鸠摩罗什和严复对读者的关照及原因探究

On Kumarajiva and Yan Fu's Care for the Readers and Its Causes

鸠摩罗什和严复都是中国历史上的翻译大家,其译文各具特点。时代较早的鸠摩罗什译文比较直白,时间靠后的严复译文反倒典雅。本文指出,造成这种不同的原因是两位翻译家对读者的关照。翻译理论上,两位翻译家都注意到了要让读者更好地接受译文;翻译方法上,两位译者都各尽所能,照顾了心目中的读者;译名的厘定上,两位翻译家对译名的态度十分认真,采取多种方法,让读者理解源语的内涵。两位译者对读者如此关照,自有其深刻的原因。他们都有着强烈的翻译目的,原意让读者理解作品内容;他们面对的是不同的读者群,因此译文文风各异,两位译者都是学贯中西的大家,因而能自由地操控自己的表达。

Kumarajiva and Yah Fu are two outstanding translators in the Chinese history of translation. However, the style of their works makes us puzzled in that the works of Kumarajiva, who lived in the 4th century, is easier for us to understand than the works of Yan Fu, who is apart from now for only 80 years. This paper pointed out that the reason for this phenomenon is their care for the readers and analysed it from three aspects such as the theory of their translation, the way of their translation and their method of proper terms translation. They all have their readers in their mind and tried their best to make their translation works understandable to the readers. This paper also explored the reason of their different styles. First, they have their own purpose of translation. Then they are facing different readers and the last, both of them are well learned to do their excellent translation.