Culture Differences and Idiom Translation.doc

Culture Differences and Idiom Translation 【Abstract】Translation is,in fact,a converting process.Theoretically,a good translation should give us its reader the same conception as what a native reader gets from the original.Translation means intercultural communication by means of which one culture can be transmitted into another,so the cultural differences should be paid more attention to in translation.This paper focuses on cultural differences and idiom translation.By analyzing the differences between Chinese and foreign cultures,the paper introduces some methods of idiom translation.【Key words】Cultural differences；Translation；Idioms；Methods文化差异与谚语翻译【摘要】翻译是一个转换的过程。就理论上而言，好的翻译应该给予读者以与原著读者相同的感受为设想。翻译是跨文化的交流，也就是说，一种文化可以传达为另一种文化，因此，在翻译中要注重文化差异。本文探讨文化差异和一些习语的翻译。通过分析阐述中西方文化的差异，提出了一些翻译习语的方法。【关键词】文化差异；翻译；习语；方法 Different cultures are not simply groups of people who label the world differently;languages give us the means to shape our views of the world and are different from one another.We express what we see and feel through languages,and because languages are so clearly culture- related,often we find what we can say in one language cannot be expressed at all in another.Communicating in another language involves not only linguistic skills,but the ability to think differently,to enter into another cultures mentality and shape language accordingly.Bates and Plog(1990)proposed a descriptive definition that includes most of the major territory of culture on which scholars currently agree.Culture is a system of shared beliefs,values,customs,behaviors,and artifacts that the members of a society use to copy with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning. The definition includes not only patterns of behavior but also patterns of thought,artifacts,and the culturally transmitted skills and techniques used to make the artifacts.Language is based on the natural environment.Every country or nation is situated in various surroundings,thus all kinds of languages have been endowed with special circumstance features.The English people live on an island and their navigation business was once the worlds best.Therefore,they have a large number of special words concerning water and ships.On the other hand,China is a traditional inland nation,so we can hardly find words related to water and ships. Examples include:“all at sea”(不知所措)，”spend money like water”(挥金如土),“to rest on ones oars”（暂时歇一歇）,“keep ones head above water”(奋力图强),“ride out the storm of”(战胜风暴，战胜困难)，”learn the rope”(熟悉内幕). We have difference in animal words translation.Take the Chinese idiom“望子成龙”for example.Look at the following translations:to hope that ones son will become a dragon. to hope that ones son will become a somebody.to hope ones son will have a bright future. Certainly Chinese readers will think that the first translation is best.In our opinion,a dragon is a kind of mystical animal which represents fortune and satisfaction.In Chinese history,the dragon stood for the emperor.Now we call ourselves“the descendant of a dragon”,so dragon is the deity in Chinese peoples heart.In a dictionary,”dragon”means a large imaginary animal with wings and the power to breathe out fire.So in western countries,a dragon is Satan,the Price of the Devil,a woman who is very stern and has high vigilance.As a result,the western readers will accept the second and the third translations.Because of these,when we tanslate and has high vigilance.As a result,the western readers willaccept the second and the third translations. Not only animals,but also colors have cultural differences.In Chinese,we often use the seven kinds of color”赤橙黄绿青蓝紫”,while in English the basic color words are black,red,yellow,green,blue, brown,purple,pink,orange,and grey.All the words expressing colorshave the same literal meaning both in Chinese ad English,but when they are used as metaphors,they mean quite different things.To Chinese people,blue can produce fine imagination,and it stands for purification and magnanimousness.To English people,blue expresses failure,depression,horror and grief.For example:”She looks blue today.”means”She is depressed.”“in the blues”means“in low spirits”.“Blue Monday”means”the dejected Monday after the rest of weekends”.“Blue murder”means“horrid scream.”Color words,though very small in number,reflect to a certain extent the cultural,moral and aesthetic values of different races and people of different times. Many people in the west believe in Christianity,so there are a large number of related idioms in their language,such as:”God helps those who help themselves”(上帝帮助自助的人)，“Go to hell”（下地狱去）. The authorized version of the 16611s Holy Bible has become the mental food of the English people.The literary quotation,metaphor and parable behave broadly for accepting,and bywords or idioms created from the Bible are well known by women and children.For example:the olivebranch(symbol of peace),comes from Holy Bible(Genesis chapter 8 section 11).The set phrase scapegoat(替罪羊)comes from Holy Bible (Leviticus Chapter 16 section 8).Wash ones hand of a thing(与己无关，撒手不管)comes from Holy Bible(Matthew). And the Chinese people believe in Buddhism and Taoism introduced into China more than one thousand years ago.People believe that it is Buddha who controls everything in the world.Therefore,there are a lot of idioms,bywords,literary reference concerned with religion such as:”借花献佛”，”临时抱佛脚”，”放下屠刀，立地成佛”. In early times,every society developed its own myths,which played an important part in the societys religious life.By studying myths,we can learn how different societies have answered basic questions about the world and the individuals place in it.We study myths to learn how apeople developed a particular social system with its many customs and ways of life.By examining myth,we can better understand the feelings and values that bind members of society into one group.We can compare the myths of various cultures to discover how these cultures differ andhow they resemble one another.We can also study myths to try to understand why people behave as they do. The idioms and bywords that come from ancient Chinese myth aretoo numerous to enumerate,such as:开天辟地；精卫填海；夸父追日，后羿射日etc.Take开天辟地for example:in the beginning,the heavens and earth were still one and all was chaos.The universe was like a big black egg,carrying Pan Gu inside itself.After 18 thousand years Pan Gu woke from a long sleep.He felt suffocated,so he took up a broadax and wielded it with all his might to crack open the egg.The light,clear part of it floated up and formed the heavens,the cold,turbid matter stayed below to form earth.Pan Gu stood in the middle,his head touching the sky,his feet planted on the earth.The heavens and the earth began to grow at a rate of ten feet per day,and Pan Gu grew along with them.After another 18 thousand years,the sky was higher,the earth thicker,and Pan Gu stood between them like a pillar 9 million li in height so that they would never join again.When Pan Gu died,his breath became the wind and clouds,his voice became the rolling thunder.One eye became the sun and one the moon.His body and limbs turned to five big mountains and his blood formed the roaring water.His veins became far-stretching roads and his muscles fertile land.The innumerable stars in the sky came from his hair and beard,and flowers and trees from his skin and the fine hairs on his body.His marrow turned to jade and pearls.His sweat flowed like the good rain and sweet dew that nurtured all things on earth. The Pan Gu story has become firmly fixed in Chinese tradition. There is even an idiom relating to it:”since Pan Gu created earth and the heavens,”meaning“a long,long time ago.” When Chinese and English idioms are in agreement in meaning and images or when they are expressed in a simple,straightforward ay, translation can be based on literal meaning.This is called literal translation.For instance,“to kill two birds with one stone”(一石二鸟). Because of the differences in conventions and religions,some idioms can not be translated directly.If we use literal translation,it may cause cultural default.So we can use the compensation method,to explain the background knowledge of idioms.One of the method is annotation.For instance,东施效颦：Tung Shih imitating His Shih(His Shih was a famous beauty in the ancient kingdom of Yueh.Tung Shih was an ugly girl who tried to imitate her way. Sometimes we may find equivalent idioms.Some English idioms have the same connotations as Chinese idioms or vice versa.At this time, we can directly find their equivalent and carry some of the form.For instance:“castle in the air”(空中楼阁)，“at six and sevens”(乱七八糟). Some English idioms look very like some Chinese idioms from the literal perspective,but they are quite different in their connotations,as in :”childs play”.The wrong translation is“儿戏”，but the correct translation is“简单的东西，容易的事情”.The wrong translation of“eat ones words”is“食言”and the correct one is“承认自己说错话”. One idiom,whether it is English or Chinese,may have several different easy of translations according to its different contexts.At this time,we should take the context into deep consideration to make the correct choice of the meaning and be sure to keep in mind not to misinterpret words through taking them too literally.Take“reap what one has show”for example,it can be translated as“自作自受，自食其果，自掘坟墓，飞蛾扑火，咎由自取，作茧自缚”. From what has been discussed above,we can conclude that translation of idioms is more closely related to cultural factors in language.Without the cultural knowledge,it is difficulty to translate the original into target language accurately.Only by systematic and concrete contrast between two cultures,can it be possible to recognize cultural characteristics and achieve relative translation equivalence.Therefore, when we are doing translations,both the language and the cultural information hidden in the idioms should be conveyed.In translation practices,translators should be sure to make their translation understood by their readers,as Nida wrote:”perhaps no better compliment should come to a translator than to have someone say;I never know before that God spoke my language.”【参考文献】1党金学.翻译中的文化依附矛盾A.西安：山西旅游出版社，2000.2刘重德.文化，语言，翻译A.文化与语言M.北京：外语教育与研究出版社，1997.3刘先刚.文化翻译与语用学A.文化与语言M.北京：外语教育与研究出版社，1997.4王毓.文化差异对语际翻译的影响A.西安：山西旅游出版社，2000.5陈福康.中国译学理论史稿M.上海：上海外语教育出版社，2002.6冯庆华.实用翻译教程M.上海：上海外语教育出版社，2002.7胡文仲.文化与交流M.北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1994.8钱歌川.翻译漫谈M.北京：中国对外翻译出版公司，1980.9王佐良.翻译:思考与试笔M.北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1998.