中国的文学翻译:从归化趋向异化

Chinas Literary Translation: from Domestication to Foreignization

本文从翻译策略的角度,对我国一个多世纪以来的文学翻译作一回顾,并对21世纪文学翻译策略的发展趋势加以展望。从19世纪70年代到20世纪70年代,我国的文学翻译除“五四”后十余年异化译法一度占上风外,大部分时间还是以归化译法为主调。20世纪最后20年,中国翻译界受西方翻译理论的启发,对异化、归化进行了重新思考,异化译法开始受到重视。我们有理由相信:21世纪的中国文学翻译,将进一步趋向异化译法,而这异化译法的核心,就是尽量传译原文的“异质因素”,具体说来,就是要尽量传达原作的异域文化特色,异语语言形式,以及作者的异常写作手法。但同时又指出,异化译法还要注意限度,讲究分寸,行不通的时候,还要借助归化法。

This paper provides a general survey of China’s literary translation from the angle of translation strategies. With the exception of thefifteen or sixteen years following the May 4 Movement, the first hundred years (from the 1870s to the 1970s) of the history of China’ s literarytranslation was characterized by the domination of strategies of domestication. In the last two decades of the 20th century, due to the influenceof Western translation theories, China’s translation circles began to reconsider the relationship between foreignization and domestication. Asa result, more attention was paid to the strategies of foreignization, by theorists as well as translators. There is good reason to believe, therefore,that foreignization will be the preferred strategy of literary translation in China in the 21st century. A foreignizing translation aims primarily toreproduce as much as possible the“foreign elements”in the original, including (1) the foreign cultural features, (2) the foreign formal features,and (3) the author’s unusual writing techniques. It should be pointed out, however, that in applying the foreignizing method, the translator shouldnot go beyond what is permitted by the Chinese language and culture and what is acceptable to the Chinese readers. When foreignization is notfeasible, the translator should resort to domestication as a supplementary method.