文化翻译方法

文化翻译基本方法

直译Literal translation & 意译free translation 人家是醋罐子，他是醋缸，醋瓮！

Y: If other women are jealous, she’s a hundred times.

H: They call jealous people “vinegar bottles”, don’t they? Well, she’s not just a bottle full of vinegar; she’s a storage jar ---a whole cistern ---full of it!

除了我这间房,大院里还有二十多间呢.一共

住着多少家子,谁说得清?住两间房的就不多,又搭上今儿个搬来,明儿个又搬走.我没那么好的记性.大家见面,招呼声”吃了吗?”透着和气.

Besides the room we occupy there are twenty more rooms in the same compound. How many families live there, only God knows. Those who occupy two rooms are very few. Besides, they are always on the go (moving in today and moving out tomorrow).

I haven’t got such a good memory as to remember all that. When people meet, they greet with each other with a Hi, just to show their good neighborly feelings.

直译：指翻译时要尽量保持原作的语言形式，包括用词，句子结构，修辞手段等，同时要求语言流畅易懂，但也不排除在短语层次进行某些调整。

literal translation: a method in which the translator tries to keep the original usage of words, structures and figures of speech in the translation which must be smooth to read and lead to no mistake or difficulty in understanding.

又要马儿好，又要马儿不吃草。

You want the horse to run fast and you don’t let it graze.

叫一声请，一起举箸，却如风卷残云一般，遭去了一半。看那周先生时，一箸也不曾下。

At the signal to begin, they fell to with their chopsticks, like a whirlwind scattering wisps of cloud. And half the food had gone before they noticed that Chou Chin had not eaten a bite.

揭去方巾，见那娘子辛小姐，真有沉鱼落雁之容，闭月羞花之貌。杨宪益《儒林外史》

When the bride’s red veil was removed, he saw that Miss Xin the bride was lovely enough to outshine the moon and put the flowers to shame.

三年被毒蛇咬了，如今梦见一条绳子也是害怕。

A man who has been bitten by a poisonous snake will be frightened if he dreams of a rope three years after!

平儿说道：“癞蛤蟆想吃天鹅肉，没人伦的混账东西，起这样的念头，叫他不得好死！”（11）

“What a nasty, disgusting man!”said Patience. “A case of ‘the toad on the ground wanting to eat the goose in the sky.’He’ll come to no good end, getting ideas like this”. (H)

Advantages

By keeping the original structure, figures of speech and usage of words, thus vividness of the original is maintained.

Enrich target language and culture. flea market, honeymoon, maiden work, brainwash, chain store

Mechanic translation It is also called word-for-word translation. It tries to keep the original usage of words, original sentence structure, figures of speech as well. All these are done regardless of linguistic and cultural differences. What is said in one language possibly may not be accepted or understood in another culture or language. In many cases, this method may lead to two consequences: the sentence appears hard to understand and not smooth to read; the meaning and the style of the sentence differ from the original.