Principles-or-Criteria-of-Translation.doc

raced to 300 B. C., while in China, recorded translation activities are even earlier, dating from Zhou Dynasty (1100 B. C.). China is one of the countries with a very long history of translation. Through the practice of translation, a system of translation theory with distinctive national features has evolved and has taken shape. The followings are a few influential criteria during the different ages.
1.1 Xuan Zang’s Criteria
The first peak of translation begins with the translation of Buddhist scriptures佛经、佛典. Early in the Tang Dynasty the learned monk Xuan Zang (玄奘，602-664 A.D.) has contributed his life to translation and put forward the criteria of translation with emphasis on accuracy and general knowledge. He has set down the famous translation criteria that translation “must be both truthful and intelligible to the populace” (成昭伟，2006：9). In a sense, Xuan Zang, with such a formula, has tried to have the best of two worlds—literal translation and free translation. In his view, the translation should be both authentic to the original and accessible to the public, which attaches equal stress on fidelity and intelligibility. He has stated his principles of “five no translation” (五不翻), which refer to five cases in which transliteration should be used (Yan Yang, 1992:67): 1). it is a secret; 2). it is a word with many senses；3.) it is not available here; 4). the established translation should be followed; 5). unfavorable misunderstanding should be avoided. In practice, Xuan Zang tries many translation methods. He is the first Chinese translator who tries translation methods like: amplification, omission, borrowing equivalent terms from the target language etc. He is regarded as one of the very few real translators in the history of China for his great contribution to both translation practice and translation theory.
玄奘的指导原则就是：“既须求真，又须喻俗”。“求真”即追求准确，要力求“忠实原作”，这是一切认真负责的翻译工作者的共同理想。同时必须“喻俗”，亦即使群众理解，这就是说要“通顺”。他总结多年翻译佛经的经验，建立了"五不翻"， 他说的"不翻"并不是不翻译，而是"不意译"。 他认为在以下五种情况下要译音：  
   1）秘密故（也就是佛教的秘密，如咒语，要译音）  
   所以唐僧的紧箍咒若译成了汉语还是白搭。不学梵语，就想拿住孙悟空？非得用那拗口饶舌、难为发音、贴近原文的声音才能生效。难怪无论你说"芝麻，开门！"还是"Sesame，open！"都不管用。那原本是阿拉伯魔法，不学人家的语言，就是不灵。 济公的咒
   2）含多义故
  （不是指一词多义，而是指需要长篇大论解释的概念，应先译音，再讲解普及）比如将梵语bhagavat译音为薄枷梵。原词虽指佛陀（简称佛，“觉悟者”），还含有"自在、炽盛、端严、名称、吉祥、尊贵"六义，光说佛陀，不足以表达其世尊。同理，功夫的英译现在是Kongfu，以别於martial art武术，方显出功夫之"耗时、耗力、守元、固本"等要义。  
   3）此无故（中国没有的东西）  
   与其它四类相比，此类不同之处大概是指我们没有的具体事物和人名地名，也是下文要详加讨论的一类。此不赘述。  
   4）顺古故（既已有的译音，不再重译）  
   在唐僧译经之前，梵语Anuttarasamyaksambodhi已经译音为阿耨多罗三藐三菩提，其意为能够觉知佛教的一切真理并如实了知一切事物，从而获得无所不知的智慧。但这个词实在太长，虽然唐僧沿用了，后来还是被简化为阿耨菩提。现代的典型例子是莫斯科，这是根据英语发音翻译的。虽然俄语念作莫斯科瓦，但由於中国人已经习惯了莫斯科，现在仍然顺古。  
   5）生善故（既只可意会，不可言传者，要译音）  
   梵语Prajna的意思和智慧差不多，但佛教徒认为它和一般智慧不同，认为它是直接了解一切事物本质的特殊智慧。我等不信佛者，大概体会不到，无法苟同。不管怎样，既然译者认为不同，就译音为般若，让和尚、尼姑和居士们潜心揣摩这可望而不可及的能力。"推拿"现在译音为Tuina，也许可以算作此类译音的现代范例。以前推拿曾译作massage，不仅贬低了这种疗法，还容易和性行业混淆，难怪保险 公司不肯纳入承保范围；而chiropractic therapy（脊椎按摩疗法）另有一套理论，虽有相似的手法，亦有格格不入之处。其间差异，让常人看来，远大过智慧和般若的差别。  
   Yan Fu’s Criteria
Whenever principles or criteria of translation are under discussion in China, the criteria proposed by Yan Fu would be mentioned. In 1898, Yan Fu (严复，1853-1921) has established three- character standard in translation, that is, faithfulness(信), expressiveness(达) and elegance(雅). Faithfulness requires that the meaning in the target language should be faithful to the meaning of the original; expressiveness is the requirement of intelligibility of the target language text; the translated text should be in accordance with the language rules of the target language; elegance requires a translation to be aesthetically pleasing.
As a milestone in the history of Chinese translation theory, Yan Fu’s statement marks an epoch in translation studies in China. Its significance and its impact on the development of Chinese translation theory far exceed what the literal senses of those three characters can cover.
“雅”，有异议，认为典雅的文章应译的典雅，把不典雅的文章译为典雅，与“信”背道而驰，于是后人把“雅”换成“保持原文的风格”。
1.2 Lu Xun’s Criteria
Lu Xun (鲁迅) has proposed “faithfulness and smoothness”. The value of a translation lies in its faithfulness to the original text. He insists that the main purpose of translation is to introduce the culture and social lives of foreign countries to the Chinese people. He advocates that there should be an exotic atmosphere in the translated works which would familiarize the readers with the foreign cultures. “For Lu Xun, no matter how strained a translation is, a reader who makes an effort could manage to understand it at last provided it is faithful to the original.
鲁迅：凡是翻译，必须兼顾这两方面，一则当然力求其易解，一则保存着原作的风貌。他极力主张用直译，提倡“宁信而不顺”的原作。
费厄泼赖，英语Fair Play的音译
1.3 Fu Lei
Fu Lei (傅雷) has provided his theory of “Resemblance in Spirit” or “spiritual conformity”(神似). “Fu Lei tries to make two points. First, it is impossible to convey the spirit of the original by reconstructing the pattern of the source language in the target language. Second, translation should be similar to painting, and what it aims at is a spiritual resemblance rather than a formal resemblance.” Fu Lei’s theory of spiritual resemblance has touched the subject of cultural translation. In his view, translation is not an imitation of the original but an equivalent to the original. If the original is a piece of art, Fu Lei maintains, it must be reproduced in such a way that its translation is also a piece of art.
1.4 Qian Zhongshu
Qian Zhongshu (钱钟书) has stated the highest standard of translation is transmigration or sublimed adaptation(化境), which focuses on the translator’s smooth and idiomatic Chinese version for the sake of Chinese readers. “If, when a piece of work in one language is turned into another language, there is no mark of unnaturalness due to linguistic difference and if the original flavor is maintained, the translation can be regarded as one which attains the sublime realm” (钱钟书, 1997: 269). He points out that in cultural exchange the function of translation is like a mediating agent who recommends to others that they should acquaint themselves with foreign literature or who recommends to others to love foreign literature. Qian's requirement for literary translation is so high that he himself has to admit that it is impossible to transmigrate everything of the original text to the target language, and that perfect transmigration of the original text into the target language is just an ideal.
文学翻译的最高标准是“化”。把作品从一国文字转变成另一国文字，既能不因语言习惯的差异而露出生硬牵强的痕迹，又能完全保存原有的风味，那就算得入于“化境”。十七世纪有人赞美这种造诣的翻译，比为原作的“投胎转世”(the transmigration of souls)，躯壳换了一个，而精神姿致依然故我. 钟书当初被推荐翻译毛泽东选集《实践论》、《矛盾论》翻译中遇到重大疑难，往往请他定夺。金岳霖有次碰到一句成语“吃一堑，长一智”，不知怎么翻译是好，便请教钱钟书。钟书几乎不假思索地脱口而出道：　A fall into the pit，A gain in your wit．
不足：我国传统的翻译标准缺乏严格科学界定，具很大模糊性。（“翻译是艺术”，“翻译无定法”）
在实际翻译中，译者更多依靠自身的主观感觉和判断
2. Translation Criteria of Western Scholars
Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747-1814), a professor of history at Edinburgh University, UK, is an influential scholar. In the last decade of the 18th century, he has laid down three principles in his book Essay on the Principles of Translation《论翻译的原则》（1791） by which a translation should be judged. They are:
(1) A translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work; 译文应完全复写出原作的思想。（信）
(2) The style and manner of writing should be of the same character as that of the original; 译文的风格和笔调应与原文的性质相同 （雅）
(3)A translation should have all the ease of original composition. 译文应和原作同样流畅。（达）
With the wheel of history rolling into the 20th century, Dr. Eugene A. Nida, who takes part in translating The Bible and devotes himself to studies of linguistics, semantics, anthropology, etc, has founded “dynamic equivalence”, which has dominated quite long time in translation theory history. As early as in 1964, in the book “Toward a science of Translation”《翻译科学探索》Nida has begun to study translation in a “sociolinguistic” approach. He has made a distinction between formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. By “formal equivalence”, Nida refers to a faithful reproduction of form elements in a source text, and by “dynamic equivalence”, equivalence of extra-linguistic effects of translation.
“When the question of the superiority of one translation over another is raised, the answer should be looked for in the answer to another question, “Best for whom?” the relative adequacy of different translation of the same text can only be determined in terms of the extent to which each translation successfully fulfills the purpose for which it was intended.”
Dynamic equivalence is defined as a translation principle according to which a translator seeks to translate the meaning of the original in such a way that the target language wording will trigger the same impact on the target language audience as the original wording did upon the source language audience. “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 in substantially the same manner as the receptors in the source language. This response can never been identical, for the cultural and historical setting are too different, but there should be a high degree of equivalence of response, or the translation will have failed to accomplish its purpose.”(Nida & Taber, 1969: 24) Nida and Taber in their book argue that “Frequently, the form of the original text is changed; but as long as the change follows the rules of back transformation in the source language, of contextual consistency in the transfer, and of transformation in the receptor language, the message is preserved and the translation is faithful” (Nida and Taber, 1982: 200).
所谓形式对等，是指接受语中的讯息应与原语中的不同成分尽可能地保持一致。动态对等是基于奈达的“对等效应原则”，要求“接受者和讯息之间的关系应与原来的接受者和讯息间所存在的关系保持相当程度的一致”。所谓动态对等，是指从语义到语体，在接受语中用最贴近的自然对等语再现源发语的信息。在动态对等翻译过程中，译者着眼于原文的意义和精神，而不拘泥于原文的形式对应。动态对等的目的是希望译文接受者和译文信息之间的关系应该与原文接受者和原文信息之间的关系基本上相同，它把焦点放在了两种效果之间的对等上。在《翻译科学探索》Toward a science of Translation (1964)，奈达阐释了其理论的核心概念是“功能对等”。所谓“功能对等”，就是说翻译时不求文字表面的死板对应，而要在两种语言间达成功能上的对等。
The British translation theorist Peter Newmark （1917~） has put forward semantic translation and communicative translation. He puts translation methods in the form of a flattened V diagram (Newmark, 2001: 45)
Source Language emphasis                       Target Language emphasis
Word-for-word translation  逐字译                           adaptation编译
Literal translation  直译                           free translation自由译/意译
Faithful translation信译/贴译            idiomatic translation地道翻译
Semantic translation语义翻译    communicative translation交际翻译
Semantic translation attempts to render, as closely as the semantic and syntactic structure of the second language allow, the exact contextual meaning of the original. Communicative translation attempts to produce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained effect on the readers of the original. (《翻译问题探讨》Approaches to Translation)1981
Wet paint! Freshly painted. Mind the paint! 湿油漆！（语义翻译），油漆未干(语义)，小心油漆！（交际）
语义翻译指在译入语语义和句法结构允许的前提下,尽可能准确地再现原文上下文意义。交际翻译指译作对译文读者产生的效果尽量等同于原作对原文读者产生的效果。值得注意的是,交际翻译的定义与等效翻译的定义如出一辙;同时, “尽量等同”,“尽可能准确”还说明了翻译中不可能做到完全绝对的等同。
Semantic translation is closer, more literal; it gives highest priority to the meaning and form of the original, and is appropriate to translations of source texts that have high status, such as religious texts, legal texts, literature, and perhaps ministerial speeches. Communicative translation is freer, and gives priority to the effectiveness of the message to be communicated. It focuses on factors such as readability and naturalness, and is appropriate to translations of “pragmatic” texts where the actual form of the original is not closely bound to its intended meaning. These are texts like advertisements, tourist brochures[brəu'ʃjuə], product descriptions and instructions, manuals.
交际翻译所产生的译文通常是通顺易懂，清晰直接，规范自然，符合特定的语域范畴。交际翻译常常是“欠额翻译”。换句话说，即使翻译难度较大的语篇，交际翻译也会较多地使用通用的词汇。语义翻译所产生的译文通常比较复杂、累赘、罗嗦和过于详尽。译者尽力追踪原作者的思想过程而不是努力阐释。
According to Skopostheorie, the prime principle determining any translation process is the purpose (Skopos) of the overall translational action. Thus, the top-ranking rule for any translation is “Skopos rule”目的法则, which means that a translational action is determined by its Skopos; that is, “the end justifies the means”目的决定方法 (Nord, 2001: 29).
Without insisting upon one perfect translation as a goal, or on any one particular strategy, functionalists pragmatically ask only that translators strive for optional solutions within actual existing conditions. Translators may choose to be faithful to the source text’s spirit, or they may choose a word-for-word strategy, or they may add, delete, or change information as they see fit, depending on the cultural conditions and the needs of the audience or consumer.
The two most important shifts in theoretical developments in translation theory over the past two decades have been (1) the shift from source-text oriented theories to target-text oriented theories and (2) the shift to include cultural factors as well as linguistic elements in the translation training models.
Now, for English major, students should follow two criteria, namely, the criteria of faithfulness/accuracy(忠实/准确) and that of smoothness (流畅)。By faithfulness/accuracy, we mean to be faithful not only to the original contents, to the original meaning and views, but also to the original form and style. By smoothness, we mean not only easy and readable rendering, but also idiomatic expression in the target language, free from formula and mechanical copying from dictionaries.总之，忠实，通顺。可看作是对初学者的要求，也可以看作对一般英汉文学翻译的要求。

Q: 现有的翻译标准，你最赞成哪种？

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