华夏文化汉英翻译赏析

华中师范大学

周易文化汉英翻译语言现象研究Zhouyi Culture and the Study of C-E Translation

学生姓名郑晴

专业班级 0801

导师姓名何纯举

学生学号 20080212655

二○一一年12月29日

Abstract:

Yin and yang are contained in basic category of ancient philosophy.In the late Western Zhou Dynasty,after people’s observing phenomena of contradicts the concept of contradiction gradually rose to perception of yin and yang,which was used by many people to illustrate the reason why everything changes and moves.

①yin and yang are a unity of opposites,such as spring and autum,hot and cold,male and female,sunshine and darkness,ect.The declining and growing of yin and yang the two opposite aspects is interchageable and compatible……Key words：Y i n a n d Y a n g，philosophy，male and female，Western Zhou Dynasty，contradicts，perception

内容摘要：阴和阳是（中国）古代哲学的基本范畴。西周末年，人们从矛盾现象的观察中逐渐把矛盾概念上升理解为阴阳范畴，并用阴阳而其的消长来解释事物运动变化的原因。

①阴和阳是矛盾对立的统一体，如：春和秋，冷和热，雌与雄，光明与黑暗等等。阴阳两方面是此消彼长的两个对立关系，可互相转化，并且不可分割……

关键词：阴和阳，哲学，雌和雄，西周，矛盾，理解

Contents

内容摘要 (1)

关键词 (1)

Abstract (1)

Key words (1)

Introduction (2)

Characters of Zhou yi Culture (2)

The Practice of Translation of Ancient Chinese-English (3)

The Concrete theory about Translation (3)

The Translation Around Us (4)

Conclusion (4)

Bibliography (5)

Introduction

What is translation? In broad sense,translation includes the the switches between actions and language signs or between two different languages. Even in the same language, we need to translate the cryptic acient essay into modern one with great effort and excellente skills ,let alone Chinese(classical writings)-English translation.moreover，The essential destination we should bear in mind is to express/interpret the original meaning in our translatioted text.Therefore such kind of translation are very demanding for translator. Difficult as it is,there are many learned scholars who have done it

well.What we are going to focus on is how they accomplish and what we can learn from them.

Characters of Zhou yi Culture

Before we start,there’re 3 points we need to go over . As we all know,the state of nature or different environments have influence on the pattern of thinking. So Chinese pattern differs greatly from that of English. Firstly, Chinese people attach more importance to ethics while English/American people cognition. this fact can be illustrate by some examples in chinese idioms:顺其自然，听其自然，杞人忧天,but we can find British and American people have a zest for astronomy and geography.

secondly,chinese lay stress on integrity and synthetic thought while english and american individuality and analytic thought..For example,traditional doctors of Chinese medicine science recognize a patient as a whole,judge their disease with a sense of yin and yan,and famers realize the importance of good weather for the crops(风调雨顺).

Thirdly,Chinese pay more attention to intuition while English-speaking people evidence.(which will be discussed below)

The Practice of Translation of Ancient Chinese-English

Yin and yang are contained in basic category of acient philosophy.In the late Western Zhou Dynasty,after people’s observing phenomena of contradicts the concept of contradiction gradually rose to yin and yang,which was used by many people to illustrate the reason why everything changes and moves.

①yin and yang are a unity of opposites,such as spring and autum,hot and cold,male and female,sunshine and darkness,ect.yin and yang,the decline and growing of the two aspects is interchageable and compatible,

绿翠道：“这么说来，从古至今，开天辟地，都是这些阴阳了？”湘云笑道：“糊涂东西，越说越放屁。什么‘都是些阴阳’，男的还有两个阴阳不成！……阴阳可有什么样儿，不过是个气，器物赋了成型。比如天是阳，地就是阴；水是阴，火就是阳；日是阳，月就是阴。”（曹雪芹《红楼梦》）

“do you mean to say everything’s been a yin or a yang ever since creation and the beginning of time?””what nonsense you do talk,you stupid thing.”xiangyun couldn’t help laughing.”how could there be so many yins and yangs?……they’re simply natural forces,but whatever they enter assumes a form.heaven is yang and the earth is yin.water is yin,fire is yang;the sun is yang,the moon is yin”(杨宪益、戴乃迭译)

Langue and Parole This is a distinction made by the Swiss linguist F.De Saussure early last century. Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community and parole refers to the actualized（实际的）language, or realization of langue.foreign famous

philosophy is "On Practice" and "On Contradiction’,which hold the same idea. A change in form but not in content,which may not be a big barrier in our translation

②a set of yin and yang might contain another set of yin and yang,a simple thing might own uncountable sets of yin and yang.for instance,a man is attributed to yang but not pure yang,in which also exist yin.a single yin cannot grow,only a yang cannot survive without yin.

这边正面就是阳，那边反面就是阴，飞禽走兽，雄为阳雌为阴。(《红楼梦》曹雪芹)

The front is yang and the back is yin…the male of all beasts and birds is yang and the female is yin. （杨宪益、戴乃迭译)

③The five elements indicate the relationship of every thing in the world.They are gold,wood,water,fire and earth,which everything on the earth is formed from. The special circumstances of China breed the magic picture of taiji .

“先生精于风鉴？卜易谈星、看相算命。内科外科。内丹外丹，以及请仙判事、扶颭笔录，晚生都略知一二。”（吴敬梓《儒林外传史》第十回）

“Y ou are no doubt an adept at fortune-telling,sir,”They said.”I have a smattering of knowledge concerning the hexagrams, astrology,fortune-telling,medicine, surgery,yoga and chemistry, besides knowing how to consult the oracles.” (杨宪益、戴乃迭译)

④Chinese medical culture depends on Zhou yi system,the five core organisms in human’s body is like five elements.

背为阳，阳中之阳，心也；背为阳，阳中之阴，肺也……

Liver, heart and kidney, lung, spleen represent wood, fire, earth, metal and water respectively.The relationship of these five oganism is mutual generation and constraining.

The Concrete theory about translation

Above all,we have a glimpse of Zhou yi culture,and we can feel that Zhouyi has a beautiful ,conplicated and mysterious language,whose foundation is the mathmaticas veiled in mystery.It has unique complete system of Chinese thinking pattern.In the light of making a observable translation.

We can conclude several points:①Make use of literal translation（直译）.for example:“卦命‘小畜’什么‘密云不雨’，‘舆脱福，夫妻反目’”(钱钟书《围城》)“It was the Little Beast lot:‘Dense clouds,no rain.The spokes burst out of the wagon wheels.Man and wife roll their eyes.’”(珍妮、茅国权译)

②Make use of parahrase(意译) ,if Chinese sentense lacks of object or other

necessary elements in English.如“挂起的很灵，不如请他来占卦。”“There is a very good diviner here from the south, why not ask him here to consult him?”(《红楼梦》杨宪益、戴乃迭译)

③Make use of Chinese Pinyin(汉语拼音).”阴阳” can be translated into “yin and yang”.In addition,put“乾坎艮震簨立坤”into “qian kan gen zhen sun li kun” ,each pinyin represents character respectively.

The Translation Around Us

Nowadays,people inherit such wise methods from former learners to accomplish perfect translation to make it more clear for foreginers.We can find many examples to illustrate those methods:“武汉黄鹤楼”has two translated versions which are widely used , Wuhan Yellow Crane Tower and Wuhan Huanghelou.“博雅园”can be translated as “erudition canteen”or “Boyayuan”.Both are OK.“桂子山”can be translated as “osmanthus mounta in”or”guizi mountain” .Of course“红烧狮子头“should not be put as”fired red lion’s head”,which will scare many people.instead,” braised meat balls in brown sauce”is better,which indicates the indegrents and the way we cook it.”

conclusion

?I have draw three main points of methodology from authoritative principles.

?Firstly, Synchronic（共时）and Diachronic（历时）StudiesThe description of a language at some point in time is a synchronic study and The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study.therefore,the main content we discuss today is diachronic study,the words written in ancient time .two ages in time certainly have great different characters,but also have some alike features.having a good understanding of the principle may gift us with double wings when we practice.

Secondly,Descriptive（描述性）or Prescriptive（说明性）A linguistic study is descriptive if it describes and analyses facts observed; it is prescriptive if it tries to lay down rules for "correct" behavior. Zhouyi culture and Chinese traditional medicine prescription are good examples,which are prescriptive language.otherwise narrating the story is descriptive. We should be able to distinguish the two categories ,or we cannot translate well.

Thirdly,when we come across classical language in Chinese,we would at first study and get to know the original meaning.After that,we choose the most appropriate way to make it across.It is great that we rhymn as well as gift our version with metrical feature. After observing those phenomena,I have to draw attention to Positional relation or word order（词序）：The sequential（顺序）arrangement of words in target language and source language in terms of syntax theories .

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Bibliography

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胡文彬：胡文彬谈红楼梦。北京：当代世界出版社，2006

李运兴：汉英翻译教程，新华出版社，2003

何兆熊，梅德明：现代语言学。外语教学与研究出版社，2006