此时有象胜无象——谈古诗英译中文化意象的翻译

Translation of Cultural Images from Chinese Classical Poems

诗歌美在意境。意境是由不同的意象组合而成的,其中包括文化意象。就文化意象的翻译而言,在古诗英译的实践中,存在着直译法和意译法的区分。意译法弃象译意,或破坏了诗的意境,或折损了诗的神韵,因而是不可取的。直译法优于意译法,有象胜于无象。

The poetic beauty lies in artistic conception, which consists of various images including cultural images. As far as translating cultural images is concerned, there exists a distinction of literal translation and free translation in the practice of translating classical Chinese poems into their English counterparts. The latter is not feasible in that it abandons the concrete images for the abstract meaning at the cost of either the poem＇ s artistic conception or its entailment. The former is superior to the latter, and having images is better than having none.