时序与经验传达:《论语》英译文比较研究

Time Sequence and Conveyance of Experience:A Comparative Study of the English Translations of The Analects

由于译者与作者所处文化、历史和时空的差异,作为汉语典籍的《论语》在英语翻译过程中往往面临着被改写时序的境遇,进而导致信息差额或变化。本文通过比较《论语》的三种英译文和原文之间的时序差异,说明时间性所构建的顺序作为阐释经验的一个组织原则应该纳入翻译对等性评价之中。

Chinese classics such as The Analects can be modified in terms of the time sequence when it is translated into English due to some restrictions in code-switching, different contextual constraints, and historical shift from the author to the translator, which would produce under-translation or bring change in representing the original experience in contrast to the original text. In this paper, a comparative study of the three different English versions of The Analects is conducted to probe into the distinctions of time sequence between the original text and the corresponding translations, with the intention to argue that the modification of time sequence and consequently the changed sequence of events which has been granted as an organization principle in representing the experiences is worth exploring and should be taken into serious consideration in the process of equivalence evaluation.