严复的“信、达、雅”

Yan Fu's "Faithfulness; Expressiveness; Elegance"

在中国历史上曾经出现过四次翻译活动的高潮,第一次是从东汉至唐朝的佛经翻译,第二次为明末清初的科技翻译,第三次翻译高潮出现在鸦片战争到五四运动时期,第四次高潮从改革开放至今。其中以严复为代表人物的第三次翻译高潮将中国对于西方文学、科技、社会学著作的翻译活动推到了一个全新的高度,严复所提出的"信、达、雅"的翻译原则长期以来被公认为翻译理论的经典准则,被无数译者奉为圭臬。这里笔者将力图用简单的语言对严复的翻译理论做一阐释。

The history of translation in China has appeared climax for four times .The first from Eastern Han to the Tang Dynasty for the Buddhist translation, the second during the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty for the translation of technology, the third from the Opium War to the May Fourth Movement, the fourth from the Reform and Opening until now. Especially, a representative Yan Fu during the third climax of translation impel the Chinese translation work for the western literature, technology and sociology to a whole new level, the translation principles 'faithfulness, expressiveness, elegance' which proposed by Yan Fu has been recognized as the classic criteria for translation theory for a long time and also regarded as a model by numerous translators. I will try to use simple words to focus on the interpretation of Yan Fu's translation theory.