论学术翻译的文献回译——以梅尔清《清初扬州文化》中译本为例

Academic Literature:Translation and Back-translation——Exemplified by the Chinese Back-translation of Building Culture in Early Qing Yangzhou

“惟真求实”是学术翻译的基本规范,学术翻译的文献回译能否遵循这一规范,则是判断一部译著学术质量的重要依据。以新版清史“编译丛刊”《清初扬州文化》为例,该书在人名回译、地名回译、书名回译、其他专名及数字回译、直接引文回译等方面均存在文献回译过程带有共性的问题,这些问题的产生有着各种不同的原因,如何避免这些问题,值得学界共同关注。

A basic rule for academic translation is 'loyal to the original'. When we evaluate a Chinese translation of Sinological works, the important standard is whether the quotations can be back-translated into the original archaic Chinese text. In this paper, exemplified by a Chinese back-translation of Building Culture in Early Qing Yangzhou, the author analyzes the common type of mistakes in the back-translation of the proper names of historic figures and places, book titles, number of book volumes, direct quotations, etc. Factors leading to poor translations are various, and translators are o-bliged to avoid them.