从《天演论》看严复翻译思想与翻译实践之相悖成因

Causes of Contradiction Between YAN Fu's Translation Pringciles and His Translation Practice Based on Translation of Thomas H. Huxley's Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays

作为中国近代翻译界的泰斗,严复历来以其著名的"信.达.雅"之翻译思想闻名于世。但由于种种原因,严复的翻译实践和其主张的翻译思想常常并不一致,主要表现为其雅驯深奥的译文并不忠实于原文的形式与内容。以严译《天演论》为例,在分析诸多具体严氏译文并对照其现代汉语译文的基础上,从社会环境、西学传播、目标读者三个层面对严氏翻译思想和翻译实践之相悖成因进行重点探析,旨在说明严复翻译过程中的用心良苦,也为当前非文学文本的翻译提供启示。

As a top -notch translator in modem China, YAN Fu had been well known for his famous translation principle of＂ faithfulness , expressiveness , and elegance＂. For the sake of certain reasons, however, YAN Fu usually ran counter to the translation principle he proposed in his translation practices, which primarily manifested itself in the fact that his archaic translations were not faithful to the form and content of the source text. Through taking YAN Fu＇ s version of Evolution and Ethics, for example, and on the basis of analyzing YAN＇ s concrete translations and comparing its modem Chinese version, the paper attempts to make an emphatically discussion of the causes of YAN ＇ s translation practices running counter to his translation principles from the three aspects, namely, social environ- ment, spread of western learning, target readers, and thereby aims to explain YAN＇s considerable thoughts in his translation, which will provide some enlightenments to the translation of current non -literary works as well.