瘦身翻译之理念与表现——以Moment in Peking的汉译为例

On the Theory and Practice of Thin Translation——Exemplified by Two Chinese Translations of Moment in Peking

瘦身翻译是由丰厚翻译逆向引发的一个新概念,指译者在翻译过程中将某些信息进行删减或简化的行为理念。原文读者与译文读者之间的语境视差是瘦身翻译存在的根据,即原文读者的语境视野小于译文读者的语境视野,丰厚翻译则相反。瘦身翻译尤其适用于用A语言书写B语言文化的事,然后再从A语言转换成B语言的文本。本文以林语堂Moment in Peking的两个汉译本为例,探讨其中的瘦身翻译现象。研究发现,张振玉的译本比郁飞的译本在"瘦身"处理上更为自然得体,信息冗余度明显低于郁译。瘦身翻译具有理论与实践双重意义,有望成为翻译研究的新术语。

Thin translation is a new concept derived from thick translation in a reversed way. It refers to the approach that a translator omits or simplifies certain information and thus makes the target text look ＂thinner＂than the original. Contextual gap between source text readers and target text readers gives rise to the need for both thin translation and thick translation. Regarding thin translation,the contextual horizon of source text readers is smaller than that of target text readers. A text written in language A about things in language（culture） B and then translated into language B is the most fertile ground for the practice of thin translation.This paper analyses some specific examples of thin translation in the two Chinese translations of Lin Yutang＇s Moment in Peking,and finds that Zhang Zhenyu＇s version is slightly thinner and thus better than Yu Fei＇s regarding the selected examples. Thin translation has the potential to be developed into a new term in translation studies due to its inherent theoretical and practical values.