从佛经与圣经翻译看中西方翻译传统的相似性

The Translation of the Buddhist Scripts and the Bible and the Similarity between the Chinese and Western Traditions of Translation

本文讨论了中国的佛经翻译与西方的圣经翻译的一些相关因素,说明任何大规模的翻译活动都要受主体文化的目的、文化网格和语言网格的制约;在这一点上中西方翻译传统并没有本质的差异。本文同时指出,在同其他文化接触时,中西方文化都有以自我为世界中心的“自我映象”的倾向,因而都倾向于采用归化的翻译策略。西方有些学者如勒弗维尔关于西方译者更为忠实原文,而中国译者则倾向于归化原文的观点,至少是片面的。

This paper discusses some of the similarities between the Chinese and Western traditions of translation. A brief discussion of Bible translation and sutra translation shows that all large-scale translation activities are subject to a number of constraints such as the purpose of the target culture and its cultural and linguistic grids. In this regard, there seems to be no fundamental difference between the two traditions. It is also pointed out that both the Chinese culture and Western culture have the tendency of regarding themselves as the center of the world when they come into contact with other cultures and, therefore, tend to adopt the strategy of acculturation. Lefevere's idea that Western translators tend to be more faithful to the original while Chinese translators tend to acculturate it is at least a one-sided view of the matter.