质疑“信”、“达”、“雅”

Questioning "Faith,Exactness and Elegance"in Language Translation

长期以来,严复提出的“信”、“达”、“雅”被我国广大译者奉为翻译标准,被认为是译界的金科玉律。本文从三个方面对“信”、“达”、“雅”提出质疑。首先,本文认为“信”“达”“雅”不能称之为翻译理论;其次,指出“信”、“达”、“雅”作为翻译标准的适用有一定的局限性;最后质疑“信”“达”“雅”的经典地位,并提出人们不能盲目推崇“信”、“达”、“雅”,而应该拓宽视野,借鉴西方近几十年来翻译理论建设方面所取得的巨大成果,把中国的翻译理论推上一个新的台阶。

Language translators have long regarded “Faith, Exactness and Elegance” as the basic translation criteria or the golden rule since its being put forward by Yah Fu. This paper questions “Faith, Exactness and Elegance” from 3 aspects. First, whether “Faith, Exactness and Elegance” can be considered as a theory. Secondly, to what extent are “Faith, Exactness and Elegance” manipulable as only translation criteria. And thirdly, is the status of “Faith, Exactness and Elegance” stable. This paper also suggests that translators not feel self-contented with the old principle, but learn from new and systematic translation theories from western countries and bring life back to language translation.