直译与意译及其在实践中的应用.doc

山东经济学院学士学位论文

Introduction
Translation virtually is the transforming of the content of thought delivered in one language into another language in an accurate and intact way. It is messages’ conversion between two different languages. English-Chinese translation is to turn the content expressed in English or Chinese into the other one, and to build a bridge of culture and ideology between the two groups of languages’ users. During this process, the translators have to know the two languages and the culture of the two countries well, be good at handle the internal logic between the two languages, and succeed to find the best bonding point of their expressing styles and grammar customs.
There are great differences between English and Chinese. And literal translation and liberal translation are two important methods we can take when we turn one language into the other. Both of these two ways of translation are independent while accompany with each other. Taking the right way of translation at the opportune moment is difficult, and experts have debated for a long time that which way should be taken in translation practice.
In some situation, there is no problem in how to translate, take this sentence for example, “I like this movie.” It can be translated into “我喜欢这个电影.” It comes into being the same consequence in both translating ways. But the great differences between English and Chinese give rise to two choices when translating, and one sentence can be translated in both the two ways. This situation would introduce a question: if both the two ways are suitable, then which one should be chosen? We should answer this question in a wider range. There is no valuable significance to talk about liberal or literal translation without the consideration of the factors such as context, register, type of literature, the readers, and so on.
Gu Zhengkun, a professor from Peking University, has a brilliant ex position on literal and liberal translation when discussing about literature translation. He said that both word for word and free translation has its own beauty, and translators should translate literatures in the way which is more suitable according to their function, esthetics and readership. A good translator should be one who can keep to the beaten track and rebel against the orthodoxy at the same time.
Scholars in translation circles have an endless debate on that of literal translation and liberal translation, which on is better in use. The debate has continued for thousands of years since the Eastern Han dynasty.
In this thesis, I try to talk about the characteristics of literal and liberal translations, and how to use them in different situations.

Chapter One
The Conception of Liberal and Literal Translations
Literal translation and liberal translation are two basic techniques in translation practices, both of them are very important in use. There are great differences in their conceptions.
Ⅰ.The Meaning of Literal Translation
Literal translation plays an important role in English-Chinese translation as the most widely used method. Sometimes we call literal translation as “word for word translation”, but they are different. Literal translation means to translate the text according to it strictly in order to make it happen that the words and sentences in the two languages can be corresponding on the whole. Differently, the word-for-word translation is word-based, which strive to make every word of the version be absolutely equivalent with the one in the oriental text. The word-for-word translation can’t be applied between different language-families. And English and Chinese belong to different language-families (English belongs to Indo-European family, while Chinese belongs to Sino-Tibetan family), so we can’t translate strictly word for word in English-Chinese translation. Take the sentence below for example:
“Many of his ideas are especially interesting to modern youth.”
If we translate it in the word-for-word way, it will be expressed as “他的许多思想对当代青年特别有趣”. It is obviously wrong, and even cannot be treated as a translation strictly. This sentence should be translated as “许多当代青年对他的某些思想特别感兴趣”.
Literal translation usually used to do simple expressions, and it will be very convenient in practice if we handle the grammar of the two languages well and convey the idea correctly. But there are also limitations. A version made through literal translation may be tedious long and obscure, or cannot convey the real meaning of the original text correctly sometimes, or even come to the opposite meaning. There will be error when we ignore the circumstance and the differences between the two languages. Sometimes a version translated word for word is difficult to understand, and then we can do the work by liberal translation.
Ⅱ.The Meaning of Liberal Translation
Liberal translation is also called as free translation. When translating in this way, we take the target language as our guidance, and express the meaning of the original text in the target language normatively. It values the natural and smooth very much, and may not retain the structure and figure of speech in the original text. Zhang Peiji, a Chinese scholar, said that every nation has its own words, syntactic structure, and expressions. Sometimes the ideological content of the original text is in contradiction with the expression of the translation, and then the liberal translation will be better than literal translation. Free translation doesn’t equal to random translation, it should correctly convey the contents.
Free translation can be used in the translation of proverbs and allusions, witty sayings, and some special expressions. For example, “He met his Waterloo” should be translated as“他吃了大败仗”.
Chapter Two
The Characteristics and Advantages of Literal and Liberal Translations
Either literal or liberal translation has its own beauty and character. Nida used said “Source text also differs greatly in the excellence of style. Generally, an excellent style also means greater problem for translation in doing justice to the associative meanings”. Literal translation can keep the original style, and liberal translation can make some phrases more understandable to the target text readers.
Ⅰ.The Advantages of Literal Translation
Literal translation has many advantages.
Firstly, literal translation is loyal to the original text as much as possible, which can avoid ultra vires, and make the readers understand it better. Take the proverb “as timid as a hare” as an example, most of the people translate it as “胆小如鼠”, which is a derogatory term in Chinese. But in English, both the words “timid” and “hare” are not so derogatory as “coward”. We can translate it into “羞怯如兔”,which is better than “胆小如兔”, and can give the readers more space for their own imagination.
Secondly, literal translation may retain the cultural characteristics of the source language. For example, the phrase “一石二鸟” comes from the English saying “to kill two birds with one stone”. Although this English proverb has the same meaning as the Chinese idiom “一箭双雕”, it was widely approved by the Chinese. There are many more other examples like this, such as “to shed crocodile tears”(掉鳄鱼眼泪), “chain reaction” (连锁反应) , “dollar diplomacy”(金元外交), and so on.
Thirdly, literal translation also promotes the communication and development between the two languages. On the one hand, this method of translation gives us the chance to get in touch with much more lively expressions, words and sentences like the phrase mentioned above. Here are two more examples:
ⅰ. to pull sb’s chestnut out of the fire (火中取栗)
ⅱ. to turn swords into ploughs (化剑为犁)
Though there are ready-to-wear phrases in Chinese (“为他人做嫁衣裳” “化干戈为玉帛”), the translators choice of literal translation let us know that there are same expressions in foreign countries.
On the other hand, it also let the foreign people know more about the wisdom in Chinese. The old Chinese saying “五十步笑百步” has a similar expression in English: The pot calls the kettle black. But the translators translated it into “the soldiers who retreated fifty paces laughed at the one who had fallen a hundred paces”. This sentence may be too long, but it showed the special way of expression in Chinese, and was accepted by the foreigners.
Similarly, if the Chinese phrase “天下没有不散的筵席”(No feast lasts forever) is translated as the English saying “All good things must end” or “The best of friends must part”, then foreigners won’t realize the unique wisdom of Chinese people.
Fourthly, sometimes literal translation is more vivid and impressed. Some rhetoric techniques such as metaphor, metonymy and contrast in sentences can make a text livelier, and literal translation can convey the original charm perfectly in some cases, especially in advertising translation.
Fifthly, literal translation can promote the language diversity, thus avoiding platitude and endue versions with a sense of novelty. Take this sentence for example:
Homer sometimes nods.
There will be a new perspective if we translate it into “荷马有时也会打盹”. The common translation “智者千虑，必有一失”maybe more clearly and definitely, and can display the superiority of Chinese. But we may be tired of this version after we used it thousands of times. The former translation gives us an interesting choice. Here is an example alike:
A brewer’s wife may drink of a tun.
The translation “酿酒人的妻子不愁酒” is more impressed than that “近水楼台先得月”
Ⅱ.The Beauty of Liberal Translation
Liberal translation gives full scope to the translation of proverbs, idioms and their stories, witty saying and some special words.
Firstly, there are a great number of idioms and their stories in both English and Chinese, and liberal translation of them can make it easier to understand. Because there are many culture differences exist, some sayings may be difficult to understand, and that’s when the liberal translation play its role. For example:
现在合同已经签了，真是木已成舟，生米煮成了熟饭，只好如此了。
Translation: As the contract had been signed, what’s done is done and cannot be undone.
If we translate the sentence word for word, it will be difficult to understand.
Secondly, there are many witty sayings in English, and literal translation cannot express their meaning completely. Then liberal translation will be more suitable. Look at the sentence below:
When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.
Translate it word for word, it will be “当进行中遇到困难，困难才能通过”. This is difficult to understand, while the Chinese inherent saying “狭路相逢勇者胜” or “沧海横流方显英雄本色” can be easier understand to the Chinese.
Thirdly, liberal translation will make the version more smoothly and not create ambiguities when translating some special words, such as “A land of honey and milk”, which means “鱼米之乡” but “有蜂蜜和牛奶的地方” and “Every life has its roses and thorns”, which means “人生有苦有甜”.
Ⅲ. Choose the Right Way of Translation
Both literal translation and liberal translation are important, and there is an endless debate on which one of the two ways is better. Different translators have their own understanding and experiences, and they never reach an agreement. We can say that the debate on literal and liberal translation runs though the history of translation in our country.
More than 2,000 years ago, early in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the monks translating the Buddhist scriptures were never flexible, and created many obscure versions. After this, there were many divergences of views on the Buddhist scriptures’ translation. The argument was which one was better between literal translation and liberal translation. In Ming and Qing dynasties, the transition on Buddhist scriptures had reduced, and people turned to the translation on the scientific and literature works of western countries. Yan fu, the famous translator of late Qing dynasty, put forward his three translating principles, namely “fidelity”,” expressiveness” and “elegance”, in his translation theory of natural selection. Among the three principles, fidelity is most important, and then expressiveness. And the principle elegance had been endued new implication after. Then the May 4th movement brought a movement to translate. Translators hovered between fidelity and smoothness, which actually is the hesitation on literal translation and liberal translation. This debate played an important role in Chinese translation history, and Lu Xun’s opinion, better fidelity than smoothness, pointed a right way for the beginners. Since 1949, translation had great developed in our country, and translators put forward more principles on translation, which are higher and more reasonable. Fu Lei attach more importance on the versions’ spirits than on forms; Qian Zhongshu thought that highest heaven of translation is “化”; And there were some other opinions such as making the undertone of the original text clear, and so on.
Maybe the source of this debate lied in the limitations of people’s understanding on the literal and liberal translation in theory, and the deviations in practice. There are many translators translate word-for-word in literal translation, and random in liberal translation in history. And the debate was mostly between the people who advocated literal or liberal translation and the ones insisted on random or word-for-word translation, for which the debate could not be avoided. Then what should we do in practice?

Chapter Three
The Application of Literal and Liberal Translations
Ⅰ. How to Use Literal Translation Correctly
Firstly, if it is possible to translation literally, translate it word for word The advantage of literal translation is to keep the liveliness of the text which has rhetoric in it. The liberal translation can only convey the meaning of the original text and depart from the lifelikeness of it. So we should use literal translation primarily in practice. Take the two sentences below for example:
ⅰ.For my father know and I know that if you only dig enough, a pasture can be made free.
Literal translation: 因为我父亲知道，我也知道，只要挖到一定程度，早晚可以在这里辟出个牧场的。
Free translation: 因为我父亲知道，我也知道，功到自然成。
ⅱ. For Kino and Juana, this was the meaning of morning of their lives, comparable only to the day when the baby had been born.
Literal translation: 在Kino和Juana看来，这是他们一生中最了不起的早晨，只有宝宝出生额那一天，才可以与之媲美。
Free translation: Kino和Juana认为，这一天非常重要。
The free translations only simply expressed the general meaning of the original sentences without the metaphor. In this way, the sentences lost their flash points. However, the literal translations are closer to the original sentences and more clearly and lively. Sometimes it is difficult to retain the intrinsical thoughts and language style because of the cultural differences between the two languages. However, we can d