文化负载词汇的翻译原则与策略——“中国龙”英译风波的解读

On the Translation Principles and Strategies of Culturally-loaded Words:Viewed from the Translation of "Chinese Dragon"

翻译是两种语言之间的转换,语言的翻译实质上是文化的翻译。然而,文化的差异与冲突给翻译这种跨文化的交际活动带来了障碍。词汇是语言中最敏感的部分,许多词语常带有特定的文化信息。对于不同文化背景的人来说,由于缺乏相应的文化背景知识,很难理解、翻译这些词语。因此,文化负载词汇就成为理解与翻译的关键。本文以"中国龙"译名所引发的争论为切入点,旨在从翻译的"文化转向"和"目的论"的角度出发,探讨文化负载词汇的翻译原则与策略。笔者提出归化和异化策略都适用于文化负载词汇的翻译,而这两者之间的选择则在很大程度上取决于翻译的目的。

Translation is the conversion between two languages and it is essentially a translation of culture. However, cultural difference and conflict have brought obstacles to the cross - cultural communicative activity - translation. Vocabulary is the most sensitive part of language, and many words always contain specific eultural information. Due to the lack of corresponding cultural background knowledge, people of different cultural background may have difficulty in understanding and translating those words. Therefore, culturally - loaded words have become the key to comprehension and translation. Based on the controversy caused by the translation of ＂Chinese Dragon＂, this article discusses the translation principles and strategies of culturally -loaded words, especially from the view of ＂cultural turn＂ and ＂ skopos＂. The author proposes that domestication and foreignization are applicable to the translation of the culturally - loaded words, and the choice between the two depends largely on the purpose of translation.