文化翻译引论.doc

Lecture one (for student use)（September 18，2010）
文化翻译引论（introducing Cultural translation)

1. 语言中的文化因素（warming-up exercise）
To talk horse 吹牛，说大话
To work like a horse 辛勤工作
As strong as a horse 身体强健 ，精力充沛
A willing horse 努力工作的人
A dead horse 旧债；已预付工钱的工作；琐事；已解决的问题；令人厌烦的工作
To buy a white horse 浪费金钱
To change horse in midstream 中流换马， 在危急中做出重大改变
To ride on the high horse 趾高气扬 盛气凌人
To come off the high horse 放下架子
To hold one’s horse 忍耐点
A good horse should be seldom spurred 好马无须加鞭（比喻工作积极的人，无须催促）

2. 文化与翻译 (observational stage)
【译例1】真是 ‘天有不测风云，人有旦夕祸福’。 
杨译：“Truly, ‘storm gathers without warning in nature, and bad luck befalls men overnight.’... ”
霍译：“I know ‘the weather and human life are both unpredictable’”
【译例2】这也难说，但凡家庭之事，不是东风压了西风，就是西风压了东风。
杨译：“Well, it’s hard to say,” she answered. “In every family, if the east wind doesn’t prevail over the west wind, then the west wind is bound to prevail over the east wind.”
霍译：‘It’s hard to tell,’ she said. ‘In every family affair, one side or the other has to win. If it’s not the East Wind it’s the West.’

【译例3】“天下真有这样标致的人物，我今儿才算见了！况且这通身的气派，竟不象老祖宗的外孙女儿，竟是个嫡亲的孙女，怨不得老祖宗天天口头心头一时不忘，只可怜我这妹妹这样命苦，怎么姑妈偏就去世了！”

杨译：“this is the first time I've set eyes on such a ravishing beauty. Her whole air is so distinguished! She doesn’t take after her father, son-in-law of our Old Ancestress, but looks more like a Jia. No wonder our Old Ancestress couldn’t put you out of her mind and was for ever talking or thinking about you. But poor ill-fated little cousin, losing your mother so young!”

霍译：‘She’s a beauty, Grannie dear! If I hadn’t set eyes on her today, I shouldn’t have believed that such a beautiful creature could exist! And everything about her so distingue’! She doesn’t take after your side of the family, Grannie. She’s more like a Jia. I don’t blame you for having gone on so about her during the past few days - but poor little thing! What a cruel fate to have lost Auntie like that!’

【译例4】周瑞家的听了笑道：”阿弥陀佛，真坑死人的事儿！等十年都未必这样巧的呢。”
杨译：“Gracious Buddha!” Mrs. Zhou chuckled. “How terrible chancy! You might wait for ten years without such a run of luck.”
霍译：“God bless my soul!” Zhou Rui’s wife exclaimed. “You would certainly need some patience! Why, you might wait ten years before getting all those things at the proper times”

【译例5】世人都晓神仙好，惟有功名忘不了！
古今将相在何方？荒冢一堆草没了。
杨译：All men long to be immortals，
Yet to riches and rank each aspires;
霍译：Men all know that salvation should be won，
But with ambition won’t have done, have done.

3. 翻译实践（in-class translation in action)
3.1 Translate the following words and phrases (word or phrase as the unit of translation).
King’s English 纯正的英语 Iron-horse 火车 Jaywalking 违规穿越马路
Mercury: He has no mercury in him. 他没有精神 White coal 水
Sugar report 甜蜜情书
幸运儿lucky guy 喝西北风 have nothing to eat (as poor as a church mouse)
不服水土 not acclimatized 看不顺眼the way I don’t like初出茅庐be wet behind the ears
三十而立At thirty, I stood firm 豆腐渣 jerrybuilt 朝秦暮楚be fickle or capricious
太岁头上动土provoke sb. far superior in power or strength 混世魔王devil incarnate
捅娄子get into trouble 举人 provincial graduate 状元 number one scholar
寻短见 commit suicide 拍马屁 lick sb’ s boots
一退六二五shirk one's responsibility 八字没一撇Nothing tangible is yet in sight.
占着茅坑不拉屎 dog in the manage(hold on to one's post, while doing nothing)
捞油水reap some profit
坐冷板凳be sidelined 不管三七二十一 regardless of the consequences
不了了之end up with nothing conclusive

了解异域文化中人们的生活习惯和思维方式，如汉语中围绕“吃饭”问题所形成的词语（民以食为天的思想）
饭桶 poor tool (good for nothing) 吃不开 be unpopular
吃香be very popular 吃不了兜着走 land oneself in serious trouble
吃不消 be unable to stand 吃不住 be unable to bear or support
吃老本 live off one’s past gains
吃软不吃硬 be open to persuasion but not to coercion
吃闲饭 lead an idle life
他砸了我的饭碗/断了我的生路。 He has taken the bread out of my mouth
玉兔Yutu (moon rabbit that accompanied Fairy Chang E in the moon palace according to a Chinese folktale)
Romeo: What has thou found? 你发现了什么？
Mercutio: No hare, sir.） 没有发现野鸡，先生。
---- 莎剧《罗密欧与朱丽叶》第二幕第四景）

3.2 Translate the two paragraphs（paragraph as the unit of translation).
SL: It was early June and Peking wore the green lace of spring, its thousands of willows and imperial cypresses making the Forbidden City a place of wonder and enchantment, and in many cool gardens it was impossible to believe in the China of breaking toil, starvation, revolution , and foreign invasion that lay beyond the glittering roofs of the palaces. Here well-fed foreigners could live in their own little never-never land of whisky-and-soda, Polo, tennis, and gossip, happily quite unaware of the pulse of Humanity outside the great city's silent, insulating walls as indeed many did. （Edgar Snow， Red Star Over China）

TL: 六月初旬的北京，绿意盎然，柳柏枝条，微微摇曳，更显紫禁城神奇迷人。在许多清幽的亭园里，根本无法让人相信中国正处在举步维艰的时期，饥荒，革命不断上演，甚至在辉煌的宫殿外面，交织着外国入侵。在这里，那些饱食的外国人在自己的天地里喝着威士忌酒掺着苏打水，打着马球和网球，痛快的闲聊着，完全不会注意到这个伟大城市无声的绝缘的墙壁外面攒动的人流，很多人也都是这样生活着的。

SL: 还是从火车上说起吧！大约在我四岁多的时候，我坐过火车。当时带我坐车的人，是我的舅舅，叫张全斌。我记得那时我的打扮挺滑稽的，穿着蓝布大褂、小坎肩，戴瓜皮小帽。那时候，小孩打扮成那个样子，够不错了。在我的童年中，也就只有过这么一次。在火车上，因为小，没坐过火车，也很少见过家里以外的人，觉得挺新鲜。也许人在幼年时代终归想要些温暖吧！那时舅舅抱着我，哄着我，我觉得很温暖。一路上吃了半斤炒栗子，睡了一会儿觉，就到了北京。根据这个情况，现在估计起来，我可能是从天津来的。我现在对我原来的父母还有个模糊不清的印象，父亲、母亲的形象还能回忆起一点儿，但很模糊。究竟家里姓什么？哪里人？不知道。我只知道自己的生日和乳名。生日是我长大以后听家里大人说的，是农历十月十五酉时生人，所以我的乳名就“酉”，北京人的习惯爱用儿化韵，前面加个小，后面加个“儿”，就叫“小酉儿”。关于我个人的历史情况，我就知道这一些，再多一点都记不起来了。（侯宝林，《我的青少年时代》）

TL: Let me talk about my trip on the train first. When I was about four years old I had traveled by train. The man I went with was my uncle named Zhang Quanbin. I still remember the funny way of my dressing - in a blue cloth gown with a short sleeveless jacket over it and a skullcap on the head. But in those days it was good enough for small kids to be dressed like that and that was my only time in my childhood. As I had never traveled by train and seldom met anyone beyond my family, I felt everything was new to me. Maybe because I was so young, I always wanted to be hugged, getting the comfort. I was very happy, being held and calmed all the way. We ate half a jin of roast chestnuts, had a nap and soon arrived in Beijing. According to the case mentioned above I assume I might have come from Tianjin. Even today the blurry images of my own parents was in my memory . As for what my family name was and where my parents came from, I really don't know. I only remember my birthday and my infant name. I was told about my birthday by my foster-parents when I grew up. I was born in the “you" period (between 5-7 p.m.), 15th of the 10th lunar month. So I was named You. Prefixed with xiao-young, and suffixed with a diminutive er--an intimate way of addressing young and small things by Beijingers, my name, therefore, became Xiao You'r. This is all I know about my childhood and beyond that I do not remember any more.

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