Criteria of Translation

翻譯的標準

Speaking of criteria of translation, as early as in the Tang Dynasty, the learned Monk Xuan Zang designed criteria of translation with emphasis placed on accuracy and general knowledge. In the Qing Dynasty, Yan Fu established a three character standard in translation: faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance, which are similar to "Triness" by Herbert Rotheinstein. Faithfulness, expressiveness and gracefulness which are considered the golden rule in the field of translation.

說起翻譯的標準，早在唐朝，學識淵博的玄奘法師就把翻譯標準的重點放在語言的精準度以及知識的通俗易懂上。清朝時候，嚴復創立了一個翻譯的“三字標準”：信，達，雅。這和赫伯特·羅森斯坦提出的"Triness"原則有異曲同工之妙。忠于原著、富有表達力和文風優雅被看做翻譯界的金科玉律。

After the May 4 th Movement, Lu Xun proposed: faithfulness and smoothness as the criteria of translation.

在五四運動后，魯迅提議：“信”和“順”可以構成翻譯的標準。

Shortly after the birth of New China, quite a lot of translators put forward various criteria, such as faithfulness, smoothness, accuracy, fluency and so on ...

新中國成立不久，很多翻譯家提出各種各樣的標準，像“忠實”、“通順”、“準確”、“流暢”。

Still, some people made diverse interpretations to Yan Fu’s three-character criteria of translation as:

另外有些譯者則對嚴復的翻譯“三字標準”做出了不同版本的解釋。比如：

Faithfulness — being faithful

expressiveness — being explicit

elegance — elegant in words

“信”— 忠于原文

“達”— 明確詳盡

“雅”— 措辭優雅

Which is different from Yan’s own definition:

這和嚴復自己的解釋不同：

faithfulness — narrate the original article clearly

expressiveness — express the context smoothly

elegance — use the character standard, syntax before the Han Dynasty

“信”— 達旨（將原文說明）

“達”— 前后引襯，以顯其意（譯文通順明白）

“雅”— 爾雅（用漢以前字法、句法）

Methods of Translation

翻譯的方法

In translation from English into Chinese, the principal methods used are:

通常把英語譯成漢語，有下面幾種主要方法：

1. Literal translation (metaphrase)

2. Literal translation (paraphrase)

3. Transliteration (translation according to pronunciation)

1. 直譯

2. 意譯

3. 音譯

The last one, however, is scarcely used unless it is absolutely necessary. Transliteration is mainly used in translating proper nouns, such as names of persons, places, scientific terms and etc. Whether a translation will be faithful to be the original in all the aspects depends on the possibility of finding the closest, the most natural equivalence. And it also depends on to a great extent a good command of the transformation of the key sentence and the choice of surface structure by a translator.

后一種音譯的方法，不到萬不得已的時候我們基本不用。音譯通常用于翻譯專有名詞，像姓名、地名、科學術語等等。一個翻譯作品是否完全忠于原文，取決于譯者能否為原文在文體上找到貼近、自然的對等語，同時也在很大程度上取決于譯者能否準確地掌握核心句的轉化以及對表層形式的選擇。

看了那么多長篇大論，童鞋們是不是有點眩暈了，下面就看幾個小例子，來體會一下翻譯的博大精深吧：

1. He bent solely upon profit.

A. Surface：他只屈身于利潤之前。

B. Shallow：只有利潤才使他低頭。

C. Deep：他惟利是圖。

2. We are here today and gone tomorrow.

A. Surface：我今天在這里，明天就到別處了。

B. Shallow：今日在世，明日辭世（死去）。

C. Deep：人生朝露。

3. John is tall like I am the queen of Sheba.

A. Surface：約翰高得像是示巴皇后。

B. Shallow：約翰高的話，我就是示巴皇后。

C. Deep：要說約翰個頭高，沒那回事。

*上述幾句中的Translation C在翻譯時打破了原句結構，實則是看到了句子中更深層的東西。我們可以說在翻譯過程中，當神與形矛盾而又無法同一時，應重神似，有時不得不犧牲形式。

4. Their accent couldn’t fool a native speaker.

當地人一聽口音，就知道他們是外地人。

5. Truth lies at the bottom of the decanter.

酒后露真言。

6. Darkness released him from his last restraints.

一到天黑，他就原形畢露。

7. How much did you suffer?

"Plenty," the old man said. —The Old Man and Sea

“你吃了多少苦頭？”

“一言難盡。 ”老頭說。

—《老人與海》

8. How many winter days have I seen him, standing blue-nosed in the snow and east wind!

在許多個冬日我都看見他，鼻子凍得發紫，站在飛雪和寒風中。

9. The thought that Huck might have failed was intolerable, agonizing.

一想到哈克可能失敗了，（我們）就難以忍受，痛苦不堪。