万变不离“忠”

Agreementon Faithfulness to Source Text

探讨了中国翻译史上几个重要时期有代表性的译家的翻译观,译家们对翻译的看法虽"远近高低各不同",但在"忠实"这一点却是相同的,即:都认为译文与原文应保持一致。鉴于此,译家们在翻译认知上的分歧不是根本对立的,而是共识之上的个体差异,"忠实"就是他们的共识,就是他们的最大的公约数;另外,译家们的不同见地还表明"忠实"是多层面的,是绝对与相对的辩证统一,也就是,译文与原文不仅"形似、意似、神似",而且还存在一些绝对对等的因素,其根源在于人类生理、心理、文化及语言等方面的诸多共性与相似性。因此,"忠实"是共性与个性、绝对与相对的辩证统一,是翻译活动的指南,是衡量译文优劣的尺码,是译者务必遵循的、首要的、也是最基本的准则。

A few famous translators＇ views on translation is studied,any of whom is the representative of his time in translation history of China.This paper finds that although each giant dissents with one another on translation,there is one on which they agree,namely,faithfulness to source text.That is to say,they have the same idea that translated text should keep consistent with source text as much a,possible. Accordingly,the author of this paper holds that the giants＇ differences on translation are not incompatible,in fact,they share a common ground,which is faithfulness to source text.Moreover,the giants＇ differences reflect that there are many aspects of a source text with which translated text should keep consistent,and that the consistencies are relative in some cases,and in others,they are absolute.That is to say, translated text not only can be alike to the source formally,semantically or essentially, but can be absolutely equivalent to it in some aspects,which result from mankind＇s biological,psychological,cultural or lingual commonalties or similarities.All in all,the author of this paper contends that faithfulness to source text is the basic principle that translators must follow in translation,it is also one of the standards through which a version is appreciated,furthermore,it is a responsibility that translators must take for the author of source text,for the readers as well as for translators themselves.