中国书法隐喻的百年英译:策略和启示

Strategies and Implications of Translating Chinese Calligraphic Metaphors into English over the Past Century

近一个世纪以来,英语世界不断地译介和讨论中国书法文化。本文把书法隐喻总结为四类:自然隐喻、人体隐喻、战斗隐喻和音乐隐喻,通过探究这四类隐喻在英语世界中的呈现效果,展现书法隐喻所代表的思维模式和文化内涵在英文译介中的表现形式。本研究凸显了语言翻译的文献功能、文化翻译的阐释功能和世界性翻译的沟通功能,这三个概念也构成了本研究的理论框架。译文和原文的不同之处,对中国文化的全球传播具有理论和实践的双重意义。

Over the past century or so, Chinese calligraphy has been much discussed in the English-speaking world.This article puts calligraphic metaphors into four categories — nature, human body, battle, and music, and examines how these metaphors have been represented in English.The theoretical framework is composed of three progressively expanding concepts, namely, language translation, cultural translation, and cosmopolitan translation.It argues that the differences between the source language and the target language in terms of cultural representation means significantly in the context of cross-cultural communication, especially at a time when China is eager to share its culture with the world.