第二讲当代翻译理论

2.3 Horace


Horace argues for the revitalization of well-known texts through a style that would “neither linger in the one hackneyed and easy round; neither trouble to render word by word with the faithfulness of a translator”, not treat the original writer‟s beliefs with too easy a trust, and would avoid stylistic over-sensationalism, “ so that the middle never strikes a different note from the beginning, nor the end from the middle.” His criticism of the faithful translator is often turned on its head to support translational fidelity to the original.
1. Introduction
“翻译如同打开窗户，让阳光照射进来；翻译如同砸碎硬壳，让我们享用果仁；翻译如同 拉开帷幕，让我们能窥见最神圣的殿堂；翻译如同揭开井盖，让我们能汲取甘泉。” Translation, as opening the windows to allow sunlight in.; translated as smashing hard shell, let us enjoy the nuts; translation, as the curtain rose, so that we can glimpse the most sacred temple; translated as lifted manhole covers, so that we can learn from Oasis. Translation it is that openeth the window, to let in the light ; that breaketh the shell, that we may eat the kernel ; that putteth aside the curtaine, that we may looke into the most Holy place ; that remooueth the couer of the well, that wee may come by the water, euen as lacoh rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well, by which meanes theflockes of Lahan were watered.^! Indeede without translation into the vulgar tongue, the vnlearned are but like children at Jacobs well (which was deepe) without a bucket or some thing to draw with : or as that person mentioned by Esay, to whom when a sealed booke was deliuered, with this motion, Reade this, I pray thee, hee was faine to make this answere, / cannot, for it is sealed.„ －－Afred Pollard 波拉
uncouth, and if (Bassnett-McGuire,1980:43)
2.2 Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger practiced and propagated translating as a

literary technique. For him, the most useful thing is to translate Greek into Latin and Latin into Greek. This kind of exercise develops in a precision and richness of vocabulary, a wide range of metaphor and power of exposition, and limitation of the best models leads to a like aptitude for original composition. Unlike Cicero, he prefers “ word-for-word” translation to “sense-for-sense” translation.
another language
3) Intersemiotic translation --- transfer or transmutation of the signs in one language to
non-verbal sign systems ---------Roman Jakobson
( Newmark, 1982/2001:3)

2.1 Cicero---the Founder of Western Translation Theory

Cicero is the first to comment on the process of translation
and offer advice on how best to undertake the task. In his “On the Orator ”,Cicero set the terms which were expanded by Horace, Pliny the Younger, Quintillian, Saint Jerome, and Catholics, Reformers and Humanists from the 14th to the 17th centuries. His approach to translation is “sense-forsense” and “word-for-word”. That means a translator should bear in mind the intended meaning of the SL author and render it by means of TL words or word-order which does not sound strange to the TL readers.
2. Translation in Antiquity
Fra Baidu bibliotek
The first traces of translation date from 3000BC, during the Egyptian Old Kingdom, in the area of the first Cataract, Elephantine, where inscription in two languages have been found. It became a significant factor in the west in 300 BC, when the Romans took over wholesale many elements of Greek culture, including the whole religious apparatus.
1) Intralingual translation ---a rewording of signs in one language with
same language
signs from the
2) Interlingual translation ---the interpretation of signs in one language with signs from

3.4.1 John Dryden‟s Three Categories of Translation 3.5 Alexander Fraser Tytler ( 1747-1813) 3.5.1 Tytler‟s Three General Principles


4. Romanticism in Translation Studies

For Cicero, “if I render word for word, the result will sound
compelled by necessity I alter anything in the order or wording, I shall seem to have departed from the function of a translator.”
4.1 Friedrich Leopold, Baron von Hardenberg (1772-1801) 4.2 August Wilhelm von Schlegel (1767-1845) 4.3 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) 4.4 Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834)

Records of the English Bible. The Documents Relating to the Translation and Publication of the Bible in English,1525-1611,p.349
1.1 Translation Categories
2.4 Saint Jerome


Saint Jerome is a Christian ascetic and Biblical scholar, translated the New Testament from Hebrew into the popular, non-literary Latin. His Letter to Pammachius (395 AD) on the best kind of translator is the founding document of Christian translation theory. Saint Jerome points out that “ in translating from the Greek, ---I render not word for word, but sense for sense.” He criticizes the word-for-word approach because, by following so closely the form of the ST, it produces an „absurd‟ translation, concealing the sense of the original.


3. Translation in Renaissance and Reformation
3.1 Martin Luther 3.2 Etinne Dolet ( 1509-1546) 3.3 Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) 3.4 John Dryden (1631-1700)
当代翻译理论
Contemporary Translation Theories
Chapter II


1. Introduction
1.1 Translation Categories


2. Translation in Antiquity
2.1 Cicero---the Founder of Western Translation Theory 2.2 Pliny the Younger 2.3 Horace 2.4 Saint Jerome