浅谈初级翻译技巧

浅谈初级翻译技巧
摘要：作为一门技巧，翻译要求译者能以最佳的方式将源语言转换为目标语。

这篇文章主要探讨了一些使用的翻译方法来帮助翻译初学者熟悉各种翻译技巧和
翻译策略从而提高翻译效率并提高翻译质量。

Abstract：Translation as a technique requires translators to seek for the best to convey the source language into the target language. This essay focuses on some workable approaches to assist translation beginners to get more familiar with the techniques and strategies so as to improve efficiency and better quality of rendition.
关键词：翻译技巧策略初学者
Key words：Translation，beginner， technique， strategy
Translation is an art，and it sets high requirements for translators to achieve desirable version. This essay directs at translation beginners and provides feasible techniques and strategies
to improve translation efficiency and quality.
With the help of transcoding notebook and mastery of certain translation techniques，translators are liable to work more productively and efficiently.
Before rendering，it’s advisable and necessary to ask a series of questions while skimming over the passage for the first time. Who is its readership? What register is the text in? What is the passage mainly talking about? Style? Such questions provide information that is helpful to better understand the written style，possible ways to develop the article or predict the content in advance. In addition，try to find some illustrations or clues that may facilitate grasping gist of the passage，such as sub-titles，numbers，marked collocations or terminology.
Looking up new words is time-consuming due to the unfamiliarity with the topic and lack of the relevant vocabulary. A transcoding notebook is a great assistor to speed up. Write down important terminologies， collocations， idioms，new words and other useful information that
will be helpful and useful in the future translation on the transcoding notebook. When faced with the same lexical problems，referring to transcoding notebook saves a lot of time. Furthermore，long term memory of new vocabulary is preferable for translation. Translation beginners acquire
the ability to guess meanings of the new words through context is also a good method， but it is
not recommended as it may slow down the speed and waste time if the meaning of the words can be obtained in a shorter time by using dictionary.
It is inevitable to encounter some difficult points that cannot be dealt with instantly when we are translating. Underlining or marking them and turning back to these difficult points till the end of
the translation will be a more efficient way. Sometimes reading sentences before or after these difficult points may be helpful to work out the right way to translate them according to the context. Background information is also regarded as the necessity for translation beginners. The more one knows about a topic， the easier and faster it is to translate a passage that relates to it. It requires beginners to get access to various sources of information，such as newspaper，magazine，television，internet，movies and so on. Accumulating such information through translating practice is indispensable as well.
During the translation process， translators are inevitable to meet with difficulties in finding equivalents at word， phrase and above textual level in target language to translate source text. “Translator has to establish approximations and make difficult choices” (Omar，1996:43) to achieve best performance. Therefore， the proficiency of using strategies to cope with problems at lexical， grammatical， textual， and pragmatic levels makes it quicker and easier to translate the source text. The following are some detailed examples coming along with relevant translation strategies.
Word level problem and strategy
Source text: that left a toddler dead
Target text: (back-translated from Chinese)
Rendering: caused a child die
The word “toddler” in English is a term for a young child who is learning to walk， while there is no precise equivalent in Chinese to translate this specific word. English has many specific words under the same semantic field， while Chinese tends to have one general word to refer to specific ones.
In this case， the strategy is to find a general word to translate in target language (Baker，
1992:26). Toddler can be seen as one type of child. Therefore，using a more general word “child”
in Chines e to replace “toddler” covers the core propositional meaning of the missing hyponym.
This strategy is commonly used in finding equivalent in the area of propositional meaning. However，it fails to precisely convey the specific definition of the source language in target language.
Phrase level problems and strategy
Source text: the country's older ethnic gangs were involved in a series of tit-for-tat drive-by shootings that left a toddler dead
Target text: (back-translated from Chinese)
Rendering: the countr y’s early formed ethnic gangs were involved in a series of tooth-for-tooth shootings against the authority and caused the death of a toddler
There is no equivalent idiom in Chinese to render the English idiom “tit-for-tat”. The meaning of
the idiom is ‘equivalent retaliation’. Chinese does have an idiom that has a meaning similar to that
of “tit-for-tat”， but it consists of different lexical items. In Chinese， the idiom yi-ya-huan-ya，which back translated as tooth-for-tooth (means repayment in kind， as for an injury; retaliation) has more or less the similar idiomatic meaning with different literal meaning. In this case，“using an idiom of similar meaning with dissimilar lexical items” (Baker， 1992:74) in target language that the target reader are familiar with to replace source-language idiom could concisely and naturally convey the meaning of what is being communicated or translated.
Above textual level and strategy
Source text: You are not going to bust a cap in my mo'fo' ass. You live in a suburban street in Counties Manukau.
Target text: (back-translated from Chinese)
Rendering 1: You are not going to fire in my ass. You live in Counties Manukau a suburban street Rendering 2: You dare not challenge me. You live in Counties Manukau a suburban street. Rendering 3: You dare not beard the lion in his den. You live in Counties Manukau a suburban street.
According to the context， the utterance spoken by a police sergeant was actually a kind of warning and contempt. For the first time， we are prone to just trans lated it as “you are not going
to fire in my ass” based on its literal and propositional sense. In this case， the strategy suggested
is to achieve the pragmatic equivalence at the cost of semantic equivalence (House， 1977:28). But if we went for the second rendition as “you dare not challenge me”， it succeeded in making the pragmatic meaning clear and obvious. However， this rendering seemed to be more straightforward and have excessive expressive meaning compared with the speaker’s original utterance. At last，the free translation by applying a Chinese idiom “beard the lion in his den” is adopted. Its literal and propositional meaning is to tug the lion’s beard in his den， while it has a metaphorical and expressive sense that refers to confronting a powerful rival on his territory. This rendering can successfully and accurately convey the real and implied meaning of the speaker to
the Chinese readers.
Literal translation fails to uncover the implied meaning that the author tries to materialize behind the surface (Rabassa， 1989:11). Translators should strive to work out the most appropriate rendering that convey the pragmatic meaning of the source text rather than just semantically render it in the target text.
As a proverb goes，“Practice makes perfect.” Techn iques and strategies of translation should be acquired by continuous exercises. Translation beginners are bound to get involved in massive translation tasks so as to improve translation efficiency and quality.
References：
Baker， M. (1992). In other words. A coursebook on translation. London: Routedge.
House， J. (1997). A model for translation quality assessment. Tubingen: Gunter Narr
Verlag.Nida， Eugene A. & Charles R. Taber (1974). The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden，E.J. Brill
Omar Sheikh Al-Shabab (1996). Interpretation and the Language of Translation: Creativity and Conventions in Translation. Janus Publishing Company
Rabassa， G. (1989). No Two Snowflakes Are Alike: Translation as Metaphor. The Craft of Translation. University of Chicago Press
作者单位：中国民航飞行学院外语学院。