translation and literal translation in the translation process. "In the high tide of translation in 16th century France, there were two outstanding contributors, one is Amyot, the King of Translation, and the other is Dolet, the translation theorist." Amyot believed that the translator must understand the original text thoroughly, and that the translator's task was not only to restore the author's meaning, but also to imitate and reflect the author's style and mood to some extent. He also emphasized the unity of content and form, and of free translation and literal translation; in France, the important figure in translation theory is Dolet. He believed that translators should avoid word-for-word translation because it was detrimental to the conveyance of the original meaning and to the beauty of the language. As we can see, Dolet's translation ideas were quite modern and involved the basic principles and problems of translation commonly raised by later European translation theorists. （Tan Zaixi，2004：68）

Holland of England was the most outstanding English translator in the 16th century and was regarded as the "Chief Translator" of the Elizabethan era, and he also advocated that the style of the original text must be reflected in the translation in order to make the translation authentic and without foreign accent. Thus, it can be seen that translators from various European countries actively explored new literary fields and brought new ideas to their own countries, inspiring the national consciousness and humanistic thoughts of their own people while trying to explore classical literature.（Tan Zaixi，2004：77-78）

Translation must convey new ideas on the basis of respecting the original work, that is, being innovative, and seek the style of translation.In his translation of ancient Greek and Roman masterpieces, Amyot put forward the idea of "trying to be comparable to the original work", and blended the language of the people with the language of scholars, forming a unique style of translation. Thus, some people commented that Amyot adopted the creative meaning; Dolet advocated that translators should not do translations word by word, but must choose the words and adjust the word order as well as use various rhetorical devices to make the style of translation consistent with that of the original text, giving readers a "feeling of beauty". （Tan Zaixi，2004：68-69）

The English translator North, who had little knowledge of the classical language and whose translations were not translated from the original text of Greek, was able to bring the translation style into full play. The prose style used in his translation of Biography of a Celebrity was new and elegant, which has become an immortal model in the history of English translation. There was another famous English translator, Florio, whose translation of The Tempest was the first to show English readers that prose could exist as a literary genre.(Tan Zaixi，2004：76-77）

From this, we can see that translators not only respected the cultural works of the classical period, but also gave full play to their own initiative in the translation process and injected humanistic thoughts and spirits into their translations during the Renaissance.Liu Junping said: "In the past years, translators were servants attached to God, but now they have shifted from God to the translator as the center, and their personal developments have become the goal and value of life. "（liu Junping,2009:76）

Translators focus on the practical spirit of translation.Emphasizing the needs of translations to serve reality, Holland compared his translations to the fruits of conquest and once asked Queen Elizabeth to protect his translations with the hope that his translations would benefit the country. "The translators, with the idea of serving their country, introduced the wisdom of the ancients to their own people through their translations, providing not only serious lessons for the Queen and the statesmen, but also story plots and materials for the dramatists and readers." (Tan Zaixi，2004：77-78）

This word profoundly reflects the dialectical relationship among culture, politics,and economy in Marxism: a certain culture is determined by certain economy and politics, and culture，in turn，acts on politics and economy with great influence on politics and economy. The above-mentioned translation ideas indicate the practicality and practical spirit of the practice of translation culture, which originated from the specific social and cultural contexts of the time. Under the guidance of these translation ideas, the translation culture and cultural practice of translators promoted the political and economic development, and laid the ideological foundation for the political and cultural needs of Western European countries.

In the practice of translation, translation of all national languages achieved parallel and independent development when Latin gradually receded into a tributary.During the Renaissance, national self-consciousness was further strengthened, and linguists recognized the unique style and expressive ability of their own languages, and began to shift the emphasis of translation from the original language to the translated language.(Tan Zaixi，2004：83）

Finally, Latin was no longer prevalent. These phenomenon were especially prominent in Germany. Under the pressure of the national language and the Reformation, the German translator Luther adopted the language of the people to translate the great work of the Bible, that is, to translate the original text into the authentic German one. Luther's German translation of the Bible not only had a profound influence on German life and religion, but also created a literary language form accepted by the German people, which played an immeasurable role in the development of the unified German language and shook the absolute and unshakable position of Latin in the European language system.(Tan Zaixi，2004：64）

3.Comparison Between Luther’s and Lu Xun’s Translation Thoughts

3.1 Introduction to Luther and Lu Xun

Lu Xun was the greatest literary scholar, thinker and revolutionary of modern China, an important participant in the New Culture Movement, who was regarded as "the writer who occupied the largest territory on the cultural map of East Asia in the twentieth century". Lu Xun also had outstanding achievements in translation, and made a series of superb remarks on translation issues, which had great influence on the whole translation circle at that time and established a monument in the history of Chinese translation theory.(Liu Hongyan,2010:1）

Martin Luther was a German religious reformer and translator in the 16th century. In his translations, Luther followed the principles of being popular, clear, and acceptable to the public. His translation of the Bible is known as the "first Bible of the common people”and enjoyed the highest reputation in the entire translation community. Luther was a leader in the Reformation movement in the 16th century in Europe, so his translation had a significant impact on Germany and Europe as a whole.(Tan Zaixi，2004：68）

3.2 Different Translation Thoughts

3.2.1 Lu Xun's "Foreignization"

Lu Xun lived in the period of the May Fourth New Culture Movement，whose translation thoughts and activities were closely connected with his political life. In the period of transition between the old culture and the new one, literary translation was also at its climax. In this regard, Lu Xun put forward the translation concept of "Foreignization" , which preserved the "exoticism". Moreover,he insisted that the translation should be consistent with the original text as much as possible and put fidelity in the first place and fluency in the second, and exchanged unfluent translation for fidelity. He believed that the translation method of "Foreignization" could introduce foreign sentences to enrich Chinese language and culture. Lu Xun said bluntly, "Like carrying arms for the uprising slaves, translation is directly aimd at servicing the revolution."（Chen Fukang,2000;286）

With regard to his translation concept of "Foreignization", he had such remarks :

“还是翻译《死灵魂》的事情。……动笔之前，就先得解决一个问题:竭力使它归化，还是尽量保存洋气昵?日本文的译者上田进君，是主张用前一法的。……所以他的疑问，有时就化一句为数句，很近于解释。我的意见却两样的。只求易懂，小如创作，或者改作，将事改为中国事，人也化为中国人。如果还是翻译，那么，首先的目的，就在博览外国的作品，小但移情，也要益智，至少是知道何地何时，有这等事，和旅行外国，是很相像的:它必须有异国情调，就是所谓洋气。其实世界上也小会有完全归化的译文，倘有，就是貌介神离，从严辨别起来，它算小得翻译。……(Lu Xun,1935:4th Volume)

From this, we can see that Lu Xun engaged in translation work with the aim to "conveying feelings" and "improving education", and his translations could facilitate readers to experience foreign customs, history, language and culture, as well as advanced ideology. Lu Xun would enrich these at a deeper level, so as to subvert the outlook on life and values of the whole society at that time and to inspire and educate the young generation to achieve the purpose of saving the country, thus promoting the revolutionary cause.

3.2.2 Luther's "Domesticization"

In the context of the Reformation, Martin Luther embarked on the translation of the Bible. As the leader of the German Reformation movement, he could only ensure the eventual victory of the Reformation cause by quickly establishing and growing the Protestantism . Under the pressure of the Reformation and the national language, Luther had to translate the Bible in a way that served a specific audience, not priests and pastors, but the common people. It required that Luther had to do translations in people’s language and that " Translation had to adopt authentic German instead of Latinized German." In the A Short History of Translation in the West, Tan zaixi made summary about Luther's translation thoughts：(Tan Zaixi,2004:64-67)

"Translation must employ the vernacular language; translation must pay attention to the connection between grammar and meaning; translation must follow seven principles (translators can change the word order of the original text; one can make reasonable use of intonation auxiliaries; translators can add necessary conjunctions; translator may omit word in the original that was not equivalent word in the target language;translator may use phrase to translate a single word;translator may translate metaphorical usage into non-metaphorical usage and vice versa; translator should pay attention to variation from usage and accurate explanation of a word (Wen Jun, 2004:39);Translation must be a brainstorming exercise."

Luther insisted on these principles in order to translate the Bible from the reader's point of view on the basis of a grasp of the original meaning and to achieve the greatest possible approximation to the reader's level for the purpose of "naturalization. Generally speaking, Luther advocated translation based on a grasp of the meaning of the sentence. When the original meaning of a sentence could not be well expressed in words, Luther used illustrations to represent it. Luther's German translation of the Bible enabled the common people of Germany to directly quote from the Bible to defend their own class interests, which played an invaluable role in the unification and development of the German language.

3.3 Conclusion

Lu Xun's translation principle of "Foreignization", which preserved "exoticism", satisfied Chinese readers' curiosity and appreciation of foreign culture and made them experience exoticism, which, to a certain, awakened the thought of common thoughts and stimulated the patriotic consciousness and revolutionary enthusiasm of some youth groups. That was the aim and purpose of Lu Xun's translations, and was also what that volatile age longed for.

Luther's “Domesticization” thought was based on his recognition that the German people began to value their own national language as a counter to the Church's forced use of Latin. Luther translated the Bible in the language of common people, so that readers who knew neither Hebrew, Greek, nor Latin and had a low level of literacy could understand the Bible in German.

Translation thoughts between Luther and Lu Xun are rather different, but their translations equally made profound implications and were recognized by the two peoples of their respective countries. Moreover, their audience were both the common people, and they took into full consideration the receptiveness of their readers in the process of translation. Therefore, the dichotomy in translation is only relative, and finitude and infinitude are dialectically unified.(Liu Hongyan，2010:2）

4.The Application of Luther's Translation Principles and Thoughts for Modern Literary Translation Practice

Engels praised Luther:"Luther not only cleared the church's Ogias, but also cleared the German language of the Ogis, created modern German prose, and wrote the words and songs of the hymns of the Marseilles with victory and confidence into the 16th century." (Tan Zaixi，2004:64）In his translation of the Bible, Luther came up with systematic translation thoughts and principles, followed the principles of being popular, clear and acceptable to the public, and created modern German prose. Thus, his translation thoughts and principles have certain significance for us to translate literary works whose language style is “grounded”.

Example one

“You can translate metaphor usage into non-metaphorical usage.”

“The translator can change the word order of the original text”

“严闭的心幕，慢慢的拉开了，涌出五年前的一个印象。” （《笑》—— 冰心）

Through the analysis of the original text, the translator finds that this sentence uses metaphor,because the action of "拉开" can only be issued by human beings, and the "心幕" is not a physical object which cannot be "pulled open". In the process of translation, we find that the action of "拉开" does not have a subject, and the predicate-object pairing of "拉开" and "心幕" is unreasonable, not to mention translated into the passive voice. Therefore, it is not feasible to translate the metaphor usage. The translator chooses to omit this metaphor and the verb "拉开", which is in line with Luther's sixth principle of translation. The translator finds that the emphasis of the original text is on the second half of the sentence, so we changes the order of the whole sentence and choose"涌出" as the predicate and translated it into the intransitive verb "unveil". Naturally, the phrase "五年前的一个印象" becomes the subject. scene of five years ago", and the word "before" was used to show the relationship between “印象” and “心幕”. It is in line with language habit of English, that is, to express the main content clearly and put it in the important position as an important component. Here comes the translation "A scene of five years ago slowly unveiled before my mind's eye." It is consistent with the first principle of Luther's translation. If translated according to the original word order, it would be translated to "The tight mind's eye was opened slowly, and a scene of five years ago slowly unveiled.”Although its meaning is complete, the sentence structure is incoherent and the relationship between the "心幕" and the "印象" is not highlighted. As a translator, we need to read the original text carefully and then relate it to the context in order to get close to the original style and to achieve the requirement of "faithfulness", meanwhile, we should take into account the reading feelings of the audience.

Example Two

“The necessary conjunctions can be added.”

“作为一个中国人，经书不可不读。我年过三十才知道读书自修的重要。” （《时间即生命》—— 梁实秋）

After reading the original text, we find that the original text is composed of two sentences. If we do not read it carefully, we will not grasp the key point, that is, the relationship between the two sentences: transition. The translation is“The reading of Chinese classics is a must for all chinese. But it was not until I was over 30 that I came to realize the importance of self-study.”We all know that Chinese sentences are short with more punctuation marks, and that Chinese is a formative language with few conjunctions between sentences.(Zhang Sijie,Zhang Bairan,1998:54)

Therefore, when doing translation, translators should carefully search for the hidden logical relationship between sentences and fit the language habits of the readers in order to accurately convey the ideas that the author wants to convey and to arouse the emotional resonance between the author and the readers. During the Renaissance, Luther found the characteristics of the readers, German citizens, and grasped their aesthetics. Then he made certain degree of stylistic shaping with the Bible as a benchmark and focused on integrating the spirit of humanism into the translation.

Example Three

The translator can use a phrase to translate a single word.”

“不过，花草自己会奋斗，我若置之不理，任其自生自灭，它们多数还是会死了的。” （《养花》——老舍）

Translators find that the original text is inclined to be colloquial and its literal meaning is easy to understand. But for the readers, if they only saw the literal meaning, the central idea of the original text would be not well conveyed,leading to their losing interest in reading the work, then the translator was not much of doing a good translation job. In the original text, the word "奋斗" may be a confusing point for readers, they may wonder how flowers and plants could struggle? When it comes to "奋斗", the first word that comes to the translator's mind may be "struggle", "fight", and "strive", one of which most translators would choose if they wouldn’t look deeper into the original text and take into account the characteristics and writing style of the original text. The theme of the original text is "raising flowers", which tells the story of the author and his inner feelings in the process of raising flowers. We should relate to the reality that the "奋斗" of flowers and plants is to resist the wind, rain and sun. Therefore, a good translator will choose to enrich the word "struggle" by using such phrases as "weather through", "carry on the struggle for existence" to express the real experience of plants and flowers. It is in line with Luther's fifth principle. In translation, the translator should pay attention to the language habits of the readers, because different people of various countries will have rather different interpretations of the same literary work. Although the literal meaning of modern Chinese literature is easy to understand, the literary ideas are between the lines. If the translation does not convey the meaning of the original text properly, readers will not feel the meaning conveyed by the author. This is just as Luther took into account when he translated the Bible, he would create a literary form of language acceptable to the German citizens according to their language habits.

Example Four

“Translation must be a brainstorming exercise”

In addition to translation principles, Luther also placed great importance on team cooperation. Luther believed that doing a translation on one's own was not enough, especially for a masterpiece like the Bible.As Luther said, "One cannot go it alone in the matter of translation, for the correct and proper translation words won’t always occur to the only him."（zecher, 1993:12-13) Thus, Luther's later revisions of his New Testament, as well as his translations of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha, were done with the assistance of the Collegium biblicum, an academic translation committee.

Martin Woesler, the professor who teaching me the course Introduction to Translation Studies, also worked with a team in the translation of the great work, Dream of the Red Chamber. It is the first complete German translation of Dream of the Red Chamber. In 2000, Professor Wu set up a workshop consisting of 57 translators, and this team was so strong that the average annual translation volume increases considerably. According to Martina Ulrike Hasse, only 11 new works by Chinese authors were published in Germany in 2011. In recent years, thanks to the efforts of the team, the number of Chinese literature translated into German has increased to 17 per year, which has greatly contributed to the translation and dissemination of Chinese literature in the German-speaking world.

5.Conclusion

In conclusion, the Renaissance saw the independent and parallel development of national languages and the promotion of social changes, thanks largely to the extensive literary translation activities undertaken by key advocates, especially Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible, which ushered in a new era in the development of the German language. Luther's translation principles and thoughts were so influential due to the great success of his German translation of the Bible . When Wlliam Tyndale in England and Reina and Valera in Spain later translated the Bible into English and Spanish respectively, they both referred to and partially adopted the translation principles and thoughts proposed by Luther.(Tan Zaixi，2004：67）

After carefully reading Tan Zaixi's A Short History of Translation in the West and Chen Fukang's A History of Translation Theory in China, the author has gained a better understanding of Luther's and Lu Xun's translation thoughts and principles, and has gained two insights: first, even though their countries, political environments,translation thoughts are rather different, the nature of translation determines that there must be certain similarities in their translation thoughts; second, even though the age between Luther and the author is so long, his translation thoughts and principles still have implications for the author and other translation learners of her time.

As an interdisciplinary student, the author lacked a systematic understanding of many translation thoughts and principles at the beginning of this term. After studying in this semester and reading related professional books,the author have benefited a lot and formed her own translation habits and thinking implicitly, and she hopes to improve her translation quality by more practice.

6.References

[1]Eric. W.Gritsch.Luther as Bible translator [J] in Donald K. Mckim ed., The Cambridge Companion of Martin Luther (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2003),62-63.

[2]Chen Fukang 陈福康.(2000).中国译学理论史稿[A History of Translation Theory in China].

[3]Liu Hongyan 刘红岩.(2010). 鲁迅与马丁·路德翻译思想对比研究 [A Comparative Study of Lu Xun's and Martin Luther's translation Thoughts]

[4]Liu Junping 刘军平.(2009).西方翻译理论通史[A General History of Western Translation Theory]

[5]Lu Xun 鲁迅.(1935).鲁迅全集.[The Complete Works of LU Xun]

[6]Tan Zaixi 谭载喜.(2004).西方翻译简史.[A Short History of Translation in the West]

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Study on Interpreter's Memory and Translation Memory in Interpreting 康浩宇 Kang Haoyu 202070080638 英语口译

康浩宇 Kang Haoyu

Abstract

In interpreting, interpreter's memory plays an important role, and the level of the memory even determines the quality of interpreting and affects the results. Memory cognitive ability is one of the comprehensive qualities of interpreters. How interpreter's memory ability works is closely related to memory principles, types and mechanisms. With the development of science and technology, translation memory, as a new type of "memory", appears in front of the public and is widely used in translation field. In the field of interpretating, some interpreters are also doing interpreting with the help of such tools. This paper explores the translator's memory ability and the application of translation memory in the interpretating industry from the principle of memory.

Keywords

Memory; Translation Memory; Interpreting

摘要

在口译中，译者的记忆里发挥着举足轻重的作用，记忆水平的高低甚至决定了口译质量的好坏，影响口译结果。记忆认知能力是口译员的综合素质能力之一。译者记忆能力的发挥与提升和记忆原理，类型，机制等因素息息相关。 随着科学技术的发展，翻译记忆作为一种新型的“记忆”出现在大众面前并在翻译领域广泛使用。 而在口译领域，一些译员也在通过这类工具来协作口译。本文旨在从记忆的原理出发探究译者记忆能力以及翻译记忆在口译行业的运用。

关键词

记忆； 翻译记忆； 口译

1 Introduction

1.1 Background

Memory plays an important role in interpreting and it is a part of interpreter's competence. The information processing in interpreting is complicated. When the information is input, interpreter first recognizes and keeps the information, which will then be analyzed, encoded, stored and retrieved. And the interpreter finally decodes the information into the target language.Because of the fast input of information and limited time for pausing, great memory is required for interpreters. Whether a good or poor memory has a direct effect on the quality of interpreting(Wang Jianhua, 2019).

With the development of science and technology, machine translation and computer aided translation, which is also called CAT, was invented as two effective ways for translation. In CAT, there is a tool called translation memory. Different from human beings’ memory, translation memory is more likely a database. Nowadays, translation memory of CAT has been put into wide use in translation. And in recent years, translation memory has also been applied as a tool in interpreting. As the technology is not yet mature, there are still some limitation and weakness in this aspect(Su Mingyang, 2007, 73).

1.2 Significance of the Study

There are some studies on the memory of interpreters. But most of them focus on its practical aspects such as how to improve interpreters’ memory or how to make the best of memory in interpreting, instead of substantial facts. The nature of memory and mechanism of memory is also worthy to be studied, so readers can have a better understanding and cognition of what is memory and how it works. Therefore, readers can better address their problems in memory of interpreting. The study will fully analyze memory from the aspect of psychology and science. And then it will study on the memory of interpreting in details including systems, mechanism and effects(Li Jun, 2020, 127).

Translation memory is quite a novel topic as it refers to a sort of science and technology. As the world stepped into information era, digital era and even Artificial Intelligence era, translation memory has been used more widely than ever before. It facilitates the translators as it both saves a lot of time and greatly improves the translation efficiency. However, there are few studies on the translation memory application in interpreting field. Actually, in many situations, interpreters also uses this kind of technology to help their interpreting. They study will research on the fact of translation memory application in interpreting(Li Jun, 2020, 127).

1.3 Structure of the Study

This thesis will be developed in five chapters. Chapter 1, the introduction part, is initiated by introducing the background, research problems, and significance of the study. Chapter 2 is functioned to define and categorize the memory. Chapter 3 will present the memory mechanism and related theories in interpreting. Chapter 4 will mainly focus on the translation memory technology at present and its application in interpreting. The concluding chapter generalizes the content of the study and put forward the limitations.

2 Study on Memory

2.1 The definition of the Memory

Memory has different definitions in different fields. Generally speaking, human memory is a reflection of what the brain has experienced. From the perspective of psychology, memory is the recognition, maintenance, reappearance of experienced things in the human brain, and it is the basis of advanced psychological activities such as thinking and imagination. It is the retention and extraction of past experience of human brain. It is a psychological process in which individual experience is accumulated and preserved in the mind. All things that have been perceived can be kept in people's minds, and can be reproduced when necessary. This refers to the process in which the human brain encodes, stores and extracts meaningful information input from the outside world. From the perspective of neurology, human memory is closely related to the changes of chemical composition in hippocampus of the brain. All memory that exists in the brain depends on various nerve cells, which are called neurons. According to information processing theory, memory process is the process of encoding, storing and extracting input information. Only coded information can be remembered. Coding is the process of processing and transforming the input information, and it is the key stage of the whole memory process(Che Wenbo, 1987, 403).

2.2. Memory Systems

Based on the structure, memory can be categorized into three systems. There are sensory memory, short term memory and long term memory. The later two systems are also often referred as STM and LTM. The three memory systems are different from each other but closely related(Bao Gang, 2005, 150).

2.2.1 Sensory Memory

As the shortest memory system, sensory memory is the first channel for human brain to get the information. It has some capacity. According the research in Cognitive Psychology(Wang Su, Wang Ansheng, 1992), People’s visual sensory capacity has more than 9 chunks while their auditory sensory memory capacity has less capacity, which is about 5 chunks. The "chunks" here are memory units, and the size of chunk varies with people's knowledge and experience. A chunk can be a word, a number, a phrase, a sentence, a word list, etc. Sensory memory works as temporary storage for sensory information. It depends on the physical nature of external stimulus to code the information and it is the real copy and transcription of the external stimulus. Most sensory memory can stay for one to two seconds and then disappear. Only with more attention and focus can the sensory memory be further processed and then become short term memory(Bao Gang, 2005). People’s visual sensory memory can just keep for less than one second while their auditory sensory memory can keep for 4 seconds. It is inevitable that information will lose with the disappearance of sensory memory(Bao Gang, 2005, 150).

2.2.2 Short Term Memory

Short term memory is the second memory system. Short term memory is based on the neuron network in hippocampus. It keeps the information that has been selected in the hippocampus of human brain. In some cases, part of information will move from the short memory in hippocampus to long term memory in cerebral cortex. In psychology, short term memory can keep for about one minute with the capacity of about 7 chunks. That means that people can memorize seven unrelated numbers or phonemes for about one minute with their short term memory. However, the capacity of short term memory is not decided by the amount of stimulus but by the modes of chunk and coding. Chunks can effectively expand the capacity of short term memory. When processing information, people can use the knowledge and experience stored in long term memory to combine several single stimuli into larger information units, which can effectively expand and increase short term memory span and improve memory efficiency. Moreover, the coding of short term memory is mainly auditory coding, and there are also visual coding and semantic coding. Instead of chunk and information unit, people can also use retelling to transfer short term memory to long term memory. Retelling refers to the psychological operation process of repeating the materials just memorized by language to consolidate memory. In the case of retelling, the learning materials kept in short term memory will be transferred to long term memory. The content of short-term memory can be transformed into long term memory by retelling(Bao Gang, 2005, 150).

There is a special type of short term memory, working memory. The concept working memory was first proposed by Baddeley and Hitch. It is used to describe the process of a person temporarily memorizing the fact and thoughts when addressing problems or working(Baddeley, 2006, 22). In spite of limited resources and storage time, working memory is still different from short term memory in temporary storage of information(Hitch, 2012, 266). Compared with short term memory which stores information passively, the working memory process is more dynamic. Generally speaking, there are three differences. First, working memory emphasizes storing and processing information at the same time, while short-term memory only focuses on information storage. Secondly, working memory is a multi-factor system, while short-term memory is a single system. Third, working memory is more important than short-term memory for many advanced brain functions and even almost all human cognitive work(Wang Jianhua, 2019， 76). The disappearance of short term memory is often due to the interruption.

2.2.3 Long Term Memory

Different from short term memory, long term memory is stored in human’s cerebral cortex where there is more room for storage. Long term memory is very important in keeping information for a long time. It can keep information for more than one minute and even for a whole life. Its capacity is unlimited. All the information kept by long term memory has been selected and filtered.According to Tulving, long term memory is stored mainly as two types(Tulving, 1974). They are episodic memory and semantic memory. Episodic memory is about one’s experience of some specific situations. Semantic memory refers to knowledge such as words, concepts, rules and other abstract things.

2.3 Memory Mechanism

Generally speaking, the process of memory includes three key steps. They are memorizing, keeping and recalling. In interpreting, memorizing is related to interpreters' listening and understanding to what the speaker says, keeping is related to the storage of original information and recalling refers to the output of interpreting(Tulving, 1972, 36).

2.3.1 Memorizing

Memorizing refers to the process of distinguishing and recognizing the characteristics of things and leaving a certain impression in the mind. Some things can be remembered after one perception, while most of the contents need to be perceived repeatedly, so that the new information can be connected with the existing knowledge structure. As the first step in the memory process, memorization has a very important influence on the memory. Therefore, understanding and mastering the rules of memorization will help improve memory(Liu Yin, Su Qiaolin, 1997, 23).

According to whether memorization has a purpose or not, memorization can be divided into unconscious memorization and conscious memorization(Ma Zhengyu, 2013, 26).Unconscious memorization refers to the memorization that happens naturally without a predetermined purpose and without a certain effort of will. When they are perceived, there is no intention to memorize them, but these contents can reappear in people’s mind in the future naturally. And this is unconscious memorization. The content of unconscious memorization is an important part of experience, and it has great effect on people’s psychological activities and behaviors. Inadvertent experience can do as much help as existing experiences when people consciously face certain situations and deal with certain problems. In daily life, the environment, contact and work will influence people unconsciously in psychology and behavior. Generally speaking, there are two characteristics of unconscious memorization. First, the stimulation acts on people's sensory organs which is of great significance and attracts people's attention. For example, people will never forget new and different things; Second, it is in people's needs, interests and content so that it can produce deeper emotional experience. Unconsciousness plays a positive role in people's acquisition of knowledge and experience(Zhao Zhongyuan, 2004, 173).

Conscious memorization refers to memorizing with a predetermined purpose, which requires a certain amount of will and effort in the process of memorizing. The process of conscious memorization is controlled by the purpose of memorization. The purpose of memorization determines that memorizing process is an active coding process for memorizing content. This coding includes "what to remember" and "how to remember". "What to memorize" determines the direction and content of memorization, and "how to memorize" is the method to better memorize the content. All people's knowledge and experience are acquired through conscious memorization and unconscious memorization. However,as for memorizing effect, conscious memorizing is better than unconscious memorizing(Zhao Zhongyuan, 2004, 173).

2.3.2 Keeping

Keeping refers to the process of remaining and consolidating the memorized materials in brain. It is the process of information storage. Keeping is the middle step which is between memorizing and recalling and it is closely related the quality and effect of recalling(Bao Gang, 2005, 163).

The effect of keeping is related to whether the materials to be memorized are vivid or not. When brains memorize verbal materials, if the materials are vivid, they can leave a deep impression on people, while the materials with empty contents are easy to be forgotten quickly. Many psychological experiments have also proved the important role of the "image" in the memory of human brain. The memory effect of image materials is generally better than that of words materials, and similarly, the effect of visual memory is generally better than that of auditory memory. This suggests that if interpreters make full use of the image carrier of the source language in interpreting memory, it is possible to improve their information storage of the source language(Bao Gang, 2005, 163).

Keeping is a dynamic process during which the amount and nature of the stored information could be changed. In the aspect of amount change, the amount of stored information will decrease with time. In other words, this is forgetting. Forgetting is a very natural phenomenon that experienced by every person. Although forgetting is a complex psychological phenomenon, its occurrence and development have certain rules. Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist, was the first to do this research. He used meaningless syllables as experimental materials and himself as experimental object. After memorizing the materials, he relearned them at regular intervals, and drew the forgetting curve with the time and times saved by heavy school as the index. Forgetting curve reflects the relationship between time variables. This curve shows the rule of forgetting: the process of forgetting is unbalanced, and the amount of forgetting is relatively large in the initial period after memorization, and then gradually decreases. That is, the speed of forgetting is fast at first and then slow. After Ebbinghaus, many people have studied the forgetting process and confirmed that Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve is basically correct(Liu Yin, Su Qiaolin, 1997, 26).

Keeping is the process of consolidating what have been memorized in people's minds, and it is also the process of storing information. It is not a static and solidified process, but a process of reconstruction(Bao Gang, 2005, 163).

2.3.3 Recalling

The final step of memory is recalling. It is the process of retrieving the information that has been stored in people’s brain(Zhang Wei, 2011, 33). Recalling is the reappearance process of past experiences in the mind under the action of certain inducement. Memories can be divided into two categories: intentional memories and unintentional memories. Intentional recalling is the recalling of past experience under the action of the intended purpose. Unintentional memories are memories that happen naturally without a predetermined purpose. Memories can be divided into direct recalling and indirect recalling according to whether there are intermediary factors involved in the recalling process. Direct recalling is the recollection of old experiences directly aroused by current things. Indirect recalling is a kind of recalling with the help of intermediary factors. In the aspect of difficulty, indirect recalling is more difficult than direct recalling(Wang Jianhua, 2019, 72).

2.4 Primacy Effect and Recency effect

Primacy effect and recency effect are two famous phenomena related to people’s memory. And both of them play a very important role in interpreting(Bao Gang, 2005, 166).

2.4.1 Primacy Effect

The concept “primacy effect” was first proposed by A. S. Lochins, an American psychologist. It refers to the fact that the first impression has a huge effect. Although the first impression may not always be right, but it is most vivid and solid. In primacy effect, information input plays a key role. Experimental psychology research shows that the order of external information input is important in determining the cognitive effect. The first input information plays the most important role, and the last input information also plays a great role. This feature of brain processing information is the internal cause of the primacy effect. When different information is combined, people always tend to attach importance to the former information. Even if people pay attention to the following information, they will think that the following information is non-essential and accidental. More importantly, even if the following information is inconsistent with the former information, people will succumb to the former information(Wang Jianhua, 2019, 81).

2.4.2 Recency Effect

Recency effect, also put forward by an American psychologist Lochins, refers to the phenomenon that when people memorize a series of things, the memory effect of the last part is better than that of the middle part. The reason is that the previous information is gradually blurred in memory, while the recent information clearer in short-term memory. Recency effect is contrary to the primacy effect, and recency effect emphasizes that the last received information has the greatest effect. In people's perception, when the information obtained before and after is different, if there is irrelevant work in the middle to separate them, then the latter information plays a greater role in forming the total impression(Wang Jianhua, 2019, 81).

Obviously, the primacy effect and recency effect are different, or even opposite. The primacy effect emphasizes the information received initially, while recency effect pays more attention to the information that comes into contact later. However, the primary effect and recency effect exist in our society and play their respective functions. Through a large number of experiments, it is found that the primacy effect and recency effect depend on people themselves. Generally speaking, people with relatively simple cognitive structure are prone to produce the primacy effect, while those with complex cognitive structure are prone to produce recency effect(Wang Jianhua, 2019, 82).

Although the primacy effect and recency effect are different form each other, both of the effects are extremely beneficial to the memory of interpreters, and they can be used in different interpreting situations(Wang Jianhua, 2019, 82).

3 Memory in Interpreting

In interpreting, time is very limited for interpreters to do the work and the information of original language is transient. Thus, interpreters are required ton have a good memory. The memory in interpreting is not mechanical. It refers to the processing and coding of the original language, and then storage and retrieval of the coded information. The process of language understanding in translation is based on the information stored in memory such as pronunciation, grammar and speech structure(Bao Gang, 2005, 150).

3.1 Memory Mechanism in Interpreting

When interpreters listen to what the speakers says, their brains are receiving stimulus. That means their brains begin to process these information. In interpreting, when the language area of the brain is stimulated, the interpreter will use the brain to process the existing related information by identifying, explaining, inferring and analyzing the pronunciation, and then stores the results in the form of the internal speech, thus completing the information processing in a short time(Xu Han, 2007, 124).

Only through sensory memory can people obtain external information. Therefore, in a broader sense, the initial stage of memory is sensory memory, not short-term memory. Once the recipient's cells are activated, the information is retained in the sensory storage. Attention should be paid to selecting certain information as pattern cognition, and changing it from sensory memory to short-term memory to obtain its meaning. Therefore, when interpreters listen to the content, they first store all the information in their sensory memory. Then their brain begins to identify which is the important information and pay more attention to it in order to store it in short term memory. For those unnecessary information, it will be forgotten naturally as sensory memory can just be kept for less than one second(Wang Jianhua, 2019,77).

Short-term memory is the link between sensory memory and long-term memory. On the one hand, it directly accepts the information filtered by sensory memory; On the other hand, through a certain retrieval method, the relevant knowledge can be extracted from the long-term memory, and then combine the two to process and store the discourse information. Short-term memory plays a key role in connecting sensory memory and long-term memory, and functions as a central processing unit. When the information stored in sensory memory has been filtered by interpreters’ brain, then it is stored in short term memory. When interpreters start to interpret, they recall all those information that has been encoded in their short term memory and decode it into target languages. In most cases, these information become useless after the interpreting is finished, so it will soon be forgotten naturally by interpreters as short term memory also has a limitation of time. If there is some necessary and important information such as words or expression that could be useful in the future, interpreters can give it more attention and memorize it repeatedly to encode the information into long term memory(Han Xiaoming, 2004, 156).

Long-term memory is like an knowledge base of experiences, and the stored information needs to be activated before it can be decoded into short-term memory to participate in the processing of new information. When the speech chain is released, the brain will quickly activate the long-term memory, extract the relevant knowledge stored before, and start the sensory memory and short-term memory to analyze and process the information , so as to fully understand the meaning carried by the speech, thus making the communication proceed effectively. Long-term memory is the basis of interpretation(Ma Yingmai, Sun Changyan, 2004, 78). In the whole process of interpretation, long-term memory has four functions. The first one is information confirmation. That is to identify information consistent with interpretation long-term memory. The second function is information understanding. If the new information to be processed is consistent with the existing old information in long-term memory, its meaning will be accepted. The third function is information anticipation. The activation of knowledge system will bring about the anticipation of future information. The last one is information expression. When the interpreters understands what the original text conveys, they must look for appropriate words or expressions in long-term memory to express their meanings in the target language(Wang Jianhua, 2019,77). Long-term memory, like a database, stores a large amount of information that can be extracted at any time. More importantly, it also has great influence on sensory memory and short-term memory. If there is no information in long-term memory, the receiver will not be able to recognize familiar stimuli, and short-term memory will not be able to encode and store information in chunks, so information will not be able to change from short-term memory to long-term memory. Therefore, long term memory plays a decisive role when interpreters store the content of original language(Bao Gang, 2005, 160).

3.2 Deverbalization Mode

In the field of translation, as for the understanding of interpreting thinking process and interpreting memory mechanism, there are four different schools of translation theories, namely, information theory school, cognitive psychology school, neural network school and hermeneutic school. Among them, the most authoritative and influential interpretation theory is the "Deverbalization Mode" theory put forward by the French hermeneutics school(Liu Guiying, 2006, 117).

"Deverbalization Mode" theory was proposed by the French hermeneutics school, which is represented by French interpreting theorist Seleskovitch. In a language, sense is the content while words and linguistic signs are the shell. In this mode, what the interpreter needs to do is “shell” the language by coding the information. That is to only keep the sense of the language in memory and remove all the other things(Seleskovitch, 1978). According to the theory, the whole process of interpreting is divided into three stages. They are listening, understanding and expressing respectively. Understanding is considered to be the most important part in the process of interpreting(Seleskovitch, Lederer 2003, 41).

In interpreting, interpreters should first listen to and make clear these linguistic signs and find out the sense and content they express through analysis and understanding. Then the interpreters need to remove the “shell” of the language and forget the linguistic signs and their structure. Only the sense needs to be memorized. The final step for interpreters is to reconstruct the information of original language. They need to decode these sense with the linguistic signs of target language(Xu Ming, 2010, 6).

Deverbalization is not just a coding process from original language to target language but also a dynamic process of understanding and expressing. The central idea is that the interpreters should memorize the pure sense of content instead of the language shells. And they then should process these information with the language shell of target language(Xu Han, 2007, 124).

From the perspective of the theory, interpreters’ memory is not mechanical memory of isolated phonetic codes and information symbols of the source language, but the memory of the main meaning and key words of the source language information on the basis of understanding. Moreover, interpreters’ memory is not simply recalling of information stored in the brain, but a storage and extraction of the input information after analyzing, screening, processing and coding. Interpreters must extract the relevant background knowledge stored in the brain by means of "semantic retrieval", identify, interpret and reason the speech chain, then store the textual meaning in the form of internal speech, and complete the information restoration process in a short time(Xu Han, 2007, 124).

3.3 Memory Strategies for Interpreters

3.3.1 Logical Memory

Logical memory means that when the interpreters receive new information, they can fully stimulate the existing schema in their mind according to the main content of the information, get rid of the limitations of the source language, better remember the newly acquired information, and truly achieve the combination of "recalling" and "interpreting". In interpreting, interpreters use discourse knowledge to logically sort out the internal relations of the source language content and list the framework. In this process, the interpreters’ notes should mainly include the logical relationship between key words and information, and what the interpreters memorize in his brain is the main meaning and connection of the source material, rather than isolated phrases and sentences. In the interpreting stage, the interpreter uses the newly acquired information to activate the related schema in the brain to summarize and edit, so that the known information can reduce the memory burden. This memory method is suitable for the interpreting materials with organized contents and clear priorities(Chen Weihong, 2014, 86).

3.3.2 Visual Memory

Visual memory refers to a method in which an interpreter can quickly visualize the source language content in his mind, combine the existing background knowledge schema, and use the imagery thinking established in his brain to remember when he or she hears the interpretation content. Visual information storage tends to be more complete, and its retention time is relatively long. If images can be formed in the brain, it will definitely reduce the memory burden and produce better translations. Using visual memory of the information in descriptive or introductory interpreting materials will produce very good results(Chen Weihong, 2014, 86).

For examples, the following is part of President Xi’s, state leader of People’s Republic of China, speech at the 12th BRICS Summit.

“同时，我们坚信，和平与发展的时代主题没有改变，世界多极化和经济全球化的时代潮流也不可能逆转。我们要为人民福祉着想，秉持人类命运共同体理念，用实际行动为建设美好世界作出应有贡献。”(Xi jinPing, 2020)

The official translation is given as fallowed from XinHua News Agency.

“Despite all this, we remain convinced that the theme of our times, peace and development, has not changed, and that the trend toward multi-polarity and economic globalization cannot be turned around. We must keep people’ s welfare close to heart and pursue the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind. Through concrete actions, we will contribute our share to making the world a better place for everyone.”

From president Xi’s speech, he mentioned the theme of times, world and peace, multi-polarity and economic globalization, people’s well being. Thus interpreters can use visual memory here to imagine peace as a peace bird, globalization as a the picture of earth and people’s well being as a picture of a happy family(Chen Weihong, 2014, 86).

3.3.3 Chunk Memory

In the process of memory, individual information is often grouped into larger units, that is, recombined or recoded, which is called chunks. Although people's short-term memory capacity has only about 7 chunks, the information storage capacity of each chunk can be extended to a certain extent. People can reorganize the information of short-term memory by using the related schema in their minds, and form familiar larger meaning units. Therefore, in interpreting memory training, the translator should actively use the schema in his mind to make information memorized in chunks efficiently. Interpreters should reconstruct the information they hear, get rid of the language form of the original text, and transform it into meaningful information chunks. With the help of schema theory and interpretive theory, several single sentences can be condensed into several meaningful information chunks, thus reducing the memory pressure in interpretation and greatly improving the interpretation effect. Materials with poor logic and consistency are more suitable for this memory method(Miller, 1956, 63).

There is also a part from President Xi’s speech at the 12th BRICS Summit as followed.

“环顾全球，疫情使各国人民生命安全和身体健康遭受巨大威胁，全球公共卫生体系面临严峻考验，人类社会正在经历百年来最严重的传染病大流行。国际贸易和投资急剧萎缩，人员、货物流动严重受阻，不稳定不确定因素层出不穷，世界经济正在经历上世纪30年代大萧条以来最严重的衰退。单边主义、保护主义、霸凌行径愈演愈烈，治理赤字、信任赤字、发展赤字、和平赤字有增无减。”(Xi jinPing, 2020)

And the official translation is given as followed.

“Around the world, COVID-19 is posing a grave threat to people’s life and well-being. The global public health system is facing a severe test. Human society is going through the most serious pandemic in the past century. International trade and investment have shrunk considerably. The flow of goods and personnel has been impeded. Factors for uncertainty and instability are numerous. The world economy is witnessing the worst recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Unilateralism, protectionism and acts of bullying are becoming rampant, and the deficit in governance, trust, development and peace is widening instead of narrowing.”

In this part, president Xi mentioned many aspects. They are current situation, public heath, people’s health, economy and politics. Each aspect can function as a chunk. When interpreters hear these information, they can memorize these information in these chunks(Chen Weihong, 2014, 87).

4 Translation Memory in Interpreting

4.1 Translation Memory

With development of science and technology, translation technology become widely use in translation field such as computer aided translation, greatly improving the efficiency of translators. And translation memory is a tool used in computer aided translation(Shi Yuntao, 2000, 36).

4.1.1 Definition

Translation memory is also called TM. It is different from the psychological memory that has been well elaborated. It is a kind of database to aid the translation. The principle of Translation Memory (TM) technology is that users build one or more translation memories by using existing original texts and translations. In the process of translation, the system will automatically search the same or similar translation resources such as sentences and paragraphs in the translation memories, and give reference translations, so that users can avoid unnecessary repetitive work and only focus on the translation of new content. At the same time, the translation memory keeps learning and automatically storing new translations in the background, which becomes more and more "smart" and more efficient(Lv Lisong, Mu Lei, 2007,36).

4.1.2 Mechanism

The translator first provides a source text to the translation memory, and the program will analyze this text first, and try to find out whether the existing translation section is consistent with the translated text in the past in the database. If matching translation pairs are found, they will be presented to the translator for reference. Translators can choose to accept the old translation, reject it or modify it. If it is modified, the modified version will also be recorded and stored in the database(Wang Jinquan, 2004, 14).

Some translation memory systems only search for 100% matching words, which means that only the new source that is accurately compared with the database and completely matching data will be presented. There are also other systems that use the fuzzy comparison principle to find similar segments, and present them to translators with special marks to make them easy to recognize. It is very important that the general translation memory system only searches the source language from its database. Text segments that have no match at all will have to be translated manually by the translator. These newly translated text segments will be stored in the database, and future translations may be adopted immediately because the source text appears repeatedly. Translation memory will work well when the repetition of articles is quite high, such as some technical documents or manuals. Translation memory is also very helpful when translating a situation where existing documents are gradually added and revised from the past. Generally speaking, translation memory will not be considered in literature or creative documents, mainly because these types of articles have low repeatability. However, some people think that these words with extremely low repeatability are still worth collecting, for example, they can be used in the search of concordance. Other help collected from translation memory can also be helpful in quality verification and proofreading. When the translation memory is continuously used on appropriate words for a period of time, it will save a lot of workload for translators.(Wang Jinquan, 2004, 14)

4.2 Application of Translation Memory in Interpreting

4.2.1 Current Situation

Although most translation memory is used in the work of translation, it is also used in interpreting widely in recent years. Translation memory is also used in three stages of a interpreting(Li Jun, 2020, 127).

The first stage is the pre-interpreting period when interpreters make preparation for the interpreting. If there is script or some new terms and expressions, interpreters can first resort to machine translation to learn how to translate these content and then store these results in translation memory for future use(Li Jun, 2020, 128).

The second stage is when the interpreters are doing the interpreting. There is a very important technology called voice recognition. The technology can recognize what the speakers said and transcribe it into words. On the one hand, these words can show as subtitles on the screen. Listeners can choose to watch the subtitles or listen to interpreters by themselves. Ont the other hand, these recognized words can also show to interpreters for them to refer to. Thus, it can reduce their stress and burden to some extend. And if the speakers said the terms or words that have been stored in translation memory, they can soon be translated into target languages. The voice recognition technology can transfer speech into words. And then translation plays its role to help interpreters do their interpreting as it saves interpreters a lot of time to remember these words(Li Jun, 2020, 128).

The third stage is after the interpreting. Interpreters can have a review on their on interpreting by voice recognizing their record. If there is any new words that could appear again in the future, interpreters can store them in their own translation memory. If there are words that have benn stored in translation memory but needs modifying, interpreters can also upgrade them(Li Jun, 2020, 128).

4.2.2 Limitations

Although translation memory has been adapted in interpreting, its has still some limitations. There are mainly two aspects of the limitation. They are translation memory and voice recognition.

As for translation memory, the limitation is that what stored in translation memory are words and phrases. In most cases, people needs to translate a whole paragraph or text, so the cohesion is very important. Common translation memory uses a sentence as a Translation Unit or a Translation Segment, which makes it easy to translate multiple sentences separately and then combine them. And this makes the translation not as coherent as it’s required. Besides, translation memory is not compatible to all file formats such as words, the one most frequently used(Su Mingyang, 2007, 73).

As for voice recognition, when there are more than one language in the speech, the effectiveness of the technology could be affected. Besides, it sometimes fails to recognize conditional adverbials and adverbial clause induced by words such as If, every and although is not good. The reason is that the clauses caused by these words can be placed before or after the main sentence, which makes it difficult to recognize and automatically add punctuation marks. Moreover, the results of recognition is greatly affected by the pronunciation and intonation of the speaker and the environment(Li Jun, 2020, 129).

5 Conclusion

A good interpreter is required to have a good memory. It doesn’t only mean the ability to memorize many things but also knowing how to use different memory systems and modes of coding to optimize their memory. Moreover, with the development of technology, interpreters should also learn how to use these technology such as translation memory to help them do the interpreting. However, although translation memory is used in interpreting now, it is still not mature and needs to be improved. Interpreters can use these technology but not rely on it. They must rely on their own memory.

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The Subtile Translation of Movie from the Perspective of Multimodal Discourse Analysis 王轩 Wang Xuan 202070080609 英语笔译

Abstract

Mankind has entered the era of multimedia, so the language as a mono-modal form has been unable to fully express the meaning of communication. Thus we need some other modals to enhance, in order to fully express the meaning and reach the aim of communication, such as sound, visual image, color and so on. Thus the term Multimodality aroused linguist’s interest and attention. The thesis is based on the Multimodal Discourse Analysis theory as the foundation, aims to analyze the following three areas under the theoretical framework of Multimodal Discourse Analysis: 1. The embodiment of Multimodality in the film “Benjamin Button”, then aims to analyze how does the subtitle and Multimodality combining to constructed the whole meaning under the theoretical framework of Multimodal Discourse Analysis.2. The second goal is to discuss the relationship between the movie’s subtitles and other modals, and the relationship between different modals. 3. By discussing the analysis of the movie subtitle expression function in the process of overall significance, this thesis attempts to put forward some suggestions on the movie subtitle translation.

Keywords

Multimodal Discourse Analysis；Audio-visual Product；Subtitle Translation

摘要

人类已经进入多媒体时代，语言作为一种单一的模态形式已经无法充分表达交际的意义。因此，我们还需要一些其他的情态手段加以加强，以充分表达意义，达到交际的目的，如声音、视觉形象、色彩等。因此，多模态一词引起了语言学家的兴趣和关注。 本文以多模态话语分析理论为基础，旨在在多模态话语分析理论框架下分析以下三个方面：1。多模态在电影《本杰明·巴顿》中的体现，则旨在分析在多模态话语分析的理论框架下，字幕和多模态如何结合起来构建整体意义。第二个目标是讨论电影字幕与其他情态动词的关系，以及不同情态动词之间的关系。三。通过对电影字幕在翻译过程中的整体意义的分析，本文试图对电影字幕翻译提出一些建议。

关键词

多模态语篇分析；视听产品；字幕翻译

Chapter One Multimodal Discourse Analysis Theory

1.1 The Emergence And Development Of Multimodality

At present, experts and scholars have entered the stage of multimodal discourse analysis. This is not an accidental phenomenon, but inevitable, because they think that discourse or discourse is a unit of meaning, but the expression of meaning is not only through a single language, on the contrary, it can be constructed by many other symbol systems besides language. Therefore, it is not comprehensive and specific to analyze discourse or discourse from the linguistic level, so multimodal discourse analysis comes into being. Multimodal discourse analysis was first proposed in foreign countries, and has been widely studied and explored. However, it is still in its infancy in China, and has attracted much attention in recent years. In the early 1950s, American linguist Harris put forward the theory of discourse analysis for the first time. Since then, discourse analysts all over the world have been working hard to analyze and study, and have put forward many theories and methods of discourse analysis, and analyzed them through a large number of examples.

However, almost all the theories and methods of discourse analysis focus on language and ignore other forms of meaning expression, such as image, music, color and so on. Therefore, the research on discourse analysis at that time was not comprehensive and had great limitations. In the 1990s, multimodal discourse analysis was first proposed in western countries, which overcomes the limitations of discourse analysis to a certain extent. Therefore, once multimodal discourse analysis was proposed, it immediately attracted the attention of linguists and once became a hot topic. Especially in recent years, linguists at home and abroad have carried out extensive research and Exploration on multimodal discourse analysis. In foreign countries, R. Barthes is the first French scholar to systematically analyze multimodality. As a famous semiotician, R. Barthes adopts the semiotic perspective to study multimodality. Therefore, multimodal discourse has been analyzed with semiotics from the very beginning. Multimodal discourse analysis breaks through the shackles of traditional single language information, and integrates more research in other fields, such as psychology, cognitive science and sociology. R. Barthes discussed the interaction and relationship between image and language in the expression of meaning. Based on Halliday's systemic functional linguistics, Kress & Van Leeuwen constructed a relatively perfect grammatical framework for the analysis of visual images, thus providing theoretical basis and analytical methods for multimodal discourse analysis. They believe that multimodality is a major feature of various discourses in modern society. In the digital age, these different modes play the same role in meaning reproduction. In addition, Kress & Van Leeuwen constructed an image analysis framework based on three pure functions in image reading, namely reproduction, interaction and composition.. In a word, Kress & Van Leeuwen's multimodal communication theory mainly focuses on the symbolic resources and their use.

In China, there are also in-depth and extensive research on multimodal discourse analysis. Professor Li Zhanzi analyzes multimodal discourse from the perspective of social semiotics, while Hu Zhuanglin, a professor of Peking University, studies multimodal semiotics in theory and practice, and proposes multimodal language teaching and research in social semiotics. Zhu Yongsheng has made an in-depth study on multimodality and summarized the theoretical basis and research methods of multimodal discourse analysis. Zhang Delu made a preliminary exploration on the theoretical framework of multimodal discourse analysis. Professor Zhang Delu pointed out that multimodal discourse refers to the use of hearing, vision, touch and other senses, through language, images, sounds, movements and other means and symbol resources for communication. This phenomenon is very common, which is mainly reflected in the following aspects. For example, in order to better understand poetry, people find that it can be attached with pictures, that is, it is attractive People's interest has reached the purpose of helping people understand. In addition, people can often add some auxiliary gestures or actions, and use different tone and tone when speaking, which is also a form of multimodality. However, multimodal discourse analysis has not been paid enough attention. Only in the study of modern linguistics, some linguists have paid attention to multimodality and started to study it from the perspective of non-verbal features and linguistic features. However, it is only studied as an auxiliary expression system of language, but not as a mode of meaning expression. Although multimedia discourse analysis came into being, it was not until recent years that scholars gradually realized the importance of multimedia discourse analysis. It can be seen that multimodality has attracted a large number of linguists in China and achieved fruitful results.

1.2 The Theoretical Framework of Multimodal Discourse Analysis

Linguists have found that systemic functional linguistics can be used as the basic theoretical framework of multimodal discourse analysis. The five levels are: (1) cultural level, including ideology as the main form of culture and genre as the potential choice of discourse mode. (2) The context level includes the context configuration composed of discourse scope, discourse tone and discourse mode. (3) The meaning level includes discourse meaning and conceptual meaning, interpersonal meaning and textual meaning. (4) At the formal level, there are different formal systems to realize meaning, including lexical grammar system of language, visual ideographic form and visual grammar system, auditory ideographic form and auditory grammar system, tactile ideographic form and tactile grammar system, etc., as well as the relationship between the grammar of various modes. (5) Media level is the material form of discourse in the material world, including linguistic and non-verbal. Systemic functional linguistics provides a relatively ready-made theoretical framework for multimodal discourse analysis. On this basis, Professor Zhang Delu proposed a comprehensive theoretical framework for multimodal discourse analysis: (1) cultural level, (2) context level, (3) content level, (4) expression level

1.3 The Forms and Relations of Multimodal Discourse

Multimodal discourse forms include: language, picture sense, sound sense and feeling. The typical multimodal discourse mode is a kind of modal discourse, which can not fully express its meaning, or can not express its full meaning. It needs to be supplemented by another one. The relationship between these modes is called "complementary relationship", while the other is called non-complementary relationship.

Complementary relationship can be divided into strengthening relationship and non strengthening relationship. Reinforcement relationship means that one mode is the main form of communication, while another or more forms strengthen it. For example, when expressing meaning, if language is the main form of communication, then other body movements such as gestures will strengthen the language. On the contrary, language may also be a reinforcement to other ways of communication. Strengthening relationship includes three kinds of relations: prominent, primary and secondary, and expanding. Non reinforcement refers to the relationship between two modes which are indispensable and complementary to each other. For example, in the process of watching a movie, the visual and auditory modes are combined with each other. There are also three forms of non strengthening relations: coordination, union and intersection. In the coordination relationship, different modes construct the whole meaning together, and the lack of any mode will be incomplete. Play the video at the same time, for example. The two modes of image and sound are both necessary and difficult to understand without one communication. In this case, the relationship between image and sound is harmonious. The joint relationship refers to the combination of different types of media in the same mode to express the meaning. For example, in the typical multimodal discourse form of film, the sound matched with the scene animation and the voice of interpretation are combined to reflect the meaning of auditory construction. The last one is the phenomenon of cross embodiment of meaning. For example, teachers do experiments while they are in the experimental class. At this time, the text is still unimodal. However, if you are talking with your friends about whether the weather is snowing, the size and shape of snow, and so on, the scene of snow, including the process and mode of snow, will directly participate in the overall meaning you want to express. At this time, your discourse has a strong situational dependence. A large part of the meaning of your speech is reflected by the situation, although the scene does not actively participate in it In your verbal communication. Therefore, context dependent discourse communication is multimodal.

Chapter Two Film subtitle translation theory

2.1 Film Works and Subtitle Translation

With the advent of the multimedia digital era, foreign film and television works continue to flow into China, so subtitle translation is becoming more and more important. More and more people use subtitles to obtain foreign related information, understand foreign cultures and even learn foreign languages. Subtitling affects people's cognition of things, and subtitle translation has become a professional auxiliary form to facilitate the audience to understand multimedia works. Gottlieb defines subtitle translation as "a kind of written, additional and synchronous translation type for instantaneous and multi symbolic texts". (Gottlieb, 1997:309) in China, film and television translation started relatively late, and large-scale film and television translation began after the 1980s. Although the number of mass media translation has greatly increased, subtitle translation has not attracted enough attention of the academic community, and the research results on subtitle translation are few. In recent years, subtitle translation, as a field of translation, has attracted more and more attention from experts and scholars all over the world. Subtitles have two major functions: first, to deepen the audience's impression of some film content; second, to assist the lack of listening. There are two kinds of subtitles: the first is intralingual subtitle, the second is interlingual subtitle. Intralingual subtitle translation does not need to translate one language into another, but only converts the discourse into text. "Interlingual subtitle refers to the translation of the source language into the target language and superimposed on the bottom of the screen while retaining the original sound of the film and television, which is commonly referred to as subtitle translation." (Li Yunxing, 2001:38)

2.2 The Characteristics Of Subtitle Translation

Film subtitles are an important part of the film, and together with the visual image to construct the meaning, film subtitles can help the audience to understand the characteristics of the characters in the film, to master the character's character and to be familiar with the plot of the film. Film subtitle translation has the following characteristics: Firstly, colloquialism. Subtitle translation in movies is mainly the translation of dialogues between the characters in the film. Therefore, subtitle translation should be as colloquial as possible and conform to the expression characteristics of the characters. On the premise of ensuring the coherence and smoothness of the context, the subtitle translation should be as close to life as possible so as to achieve natural and realistic effect.

Secondly, the characters in the film have their own unique personalities, which are often reflected by different language styles. Therefore, the second feature of film subtitle translation is to conform to the characters' personalities. Thirdly, emotional, emotional help the audience better understand the plot, so the film subtitle translation should reflect the true feelings, the translation should be able to put oneself in the position and into the role, to achieve the artistic effect of sincere. Fourthly, oral form is a typical feature of film subtitle translation, which is also the most obvious difference between film subtitle translation and literature translation. The basic task of translation is to provide a blueprint for dubbing. Therefore, the translation of subtitles should be consistent with the mouth shape of the characters as much as possible, and the accuracy and vividness of the translation should be guaranteed. Fifthly, popularization means popularization. Popularization means that the translation can be understood by the audience on the premise of smoothness, so as to achieve the purpose of clear understanding and appreciation of both refined and popular tastes. The ultimate goal of popularization is to serve the audience and make the translation a bridge for effective communication between different cultures.

2.3 Strategies Of Film Subtitle Translation

2.3.1 Pay Attention To The Artistry Of Language

It is said that film is the seventh art after literature, music, dance, drama, painting and sculpture. As a young art, the only one who knows his birthday, film appeared as a popular art from the very beginning. Film is an art form with unique means of expression, and the artistry of its language is the basic element of film. Although Goethe once said: art should never be the same as reality, and it is impossible to embody art. But it turns out that film is not only a popular art, and it is the most popular art, which is called a kind of popular culture. From the point of view of the film itself, most of the films are for people to watch, and the audience of the film comes from different social strata, so their education level is also different. Therefore, the language in the subtitle of film translation must be in line with the audience's acceptance ability and actual level, so as to make the translation understood by the audience, more clearly, and achieve both refined and popular tastes. However, the vulgarization and popularization of the target language does not mean the vulgarization and generalization of the language. The language of film is rich in expressive force, and the language of subtitle translation must be accurate, natural and vivid. Therefore, in the film subtitle translation, we should not only retain the language characteristics of the source language and absorb the characteristics of foreign language expression, but also abide by the language tradition of our own culture, and use words with cultural color of the target language to translate the original text, so as to truly achieve the purpose of translation.

2.3.2 Literal Translation And Free Translation Should Be Audience-Centered

The characteristics of film subtitle translation, i.e. instantaneity and popularity, determine its translation strategies. Subtitle translation must refer to the picture and sound of the film and television. Usually, the subtitle appears in front of the audience together with the original picture, so that the audience can not only enjoy the picture, but also have time to read the subtitle. This is the duality of subtitle translation. When the audience accepts the sound, picture and subtitle information of the original text, they are integrated, complementary and contradictory. Therefore, subtitle translation must consider that subtitle is not an independent mode, it includes the creation process and the reception process. In a word, both literal translation and free translation should focus on the audience. Literal translation can absorb new foreign factors and information, and can reflect foreign culture and sentiment. Free translation is easier to be accepted by the target language audience. Film subtitle translation must take into account the audience's language level and education, and take the audience of the target language as the center and adopt correct translation strategies.

2.3.3 Processing Of Cultural Information

As an intermediary of cultural exchange, the translator's main purpose is to promote the exchange of different cultures and reduce the cultural gap. Because the film subtitle in the process of translation is subject to many restrictions, for example, there are a large number of words with strong cultural color and some special language forms, and there are many gaps in the culture of different languages and nations and can not be replaced, so it increases the difficulty of film translation. For example, when translating puns, word games and proverbs, translators usually have to give up, which is actually a treason to the original film. There are three strategies to deal with cultural information in Subtitle Translation: first, the principle of cultural compensation. The principle of cultural compensation aims to preserve and introduce the cultural characteristics of foreign countries, so that the audience can understand the films of different languages and cultures. Second, adopt the principle of cultural transplantation. This principle can make subtitles more vivid, authentic and vivid. Translators need to discard the cultural characteristics of the source language and abide by the native language, so that subtitles can be easily understood and accepted by the target language audience. When neither of the two strategies is desirable, we can only use the third strategy, namely the principle of cultural coordination, which inevitably leads to the loss of cultural information in the source language and the target language. When dealing with the cultural information in subtitle translation, translators should pay attention to the combination of these three strategies with the film picture, and give full play to the illustrative and explanatory nature of the pictures, so as to achieve the purpose of cultural exchange.

Chapter Three Subtitle Translation Of "Benjamin Button" From The Perspective Of Multimodal Discourse Analysis

3.1 A Brief Introduction of 'Benjamin Button'

'Benjamin Button', directed by the famous director David Finch is adapted from Fitzgerald's novel of the same name; the film tells the story of a strange Benjamin Barton who violates the laws of nature and is born in the image of an ancient and rare old man. As time goes by, he even lives more and more young. It is a story about the reversal of life. The following part will analyze the characteristics of subtitles and the translation strategies that should be adopted in the expression of the film from the cultural level, context level, content level and expression level of the multimodal theoretical framework.

3.2 Multimodal Translation in Movie Subtiles

3.2.1 On Cultural Level

Under the influence of thinking patterns and habits, people have gradually formed a specific form of expression in which language can understand each other in communication. Therefore, it is particularly important whether the cultural factors in films are properly translated. Zhang Delu believes that "the cultural level is the key level to make communication possible". In some cases, the source language and the target language can not be translated literally. Therefore, in the process of translating movie subtitles, we should not only keep the original features, that is, faithfulness, but also take into account the habitual language awareness of the target audience, that is, free translation strategies should be adopted to make the translation smooth and consistent Cultural characteristics of the target language. The English title of the film is ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, and a version is ‘本杰明·巴顿奇事’, but the translation of ‘返老还童’ has a larger audience. First of all, there is an English name in the title of Benjamin Button, which makes people feel the obscurity of the literal translation of foreign words. In Chinese, four character idioms or five or seven character quatrains or metrical poems are more catchy and easy to be accepted; Secondly, the title of "rejuvenate" is very suitable for the protagonist's inverted and retrograde life trajectory. In a word, it is very brilliant; Finally, the idiom ‘返老还童’ comes from ancient legends, which expresses people's desire for immortality and rejuvenation. Although it is a legend, modern people also want to be young and energetic, so the title of ‘返老还童’ can attract more audiences. In this film, there are many translation notes added to the translation, which will explain the cross-cultural ambiguity clearly. Although there are many translations, it is the best way to make the audience accept accurate information.

When Daisy, the heroine, is old, she lies on the hospital bed and introduces the name of the Watchmaker: “they had the best clock maker in all of the south to build that glorious clock. His name was Mr. gateau Mr. Cake.” The translation is: “还请来整个南方最好的钟表匠建了那座雄伟的大钟。那人叫盖图先生……蛋糕先生” (盖图/Gateau 在法语中是蛋糕之意) There is such a narration at the foundation laying ceremony of clocks and clocks: “Papa said there were people everywhere. Even Teddy · Roosevelt came.” The translation is: “爸爸说，那天人山人海。连泰迪·罗斯福也来了( 西奥多·罗斯福，昵称泰迪美国第26任总统)” In the above two examples, the comments added to the translation itself are in brackets. In the former example, "Mr. cake" suddenly appears. In the latter example, how President Roosevelt called "Teddy Roosevelt" will make the target language audience very puzzled. Although the use of annotations makes translation numerous, it is the best way for the audience to quickly obtain accurate information. The audience knows that gateau means "cake" in French, and Roosevelt has a nickname of "Teddy".

3.2.2 On Context Level

In a specific context, communication is constrained by contextual factors (Zhang Delu, 2009). The context level elaborated by Zhang Delu includes discourse scope, discourse tone and discourse mode. In order to express meaning or transmit information, subtitle and context jointly promote the development of film plot. Subtitle translation should be subject to context. In order to make subtitle translation not appear fault phenomenon, the film plot will advance naturally, and subtitle translation should also play a role of connecting the preceding and the following. In this way, in the process of translation, the translator should consider the contextual factors and pay attention to the smoothness and coherence of the translation within the sentence itself and between the sentences in the text. When describing Queenie's fertility problem, Queenie sees Benjamin's heart full of love. Her husband, Mr. Weathers, said: I know you ain't got all the parts it takes to make one of your own, but this ain't your to keep. At first it was certainly hard to understand the meaning of this sentence, but as the plot developed, Queenie prayed to the pastor for a son. After her pregnancy, she announced happily: “I had a miracle happen. The Lord saw fit to answer my prayer.”

Little Daisy explained here: “ ‘I had a miracle happen’ means pregnancy.” （她有孩子了） In this way, the words said by Mr. Weathers was interpreted as: “我知道你没法有自己的孩子，可你也不能抚养这个。” Using free translation strategy, it is clear and faithful to the meaning of the source language, which makes the target language audience quickly know that Queenie likes children's characteristics and cares for Benjamin, an ugly ‘monster’. When Benjamin and Daisy are reunited in New York, Benjamin said: “I thought I'd come here and sweet you off your feet or something.” The phrase "sweep you off your feet" means "to make you fall suddenly and deeply in love with you"（让你倾倒）. Benjamin and Daisy were separated from each other for many years at that time. Daisy, who was living in the dance circle, was popular and desirable there. Benjamin went to New York to find daisy after burying his father. He was in a mixed mood. In fact, he wanted to find a friend to express his melancholy. Therefore, Benjamin did not go to find Daisy to "fall in love" with her but "I thought I'd give you a big surprise when I came suddenly"(我本以为我突然过来找你会给你一个大惊喜), which is very brilliant. This sentence is more suitable for the protagonist's situation by using free translation strategy.

3.2.3 On Content Level

The content level of Zhang Delu's expression includes discourse meaning level and form level. Discourse meaning is the conceptual meaning, interpersonal meaning and textual meaning conveyed in language expression. In the film, subtitle is the narrator's narration and dialogue content. Film discourse requires the translator to accurately express the subtitle meaning to the audience. In the process of subtitle translation, some gas words, names and address terms can be omitted, which still does not affect the expression of discourse meaning. “Well, I know I don't have much to show for myself.”（我知道自己没有什么才能。） The omission of "well" does not affect the translation, but is more concise and can be understood more quickly. “You know, you may've got a few more years out of it, but you choose to do something so special and unique that there were only a short window of time you could do it.” Daisy was in the dance business, but she had an accident later. Some expressions here such as “a few more years out of it” ( 跳几年舞), “something so special and unique”( 事业太与众不同), “a short window of time” （几年黄金时间) have been dealt more concrete, so the whole sentence is translated as: “也许，你能多跳几年舞，可你的事业太与众不同了，只有几年的黄金时间可以发展。”

As for its form, the formal features of different modes are interrelated and reflect the discourse meaning together (Zhang Fulu, 2009). The film system includes animation, pictures, music, language and other auditory and visual modes. Therefore, subtitles, together with listening and visual modes, work together to promote the expression of film meaning. For example, Benjamin and Daisy finally met and got together. They whispered in the yellow-glowed room: Daisy: “Will you still love me when my skin grows old and saggy?” ( 我要是成了黄脸婆你还会爱我吗?) Benjamin: “Will you still love me when I have acne? When I wet the bed? When I'm afraid of what's under the stairs?” ( 等我老到脸上长满青春痘，老到尿床，老到连楼梯下有什么都怕，你还会爱我吗?) The pictures, music and language all revealed the happy and loving life of the two people. In general, the film is based on the narration of a diary. In the film, the dialogue between the present and the narration in the diary is carried out alternately. In addition, the old pictures, the statement of time and the voice change of the narrator are used to make the past and the present change clearly and naturally, and they are applied in the formal level.

3.2.4 On Expression Level

Zhang Fulu believes that the expression level can be divided into language media and non-verbal media. In the language media level, he thinks that the main forms of meaning communication are sound symbols and writing symbols. For films, subtitles and subtitle translation belong to writing symbols. In the process of translating subtitles, translators should fully consider the media characteristics such as voice size, intonation strength, tone, font size and layout, which play a very important role in the expression of films. The subtitles of the film are at the bottom of the screen. Except for the notes, the translation takes up a little bit more space, and most of the subtitles in the source language and the target language occupy one line, which ensures that the audience has enough time to read the information. Non verbal media include communicators' body and nonverbal means (mainly tools and environment). Nowadays, with the progress of science and technology, movies can be played in cinemas, networks and various electronic media, and the media for appreciation is rich.

Throughout the film, the dying old Daisy's tone is slow and strenuous on the bed. With the development of the story, light or heavy, a TV beside the bed broadcast the change of Hurricane weather activity, and the weather change also reflects Daisy's condition at that time. Finally, Daisy hugged Benjamin, a baby in her arms, and watched him invert the end of her life. The dying Daisy dictated in a low voice and intermittent tone: "he looked at me and Iknow that he knew who I was.". (他看着我，那一刻，我知道他认出来了) The sound of the hurricane alarm suddenly sounded, sharp and obvious, and the picture of the staff of the hospital of traditional Chinese medicine was flustered, symbolizing that Benjamin's reversal clock was also washed away, and Daisy finally passed away. The sound, picture and words of the whole film are closely linked. It tells the story of eternal love, though limited in time, which is extremely shocking and thought-provoking.

Chapter Four Conclusion

The translator of the film tries his best to translate various modes such as discourse, picture, sound and music. The translation strategy is mainly free translation, and the subtitle processing is simple and appropriate, so that the audience can have a good understanding of the limited time in the film, only the eternal knowledge of love. Taking the film subtitle of "rejuvenation" as an example, this paper analyzes the characteristics of subtitle translation from the aspects of culture, context, content and expression, hoping to better understand multimodal discourse analysis and free translation strategies in film subtitle translation.

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On the C-E Translation of Traditional Chinese Medicine Instructions from the Perspective of Adaptation Theory - A Case Study of Yulin Pharmaceutical Company 陈永相 Chen Yongxiang 202070080582 MTI 英语笔译

陈永相 Chen Yongxiang 202070080582 MTI 英语笔译

Abstract

Traditional Chinese Medicine (hereinafter referred to as TCM), the precious property of Chinese medicine culture, boasts the favorable curative effect and enjoys a good reputation across the world. With the smooth development of "The Belt and Road Initiative" and national economy, TCM has been playing an increasingly significant role in the international trade, attracting more attention of foreign medical experts and consumers.

As the essential attachment of a medicine, medicine instructions belong to the genre of practical writing, characterized by the unique language structure and stylistic features. The translation of TCM instructions is a significant part of TCM translation, the quality of which determines whether the Chinese medicines could be understood and used properly by doctors and patients, as well as the prosperity of TCM in the international trade. Due to the inevitable differences in language and culture between English and Chinese, however, many problems appear on the C-E translation of TCM instructions.

According to Adaptation Theory proposed by the Belgian pragmatist Jef Verschueren, language use is a dynamic process of continuous choice-making and adaptation. As a cross-cultural communication activity, translation involves language use and requires translators to make choices of words, translation strategies and so on between the source language and the target language, and to adapt with different contexts, mentalities, cultures, etc. so as to achieve the ideal goal, from which the Adaptation Theory can be applied exactly into the study of translation. This paper will apply Adaptation Theory, therefore, as the theoretical framework, to study the C-E translation of TCM instructions of Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, tring to further discuss how to better translate TCM instructions.

Key words

Traditional Chinese Medicine instruction translation; Adaptation Theory; Yulin Pharmaceutical Company

摘要

中药是我国医药文化的瑰宝，有着良好的疗效和口碑。随着“一带一路倡议”的稳步推进和中国经济的平稳发展，中药药品在国际贸易中所占比重日益增加，得到了国外许多医疗专家和消费者的关注。

药品说明书作为药品的重要附件，是一种实用文体，有其自身的语言结构和文体特点。而中医药品说明书英译作为中医英译的一个重要组成部分，其英译质量决定了药品能否被医生和患者正确理解和使用，以及中医药产品的国际贸易繁荣。然而，由于英语和汉语之间存在着不可避免的语言和文化差异，中医药品说明书英译依然存在着较大问题。

比利时语用学家维索尔伦提出的语言顺应论认为，语言的使用是一个不断作出选择和顺应的动态过程。翻译作为一项跨文化交际活动，需要在源语与目的语之间，就用词、翻译策略等方面进行选择，对不同语境、心理、文化等层面作出顺应。可见顺应论适用于翻译研究。因此本文以顺应论作为理论依据，通过对广西玉林制药公司中医药品说明书英译进行分析研究，进一步探讨如何更好地翻译中医药品说明书。

关键词

中医药品说明书翻译；顺应论；玉林制药公司

1. Introduction

1.1 Research Background of the Study

As the precious property of Chinese medicine culture, TCM has been through a profound history in China. Since "The Belt and Road Initiative" proposed for the first time, TCM has tapped the potential of development opportunity to boost its reform so as to better make inroads into the international market. (Ou Xiufang, 2020)

As one of China's Top 50 TCM pharmacy enterprises, Guangxi Yulin Pharmaceutical Company is a renowned TCM pharmacy enterprise mainly engaging in R&D, production and sales of TCM. In 2015, Consun Pharmaceutical Group Lt. has successfully brought partial share of Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, which, in return, brought opportunities for the IPO and industrialization of the company. (Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, 2018)

As the essential attachment of TCM medicine, the instructions guide doctors and patients to learn and understand the medicine correctly, which closely relates to consumers' safety and are of great significance. The translation of TCM instructions is a significant part of TCM translation, the quality of which determines whether the Chinese medicines could be understood and used properly by doctors and patients, as well as the prosperity of TCM in the international trade. The quality translation of TCM instructions will accelerate TCM to enter into the international market, to occupy more competitive market share, and to better popularize the excellent TCM culture. (Ou Xiufang, 2020)

1.2 Significance and Purpose of the Study

It is noticed that studies and researches on TCM at home and abroad have boomed since the ancient Silk Road period. Regarding the translation of TCM instructions, however, little attention has been drawn from experts. Because of the inevitable differences in language and culture between English and Chinese, a lot of problems appear on the translation of TCM instructions. And against such a backdrop, there are no settled rules or translation standards to be applied and favored in the translation of TCM instructions, hence the necessity to study the C-E translation of TCM instructions in a more comprehensive way and to find out more effective methods and strategies for the instruction translation. (Cao Qing, 2011)

Adaptation Theory is proposed by Jef Verschueren, who thinks that language use is a dynamic process of continuous choice-making and adaptation. As a cross-cultural communication activity, translation is a type of language use and requires translators to make choices of words, translation strategies and so forth between the source language and the target language. (Yuan Binye, 2009)

A good translation version of TCM instructions can appropriately guide both doctors and patients to understand the pharmacological functions, usage and dosage, actions and indications, and contraindications of medicines. Therefore, the quality of instruction translation has a direct impact on whether TCM can be favored and obtained a good reputation among the foreign medical industry and consumers. This paper studies the C-E translation of TCM instructions of Yulin Pharmaceutical Company under the guidance of Adaptation Theory, trying to take the Company as a case study to further discuss how to translate TCM instructions in a better way. (Xiao Qiong, 2014)

2. Features of TCM Instructions

Being the essential attachment of a medicine, the instruction contains important information that explains what the medicine is, how to take it and the effects after taking it, guiding doctors and patients to understand and use medicines properly. It closely relates to consumers' safety. Thus, TCM instructions must be objective, accurate and concise. However, the information covered in most TCM instructions is drug name, ingredients, actions and indications, usage and dosage, while adverse effects, precautions, pharmacological effects, drug interaction, contraindications etc. are quite simple, even without any description of these items, failing to meet the requirement of international standards. (Xiao Qiong, 2014)

In addition, there are gaps and non-equivalence between TCM and Western Medicine. Most TCM instruction translations apply technical terms from Latin in terms of ingredients, but adopt simple words and phrases for describing actions and indications because the TCM language with Chinese characteristics finds no match in English. Ordinary people, as well as translators, who do not have the professional knowledge may have great difficulty in understanding and translating them. (Xiao Qiong, 2014)

What's more, due to the profound history of TCM developed in China, most of the unique TCM languages derive from the abstract philosophical concepts of ancient times. The peculiar traits of TCM language, and the technical terms, directly or indirectly, come from the abstract medical concepts of TCM. The classical style or semi-classical style used in ancient times remains. (Xiao Qiong, 2014)

The four-character structure is concise but comprehensive in meaning, implying the extensive and abstract medical concepts of TCM. The tradition of using it to describe the symptoms and ways of treatment in TCM hasn't been changed over time but continued to be applied and advocated in modern society. The four-character structure, vagueness and ambiguity of the language in Chinese can find no equivalence in English, hence the difficulty in translating them into English. (Xiao Qiong, 2014)

3. Introduction of Adaptation Theory

Adaptation Theory was firstly proposed in 1987 by the Belgian pragmatist Jef Verschueren, the secretary general of International Pragmatics Association. And then it has been developed and modified for several times over years, attracting a lot of attention in the linguistics community with its integrated system and solid philosophical foundation. In the book, Understanding Pragmatics, Verschueren describes that "language use must consist of the continuous making of linguistic choice, consciously or unconsciously, for language-internal and/or language-external reasons." (Verschueren, 2000)

In other words, when making linguistic choices, language users are influenced by the internal structure of language and the external factors. Verschueren attaches great importance to the adaptation of linguistic structures and contexts, and takes communication as a conscious language choice-making process and dynamic adaptability. The essence of communication and expression is a dynamic process, and the context will change along with communication, thus, language forms and strategies should be taken into consideration so as to comply with the context and achieve effective communication. (Verschueren, 2000)

3.1 Three Properties of Language

According to Verschueren, there are three properties in language: variability, negotiability and adaptability, and it is the reason why we can make choices during language usage. "These three properties are inseparable with one another, variability and negotiability being the foundation, the ultimate purpose and core is adaptability." (Verschueren, 2000)

Variability provides a large number of linguistic choices during the process of language usage, and lays a basic foundation for the realization of negotiability and adaptability. Negotiability means language users will go through negotiation with themselves when choosing the most appropriate forms and strategies so as to make adaptation and fulfil the communicative intention. As the core of language property, adaptability enables language users to make linguistic choices provided by variability, and then negotiate to decide which choice to be made in accordance with different language contexts. (Verschueren, 2000)

As mentioned above, these three properties are inseparable with one another. Variability and negotiability make it possible and available for language users to choose the proper form and strategy of a language when making adaptation to a specific language context. (Verschueren, 2000)

3.2 Four Aspects of Investigation

Based on the guidance of Adaptation Theory, Verschueren advocates four aspects of investigation in linguistic research, namely, contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability, dynamics of adaptability and salience of adaptation process. (Verschueren, 2000)

Contextual correlates of adaptability "potentially includes all the ingredients of the communicative context with which linguistic choices have to be inter-adaptable." These ingredients include language users, the physical world, the social world (such as social relations, culture, social status and social settings), and the mental world (personality, emotions, beliefs, cognitive levels, motivations or intentions, etc.). Since it entails the objective and subjective factors and both sides of language users (utterer and interpreter), making adaptation to the context is of great significance. (Verschueren, 2000)

Structural objects of adaptability happens at all levels of the linguistic structures, ranging from codes and styles, words and clauses, to sentences and prepositional structures. In order to adapt to different cultures and linguistic structures, language users need to choose the most appropriate structure so as to build up the logical relationship and improve the readability and credibility in target language. (Verschueren, 2000)

Dynamics of adaptability means "the development of adaptability processes over time." It is created by the changes and development of language contexts and structures over time. And different words and translation strategies adopted in different contexts show the dynamic adaptability in language use. (Verschueren, 2000)

Salience of adaptation process refers to the various degree of consciousness in the process of making choices. The continuous making of linguistic choice, consciously or unconsciously, covers exactly different levels of salience. (Verschueren, 2000)

In conclusion, as the indispensable parts in linguistic analysis, the four aspects of investigation are the necessary factors to explain and describe any given linguistic phenomenon.

4. Adaptation Theory Applied in Traditional Chinese Medicine Instruction Translation of Yulin Pharmaceutical Company

From what has been mentioned above, as the important attachment of TCM, the instructions provide the correct and detailed medical information to doctors and consumers, guiding them to take medicine scientifically and properly, therefore, the medicine instructions must be objective, accurate and concise. As one of China's Top 50 TCM pharmacy enterprises, Guangxi Yulin Pharmaceutical Company is a famous brand in the whole country. Through observation of the C-E translation instructions of TCM for foreigners and export, there are some instructive significance for the translation of TCM instructions. (Xiao Qiong, 2014)

Because of the special characteristics of TCM instructions and the limited information included in the instructions of the Company, this part tries to analyze the C-E translation instructions from the perspective of Adaptation Theory, mainly employing the contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability and dynamics of adaptability, to further discuss how to better translate TCM instructions. (Verschueren, 2000)

4.1 Contextual Correlates of Adaptability in TCM Instruction Translation

As introduced earlier, according to Verschueren, the ingredients of contextual correlates of adaptability largely include the physical world, social world, and mental world. However, the author will mainly concentrates on the adaptation to the mental world and the social world due to the limited materials collected. (Verschueren, 2000)

4.1.1 Adaptation to the Mental World

Regarding the mental world, it involves the personality, emotions, beliefs, cognitive levels, motivations, intentions and so on of both sides of language users. In the translation process, translators should take target readers' mind into account, not just concentrating on personal mental world or literally translating the original text from one language to another language without any adaptation. (Verschueren, 2000)

Basically, consumers of drugs tend to rely on more renowned brands when facing a bunch of medicines displayed on the shelves. The key to attract their attention not only counts on the high quality of TCM, but also on the instructions with rigorous standards, concise specification and overall comprehensibility, which gives a sense of authority and credibility. (Ma Bangxin, 1998)

To begin with, the name of drugs is the most direct information delivered to consumers. Thus, a good name of the TCM can catch the eyes of buyers in the very beginning. "正骨水" is the most famous and important product of Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, however, the translation of its name in the instruction simply applies transliteration and Chinese Pinyin, namely, "Zheng Gu Shui", which fails to adapt with the mental world of target readers. Apparently, Pinyin isn't the way of expression that they are familiar with. Translators should consider their mental expectation and make adaptation with their familiar ways of expression. In that point, "Bone-setting Liquor" would be a better name for the medicine. (Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, 2018)

"Bone-setting" means the medicine is effective for the symptoms of bone problems, and "liquor" implies alcohol and other irritating ingredients of the medicine. Consumers can be aware of the precautions and avoid using it on fragile mucous membranes and anabrotic wounds when seeing its name. (Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, 2018)

Also, the same type of medicine can apply the same way of translation, such as, "金装正骨水" can be translated to "Golden Bone-setting Liquor", and "极品正骨水" is rendered as "Superb Bone-setting Liquor". Such a name conveys the correct medical information to consumers and better adapt to their thinking patterns. (Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, 2018)

Another example, "睡安胶囊", the translation is "Shui'an Jiaonang". Obviously, it will confuse foreigners since they don't recognize Chinese Pinyin in their cognitive levels. Translators should at least use "capsule" to indicate the type of this medicine. (Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, 2018)

A well-recognized name will arouse the attention and interest among consumers, attracting them to purchase the medicine. In order to adapt with their mental expectation and intention, as Ouyang Lifeng advocates, naturalization or domesticating translation can be applied in translation. "Sleep Mate" or "Insomnia Killer" can better attract their attention and adapt with their beliefs and cognitive levels. In English, "mate" is a common word, which will be more acceptable and natural in such a combination, and "killer" combined with "insomnia" implies the meaning of solving the insomnia problems, which is also more suitable and adaptable with their emotions and motivations. (Ouyang Lifeng, 2002)

4.1.2 Adaptation to the Social World

According to Verschueren, there is no principle limit to the range of social factors because linguistic choices are inter-adaptable. Basically, social settings and cultures play a significant role in the process of translation. What distinguishes TCM from Western Medicine mainly lies on the cultural differences. Language is the carrier of culture, and the cultural differences can be embodied in different languages, and then shown and reflected in society. Instruction translation, as the cross-cultural communication activity, is influenced largely by cultural differences in different social worlds. Followings are the very typical translation examples to illustrate the point: (Zhou Shumei, 2013)

Example 1 (感冒止咳露)

Source Text (ST): 用于感冒或流感发热，头痛鼻塞, 伤风咳嗽，咽痛，肢痛

Target Text (TT): Used for the treatment of cold, flu and fever, headache and nasal congestion, wind damage cough, angina and melalgia

Revised Text (RT): Used for cold, flu, fever, headache, snuffle, cough, sore throat and pain in muscles

Traditionally, "伤风" in Chinese means getting cold because of the invasion of "风" into the human body. "风" is actually one of the six exogenous pathogenic factors according to the medical theory of TCM, which cannot be explained from the perspective of Western Medicine. In western society, people have no concept that the natural phenomenon, say, "风" or "火", will cause diseases in the human body. So the revised text deletes this term with TCM characteristics to avoid ambiguity and makes it more natural and understandable in English. (Ouyang Lifeng, 2002)

In addition, most common patients who seek to buy medicines in pharmacies might not have the specific knowledge of medical field due to different social settings and backgrounds, thus, "angina" and "melalgia" might be beyond recognition and acceptance. Western world highlights the importance of brevity and conciseness in their society, and they place emphasis on simplification and efficiency, seldom using the very technical terms in their lives. Such social settings and cultural differences must be considered so as to make adaptation when translating. (Ouyang Lifeng, 2002)

Besides, "nasal congestion" is the word-for-word translation and may cause misunderstanding among foreigners. The revised text, therefore, adopts "snuffle" and "sore throat" to indicate the meaning of "鼻塞" and "咽痛". The same goes to "肢痛", using "pain in muscles" to replace the word of "melalgia", hence the adaptation with cultural differences in different social worlds. (Ouyang Lifeng, 2002)

Example 2 (治咳枇杷露)

ST: 治疗儿童伤风呃逆，咳嗽痰盛

TT: Used for children's wind-damage hiccup, cough and exuberant phlegm

RT: Used for cold, hiccup, cough and sputum in children

Similarly, example 2 also translates "伤风" into "wind damage", which is not appropriate in such description. As mentioned above, additions and deletions, if necessary, can be applied to make adaptation in translation. So the revised text deletes "wind damage" and "exuberant phlegm", adopting noun coordination and making it more readable and adaptable to the social world of target readers. (Ouyang Lifeng, 2002)

Literal translation is not always the first option in the C-E translation of instructions. For translators, the first thing they should consider is to be faithful to the original meaning of the text, not the text itself. They need to make adaptation to the target readers' social world, for instance, social status, social settings, social background, etc., striving to make the translation concise and easy to understand in their society. Amid such different social worlds, translators must bear in mind to render localization of different cultures to make adaptation without causing ambiguity and misunderstanding while successfully keeping and delivering the implied meanings as much as possible. (Nigel Wiseman, 2000)

4.2 Structural Objects of Adaptability in TCM Instruction Translationn

According to Verschueren, linguistic choice-making takes place at all levels of structure that shows variability of any kind. As indicated before, for the reason of limited information covered in the TCM instructions, the materials collected from the Company would be more meaningful if concentrating on the lexical level of the actions and indications of the instructions, which exactly features the typical four-character structure and language traits of TCM instructions. (Verschueren, 2000)

4.2.1 Adaptation to the Lexical Level

Differences in lexical level between TCM and Western Medicine largely reflect on terminologies and descriptions of diseases. The four-character structure in TCM language is concise in form but comprehensive in meaning. Currently, most translation versions of instructions are literally word-for-word translation and transliteration, failing to deliver the correct meanings implied in those TCM terminologies and words and lacking readability and authenticity. Here are some typical translation examples of the actions and indications of the medicines in Yulin Pharmaceutical Company: (Tang Xun, 2014)

Example 3 (蛤蚧补肾丸)

ST: 小便频数

TT: Frequent urination

Example 4 (金装正骨水)

ST: 祛风除湿

TT: Dispel wind and eliminated dampness

RT: Relieve rheumatic pain

Example 5 (珍黄丸)

ST: 消肿止痛

TT: Ease a swelling and relieve pain

RT: Relieve swelling pain

Chinese four-character structure in TCM language is concise in form but comprehensive in meaning, and most of them are the causal relationship. "祛风除湿" is a typical example. "风湿" is a disease caused by the invasion of "风" into the human body. If "风邪" cannot be removed from the body soon, "湿" will appear and gather together near the joints, causing diseases and pains in joints according to the medical theory of TCM. So, "祛风" is actually the result of "除湿", and vice versa. "消肿止痛" means that the pain is caused by swelling. Once the swelling disappears, so does the pain. (Ouyang Lifeng, 2002)

In example 3, "小便频数" is translated into "Frequent urination", the structure of "adjective + noun" in English, which is concise in form and easy to understand. Accordingly, the revised text of example 4 and 5 can also adopt such structure and translate into "Relieve rheumatic pain" and "Relieve swelling pain", not only implying the causal relationship in TCM language, concise and simple, but also avoiding translating repetitive meaning. (Ouyang Lifeng, 2002)

Example 6 (感冒止咳露)

ST: 止咳化痰

TT: Suppress cough and transform phlegm

RT: Relieve cough and sputum

Example 7 (乌军治胆片)

ST: 疏肝解郁

TT: To course the liver and resolve depression

RT: Relieve Qi stagnation in liver

In the above two examples, "止咳化痰" is translated into "Suppress cough and transform phlegm". It is noticed that simply employing the literal meaning of words to translate TCM instructions doesn't work well, especially in such medical context. Translators cannot ignore the relationship between the words and the context and translate in isolation. "化痰' means the symptom of sputum would be relieved and cured soon after taking the medicine, hence the key words being "咳" and "痰", not the verbs. So the translation of "Relieve cough and sputum" would be more comprehensible and readable. (Nigel Wiseman, 2000)

And the example of "疏肝解郁" is actually another one that can be shown the casual relationship in TCM language. "疏" and "解" deliver the same meaning in such context, and "肝郁" is not the meaning of "depression of liver", but the irregular circulation and stagnation of the abstract "Qi" in liver from the perspective of TCM. So translating into "Relieve Qi stagnation in liver" retains the original meaning of Chinese and makes it more acceptable. (Ouyang Lifeng, 2002)

4.2.2 Summary

Despite of the characteristics of four-character structure in TCM language, the phenomenon of repetitive meaning implied between the lines is quite common. For translators, they should fully understand what meanings indicated between those words and phrases prior to translating them into another language. According to Adaptation Theory, language has the properties of variability, negotiability and adaptability. Facing abundant choices of words in English, translators should choose the most appropriate words and expressions after negotiation and make adaptation to the lexical level, the structure, the context, etc. preferred in English. (Verschueren, 2000)

From the perspective of Adaptation Theory, translators should make linguistic choices not just at the lexical level, but also the syntactic level, textual level, rhetorical level etc. literally all levels of linguistic structures. Due to the limited information contained in TCM instructions of the Company, this part mainly develops from the adaptation of lexical level. It is found that most translations apply literal translation with abusive usage of words, failing to deliver the correct meaning implied in TCM language and lacking readability and authenticity. (Verschueren, 2000)

With the great progresses of TCM over years, Yin(阴) and Yang(阳), Wuxing(五行) and Qi(气), these basic concepts in TCM have been accepted and recognized among foreigners. It can be adopted directly when translating the TCM instructions. With regard to the verbs in TCM language, literal translation sometimes might arouse skepticism and confusion of target readers and fail to deliver the correct meaning and the effectiveness of medicines. Translators should adapt the wording preference in the target language and try to naturalize the translation but avoid abusive usage of words. Thus translators in this field should be equipped with excellent bilingual ability, sufficient background knowledge of TCM and Western Medicine, and the understanding of linguistics. (Ouyang Lifeng, 2002)

4.3 Dynamics of Adaptability in TCM Instruction Translation

As stated above, translation is a process of dynamic adaptation and involves the process of structural reconstruction and meaning regeneration. According to Verschueren "...strategies are always involved in any type of communication." It means not just linguistic choices, but also translation strategies are dynamic because of different time, context and structure of both sides of language usage and each of them varies in line with relative factors when language users make choices. (Verschueren, 2000)

The dynamics of adaptability in TCM instruction translation can be embodied from different words, phrases and translation strategies, even different languages applied in the medicine instructions. As for the part of ingredients, the instructions of the Company employ Latin to indicate each TCM, for instance: Radix Notoginseng (三七), Herba Artemisiae Scopariae (茵陈), Fructus Lycii (枸杞), Poria (茯苓), Radix Codonopsis (党参), Rhizoma Dioscoreae (山药). It is usually the part where doctors and experts who have the specific knowledge of this field would be interested in, and using Latin to translate the TCM is the international standard of naming medicines, hence it is a way of adaptation. (Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, 2018)

While next to the part of actions and indications, it resorts to different words and phrases in English to describe the indications of each medicine. English is apparently a better option for its universality and compatibility that common people can easily understand what the medicine is, and how to take it. Such adaptation to each part of the instruction in language shows the dynamics of adaptability in TCM instruction translation. Following are some examples to show the dynamics of adaptability in translation: (Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, 2018)

Example 8 (正骨水)

ST: 舒筋活络

TT: To remove obstruction from collateralls and channels and relieve muscular contracture

Example 9 (金装正骨水)

ST: 舒筋活络

TT: To relax and activate tendons

As for the translation of "舒筋活络", example 8 and example 9 employ different words to deliver the meaning. The former is detailed and elaborated, delivering the original meaning implied in the lines while the latter is relatively simple, only using "tendons" to express the meaning of "筋络". (Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, 2018)

Besides the different specifications of "正骨水" and "金装正骨水", the ingredients of these two medicines also show a wide difference, contributing to the different words and methods adopted in the same description of indications. From the above examples, it can be noticed, to some extent, that translators go through negotiation and then make dynamic adaptation with regard to different medicines. (Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, 2018)

Example 10 (金装正骨水)

ST: 旺盛局部血液循环, 增强细胞活力

TT: To strengthen partial blood circulation and improve vitality of cells

Example 11 (筋骨王)

ST: 改善局部血液循环，增强细胞活力。

TT: To accelerate local blood circulation, increase vitality of cells

Example 10 and example 11 are actually delivering the same meaning, but they change the words and phrases to adapt with two different medicines. With the variability and adaptability of language, the meaning of "增强" can be expressed by "improve" and "increase", and translators employs "partial" and "local" to express the meaning of "局部". As for the similar actions and indications, the translations of which vary in different medicines, demonstrating that translation is a dynamic process of continuous choice-making and adaptation. (Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, 2018)

Example 12 (睡安胶囊)

ST: 清心除烦

TT: To put your mind in a complete state of relaxation

Example 13 (蛤蚧补肾丸)

ST: 壮阳益肾

TT: To strengthen male sexual potency and boost the kidney

Example 12 and example 13 apply free translation to deliver the meaning of actions and indications of these two medicines. "清心除烦" is rendered into "To put your mind in a complete state of relaxation", and "To strengthen male sexual potency and boost the kidney" is more like the paraphrase of "壮阳益肾". Both the translations are much easier to understand and adapt to consumers' mind in a better way. (Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, 2018)

Unlike the others, the above translations avoid literal translation, which will be too demanding and abstract for both sides of translators and target people in these examples, and they resort to free translation to convey the correct pharmacological actions, simplifying the instructions and making adaptation with the translation strategies to better resolve the cultural differences. (Yuan Binye, 2009)

Translating a TCM instruction can never be a mechanical activity of making translation from one language to another; rather, it entails dynamic adaptation to the differences between thd source language and the target language. According to Adaptation Theory, language use is a dynamic process of linguistic choice-making, which should adapt to contextual correlates and structural objects of language. (Verschueren, 2000)

As a type of more complex language use related to different languages, C-E translation of TCM instructions is a dynamic process of adaptation to different contexts and linguistic structures. However, the dynamic linguistic choices require language users to go through negotiation with themselves when facing abundant choices to eventually choose the most appropriate forms and strategies in accordance with different contexts and linguistic structures so as to fulfill the communicative intention. In other words, translators should avoid abusive usage of variability and adaptability of language, being faithful to the original meaning of texts to meet the standard of translation as much as possible. (Yuan Binye, 2009)

Conclusion

Being a significant carrier of TCM information, the instruction is a bridge that links the excellent TCM theories and effectiveness to the world. With the smooth development of "The Belt and Road Initiative", TCM will be learned and used across the world at a much larger scale. Under the guidance of Adaptation Theory, this paper employs the contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability and dynamics of adaptability, mainly concentrating on the adaptation to the mental world, social world, and the adaptation to the lexical level to study the C-E translation of the TCM instructions of Yulin Pharmaceutical Company. (Verschueren, 2000)

Conclusion can be drawn that the C-E translation of TCM instructions of the Company is not that satisfactory after research. It doesn't deal with the cultural differences between TCM and Western Medicine properly. Literal translation and abusive usage of words frequently appear in the C-E translation of instructions, failing to deliver the correct meaning and lacking readability and credibility, having a bad impact on the brand image. (Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, 2018)

While at the same time, there are some places worthy to be praised from the perspective of Adaptation Theory. It shows the dynamics of adaptability in the C-E translation of TCM instructions, which can be demonstrated through the various words, phrases, strategies applied in the process of translation. Still, much work has to be done to improve the quality of translation and make it more comprehensible and acceptable by target cultures and consumers. (Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, 2018)

From the perspective of Adaptation Theory, as a way of language use, translation involves the continuous making of linguistic choices. Not only words, language forms and structures, but also strategies should be taken into consideration when translating. Translators should adapt with the differences between English and Chinese, and meanwhile, pay attention to the features of TCM instructions, avoiding some obvious mistakes to achieve the ultimate goal of keeping the original meaning of TCM while delivering the accurate and rigorous medical information to foreigners. (Zhou Shumei, 2013)

The author advocates that adaptation is required during the process of translation, combined with transliteration and literal translation for some simple and basic concepts in TCM that have been well-recognized by foreigners. And free translation and domestication should be adopted with regard to the cultural differences in translation, if necessary, additions and deletions are also appreciated on the basis of being faithful to the original meaning of texts. (Ouyang Lifeng, 2002)

Unfortunately, due to the limited materials collected and the incompetence of the author, the analysis of this paper only applies the contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability and dynamics of adaptability of Adaptation Theory, failing to study in a more comprehensive way. In addition, this paper only conducts the research in studying the C-E translation of TCM instructions of Yulin Pharmaceutical Company, failing to reach at a larger scale. Last but not least, there are some drawbacks and imperfections in Adaptation Theory, which the author fails to touch upon for lacking of knowledge and experience. Still, the author is willing to take all comment and advice.

References

Nigel Wiseman. (2000). Translation of Chinese medicine terms: A source oriented approach. University of Exeter.

Verschueren J. (1987). Pragmatic as a Theory of Linguistic Adaptation. International Pragmatic Association.

Verschueren J. (2000). Understanding Pragmatics. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

Yulin Pharmaceutical Company. (2018). 玉林制药公司 http://www.chinayulin.com/

Cao Qing 曹情. (2011). 中文药品说明书的翻译 [Translation of Chinese Drug Instructions]. Hunan: University of South China 南华大学.

Ma Bangxin 马邦新. (1998). 英文药品说明书的翻译 [Translation of English Medicine Instructions]. 中国科技翻译 [Chinese Science & Technology Translators Journal] (3)16-18.

Ou Xiufang 欧秀芳. (2020). “一带一路”背景下中药贸易研究现状分析 [Analysis on the Business Studies of Traditional Chinese Medicine under the Background of the Belt and Road Initiative]. Gansu: Gansu University Of Chinese Medicine 甘肃中医药大学.

Ouyang Lifeng 欧阳利锋. (2002). 中医药说明书的英译 [English Translation of TCM instructions]. 中国科技翻译 [Chinese Science & Technology Translators Journal] (2)17-20.

Tang Xun 唐勋. (2014). 基于目的论的中医药说明书翻译 [Translation of Traditional Chinese Medicine Instructions Based on the Skopos Theory]. Hunan: Central South University 中南大学.

Xiao Qiong 肖琼. (2008). 中医药说明书的翻译 [Translation of Traditional Chinese Medicine Instructions]. Guangdong: Guangdong University of Foreign Studies 广东外语外贸大学.

Yuan Binye 袁斌业. (2009). 语言顺应论对翻译的启示 [Enlightenment of Linguistic Adaptation Theory on Translation]. 四川外国语学院院报 [Journal of Sichuan International Studies University] (9)111-113.

Zhou Shumei 周书梅. (2013). 顺应论视角下的翻译研究 [Translation Studies from the Perspective of Adaptation Theory]. 山东省农业管理干部学院学报 [Journal of Shandong Agricultural Engineering College] 30(5)138-140.

--Chen Yongxiang (talk) 03:14, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

Machine Translation

Will Machine Translation Replace Human Translation or not? 莫玲 Mo Ling 202070080602 MTI 英语笔译

莫玲 Mo Ling

Abstract

Science and technology constitutes a primary productive force. In the contemporary era, with the continuous development of science and technology, artificial intelligence has shown more and more mighty strength, and machine translation has also prospered in the field of translation. In this regard, many people are beginning to worry that machine translation will one day replace human translation. When it comes to me, science and technology is people-oriented, and the continuous development of it aims at servimg mankind in a better standard. Therefore, it is not realistic to separate science and technology from humanities. The appropriate way to solve this dilemma is to integrate the two to achieve the perfectly qualitative change of "1 + 1 > 2". This paper will first analyze the cons and pros of human translation and machine translation, and then explore the development of computer-aided translation based on the combination of the two types above and the progress should be made in different sectors among our society.

Key Words

Human Translation, Machine Translation, CAT, Compatibility

题目

机器翻译会取代人工翻译吗？

摘要

科技是第一生产力。在当代，随着科学技术的不断发展，人工智能展现出越来越强大的实力，在翻译领域也相应地衍生出了机器翻译。对此许多人都开始担心机器翻译终有一天会取代人工翻译。在笔者看来，科技以人为本，科学技术的不断发展是为了更好的为人类服务。因而将科技与人文割裂开来的观点是并不现实的，最好的解决办法应是将二者结合起来，实现1+1＞2的完美质变。本文将分析人工翻译与机器翻译各自的优势和劣势，进而探讨二者相结合的后的计算机辅助翻译的发展和社会各个层面应该做出的改进。

关键词

人工翻译，机器翻译，计算机辅助翻译，融合

Introduction

In these years, artificial intelligence has experienced a skipping development and more and more advanced technologies have been applied in our daily life. For example, many factories have introduced some robots to replace the repetitive works done by ordinary workers before. In addition, some restaurants have adopted robots to send the dishes to guests, etc. More and more cases in our life demonstrate the gigantic strength of science and technology.(He Liutao 2018,17)

Panicked by this reality, a constantly growing number of people are worrying that they will lose their job one day when the artificial intelligence are more practical than them. This anxiety is also quite common in translation industry. In this field , human translation and machine translation are the two main kinds of translation methods. The former merely relies on human to do tranlation, while the latter is based on the vast corpus and developed technique.(Liang Jie 2020,18)

Since this enormous contrast, some people put forward a question that “Will Machine Translation Replace Human Translation?” Toward this doubt, The answer is absolutely “no”. Actually, these two approaches are not incompatible. Instead, they both have their own advantages and disadvantages and through analysis,we can find that they can remedy their shortbacks by learning the valuable aspects from the other so as to form a “perfect pitch”. In other words,they are complementary to each other.(Pang yingyu 2019,164)

Based on these viewpoints, first of all , the pros and cons of human translation and machine translation will be displayed one by one and then the new type of translation---computer-aided translation will be analyzed in detail. At last,confronted with the constantly changing world there are somes personal suggestions for those who work in the translation industry or those who are preparing to march into this field as well as government, colleges and universities.

2. Pros and Cons of Human Translation and Machine Translation

2.1 Human Translation

2.1.1 The Advantages

As the traditional main force of translation, mankind own some irreplaceable edges.Firstly, they master a sordid foundation about the translation work, including extensive vocabularies, complex grammars, the construction of sentences and so on and so forth. Therefore, it’s hardly for them to make such mistakes.(Zhu Chaowei 2018,103)

Secondly, due to the advanced education they have received, a great number of them have an encyclopedic knowledge. Furthmore, during the years of learning foreign languages, they have acquired not only the language knowledge but also the histories and cultures of these countries so that they are able to handle with the problems of cultural differences in translation very well.(Zhu Chaowei 2018,103)

Thirdly, people have a capacity of rich emotion and thoughtful mind. When facing with some obscure translation materials, at the beginning they will make a transformation about it and then translate it with their understanding yet maintaining the main idea of the original texts.(Zhu Chaowei 2018,103)

2.1.2 The Disadvantages

However, the volume of brain is limited and it is impossible for mankind to memorize all the things in the world. Sometimes, they may forget what they have translated and in result it causes a repetition of the same work they have done before.It is shown from some data that the output of human translation is 2000 words per person in eight hours. Actually that speed is a little bit slow especially when there are strenuous tasks waiting for them. Besides, editors have to check and revise their translations which is quite time-wasting.(Chen Yi 2018,30)

Generally speaking, most translators work for governments, institutions, companies or some rich indivuduals. And right now in the translation market ,the standard price are several hundred Yuan per thousand characters. And the wage of intepreting is even more expensive. As a result, ordinary people won’t bother to hire a private translator. Under some circumstances, human translation can’t give a hand to the needed immediately. For instance, when Chinese people are travelling in the foreign countries, they can’t understand the words of those foreigners. At that time, an opportune and cheap translation tool is more desirable.(Pang yingyu 2019,164)

2.2 Machine Translation

2.2.1 The Superiorities

In the condition mentioned above, machine translation can meet tourists' needs perfectly. There are many translation applications in the app store, just like Baidu Translation, Google Translation, Youdao Translation, Hujiang Translation and so on. All of them are free for using and able to translate the language you input in just 1 second. And these applications have covered dozens of foreign languages so as to be the optimum choice for many people.（Zhu Chaowei 2018,102）

Besides the adoption in daily life, machine translation has also been utilized in some important conferences. "Translation headset" is one of the most popular translation tools. It is usually combined with a smartphone application to translate the foreign language it heard to users. "After decades of research, we have created an algorithmic framework to recognize language patterns in the same way as the human brain (neural network)," said Andrew Ochoa, CEO of Waverly labs. By combining it with speech recognition technology, we have greatly improved the accuracy of translation. " Therefore, Wearable translation machines made by companies like Waverly labs are really popular at conferences(Global Collections 2020,17).

With the development of science and technology as well as the artificial intelligence, the system of machine translation has been polished step by step. Nowadays, it has developed a huge corpus which contains tens of millions of storations, and translation with high accuracy can be available in some non-literary texts.(Luo Huazhen,Fan Zhengqin,Yi Yongzhong 2017,21)

2.2.2 The Inferiorities

Nevertheless, a lot of noticeable defects still remain in machine translation. When it comes to the literary genres just like proses, poems and ancient essays, machine translation is not familiar with the language habits of these genres so as to incline to a failure in comprehending the latent meaning of the words thus nor it can work out an outstanding translation.(Liang Jie 2020,17)In most cases it will adopt the method of literal translation, which can not express the idea of source language and the images in it can be missed. Take the following poem for example:

江雪

唐 柳宗元

千山鸟飞绝，万径人踪灭。

孤舟蓑笠翁，独钓寒江雪。

Version of Baidu Translation

River Snow

Birds flying away,

The trail of thousands of people;

A lone boat with a straw hat,

Fishing alone in cold river snow.

Version of Xu Yuanchong

Fishing in snow(Xu Yuanchong,2000)

From hill to hill no bird in flight,

From path to path no man in sight;

A lonely fisherman afloat

Is fishing snow in lonely boat.

Between these two versions, we can easily identify which one is better. In Xu’s translation, he translates “鸟飞绝” &“人踪灭”into “no bird in flight” and “no man in sight”, which get rid of the form of the original text, not only expressing the deep meaning, but also conforming to the English expression habit. In addition, due to the repetition of two sentences in the same pattern, readers can feel a strong sense of monotony. And The most splendid point is the rhyme of first two sentences and last two sentences, which makes the whole poem cathy and add the musical beauty of the translation. On the contrast, the first version by machine is inferior in that it fails to express the artistic conception of the poem. People can’t feel the beauty described in the poem. What’s worse, some readers may be puzzled about its imcomplete images and incoherent sentences!(Dong Wugang,Xue Jiabao 1996, 56)

Nor is this all, machines can’t grasp the rich emotions of mankind. Thus they incline to misundersand of tone and deep meanings of the words(Liang Jie 2020,18). Nay, China has a broad and profound civilization and there are numerous of polysemous words in Chinese.Just like “意思”and “方便”.

Example:

When Zhang San is sending money to his leader, an interesting dialogue occurs between them. Please pay attention to the different meanings of “意思”in the following sentences.(Luo Huazhen,Fan Zhengqin,Yi Yongzhong 2017,22)

领导(leader)：“你这是什么意思？”(Why do you send me money?)

张三(Zhang San)：“没什么意思，意思意思。”(No special purpose, just a small gift.)

领导：“你这就不够意思了。” (Why don’t you tell me your true purpose?)

张三：“小意思，小意思。”(Not a big deal.)

领导：“你这人真有意思。” (It’s so interesting of you.)

张三：“其实也没有别的意思。”(I don’t have other special intentions on you.)

领导：“那我就不好意思了。”(Well, since that, I will accept your money.)

Apparently, it may even be difficult for some people to get the deep meaning behind this dialogue let alone the senseless machine. Machine translation derived from science and technology is always under the control of human beings, they are always working under the manipulation of humanbeings. Mankind possess an intelligible brain and they can cteate new things according to their needs and imaginations. While machine can not achieve the rich creativity as human brain.(Zhu Chaowei 2018,103)

From all the analysis above, it can be easily seen that human translation and machine translation are strongly complementary. Thus, the best way is to combine them together to learn from the other’s strong points to make up one’s deficiencies.(Pang yingyu 2019,165)

3. Computer-Aided Translation

To meet the constantly-increasing demand of the market, a new type of translation method named Computer-aided translation (CAT) emerges at the right moment. It is the combination of the two translation methods mentioned above and can help translators complete the translation work with high quality, efficiency and ease. Different from the previous machine translation software, it does not rely on the automatic translation of the computer, but accomplishes the whole translation process with the participation of human beings. Besides, its translation speed can be twice of the human translation, with the quality being the same standard or better. CAT makes a change from the arduous human translation to a half-automatic process, greatly improving the efficiency and quality of translation.(Pang yingyu 2019,165)

3.1 The Preponderance of This Method

3.1.1 Translation Memory

Translation memory system, the main tool of computer-aided translation, is a "language database storing the original text and its translation". During the time when people are working out a translation, CAT is also constructing a translation memory corpus in the backstage. The corpus can automatically store all the translated content. What contributes to our great convenience is that the translation memory system will automatically search the contents in the translation memory database in the later translation.(Chen Yi 2018,31)

The system will automatically output the translation results if the contents are the same as the sentences and language fragments in the memory corpus; and if the structures or vocabularies of the materials are similar to the sentences in the translation memory database, it will also produce corresponding translation references and suggestions. In a word, translation memory system can benifit translators to utilize the contents of previous translation effectively and avoid repeated work, thus greatly improving the speed and quality of translation and saving translation time. According to the statistics, the application of translation memory system can increase the average productivity by 30%, and reduce the translation cost by 15-30%(Chen Yi 2018,31).

3.1.2 Terminology Database

After stepping into the translation industry and becoming a professional translator,it is inevitable that people will be confronted with materials from various fields, just like iatrology, law and science. All of these industries have a great number of terminologies. While human’s brain are limited that they can’t remember all the terms. Under this condition, a ready-made terminology database can be extremely helpful.(Chen Yi 2018,31)

Terminology management system provides a shortcut for translators to automatically search for terms appearing in the translation materials by displaying terms in the interface window of translation memory database or using hotkeys to search the entries in terminology database. Some programs have other hotkey combinations that enable translators to add new terms to the terminology database at the same time during translation.(Global Encyclopedia)

Some more advanced systems allow translators to check interactively or in batch if the correct source / target word combination is used within and between translation memory fragments of a given project. There is also an independent term management system, which can provide workflow functions, visual taxonomy, and be used as a term Checker (similar to a spelling checker to mark terms that are not used correctly), and can also support other types of multilingual term categories, such as pictures, videos or sounds(Global Encyclopedia).

3.1.3 Revise and Automatic Alignment

After translators finish their task on CAT system, it will scan the translation and figure out the number of mistakes including spelling, punctuation and so on. This proofreading can make one’s translation more accurate. In addition, the aligner can divide the source text and the target text into multiple fragments and make sure the right match of them so as to build a translation memory database or other reference resources. Many aligners also enable translators to manually realign mismatched fragments (Global Encyclopedia).

3.2 Current Situation

Right now, due to the tremendous market demand, CAT steps into the golden era of development. There are several popular CAT softwares such as Trados、Déjà V、TransStar、IBM Translation Manager、WordFisher、Wordfast，OmegaT, among which the most famous is the first one. Theses softwares have experienced a long period of development and are relatively mature. They make the translation progress much more convenient than before.(Hua Fuwei 2015.8.5,Douban)

However, CAT is not yet a consummate system right now. It has a few drawbacks to be solved. To begin with, CAT is insufficient in the construction of the corpus. Right now, most domestic CAT softwares only store hundreds of thousands of entries in the database, which is far from enough to meet the needs of translators. In a result, many people gradually emerge an idea that CAT is not workable. People still have to rely on themselves to search the complicated documents and their work are not able to decrease as they want.(He Liutao 2018,18)

Nor is this all, sometimes it can be hard for people to extract the terms they need becauese of the failure of identification and although some easy mistakes can be found out, it may be difficult for the system to check out the sophisticated errors, and thus people have to spend more time to tackle with the problems in person.(Yao Li 2020,202)

3.3 Prospect

Despite of the insufficiency of CAT right now, the defects can’t obscure the virtues. CAT has greatly emancipated the productivity of translation industry. Not only that, it has played an important role in reducing translation time, cutting down labor costs, standardizing translation documents, maintaining terminology consistency and ensuring translation quality, etc. In the near future, it is bound to become the main trend of translation development with its wide application all over the world and the functional improvement of various translation softwares. And the problems mentioned above can be effectively polished with the advancement of science and technology.(Chen Yi 2018,32)

4. Suggestions

Facing with the unstoppable trend of artificial intelligence and CAT, should mankind repulse it or accept it? Apparently, the second attitude is more reasonable. For one thing, we can’t hinder the unstoppable trend. For another thing, this is a good opportunity for people to utilize the tool to improve themselves.(Pang yingyu 2019,165)

So, first and foremost, people should set up an open attitude, accepting CAT with an embracing mentality. There is no need to be afraid that machine will surpass human. Instead mankind is always the master of science and technology. Putting oneself on a pedestal is not a good way to make progress. And holding fast to one’s established ideas will eventually be sifted out by the era.(Zhu Chaowei 2018,108)

In Qing Dynasty(1636-1912), the emperor and even the whole country praised the nation as the great kingdom. Since ancient time, China was abundant in natural resources and they were self-sufficient and self-contained. Thus the government constantly pursued a policy of “cutting off the country from the outside world”.(Qiu Cui, Chen Xue 2012,8)

At that time, the Western countries were going on an unprececedentedly industrial revolution. Through the renovation, the westerners immensely improved their productive forces and their countries got a rapid development. When the trend were heard by the Chinese emperors, they disdained to learn from the technology and regarded it as a diabolic trick.(Qiu Cui & Chen Xue 2012,8)

In this way, the gap between the East and the West was larger and larger. It was not until the outbreaking of the Opium War that Chinese people realized they had lagged behind a lot. Once a country was backward, it would be insulted by anyone else. After that, the Qing government was constantly forced to sign treaties of humiliating the country and forfeiting its sovereignty. The citizens were plunged into dire suffering. Under this circumstance, social conflicts were intensified. Finally, the Revolution of 1911 broke out and overthrew the Qing Dynasty. A feudal dynasty of more than 200 years fell down.(Qiu Cui,Chen Xue 2012,8-9)

Since the principle that lagging behind leaves one vulnerable to attacks is even applicable to a country, let alone the ordinary people. There is an old saying that “He who goes with the tide prospers, and he who goes against it dies”. The power of science and technology should never be looked down upon. The original purpose of this technology is to benifit the mankind rather than overthrow us. It is a powerful tool to help us scale new heights. If tranlators refuse to acquire the new skill, they will one day be weeded out by the industry.(Liang Jie 2020,18）

In order to meet the needs of market, the quality of translation talents should be improved accordingly. The span for talent training of translation majors in China is relatively short that it has only been 10 years since the establishment of Bachelor of Translation and Interpreting(BTI) and Master of Translation and Interpreting(MTI) in colleges and universities across the country. The current situation of translation technology education in the cultivation of translation professionals is not optimistic either.(Zhu Chaowei 2018,106)

First of all, compared with foreign universities and domestic universities in Hongkong, Macao and Taiwan, there is still a long way to open translation technology courses in domestic universities. According to the research by Lv Lisong and Mu Lei(2007,37), universities in Hong Kong and Taiwan of China work closely with translation companies to provide translation technology teaching for students. Similarly Manchester, London University, Ottawa University of Canada and other foreign universities have established a developed system in terms of machine translation, terminology management, translation technology training curriculum, personnel training mode and translation testing, and formed an effective model.(Zhu Chaowei 2018,106)

On the contrary, many domestic colleges and universities still do not pay enough attention to translation technology education, which leads to the deficiency of translation technology education courses in some colleges and universities. A survey of 12 universities in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Liaoning, Jilin, Henan, Hebei, Hubei, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Sichuan and other provinces and universities found that 11 of the 43 universities (a large part of which are "985" universities and "211" universities) with MTI have not yet opened translation technology courses, accounting for 25%. If the scope of the survey is extended to the secondary and tertiary institutions, the situation may be even worse.(Zhu Chaowei 2018,106)

In this regard, the education of Chinese mainland is a little bit backward. There are several reasons for this phenomenon. To begin with, the perception of the educators and education system are rather outdated. The existing education system pays much attention to the translation and interpreting ability of students. This is a common pattern in many middle schools, high schools and even colleges and universities.(Wu Sheng 2016,14-15)

As an English major student, the writer has the personal experience. During the university period, most of our courses still focus on the cultivation of the basic skills of students. Although there are translation and interpreting classes every week, the normal model is that at first teachers will teach some translation theories or techniques, and then there will be some exercises for students to practice. Students are almost inaccessible to CAT courses.(Lv Lisong & Mu Lei 2007,37)

This may resulted from the lack of appropriate funds for education. China is a nation with a great number of population, and its population growth rate is also fast. As a result, the pressure on education has been relatively high. The commonly used index to measure whether a country's financial education funds are sufficient or not is the proportion of financial education funds in Gross Domestic Product(GDP). In China, this proportion has been at a low level for a long time. Although the education funds have been increasing with the continuous development of China's economy after the Reform and Opening up, yet the fact is that “There are too many monks and too little gruel.”---the funds allocated to each school are still far from enough.(Wu Sheng 2016,14-15)

In the year of 2000, China's financial education funds accounted for 2.87% of GDP, which failed to reach the target of 4% of GDP in 2000 as proposed in the outline of China's education reform and development. In 2003, the GDP of Hunan Province was 463.4 billion yuan, and the national financial expenditure on education was 11.179 billion yuan, accounting for 2.44% of GDP, an increase of 0.01 percentage points over the previous year. However, in 2004, the proportion of national financial education expenditure in GDP decreased to 2.34%, which is still far from the target of 4%.(Wu Sheng 2016,14-15)

In response to this problem, the writer deems that government and universities should both make some changes. As for government, they should carry out a policy that encourages the cultivation of computer skills; when it comes to the colleges and universities, they are supposed to enlarge the investment in the multimedia intelligent classrooms, and more teachers who are sufficient in the operation of CAT should be enrolled. So far, Peking University has opened a major named CAT, which is aimed to cultivate the professional talents to meet the needs of market.(Zhu Chaowei 2018,106-108)

5. Conclusion

Will machine translation replace human translation or not? Toward this question, the answer is an absolute “No”. As far as I am concerned, both the human tranlation and machine translation have their pros and cons.(Pang yingyu 2019,165)

Human beings are able to comprehend the complex emotions in the texts and handle it with flexible expressions. In this aspect, machine can’t reach the human standard just like examples of “《江雪》”and “意思”mentioned above. Besides, mankind is familiar with the differences between various of countries so as to minimize the rate of committing a blunder.(Pang yingyu 2019,165)

While the machine doesn’t have a brain like human’s. Their work is to translate the materials according to the superficial meanings. However, machine owns a huge volume (much more larger than human brain)which can store numerous materials and its working speed is hundreds of times of human’s(Pang Yingyu 2019,165).

In the contemporary era, translators should first of all polish their translation skills and improve their ability to flexibly use various translation strategies and skills(Yao Li 2020,201-202). The old saying goes that “It takes a good blacksmith to make steel.” By the time, people are still the main force in the translation industry and machine translation stays in an auxiliary position. Human should not rely on machine to do all the works. The translators should improve their competitiveness through sordid multi-lingual knowledge, translation practice as well as stronger learning capacity and so on and so forth.

At the same time, translators are also supposed to adopt an embracing attitude to acquire the computer-aided translation skills. After all, with the further advancement of science and technology, the trend is inevitable. Actually, human translation and machine translation are highly compatible, which can greatly improve the translation efficiency and reduce people’s workload. Thus, the combination of the two methods is highly appreciated and the new type of CAT is bound to become the tide of the future.(Pang yingyu 2019,165)--Mo Ling (talk) 12:40, 20 December 2020 (UTC)Mo Ling

References

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Dong Wugang,Xue Jiabao. 董务刚,薛家宝.(1996). 评许渊冲诗《江雪》[Appreciation of Xu Yuanchong's Translation "Fishing in Snow"] 盐城师专学报[Journal of Yancheng Normal School] 56.

He Liutao. 何刘涛.(2018) 人工智能背景下计算机辅助翻译在中国发展的思考[On the Development of Computer-aided Translation in China Under the Background of Artificial Intelligence] 英语广场[English Square], 17.

计算机翻译会取代人工翻译吗？[Will Machine Translation Replace Human Translation or not?] (2020) 环球采风[Globe Collections] 17.

Liang Jie. 梁洁.(2020). 人工智能对翻译行业的影响[The Influence of Artificial Intelligence on Translation Industry] 家庭科技[Family Science and Technology] 17-18.

Luo Huazhen,Fan Zhengqin,Yi Yongzhong. 罗华珍,潘正芹,易永忠. (2017) 人工智能翻译的发展现状与前景分析[Analysis of the Development and Prospect of Artificial Intelligence Translation] 电子世界[Electronics World], 21.

Lv Lisong,Mu Lei. 吕立松,穆雷.(2007) 计算机辅助翻译技术与翻译教学[Technique of Translation-Aided Translation and Translation Education] 外语界[The Field of Foreign Language] 37.

Pang Yingyu. 庞盈羽. (2019) 谈机器翻译与人工翻译的关系—从机器翻译与计算机辅助翻译的发展角度[Analysis of the Relationship Between Machine Translation and Human Translation--From the Perspective of the Development of Machine Translation and Computer-Aided Translation]. 科学大众·科学教育[Scientific Masses·Scientific Education] 164-165.

计算机辅助翻译[Computer-aided translation].(2020). 全球百科[Global Encyclopedia] https://vibaike.com/.

Qiu Cui,Chen Xue. 仇萃, 陈雪. (2012) 浅析中国的闭关锁国政策[On China's closed door policy] 现代物业[Modern property Management],8.

Wu Sheng. 吴晟.(2016) 湖南省省属普通高校财政拨款体制研究[Research on the Financial Allocation System of Provincial Colleges and Universities in Hunan Province] 湖南师范大学[Hunnu Normal University] 14-16.

Xu Yuanchong. 许渊冲. (2000) 唐诗三百首[Translation of Three Hundred Tang Poems].

Yaoli. 姚莉.(2020) 机器翻译时代,译者应该坚持技能与技术的融合[Translators Should Keep the Compatibility Between Skills and Technique in the Era of Machine Translation]. 科技经济导刊[Technology and Economic Guide] 201-202.

Zhu Chaowei. 祝朝伟.（2018）机器翻译要取代作为人的译者了吗？—兼谈翻译人才培养中科技与人文的关系[Is Machine Translation Going to Replace Human Translators? -On the relationship between science and technology and Humanities in the cultivation of translation talents]. 外国语文[Foreign Literature] 102-108.

A Brief Analysis of the Chinese-English Public Sign Translation 袁天翼 Yuan Tianyi MTI 英语笔译

浅析汉语公示语的英译

英语笔译 袁天翼

摘 要：在这个经济全球化、政治多极化、文化全球化、科技现代化、信息共享化的时代，全球经济纵深发展，人类命运共同体日趋形成，人与人、国家与国家间的联系日益密切，这时，汉语公示语的英译问题便被提上了议程。尽管中国汉语公示语的英译翻译员越来越多，但是汉语公示语的英译问题层出不穷。本文简析了汉语公示语定义，例举了生活中常见的一些汉语公示语的英译典型问题，并针对此给出了一些翻译方法与策略，并进行了未来展望。

关键词：汉英翻译；公示语；翻译策略

A Brief Analysis of the Chinese-English Public Sign Translation

Abstract: In this economic globalization, political polarization, cultural globalization, technological modernization and informative sharing age, the global economy is deeply developing, and the human community with a shared future is coming into shape day by day. The relations among people and among countries are increasing day by day. At this time, the problems of Chinese-English public sign translation become the topic of us. Though the number of Chinese-English public sign translators in China grows daily, the problems of Chinese-English public sign translation emerge endlessly. This passage offers a brief analysis of the definition of Chinese-English public sign, points out some typical problems in Chinese-English public sign translation we see in daily life, analyzes some methods and strategies of Chinese-English public sign translation, and gives some outlooks on the future of Chinese-English public sign translation.

Key Words: Chinese-English translation; public sign; translation strategies

A Brief Analysis of the Chinese-English Public Sign Translation

I. Introduction

"The public sign is a specially applied literary form that was formed in modern times, which has a long history. It is used in public places and seen by the masses thus realizing unique communicative purposes. The public sign has become a crucial link in the communication between China and other countries in the international community. In the meantime, there are increasingly more experts and scholars paying attention to the translation of Chinese public signs into English." (Reiss 2004,12).

"As an important tool for international communication, Chinese-English public sign translation plays an extremely important role in foreign friends’ understanding of Chinese culture".（Wang Huili 2019,31） Its applied range is so wide that nearly covers every aspect of our daily life, including: Introductions of tourism trips, propaganda languages, warning languages, road signs, shop signs and advertising boards. It is mostly used on public infrastructure: Subway, airport, taxi, pier, tourist spot, park, street, community, shop, supermarket, restaurant, bank, hotel, cinema, hospital and etc. It uses simple words or sentences, or pictures only, or combines words and pictures to pass useful information to the masses, which not only serves Chinese people, but also is shown to the foreigners, which can help foreigners in China study, work and live.

II. The Current Situation of Chinese-English Public Sign

Public signs are an art of convincing others through effective verbal means, which are also components of language activities. They, in essence, belong to a special kind of communication. The object is for all the people with social behaviors in the place, regardless of gender, age, class or education level. Public signs belong to “one-way communication”, and its binding force or influence will not be as big as direct communication, but it is also used to act with words and deeds, and affects the behavior of the audience with a clear purpose. "Public signs have become a natural window for Chinese and other languages in various economic, trade and cultural activities."（Yang Yang 2020, 34）

Public signs are everywhere, so what are their functions? "Their functions can be divided into showing, warning, profiting, encouraging and eulogizing such five functions. (Zhou Shuxia 2017,239)

Firstly, the public sign that has showing function offers all-round information about service, order, or informing service. Such as “Car Rental” and “Children and Senior Citizens Free”.

Secondly, the public sign that has warning function comes up with restrictive or obligatory demands to typical people, which is often used through order, ban, information or persuasion tones. Such as: “Stand in Line” , and “Thieves Beware”.

Thirdly, the public sign that has profiting function promotes consumption, thus realizing enterprises’ economic profits. Such as: “Daily Special”, “Daily Service”.

Fourthly, the public sign that has encouraging function calls for or encourages people to take actions for certain goals or tasks. Such as: “One Family, One Child”, and “Working together, we can make a world of difference”.

Fifthly, the public sign that has eulogizing function gives wishes and chants to certain events or people to reach the goals of propaganda or education. Such as: “One World, One Dream”. "

Eugene Nida (Eugene Nida 2004, 15) said, "Chinese-English translation of public signs embraces the conversion of two different languages and two different cultures, which is not only to achieve the language equivalence, cultural equivalence, but also to enhance the possibility of understanding and the reading of Chinese-English translation of public signs."

However, there are many problems in Chinese-English public sign translation.

"In 2003, Clive W. J. Granger, a Nobel Economics Prize Winner talked of the settings and problems of public signs in Beijing when he was interviewed by a program of Beijing TV Station. He said: “Foreigners will feel a little bit nervous when they come to China, because they can not understand public signs in China. ” Clive’s comment extremely shows current problems in Chinese-English public sign translation ."(Lv Hefa 2005,38)

“The language and character industry of China is expanding from ‘striving to promote and normally use the national common language, scientifically protecting every nation’s language and character’ to ‘managing social foreign language use and improving foreign language service quality’. ” The national standard of the Standard for English Translation and Writing in the Field of Public Service is the standard of English translation and writing quality in public service fields, which stipulates the English translation principles, methods and requirements in thirteen service fields. "Nowadays, public signs are often bilingual to meet the needs of international communication."(Wang Xunian 2020,69)

To sum up, there are still many major problems in China’s public sign translation, common and ubiquitous, which make foreign experts comment like that and the government use national force to normalize translation standards. "Whether the translation of public signs in scenic spots into English is harmonious and unified has a great influence on cross-cultural communication ".(Pinkham John 2000, 156)

III. The Causes of Chinese-English Public Sign Translation Mistakes

3. 1 The Basic Linguistic Mistakes

To be a proficient Chinese-English public sign translator, one must, fundamentally, grasp basic linguistic rules of English and Chinese, otherwise he or she must make stupid mistakes, and some even primary learners will not make. "There are many problems in the translation of public signs from English to Chinese, which should not be limited to the translation of the original text, but should pay attention to the context of public signs."(Chen Daobin 2020, 9)

No.1 [1] for original source.

No.1 is a public sign put on a glass wall in a mall, the Chinese reads“全年无休(QUAN NIAN WU XIU)”, and it tries to use English to express that “This business runs the whole year”, so the precise translation should be “NO REST DAY ALL YEAR”. But there, we can see it was translated as“365DAY SA TEAR”, which does not belong to the grammatical law of English. So this is a big mistake.

Only one who understands Chinese can understand. But for ordinary foreigners, they can not. So, when translating Chinese-English public sign, the translator must be clear about the target language, and know the basic grammatical venation, then begin to translate, instead of randomly putting some letters together and finishing. Otherwise, the translator will make a big mistake like this picture.

A public sign in the Haichang Ocean Park of Chengdu City, Sichuan Province reads "Jellyfish Museum, the 2th floor". More specifically, it is a floor direction sign. Here, the correct English for the second floor should be “2nd”, not “2th”. Apparently that the translator has poor knowledge of English vocabulary, which led he or she to make such a ridiculous mistake.

Actually, in English language, if there is a number contains “11”, “12”or “13”, its ordinal numeral should be written as “11th”, “12th” or “13th” respectively; And if there is a number contains“1”, “2”or “3”, its ordinal numeral should be written as “1st”, “2nd” or “3rd” respectively. For example, “101st”, “111th”, “201st”, “211th” and etc.

No.3 is a warning sign of a tourist spot, reads "The rockery danger, pleases no climb", whose Chinese meaning is “There stands a rockery, it is dangerous to climb, every one is forbidden from climbing it. ” The Chinese meaning is alright. But, when it was translated into English, a big mistake occurred: “The rockery danger Pleases no climb.”

First, there should be “climbing” after “no”, not “climb”, and this is just English grammar knowledge that can be learned in primary school; And the “Please” is followed by a “s”, why does the translator use third person singular at the top of a imperative sentence? Second, if the translator wants to tell the tourists that the rockery is dangerous and mustn’t be climbed, he or she should write: “The rockery is dangerous. Please don’t climb” or “Dangerous rockery. No climbing” or just “No climbing”. Unless the foreigners who see this sign have supreme understanding ability, they will not easily make sense of it.

3. 2 The Tendency Towards Chinglish and Mechanical Translation

Knowing a little about English, and beginning to translate public sign. This is ridiculous, which is definitely going to cause obvious mistakes. Especially when translating, there is a high probability that the translator will make Chinglish errors, or tend to seek for mechanical translation, which are the most common public sign translation problems in mainland China. With regard to the tendency towards Chinglish, it only proves that the translator’s basic skills of English are not so proficient, and he or she does not fit for translation work. For the tendency towards mechanical translation, on the one hand, it demonstrates that the translator is lazy, who is not willing to think about how to translate."Some common mistakes in public signs translation in daily life have brought a very bad impact on the image of the city; What's more, it will affect China's international image."(Zheng Yuguo 2020,138)

On the other hand, it reveals his or her lack of basic English language knowledge. In fact, these two both can be easily avoided, only if the translator pays a little more attention to it or is earnest and dedicated to their work. All those mistakes should not have been made. "To understand the language style of Public signs in English, it is imperative to carry out idiomatic and standardized translation of public signs in Chinese."(Pang Yan 2020, 34)

No.4, this is a sign hung in an Internet celebrity milk tea shop: Sexytea of Changsha City, Hunan Province. It reads "out of the cup area". It originally means that the customers should queue here to get their milk tea after finishing paying. The translator should have easily translated “出杯区（CHU BEI QU）”into “FETCH AREA”, but it was translated as “OUT OF THE CUP AREA”, what a joke! Purely it was translated word-for-word. The translator did not understand its true meaning. Probably it was translated by a machine.

As an Internet celebrity milk tea shop runner, when dealing with such kind of cultural issues, he or she should be extremely careful, earnest and cautious, instead of casually simply copying the contents given by a machine or hiring a third-rate translator and asking him or her to randomly translate.

Large scale milk tea shops must shoulder their required obligations, and undertake necessary responsibilities and duties on public sign translation. Imagine that, a foreigner, who can not understand it, stand there and think: What? Standing here is standing outside the cup? Maybe something interesting would happen. Let me try!All those will bring big and standing jokes.

No.5 is a public sign in Mount Emei of Emei City, Sichuan Province. It reads" tourists get off area". Its Chinese meaning is: This is the place that tourists get off from a bus. But, it was translated as “Tourists get off area”, which fully shows the ignorance and lack of English language knowledge of the translators. People may can not help doubting whether it is copied from the translation given by a machine. Famous tourist spots like this, especially this kind of 5A tourist spot, can not even shoulder the cultural obligations, let alone developing in the long run.

Similarly, No.6 is a public sign in Mount Emei of Emei City, Sichuan Province, and it reads "up the mountain". The Chinese meaning is “This is the passage that leads tourists to climb the mountain”. The translation should have been a very easy and fun job, but when the sign is showed to tourists, a big big joke was born: “Up the mountain”. We can say “uphill way” or “uphill passage”, but, the translator obviously did not realize it. What’s more, when “up” is used as a verb, it is completely another meaning. It is also the symbol of such irresponsible spot management.

No.7, it is a napkin given by an Internet celebrity milk tea shop (Sexytea of Changsha City, Hunan Province ) for free after buying its milk tea. It reads "more China, more fashion". At first glance, everything seems okay. But more carefully, we can find the mistake. The Chinese meaning is “If there are more elements with Chinese characteristics, it will be more fashionable.” But when translating, maybe with the aid of machine, or lack of a solid English knowledge foundation, it becomes “More China, more fashion”.

Once foreigners see, they will be pretty shocked by the sight: What the hell is this? They will think that this shop lacks money to hire a good translator, and the managers are stupid. Furthermore, the Chinese national image will be badly affected. In fact, this sentence can be translated as “The more sinicization there is, the more fashion there will be” or “With greater Chinese characteristics come more fashion”. Easier? It can be “More sinicization breeds more fashion”. Translated like these, won’t it be much more correct and intelligible?

3. 3 The Misunderstanding of the Public Sign Translators

It is just the little knowledge of English of the translators that makes them can not even spell a basic word correctly; Or due to carelessness, they make mistakes on public sign translation, thus causing mistakes on the meaning of the sign. All these are significant reasons why there are so many mistakes in Chinese-English public signs. "Errors and ambiguities in public signs are not allowed, as they can lead to disorientation, confusion, and lessening of the force of the warning."(Pan Xutong 2020, 251)

No.8 [2] for original source.

No.8. The Chinese meaning of it is “The door or passage that leads you to the outside”, in short, “EXIT”. But the public sign was translated as“EXPORT”, so, what is “EXPORT”? In a word, it means trade among different countries. The commercial goods pass through the customs, being transported from one country to another country. Distinctly, the maker was careless, who has mixed the meaning of “出口（Chu Kou）”in Chinese, thus resulting in an obvious translation error.

No.9 [3] for original source.

No.9 is from a hospital department. Its Chinese meaning is: Here is neurology emergency department. It uses a special logogram in Chinese. But, the maker was misled, so, he or she translated it as “God Medical”. If a person has a little common sense, he or she will be made to laugh wildly. It is completely the “Understanding of a sentence simply by a word”! That should be translated as “ Department of Emergency Neurology”.

No.10 [4] for original source.

No.10 is photographed in a company building. Here, the Chinese means: this is the place where you can get boiled water. However, the translator of this public sign made a huge mistake, because he or she disintegrated the three Chinese words one by one, and thus translating them one by one, which can not be understood as a whole, let alone enable foreigners to understand the meaning of this public sign, and as a result, foreigners may not receive the service that they deserve.

As a matter of fact, this public sign can be translated as “Boiled Water Room”. “开水”means “boiled water” in English. Certainly, the translator treated the “开”as a verb “open”, which is absolutely wrong.

Further, this is a single room, not two or more, so we must use “room”, which is the plural form, instead of the singular form “rooms”.

3. 4 The Falsification and Loss of Information

Originally, the managers want to use signs to warn people, but due to mistranslation, the information is tampered and missed, resulting in an opposite consequence, and producing big jokes."Standardized translation of public signs can improve the international language environment of cities, on the other hand, it is responsible for improving the level of urban opening to the outside world."(Liu Peiyu 2020, 67)

No.11 is a public warning sign in Liuxiang Barbecue Restaurant. It reads " carefully hot". Is it a true warning? In the foreigners’ opinion, it is not. People who speak Chinese can realize that this sign was designed to warn customers not to be burned by the hot oven. However, the English translation is far from what it originally means. The correct translation can be “Careful! Hot!” or “Be Careful of the Hot Oven!” But according to the translation on the sign, it means “Carefully burn yourself”. Luckily, this is a small scale restaurant, if it were a large one, its reputation would be badly affected.

No.12 [5] for original source.

No.12 is a public sign in a large shopping center. As we all know, modern shopping centers now always use smooth and shiny tile floor as the ground, which makes the shopping centers look beautiful and attractive. However, smooth though it is, one big safety problem then comes into shape: The ground is too smooth to make shoppers slide and fall. Later, the managers made public signs like No.12 to warn people not to fall. The Chinese warning is okay, Chinese shoppers can understand, but when foreigners see this, he or she will burst out laughing: What? You order me to slide on the floor with care? What on earth do you mean?

I have even seen an Internet celebrity girl posting an video clip that tells us a story that satirizes this mistranslation: The girl and her father slide joyfully on the ground in a shopping center while murmuring “Carefully slide! Carefully slide!” As a matter of fact, The correct Chinese-English translation should be “Caution! Slippery!” or “Beware of Wet Floor” or “Caution! Wet Floor”. Each one of the three is okay.

No.13 [6] for original source.

No.13 is a public sign that is put on the ceiling of a restaurant’s stair. Here, the translator wanted to pass such information by Chinese and English: Watch your head, do not hit the low ceiling of the stair. Be careful. Though the Chinese information is okay, the English, however, can not by understood by others, especially foreigners.

Here, the makers wanted to warn the danger of the low ceiling, not to ask people to purposely hit the ceiling. So we can correct it as: “Watch Your Head”, or “Be Careful”. Both are okay.

Here, the translator made a mistranslation, which reversed the original meaning when translating, thus producing a huge laughingstock. First, “碰”is not “meet”, but “hit”, according to this specific environment. It does not mean “meet someone”. Second, “小心碰头” means not to hit the ceiling, not to “meet carefully”.

From so many examples, every one can see that the mistakes of public sign translation are ubiquitous and common in daily life, which you can even randomly pick up one from any store you meet. Pervasive errors like these in public signs will negatively affect China’s reform and opening-up and the integration into international community, which will not only make foreigners misunderstand the meaning, but also seriously damage China’s national image. Therefore, the study of the public sign translation is extremely urgent and imperative. "As an important part of the translation industry, the translation of public signs has high academic value and research value."(Qian Zheng 2020, 191)

At present, translators must start from basic demand of Chinese-English public sign translation, endeavor to learn English well, cultivate a good sense of utilizing English and a great mindset of English utilization, proactively take part in English translation practice, and be highly alert and form a sense of “Using English language in a proper, correct, suitable and decent way”. Only then will the situation of Chinese-English public sign translation turn better. "Due to the specific role of public signs, their translation is different from literary translation and has powerful functional characteristics."(Liu Hui 2020, 43)

IV. Public Sign Translation Methods

There is a saying goes: “Nothing can be accomplished without norms or standards. ” So is the Chinese-English public sign translation. Zhang Yan (Zhang Yan 2015,44) maintains in her paper that, "the public sign translation methods can be summarized as four kinds.

4. 1 Amplification

Many new words that are with Chinese characteristics, especially combined with numbers, need using amplification to introduce to foreign readers. "Public signs, as an important window for the external publicity of the city image, are increasingly valued in their English translation status"(Fu Li 2020, 123)

For example, in the past, “五讲四美三热爱(Wu Jiang Si Mei San Re Ai）”was translated as “Five Stresses, Four Beauties and Three Loves”. Many foreigners said that they could not understand it. Later, it was revised as “Five Stresses, Four Beauties and Three Loves” with the notation “ stress on decorum, manners, hygiene, discipline and morals; beauty of the mind, language, behavior and the environment; love of the motherland, socialism and the Communist Party”. "Public signs are information-type and calling-type texts, which should focus on the information transmission of the original text in translation. Therefore, communicative translation can be regarded as a good theoretical basis."(Shen Jianwen 2020, 69)

4. 2 Ellipsis

To make sure that the translation is concise and intelligible, when doing Chinese-English translation, translators must properly delete unnecessary words according to English expressing habits to achieve overall generalization. Such as: “Food Paradise”.

4. 3 Re-translation

Due to cultural differences, many folk adages with Chinese characteristics will not be understood by readers once simply read literally. So translators can moderately reorganize those sentences that can not be translated or understood. Such as: “Drinking and Driving Costs Your Life”.

4. 4 Backward Translation

Here are two cases: Translating the cultural expressions that are borrowed from translation back into their original forms in the target language; Translating the expressions with obvious cultural characteristics into the idiomatic expressions in the target language. Such as: “Venus Florist”. The English public sign has its own cultural and pragmatic meanings. When doing the Chinese-English public sign translation, translators should consider about the cultural differences and avoid any form of ambiguity, misunderstanding or mistranslation, and offer high quality information service, thus making public sign translation advance with the times. "

V. Public Sign Translation Strategies

"Theoretically, semantic translation and communicative translation differ much. Semantic translation strives to keep the language specialty and unique express method of the original work, in order to express the original work’s thinking process; However, communicative translation’s key point lies in spreading information and enabling people to think, feel and act, giving play to the function of information that language conveys and the consequences it causes. "(He Xueyun 2006,57)

When doing Chinese-English public sign translation, we also need guiding ideology to direct us. Here, I will show you four Chinese-English public sign translation strategies, which act as guiding ideology, which are definitely going to be a powerful weapon for you. Just remember them and practice them, you will gain a lot. "To strengthen the research on the Translation of public signs into English, improve the translation quality of bilingual public signs and improve the translation of bilingual public signs are the urgent tasks to promote the cross-cultural communication of city image."(Niu Haihua 2020, 118)

5.1 No Grammatical, Semantic and Logical Error

The most basic prerequisite of public sign translation is that there is no language error: No grammatical error, no vocabulary spelling error, no language context error, no Chinglish or machine-aided translation error.

“This is office area, tourists mustn’t enter” can be translated as “Staff Only”, not “OFFICE AREA PLEASE DON’T COMING”, or you will make a grammatical and redundant error. “Be careful, don’t slip into water” can be translated as “Caution! Deep Water!” instead of “TAKE CARE! FALL INTO WATER CAREFULLY!” Otherwise, people will can not help laughing.

One translator was not able to translate “The grass is so beautiful, are you sure you wan to walk on it?” into English public sign, so here comes “Fangcaoqiqi riding the Heren”. What a laughingstock! This is a combination between Chinese and English, without any grammar structure. Not to translate it will be a much better choice. We can concisely translate it as “Don’t Walk on the Beautiful Grass!”

5. 2 Concise and Intelligible Translation

One prominent character of public sign is conciseness. It asks people to ensure the translation is crystal clear and precise, without any compound or obscure sentence. Only by achieving this can the signs become popularized, instead of making people think over and over and over again to discover their cryptic meaning.

The public sign translation must be concise and intelligible, which means that you not only need to precisely convey what the maker means to people, but also must be concise. People can understand it immediately without comprehension deviation or ambiguity.

5. 3 Understanding of Cultural Background Differences

When translating, every translator must thoroughly understand the culture of the targeted language. Translators must comprehensively understand each specific use of the targeted language under different cultural backgrounds. If not doing so, it may cause severe disputes, and even cause irresistible outcomes. Here are several examples.

“Dragon” is a legendary animal in traditional Chinese culture. Chinese people often view themselves as “dragon”, and even say that they are “Descendants of the Dragon”. Thus, “Dragon” means holy and sacred thing in Chinese culture. But in English speaking countries, the meaning of “dragon” is not so. In these countries, “dragon” means something evil like Satan, sometimes it is even used to describe thugs, scoundrels or other bad behaviorists. Therefore, invariably coping the icon of “dragon” and using it in other cultures is a definite mistake.

5. 4 Obedience to Certain Norms and Standards

As long as someone is translating, he or she must obey certain rules, norms and standards. He mustn’t translate according to his will. This is a truth. For example, according to China’s first set of standards on how to regulate the use of foreign languages in China, which was jointly issued by the State Standards Commission and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine on November 20, 2017 and officially implemented on December 1, 2017, some of the standards have been specified in detail.

Names of tourist spots: Names of mountains, rivers and lakes should be written in Chinese pinyin. Translations of names of temples should vary according to different situations, so are the towers’ names. In line with external service needs, English explanations can be added.

VI. The Future of Chinese-English Public Sign Translation

China is a major powerful country, and is the country with the second highest Gross Domestic Product in the world, which is why China should keep close economic and cultural relationships with other countries. "In order to integrate China with international community in a better way, there must be high quality public sign translation. To optimize the translation quality of public signs, the most important way is to realize the standardization of the translation of public signs."(Ding Ying 2020,78)

High quality public sign translation must improve the China’s influence power in international community. High quality public sign translation represents that China is rich in translators and intellects, and shows that China can fulfill obligations and shoulder responsibilities as a major country. Achieving this means China not only takes responsibilities for Chinese people, but also for all human beings. Good quality public sign translation is definitely going to significantly synergize the course of reform and opening-up. "Public signs are the most common practical language in people's lives."(Gu Zhe 2020, 102)

At present, the economy of China has been changing from developing at a high speed to develop at high quality, and is at the stage of changing economic development mode, transforming driving forces of economic development and optimizing the economic structure, so high quality public sign translation is badly needed. "Public signs have a strong linguistic function and social value. Pragmatic or social pragmatic failures caused by cultural differences often occur in the translation of public signs. Therefore, it is necessary to fully understand the cultural connotation of the original text in translation."(Li Jing 2020, 229)

High quality public sign translation has the duty to embody a city’s humanism spirit, cultural speciality and charm, which is the inevitable requirement of core socialist values and system. It also promotes the spreading of Chinese culture, and improves the influence power of Chinese culture. High quality public sign translation also levels up Chinese people and overseas Chinese’s sense of identity and belonging. What’s more, it can narrow the gap between Chinese and foreigners, and acquire more recognition from them towards China."The translation error of public signs is mainly due to the translator's lack of adequate understanding of the linguistic and cultural framework of English."(Guan Chen 2020, 79)

Internally, high quality public sign translation can strengthen national cohesion; Externally, it will strengthen China’s soft power, and increase China’s international speaking right while creating national radiation power. "It is an important measure to improve China’s public service and governance capability by establishing an evaluation mechanism and promoting the standardization of English translation. It is of great benefit to further improve China’s service level of opening to the outside world, demonstrate its cultural soft power and enhance its international image" .(Guo Jinghong 2019, 154)

In short, looking forward to the future of Chinese-English public sign translation from a strategic perspective, translators must remain true to their original aspiration and keep their mission firmly in mind, which is: To be devoted to the future of socialism with Chinese characteristics, to be dedicated to the landscape of translation of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and to be committed to the sustainable development of Chinese-English public sign translation of socialism with Chinese characteristics. "The translation of public signs from Chinese to English needs to consider the actual situation of English speakers and abide by international uniform rules, so that foreign friends can directly understand the contents of public signs."(Song Yanbei 2020,64)

"The English translation of public signs of tourist attractions belongs to the category of cross-cultural communication, and the translator should have certain cross-cultural knowledge and awareness, so that the English translation can be more understood and accepted by the audience and truly achieve the purpose of cross-cultural communication". (Yang Hongyu, 2019) Since reform and opening-up, China has been integrating into the international community day by day. To fully achieve this, as regards of Chinese-English public sign translation, we still have a long way to go.

There is no time for us to delay the work of strengthening, proceeding, and improving public sign translation. The rising level of quality of Chinese-English public sign translation will improve both city image and urbanization level. He Xueyun contends in her article that, many people take it for granted that if one knows a foreign language, he then can translate. As a matter of fact, basic skills of public sign translation not only includes foreign language level, but also the knowledge of foreign cultures. "Only when the relevant departments attach great importance to public signs and the people cooperate closely, the translation of public signs can be solved and improved."(Li Huiwen 2020, 23)

VII. Conclusion

So, how to facilitate the overall development of Chinese-English public sign translation？Firstly, we need to keep pace with the times. Language is constantly changing, so are many words and idioms, and so are public signs. In order to accurately convey information to the audience, it is essential to integrate the latest, most reliable and most accepted language into public signs. Secondly, it is necessary to fully understand the idiomatic usage of public signs, because public signs are mainly aimed at English speakers, so it is necessary to strengthen the accumulation of words, phrases and idioms, which is also the basis of translation. Thirdly, the translators of Chinese-English public signs should use accurate words and phrases in combination with specific environment and objects, and should not fail to convey the meaning or deviate from the original meaning, which otherwise will result in misunderstanding. "Whether there are standards and norms for translating public signs into English in public places has a direct impact on foreign friends' impression of a city, which directly reflects the degree of internationalization of the city."(Song Yanbei 2020 ,61)

Of course, only achieving the above is not enough. In order to do a good job in the translation of Chinese-English public signs, we need to keep improving our translation attitude and spirit of study, and constantly improve and summarize and innovate on the basis of the original, so as to make the translation of Chinese-English public signs more perfect and recognized by the international audience. "It is very important for the academic community and people from all walks of life to analyze the problems in the application of public signs and put forward corresponding improvement countermeasures". (Liu Xiaoping, 2019)

A Chinese-English public sign translator must fully realize and shoulder the responsibilities that translators must carry, form a sense of community of a shared future, fully acknowledge the current situation of Chinese-English public sign translation, completely learn lessons from the predecessors who have made mistakes in Chinese-English public sign translation, totally implement the four public sign translation strategies I mentioned before, to make Chinese-English public sign translation serve the construction of a moderately prosperous society in all respect, the construction of modern powerful socialist country, the construction of building China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful, and the realization of the great Chinese dream.

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