第四册翻译入门：翻译的标准和方法

III. Criteria of Translation

翻译的标准

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.

说起翻译的标准，早在唐朝，学识渊博的玄奘法师就把翻译标准的重点放在语言的精准度以及知识的通俗易懂上。清朝时候，严复创立了一个翻译的“三字标准”：信，达，雅。这和赫伯特·罗森斯坦提出的"Triness"原则有异曲同工之妙。忠于原著、富有表达力和文风优雅被看做翻译界的金科玉律。

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

在五四运动后，鲁迅提议：“信”和“顺”可以构成翻译的标准。

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 ...

新中国成立不久，很多翻译家提出各种各样的标准，像“忠实”、“通顺”、“准确”、“流畅”。Still, some people made diverse interpretations to Yan Fu's three-character criteria of translation as:

另外有些译者则对严复的翻译“三字标准”做出了不同版本的解释。比如：

Faithfulness — being faithful

expressiveness — being explicit

elegance — elegant in words

“信”—忠于原文

“达”—明确详尽

“雅”—措辞优雅

Which is different from Yan's own definition:

这和严复自己的解释不同：

faithfulness — narrate the original article clearly

expressiveness — express the context smoothly

elegance — use the character standard, syntax before the Han Dynasty “信”—达旨（将原文说明）

“达”—前后引衬，以显其意（译文通顺明白）

“雅”—尔雅（用汉以前字法、句法）

IV. Methods of Translation

翻译的方法

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

通常把英语译成汉语，有下面几种主要方法：

1. Literal translation (metaphrase)

2. Literal translation (paraphrase)

3. Transliteration (translation according to pronunciation)

1. 直译

2. 意译

3. 音译

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.

最后一种音译的方法，不到万不得已的时候我们基本不用。音译通常用于翻译专有名词，像姓名、地名、科学术语等等。一个翻译作品是否完全忠于原文，取决于译者能否为原文在文体上找到最贴近、最自然的对等语，同时也在很大程度上取决于译者能否准确地掌握核心句的转化以及对表层形式的选择。

看了那么多长篇大论，童鞋们是不是有点眩晕了，下面就看几个小例子，来体会一下翻译的博大精深吧：

1. He bent solely upon profit.

A. Surface：他只屈身于利润之前。

B. Shallow：只有利润才使他低头。

C. Deep：他惟利是图。

2. We are here today and gone tomorrow.

A. Surface：我今天在这里，明天就到别处了。

B. Shallow：今日在世，明日辞世（死去）。

C. Deep：人生朝露。

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

A. Surface：约翰高得像是示巴皇后。

B. Shallow：约翰高的话，我就是示巴皇后。

C. Deep：要说约翰个头高，没那回事。

*上述几句中的Translation C在翻译时打破了原句结构，实则是看到了句子中更深层的东西。我们可以说在翻译过程中，当神与形矛盾而又无法同一时，应重神似，有时不得不牺牲形式。

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

当地人一听口音，就知道他们是外地人。

5. Truth lies at the bottom of the decanter.

酒后露真言。

6. Darkness released him from his last restraint s.

一到天黑，他就原形毕露。

7. How much did you suffer?

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

“你吃了多少苦头？”

“一言难尽。”老头说。

—《老人与海》

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

在许多个冬日我都看见他，鼻子冻得发紫，站在飞雪和寒风中。

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

一想到哈克可能失败了，（我们）就难以忍受，痛苦不堪。