文化差异与中医英译

Cultural Differences and TCM Translation

中医英译研究起步较晚,尽管多年来做了不少工作,也取得一定的成效,但总体上仍是滞后,许多研究多停留在翻译的方法上,各叙己见,这导致中医译作的混乱,质量不佳。中西医学产生于两种截然不同的文化背景中,它们的发生和发展受到各自文化的深刻影响,打下了各自的民族文化烙印,其思维方式与语言特点差异很大。中医英译的核心问题是文化差异,在翻译中,只有正视这些差异,才能保留中医的特色。

The academic study on translation of traditional Chinese medicine started relatively late. Despite the efforts and achievements made in the passing decades, many researches remain at the level of methodology discussion. It is hard to reach a consensus on a＇standard theory with every school sticking to different views, which finally results in confusion and bad qualities of the translated works. From the perspective of author, western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine generated in totally different cultural backgrounds and their developments have been deeply influenced by their own cul- tures, which stamped them with respective national peculiarities and produced widely differing thinking modes and linguistic features. The kernel of TCM translation therefore lies in handling the cultural disparities which should be taken seriously to retain the characteristics of our traditional medicines.