英语习语翻译的原则_英文_陈艳丽

第22卷第3期2006年6月忻州师范学院学报J OURNAL OF XI NZ HOU TEAC HER S UNI VERSIT YVo.l22No.3Jun.2006 The P r i nci p les for the Transl a tion of English Id i o m sC H E N Yan-li(X inz hou Teachers University,X inz hou034000,China)Abstra ct:Idi o m s a re i m portant,peculi ar and i ndispensable part of a lang uage.They are spec ial li ngu i stic units,for they are m a i nly character ized by their struc t ural stab ility,se m antic un ity and conta i n var i ous k i nds of rhetorical de2 vi ces and t hus acquire a fig urative m ean i ng.Furthe r more,be i ng heavil y loaded w it h cultura l e l ements,they best re2 flect the cu lture of a na tion.Consequentl y,t hey have been described as the crysta llizati on of lang uage and t he con2 centra ted cu lture.H avi ng strong na tiona l character i stics as well as spec ific li nguisti c fea t ures,they br i ng abo ut d iffi2 cu lti es i n trans l atio n.Th is paper suggests the pr i nci p les that m ay be applied i n the transl a tio n of Engli sh i d i o m s and a l so off e rs so me poi nts for attentio n.The author ho pes t hat t h is pape r will be of so m e he l p i n guidi ng the English idi2 o m translati on and thus enhanc i ng the effecti veness of cu lt ura l co mm un i catio n.K ey wor ds:i dio m s;translati on;princ i p l esCLC num ber:H315.19Docum en t code:A Ar ticle ID:1671-1491(2006)03-0025-051.In tr oductionA ccor d i n g to Webste r.s N e w Worl d D ictionary of t h e A meric an Language(2nd college ed ition,1972),an i d i o m re f ers to an accepted phrase,constr uction,or expression contrary to t h e usual patter ns of the lan2 guage or havingm ean i n g d iff erent fro m t h e litera.l That is,an idio m must be well estab li s hed and accepted t h rough co mmon practice and an idio m usua ll y has an i m plied mean i n g.I n genera,l no ele ments i n the idio m can be changed w ithout destr oyi n g the sense as a whole and also it cannot be interpreted on l y accord i n g to its litera lmeaning.In a broad sense,English idio ms i n clude set phrases,proverbs,sayi n gs,colloqu ialis ms,all u si o ns and slangs.Idio ms are i m portan,t pecu liar and i n d ispensab le part of a language.They are special li n guistic units, f or they are mainly characteriz ed by the ir structural sta2 b ility,se mantic unity and conta i n various k i n ds of r he2 torica l devices and t h us acqu ire a fi g urative meaning. Further m ore,be i n g heavily loaded w it h cultural ele2 ments,they best re flect the culture of a nati o n.Conse2quently,they have been descri b ed as the crystallization of language and the concentrated cu lture.An appropri2 ate use of the m w ill add to the strength and vivi d ness of our language.Men of letters,i n modern or ancient ti m es,i n China or Engl a nd,all exce l in usi n g i d i o m s. Because of these properties of i d i o m s,the i d i o m trans2 lation occup ies a pr o m i n ent place in t h e whole transla2 tion and the quality of translation is greatl y aff ected by the translati o n of i d i o m s.Theref ore,i d i o m translation beco m es an i m portan t issue in translati o n.A good translator shou ld not on ly faith f u ll y represent the m ean2 ing of the i d i o m i n t h e tar get language,but also keep the f ull fl a vor of t h e idio ms,such as associati o ns,rhe2 torica l eff ects,national f eatures and local col o r,there2 f ore,renderi n g i d i o ms of one language into another is a l w ays co mplicated,much more so if the t w o languages involved,such as English and Ch i n ese,are of back2 grounds and cult u res so unli k e each other.Starti n g fr o m the revie w of the criteri a f or transla2 tion,th is paper w ill be devoted to the discussion of t h e pri n ciples thatmay be applied to English i d i o m transla2 tion.收稿日期:2005-09-21作者简介:陈艳丽(1969-),女,山西忻州人,忻州师范学院外语系讲师,从事中西文化对比、英汉互译研究。

2.T he C r iter ia f or T ran sla tionEver since human bei n gs first engaged t h e mselves i n the act of translation,dispu tes over what should be a satisf actor y approach to translation and what should be t h e standar d f or translation have never ceased.Early i n t h e Tang Dynasty(唐)i n our countr y t h e lear ned monk Xuan Zang(玄奘)designed the cri2 teria of translation w ith e mphasi s placed on acc uracy and general knowledge.I n the Q i n g Dynasty(清), Y an Fu(严复)established a three-character standard i n translati o n:f a ithf u l n ess(信),expressi v eness (达),and elegance(雅),which are si m ilar to/tri-ness0by H erbert Rotheinstein:f a ithf ulness,expres2 si v eness and gracef u l n ess wh ich were considered the golden ru le in the fie l d of translati o n.A fter the May4th M ove men,t Lu Xun(鲁迅)proposed faith f u l n ess (信)and s moot h ness(顺)as the cr iteria of translati o n and a ttached i m portance to the preservation of t h e orig2 i n al flavor.A fter the b irth of ne w China,qu ite a lot of translators put f or w ard various criteria:such as spiritu2 al conf or m ity(神似)and subli m ed adaptati o n(化境).The f or m er,proposed by Fu Lei(傅雷),e m2 phasiz es the reproduction of the sp irit or t h e flavor of t h e origi n a,l while the latter,advocated by Q i a n Zhongshu(钱钟书),f ocuses on the translator.s s mooth and idio matic Chinese versi o n f or t h e sake of t h e Ch i n ese reader.A lexander Fraser Tytl e r,an English theoretic i a n and prof essor of histor y atEd i n bur gh Un i v ersity,i n his E ssays on theP rinci p les of T ransla tion,la i d do wn three la ws of translation i n1791.They are(1)A translation should give a co mp lete transcript of the ideas of the ori g i n alwork.(2)The style and manner of wr iting should be of t h e sa me character as t h at of the or i g i n al(3)A translati o n should have a ll the ease of origi2 nal compositi o n.Another f a mous translator who establishes i n fl u en2 tial cr iteria of translati o n is Eugene A.N ida who pro2 posed the f ollo w i n g f unda m enta ls:(1)True to the origi n al(2)V ivi d(3)S mooth and natural(4)Equ i v alence of responseDesp ite the variety of op i n ions,t w o criteria are al2 most unan i m ously accepted,na me ly,the criterion of f a ithf ulness and that of s moothness.W e may also take these t w o criteria as t h e princ i p les of translati o n in gen2 era.lFa ithf ulness refers to the l o yalty to the ori g ina l wor k.The transl a tor must bri n g out t h e or i g i n alm ean2 ing both co mprehensively and accurately without any d i s torti o n or casual additi o n or de letion of the ori g ina l thought.Fa ithf u l n ess also i n c l u des fi d elity to the ori g i2 na l style i n clud i n g the rendering of the ori g ina lwriti n g style and the ori g i n a l e motions or fee li n gs,such as an2 ger or distress,satire or irony,joy or happ i n ess.H o w2 ever,as f ar as cu lture is concerned,there is a prob2 le m.Cu lture exists i n re lation to ot h er cu ltures,just as cultures are characterized by t h e ir diff erences.The wester n culture as a whole is co mp lete l y diff erent fr o m the Chinese culture that belongs to an entirely d iff erent cultura l syste m.There f o re,i n reading,there is i n evi2 tab l y m isreading orm isunderstanding.I n translation,it is very d ifficult to attain absol u te fait h f u l n ess.W hat the translator can do is j u st to m ake every endeavor to be as f aithf ul as possi b le.S moot h ness requ ires tha t t h e version must be clear and disti n c,t fl o w i n g and easy to read w it h out si g ns of the m echan ical word-f or-word transl a ti o n,or ob2 scure and crabbed language,or gra mm atica lm istakes, conf used structure and t u rb i d logic.By s moothness we a lso mean that we should make the language f orcef u,l clear and idio matic.Thus,our translati o n w ill be read2 ab le and understandable.I n i d i o m translati o n,it is advisable t h atwe shou l d tr y to strike a ba lance bet w een f a ithf u l n ess and s mooth2 ness,these t w o basic criteri a,to keep the f u ll flavor of the or i g i n al i d i o ms asmuch as possi b le and at the sa me ti m e keep the translated idio ms readable by f ollo w i n g the f our pri n ciples suggested in t h e next chapter.3.T he Pr i n c i p les for the T ransl a tion of E ng2 lish Id i o m sBased on the criteria of f a ithf u l n ess and s mooth2 ness and the characteristics of idio ms,we may put f or2 ward f our pri n ciples f or the translati o n of English idi226忻州师范学院学报第22卷o ms.F ir stly,th e cu ltura l flavor should be kept a s m uch a s possib le when the cu ltura l ele m en t is u sed a s the language fea ture of the or igina lwork;and it can on l y be done w ithout go i n g beyond the norm of the ta rget l a nguage and the accep tab ility of the tar2 get r eader.Lu Xun once said,/凡是翻译,必须兼顾着两面:一当然力求其易解,一则保存着原作的丰姿。