论英语典故与习语的来源与翻译 [6]
论文作者:林英梅论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2009-04-09编辑:黄丽樱点击率:12282
论文字数:6490论文编号:org200904091549243842语种:中文 Chinese地区:中国价格:免费论文
关键词:idiomsallusiontranslation methods习语神话典故翻译方法
poem “Odyssey”. When the Greek had left Troy, they left behind a big wooden horse outside the Troy city. Priest Laocoon tried his best to persuade his king not to accept the thing that the Greek stayed behind. He said that, “I fear the Greek, even when bringing gifts.” But what a pity, the king and the people did not listen to his advice. They pulled the big wooden horse into their city. Actually, in the wooden horse there hid the most excellent Greek soldiers. At that night, they killed the Trojan and fired the city. This wooden horse brought disaster to the Troy. [7] In English Greek gifts is equal to the proverb: When the fox preaches, take care of your geese. The similar Chinese idiom is “the yellow weasel goes to his respects to the hen-----with the best of intention”. 黄鼠狼给鸡拜年―不安好心.[8] Other examples are:
(5) Achilles' heel which means the only weakness, or strategic point 致命弱点;
(6) Cut the Gordian knot means taking the drastic measures, in Chinese means 快刀斩乱麻;
(7) The sword of Damocles, the sword hanging above Damocles’ head compares to the worrying mentality 忧患意识
Furthermore, we should never neglect the following facts. Make a general survey of the history of translation, we are not difficult to see many literal translations are temporary means to meet emergency. The most remarkable represent is transliterations. Going through a long time, transliteration stands firmly and slowly and is gradually accepted by Chinese. In the end they become our everyday terms. Like “humor, sofa, hamburger” and so on. And we should realize another two ways of translation: one is imitating the original text that is more or less a little nondescript, and the other is explaining the original text clearly, but it would be lengthy. Translating the allusion in English idioms is the same.
(8) Here is a typical example on transliteration. Right now the Chinese are probably familiar with these two words: science and democracy. But in fact, they are not locally born. On the early 20th century, the translations of these two words were rather strange to us. The former is transliterated into 赛因斯 or shortened as Mr. Sai(赛先生), while the latter is 德谟克拉西 or shortened as Mr. De(德先生). Afterwards they are changed into 科学and 民主[9]. Even Mr. Lu Xun also has made the very interesting attempt in this aspect. He translated English word “fairplay” into 费尔泼赖 which was accepted by the Chinese at that time. Actually, either “science” or “fair play” is just a temporary ideal approach of translation in the situation that had no equivalents in Chinese.
(9) There is another example. In the 1960’s there was a large quantity of young men called “the decadents” in America. They were discontented with the social situation, hated anything, held the resistance to the traditional value, did anything new and different in order to out of ordinary, kept the long hair, wore the outlandish clothes, and advocated intercourse freely. They were called “hippies” in English. How to translate it into Chinese? Since in Chinese glossary, no ready-made word can express the above section of speeches. Summarizing the word as “the men to counter tradition” or “people dissatisfying the reality” unavoidably lose the cultural meaning. So transliterating “hippies” into 嬉皮士 can well solve this problem.
3.2.2 Free translation
Free translation is similar to domestication. It refers to such a translation method: when the translators are confined by the target language cultural differences; they hav
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