从文化自信看专有名词“黄帝”的英译

On the English Translation of the Proper Noun “黄帝” from the Perspective of Cultural Confidence

文化自信就是文化主体对自身文化价值及其生命力的确信、肯定、认可和依赖的稳定性心理特征。这种稳定性特征表现为文化主体对自身文化的充分肯定和情感依托,在与外来文化进行比较和选择时,也依然保持对自身文化的高度坚持与信赖。文化自信是增强文化软实力的发动机,是应对异质文化的防火墙,也是实现民族强大的定心丸。“黄帝”是中华民族的人文初祖、文明初祖和华夏初祖。在翻译实践中,需要以文化自信为指导,在文化翻译理论的框架内,对“黄帝”所承载的文化有充分的肯定和传递,在译语中以不损原语文化本真的基础上予以呈现。目前“黄帝”的英译版本存在着很大问题,需要进行及时纠正。

Cultural confidence can be defined as the stable psychological characteristics of the cultural subject's assurance, affirmation, recognition and dependence of its own culture’s value and vitality. The stable psychological characteristics can be shown as the cultural subject’s fully affirmation and emotional attachment to its own culture, and also as the strong perseverance and trust of its own culture when comparing with and choosing from a foreign culture. Cultural confidence can act as the engine to enhance the cultural soft power, the firewall to fight against the colonizing of a different culture, and the assurance to fully develop a nation’s strength.“黄帝” is the first ancestor and the earliest civilizational beginning of the Chinese nation, and is also the engine, the firewall and the assurance of Chinese culture. When it comes to the practice of translating “黄帝” into a second language, guided by the concept of cultural confidence and cultural translation theory, the translator should fully affirm and depend on the cultural elements deeply loaded in “黄帝”, and try all efforts to present fully the original image in the target language. So far, there has been a severe problem with the present several English versions of “黄帝” which needs to be corrected timely.