《道德经》中“自然”之跨文化英译

An Analysis of the Cross-cultural Interpretation of Spontaneously-so-ing in Daodejing

老子之“自然”作为“道”所效法或遵循的最终原则,标示着老子哲学的核心价值。对这一体现道家核心观念的词汇的不同英文译解会引起《道德经》在整体阐释上的差异,可以说这一词汇有着牵一发而动全身的重要性。然而由于原文语义含混、中西语言文化差异、译者主体差异、时空环境不同等因素,译者对老子《道德经》中“自然”一词的英文译解与原文往往出现不同方面和程度的偏差。因此,需要将它放在道家思想脉络中加以考察,从而对这一词汇的原始和基本内涵予以梳理,在分析已有英译本的基础上,在跨文化的背景下,探讨如何最大限度地使“自然”在译入语中葆有其自身特有的文化内涵。

As the innate quality,connotation of tao and its guiding principle,spontaneously-so-ing embodies the essential spirit of the philosophy of Laozi.Since it has a far-reaching importance,a different translation and interpretation of this Daoist cultural core word may lead to a different understanding of the whole Daodejing.However,due to the ambiguity of the original text,the subjectivity of the translator,the linguistic and cultural differences between China and West,some translators’interpretations of spontaneously-so-ing often deviate from the original text.On that account,this paper tries to start with a brief review of the basic connotation of spontaneously-so-ing in Daodejing,and focuses especially on interpreting spontaneously-so-ing in the thread of Daoist thoughts.Hopefully,on the basis of the previous versions,it may find a way to convey the cultural connotation of spontaneously-so-ing as it is into the target language.