文化与翻译

I. Introduction

1. Culture

a. the narrow sense

―It is the totality of the spiritual

，

in tellectual

，

and artistic attitudes shared by a group

，

including its tradition, habits,

social customs

，

morals

，

laws

，

and social relations.‖

b. the broad sense

It includes material culture which refers to all the products of manufacture, institutional culture which refers to

social

system,

religious

system,

ritual

system,

educational

system

and

kinship

system

etc.

and

mental

culture

which

refers to people‘s mentalities a

nd behaviors, their beliefs, perceptions, concept of value, thought pattern etc.

2. The relations between Culture and Translation

①

The man of principle is courageous. He knows the right and will fight for it at all costs. God is on his site, and

he takes courage from the knowledge

of this fact.

②

The two presidents exchange sir‘s and ma‘am‘s in the venerable Southern style. After 25 minutes, Cater slowly

disengages.― I‘m grateful for this meeting.‖ He says. O n his way to the car, he talks about his next visi

t, then

tell Davis: ―I love you. I‘ m proud of you.‖

③

Do you see any green in my eyes?

④

SS guards then shoved each prisoner in the

direction the doctor had indicated.

a. the macroscopical way

to see what influences the translation has produced on the cultural development of a nation or country.

b. the microcosmic way

to see what cultural elements restrict or affect. It concerns more concrete problems.

Nida

奈达

-- from

the Story of Stone

or

Dream of Red Mansion

a. Ecological Culture

真是

< /p>

?

天有不测风云，人有旦夕祸福

‘

。

（曹：

156

）< /p>

―Truly, ?Storms gather without warning in nature, and bad luck befalls men overnight.‘ …‖

(Yang: 155)

―I know ?the weather and human life are both unpredictable.‘‖

(Hawkes: 231)

癞蛤蟆想吃天鹅肉

（曹：

1 65

）

A toad hankering for a taste of swan

(Yang: 164)

A case of ―the goose on the ground warning to eat the swan in the sky‖

(Hawkes: 242)

b. Language Culture

至于才子佳人等书，

……

（曹：

）

As for books of the beauty-and-

talented type,…

(Yang: 4)

And the ―boudoir romances‖

，

…

(Hawkes: 50)

更是一种风月笔墨，

……

（曹：

5

）

Even worse are those writers of the breeze-and-

moonlight school,…

(Yang: 4)

Still wore is the erotic novel,…

(Hawkes: 49)

c. Religious Culture

谋事在人，成事在天。

（曹：

95

）

Man proposes, Heaven disposes.

(Yang: 90)

Man proposes, God disposes.

(Hawkes: 152)

d. Material Culture

将道人肩上褡裢抢了过来背着，

……

（曹：

19

）

He transferred the sack from the Taoist‘s shoulder to his own,..

(Yang: 17)

But

Shi-

yin

merely

snatched

the

satcel

that

hung

from

the

other‘s

shoulder

and

slung

it

from

his

own,…

(Hawkes: 65)

陋室空堂，当年笏满床。

（曹：

18

）

Mean huts and empty halls

Where emblems of nobility once hung.

(Yang: 16)

Mean hovels and abandoned halls

where courtiers once paid daily calls

(Hawkes: 65)

成则为王败则贼（曹：

31

）

Such people may become princes or thieves, depending on whether they‘re successful or not.

(Yang: 29)

Zhang victorious is a hero.

Zhang beaten is a lousy knave?

(Hawkes: 29)

俗语说得好：

―

杀人不过头点地。

‖

（曹：

139

）

Remember

the

proverb

―A

murderer

can

only

lose

his

head‖

(Yang: 142)

―You know what the proverb says:

He who

checks a moment‘s rage

Shall calm and carefree end his days.‖

(Hawkes: 216)

Unit

2

Chinese and English Though Patterns and Translation

I. Thought Pattern

?

thought pattern is an ingenerate part of culture.

?

the unique spiritual activity of human beings

?

the process during which one chooses, evaluates and deals with the stimulus from the outside

II. Main Differences between Chinese Thought Pattern and English Thought Pattern

a. Dialectical

Thinking vs. Formal-Logical Thinking

1. Dialectical thinking is to understand the reality from the angle of changing and developing.

?

The

Chinese

traditional

philosophy

treats

the

objective

world

as

the

whole

constituted

by

two

all- inclusive

opposites, the Yin and the Yang

?

Chinese

people

tend to

pursuing

the equilibrium and symmetry among different things.

断断续续；风风火火；男男女女； 吞吞吐吐；来来往往；是是非非。

2. English thought pattern takes the Formal-Logical thinking as one of its characters.

?

The

Western

thought

pattern

owns

the

characteristics

of

rationality,

analysis,

demonstration,

accuracy

and

system.

?

They use the language with the free collocation of the words according to the grammatical rules.

b. Synthetic Thinking vs. Analytic Thinking

?

Chinese people usually take the unity of Heaven and Human as their ideal state and

acquired the synthetic

thinking.

?

They become used to observing the features of the objective world on the whole and studying synthetically on

their findings under the overall situation.

?

the English- speaking people put much emphasis on the individual and analysis.

?

The analytical thought pattern is used to dividing the whole into many small parts and then classifying them,

through the experiments and logical inference it comes to analyzing the essential factors of each part, and finds

the essential laws of things from the qualitative analysis to quantitative analysis.

1.

How

strange

then,

when,

seemingly,

all

that

was

venerable

and

progressive,

old

and

young,

sophisticated

and

innocent, mighty and modest in the Tory party was united to save Mr. Heath from political extinction, extinguished as

he was

—

at the hands of comparative unknown, and what is more, a woman.

译文< /p>

1

：然而多奇怪啊！看起来，当所有托利党的成员，无论德高望重 的或思想进步的，城府老到

的或清纯幼稚的，还是年迈的或年轻的，骄傲的或谦虚的，大 家都团结起来挽救希思先生，使他不至于政治垮

台。尽管他声名显赫，他还是垮台了，而 且是载在一个女人的手里。

译文

2< /p>

：

尽管希思先生声名显赫，而且保守党内形形色色的人，无论德高 望重的或思想进步的，城府

老到或清纯幼稚的，还是年迈的或年轻的，骄傲的或谦虚的， 看来都抱成了一团，以求挽救希思先生的政治生

涯，但他还是败在一个无名小辈的手上， 而且是一个女人的手上！这真是不可思议。

C. Thinking in Images vs. Thinking in Concepts

?

Thinking

in

images

is

a

psychological

process

in

which

human

beings

analyze,

synthesize,

and

reorganize

memory presentations in brain so as to form new ones.

?

The Chinese are used to using images and specific things to express the abstract concepts so as to understand

the abstract things better and more vividly.

?

English- speaking people do judgment and make inference by using concepts. .

?

These

differences

tell

us

that

the

English-speaking

people

are

used

to

expressing

the

complex

rational

or

mental concepts in abstract nouns, while the Chinese people usually express them in specific, vivid nouns

?

E.g.

1.

And yet it almost provokes a smile at the vanity of human ambition, to see how they are crowded together and

jostled in the dust.

译文

1

：< /p>

看到他们挤成一堆在泥土中推推搡搡地前行的样子，对于人类之志向的空虚，我只能报以微

笑。

译文

2< /p>

：然而，只要看到这些人现在横七竖八地在坟墓中挤成一堆的样子，对于人类志向的虚幻都 几

乎只能报以淡淡的一笑了。

2.

When he was in Congress, sundown would not find us in Washington the day Congress adjourned.

译文

1< /p>

：他在国会时，凡议会休会之日，落日是不会发现我们在华盛顿的。

译文

2

：

当他在国 会的时候，凡议会休会之日，我们就出华盛顿郊游，不到太阳落山，我们是不回家

的。< /p>

d

.

Differences in the Distance between Subject and Object

?

The traditional Chinese thought treats the subject (human beings) as the center of the universe.

?

no clear difference between subject and object.

?

human-oriented culture

?

The

western

people

traditionally

treated

nature

as

their

cognitive

object,

holding

that

only

by

having

understood nature can human beings grasp it and tame it.

?

objective thought pattern

E.g.

1. Absence and distance make the overseas Chinese heart increasingly fond of the Peking regime.

译文

1< /p>

：缺席与距离使海外华人越来越向往北京政府。

译文

2

：华侨背井离乡，远居国外，因此他 们在感情上越来越向往北京政权。

2.

Symbols of reflectiveness passed into her face, and a note of tragedy at time into her vioce .

译文< /p>

1

：沉思的神情笼上了她的脸庞，声音中也常常有悲调。