Chapter 1 Basic Concepts of Translation When visiting the cities of China,any English speaker knowing no Chinese will be delighted to see many signs and notices in English, providing information on directions,shops,restaurants,bus stops,and even toilets.These well-meaning attempts,however,very often leave the visitor nonplussed,disappointed,even irritated,and more often than not in stitches of laughter.After all,how else can one react to this: 本所为免冲式，请您便后立即离开。 This WC is free of washing.Please leave off anter pissing or shiting Clearly,the writer was quite serious and was trying to be considerate by providing useful information,but the result is indeed the opposite."Free of washing"is misleading and inaccurate,while the choice of"pissing"and "shitting."while accurate in meaning.has tumed a polite Chinese expression into a vulgar English one.The translator obviously had no clue about the appropriateness of register (polite or vulgar)or of context.Though many translations of commonly used signs are acceptable,an equally large number are totally wrong: 小心坠河 Carefully fall to the river 3
Introduction to Chinese-English Translation 酸菜包 Acid food 自助终端机 Help oneself terminating machine 解号救师联络本Piano Teachers'intercourse Book Such translations sound like a comie routine in a variety show.One can only wipe away tears of laughter and wonder what happened.Surely the translator consulted some sort of reference book!But then how did the result end up so outrageous and inappropriate?Clearly,translation is a much more complicated business than that of merely looking words up in a dictionary. So what is translation?In the broadest sense,it means the process of transferring meaning between different languages and cultures through the written word.In this book,however,we will focus mainly on the language aspect of this practical process. For some,the most important thing in translation is to be "faithful" to the original source text.Others say that the concept of"faithfulness"is too vague.After all,what does it actually mean?A number of systematic and comprehensive concepts have evolved over the years-for example, the theory of functional quivalence proposed by Wester scholars,or the standards of "faithfulness,expressiveness,and elegance"suggested by Chinese translators.New tools,methodologies,and translation theories will no doubt continue to appear,but nothing can change the basic nature of translation,which involves rendering the meaning of a source text in a target one. This all sounds quite straightforward and understandable,but the problem lies in the"meaning."The sentence"There is a book on the table" is clear and casy to translate.However,not all sentences are quite so simple. For example,他的姿势不大寻常，头朝下，两得高举在沙发上，倒竖
Chapter 1 Basic Concepts of Translation 蜻疑.A strict translation would render倒竖蜻疑“upside-down dragonfly which is inappropriate,since the analogy is not a common one in English An accurate translation should be "He was doing this in a quite unusual posture,holding his body upside down and his legs straight up against the back of his chair,like a gymnast performing a headstand.(From A Coftagers Sketehbook,Vol.2,p.384).Another example from the English: "Your guess is as good as mine,"actually means "I don't know either." The translator has to know this and cannot translate it literally as你的s猜 想和我的一样好which makes no sense in Chinese.Such examples show that simply rendering the "meaning"is not quite as straightforward as it sounds.Many problems can arise that require the translator to stop and think carefully before putting pen to paper. Should the translation: 】.be literal or free2 2.have functional equivalence or formal correspondence? 3.emphasize form or content? 4.be source oriented or target oriented? 5.be author centered or reader centered? 6.meet the objective of the author or of the translator? These six considerations raise different questions,yet they all revolve around the same basie problem and are closely linked.Let us now examine them one by one Literal Translation or Free Translation? This is a topic of endless controversy.Sometimes there is no problem- eg,“I like the movie'”becomes我喜欢这部电影，which docs not involve
Introduction to Chinese-English Translation questions of literalor free transation because here theraator is not faced with any such choice.Sometimes,however,the translator has to make a choice because both approaches are possible,resulting in much debate For one thing.different people have different interpretations of"literal." For some,it means word-for-word translation,while for others,it means basically following the original language structures without a rigid word for-word rendering.A free translation,on the other hand,would completely ignore the original language structures.There is in fact no clear dividing line between word-for-word,literal,free translation,and paraphrasing.Let us consider a few examples: 公立高中挤破头。 Public high schools are so crowded they have to turn away many prospective students The idiom挤破头cannot be translated literally and therefore must be explicated in accordance with the context.This adds more words,but the meaning is unchanged and clear.This shows that translation can sometimes be very close to paraphrasing.However,this does not mean we can do that all the time.For example: 繁华也罢，穷困也罢，丈夫和要子携手一生，情深谊长， For richer or for poorer,the husband and the wife are a loving couple for Me. The translator has been flexible here:the first part follows the source text, but the second part,starting with,has ignored the original structures. As opposed to the first example,not many words have been added.There are times,however,when we must stick even closer to the original: 6