浅谈英汉翻译中的文化因素

Contents
1
1.0 Introduction of culture (1)
2.0 Language, Culture & Translation ......................................... .2 2.1 Idioms (2)
2.1.1 English and Chinese idioms sharing the same meanings and
cultural images (2)
2.1.2 English and Chinese idioms sharing the similar meanings but
different cultural images (3)
2.1.3 Translation of idioms not restricted to only one version (3)
2.2 Communications with peopl e of different background (4)
2.2.1 Communications in a restaurant (4)
2.2.2 An embarrassing answer (4)
2.3 Animals that bear different cultural connotations (5)
2.4 Colors that have different cultural bearings (6)
2.4.1 B lue (6)
2.4.2 White (6)
2.4.3 Black (7)
3.0 Conclusion (7)
Cultural Factors in English and Chinese Translation
Abstract: This article discusses the influence of cultural factors on translation. Translation is to convey a message of one language into another language. It might not be so easy to get along well with your foreign friends because you have different cultures. You want to be friendly and to show your hospitality towards them when you say or do something. Even if your words or action are acceptable in the Chinese culture might be understood as impolite. So the cultural factors play a very important role in translation.
Keywords: cultural factors, English and Chinese translation
After entering the WTO, we have now got more chances to do business with European countries. Obviously, English, used by most of the countries, makes our communication much easier. So if you can master English, it will help you a lot in your business. Since the cultural factors play a very important role in translation, it is necessary for us to learn the cultures of the English speaking countries. Then you can understand them much better and communicate with them more successfully.
1.0Introduction of culture
Culture is an extremely complex concept and an enormous subject as well. It includes almost everything in the world, whether material or spiritual. But however complex it is, culture can roughly be divided into three categories: the material culture, which refers to all the products of manufacture; the institutional culture which refers to various systems and theories that support them, such as social systems, religious systems, ritual systems, educational systems, kinship systems and language; and the mental culture, which refers to people's mentality and behaviors, their thought patterns, beliefs, conceptions of value, aesthetic tastes.1These three aspects of culture have been formed through a long history of social development. Different countries have undergone different historical developments and thus have had different cultures. Therefore, the English native speakers and the Chinese native speakers have their own cultures.
2.0Language, Culture & Translation
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“Every language is part of a c ulture. As such, it cannot but serve and reflect cultural needs.”2In turn, language is a carrier of the culture in which it has been born and developed. In a sense, learning a language is also a kind of learning the culture and habits of the country where the language is spoken. Therefore, how to deal with the cultural factors in translation has become a very important task for the learners of the language.
2.1 Idioms
“Idioms consist of set phrases and short sentences” and “idioms are expressions that are not readily understandable from their literal meanings of individual elements.”3
Idioms, as an indispensable part of a language, are naturally related to the culture from which they have been derived. They are characterized by their colorful and thought-provoking expressions, involving history, religion, social customs and other aspects of the culture. In other words, they are a typical carrier of the culture. In the translation of the idioms, special attention should be paid to the cultural factors involved.
2.1.1 English and Chinese idioms sharing the same meanings and cultural images
Here are some examples:
(1) Seeing is believing 眼见为实；百闻不如一见
(2) Turn a deaf ear 置若罔闻
(3) Draw the curtain 落下帷幕
(4) Pour oil on the flame 火上浇油
(5) Facts speak louder than words. 事实胜于雄辩
(6) Strike while the iron is hot. 趁热打铁
The above are literal translations. But they are not the only versions, and other expressions are acceptable only if they have similar meanings to and fit in the original context. There are also some examples:
(7) Tom told John he had passed the test, but John said, “Seeing is believing.”
2Zhuanglin Hu and others, Course of Language (Beijing: Beijing University Press,1988) p.250. 3Weiyou Zhang, English Lexicology (Beijing: Foreign language Teaching & Reach Press,1998) p.174.
My translation: 汤姆告诉约翰他通过了考试，但约翰说：“耳听为虚，眼见为实”。

(8) I told him to quit smoking but he just turned a deaf ear to my words.
My translation: 我让他戒烟，但他根本不听。

(9) Mother is in good mood now. Strike while the iron is hot and ask her to let
you go to the cinema.
My translation: 母亲现在情绪很好，趁此机会求她让你去看电影。

2.1.2 English and Chinese idioms sharing similar meanings but different cultural images
There are also two ways of translation. They are the literal translation and the liberal translation. Here are some examples:
(10) Love me love my dog.
Liberal translation: 爱屋及乌In Chinese it means: Love one’s house love the crows around the house. If we translate it literally like “爱我及狗”, I’m afraid, the Chinese readers may not understand.
(11) Beat the dog before the lion.
Liberal translation: 杀鸡骇猴In Chinese it means: Kill the chicken before the monkey. If we translate it like “在狮子面前打狗”, that would make you puzzled.
(12) He cries wine and sells vinegar.
Liberal translation: 挂羊头卖狗肉In Chinese it means: He cries mutton but sells meat of dog instead. If we translate it like “他喊着酒卖着醋”, we also can’t understand it well.
(13) A new broom sweeps clean.
Liberal translation: 新官上任三把火In Chinese it means: a newly appointed officer carries out new efficient policies. If we translate it like “新的扫把扫得干净”, I believe, no one can understand it well.
From all the idioms above we can see that we also have things different that share similar meanings.
2.1.3 Translation of idioms not restricted to only one version
Take a sentence for example,
(14) One boy is a boy, two boys half a boy, three boys no boy.
It is often translated as “一个和尚挑水喝，两个和尚抬水喝，三个和尚没水
喝。

”In Chinese it means: One Buddhist monk carries water for himself; two Buddhist monks carry water together; three Buddhist monks carry no water for drinking. We can get a similar culture message from the translation. But I think maybe it is better to preserve the original images and avoid cultural loss for this idiom and I would like to translate it into “一人做事尽力，两人做事合力，三人做事没力”, from which the Chinese readers can also be able to grasp the images and meanings.
2.2 Communications with people of different backgrounds
Many interesting things may happen in our daily life. Some of them are caused by the different cultures. Here are two typical examples.
2.2.1 Communications in a restaurant
It happened in America. A Chinese student worked as a waiter in a hotel, his English was not so good.
A young man walked into a hotel. The Chinese waiter said, “Welcome to our hotel!” The man looked at him and nodded politely. The waiter wanted to be sure how many people would come, so he asked, “Are you lonely?” The young man looked at him amazingly but said nothing. Then the waiter wanted to make himself understood well, so he asked the young man again, in another way, “Are you single?” The young man stood up and made several steps backward and said, “Are you a gay(同性恋者)? I’m sorry, I’m straight!” Then he left the hotel quickly.
We all know why the young man left the hotel. The Chinese waiter’s questions “A re you lonely?” and “A re you single?” show that he did n’t know how to use the words correctly. What’s more, it also shows that he didn’t know the culture there. Thus he made the young man misunderstand the meanings of his words. If we put what he said in Chinese they mean “你孤单吗?”, “你寂寞吗?” or “你单身吗?” The young man was surely unable to understand him. From this, we can see that the young man also didn’t know the Chinese culture. In fact, at that time, the Chinese waiter should say “A re you alone”. In Chinese it means, “您一个人吗”.And the young man’s last sentence “I’m straight” means I’m not a homosexual.
2.2.2 An embarrassing answer
A Chinese manager together with his beautiful wife went to a hotel to meet his distinguished guest from The United States of America. Following them was an interpreter. Seeing his wife was so beautiful, the foreign guest praised, “Your wife is
very beautiful.”To be polite, the manager said in Chinese, “哪里,哪里.”And the interpreter translated it like this, “Where? Where?” The foreign guest was surprised to hear that and didn’t know what to say. Finally, he answered, “Everywhere!” They all felt embarrassed at that.
Whose fault is that? Obviously, that is the interpreter’s. We can see that the manager wanted to be polite in the Chinese way. But in America they won’t do it this way. They just say “thank you”. So if the interpreter knows the culture of America, it would not happen.
2.3 Animals that bear different cultural connotations
Animals in different countries would have different associative meanings. Take dragon for example. In China, dragon means good things. But in the English speaking countries, it means evil. We have a lot of idioms containing the Chinese character “龙” such as 望子成龙、龙飞凤舞、龙腾虎跃、龙肝凤胆. If we turn “望子成龙”literally into English as “long to see one’s son become a dragon” that would frighten our foreign friends. We may translate it into “long to see one’s son win success”. In the English culture, a dog is considered as an honest friend, and even a member of the family. If you ask them which animal they like best, most of them may say, “Dog”. It can be seen from many English idioms such as “help a lame dog over the stile (助人于危难or雪中送炭)”,“let sleeping dog lie (勿惊卧狗,切莫惹是生非or不要自找麻烦)”,“every dog has its day (凡人皆有得意日)”. But in China, a dog is no good. It is looked down upon. So when we translate this kind of phrases, the English culture is needed. Take a look at the following liberal and literal translations:
(15) 龙飞凤舞living and vigorous flourishes
Literal translation: dragons flying and phoenixes dancing
(16) 打落水狗hit a person when he is down
Literal translation: beat a drowning dog
(17) 狗仗人势use the influence of somebody in bullying others
Literal translation: behave like a dog relying up on the power of its owner
(18) 狗拿耗子poke one's nose into other people's business
Literal translation: a dog trying to catch mice
(19) 挂羊头卖狗肉selling horse-meat as beef steak
Literal translation: hang up a sheep's head and selling dog-meat
(20) 狗咬吕洞宾misunderstanding a kind-hearted person
Literal translation: a dog barking at Lu Dongbin
(21) 狐假虎威bully people by virtue of somebody e lse’s influence
Literal translation: the fox borrow the tiger's ferocity
Take “挂羊头卖狗肉” for example, westerners don’t eat dog, so we translate it into “selling horse-meat as beef steak”. Thus we can avoid the cultural conflict.
2.4 Colors that have different cultural bearings
2.4.1 Blue
In Chinese, we don’t have many associative meanings with the color “blue”. But in English, blue is a word with many associative meanings. We should pay more attention to the expression of colors when we translate them into Chinese.
In English, the color “blue” means dejected and unhappy. For example,
(22) They felt rather blue after the failure in the football match.
Translation: 球赛踢输了，他们感到有些沮丧。

(23) ——She looks blue today. What’s the matter with her?
——She is in holiday blue.
Translation:——她今天显得闷闷不乐，出了什么事情？
——她得了假期忧郁症。

In example (23), “holiday blue” means “winter holiday depression”. I n the winter holiday, we all stay at home, feeling lonely and boring because it’s too cold outside, and we have got nowhere to go. And another phrase is “a blue Monday”. In Chinese it means: 倒霉的星期一. It means: after the weekend, it is Monday again. In other words, that means we have to go to work again.
Blue sometimes can be translated into “黄色的”、“下流的”. For example, blue talk 下流的言论; blue video 黄色录像
Sometimes, blue also means posted or highborn. For example, “blue blood”turned into Chinese, it means:贵族血统.
However, it also has other meanings when used in other phrases. For example, out of blue 意想不到; once in a blue 千载难逢; drink till all’s blue 一醉方休.
2.4.2 White
White, either in Chinese or in English, it means pure, but it also has some different meanings in some way. For example, in the Chinese culture, white
sometimes means death. In the Chinese idiom “红白喜事”, the character “白”means funeral. But, in the English culture, white means happy and pure. At the wedding, the white dress the bride wears means pure love.
There are also many other meanings of the color word “white” both in English and in Chinese. For example, in English there are: a white lie 善意的谎言; the white coffee 牛奶咖啡; white man 善良的人，有教养的人; white-livered 怯懦的; white elephant 昂贵又无用之物, etc.
We also have the Chinese character “白”. But its meaning is different to the word “white”in English in some way. For example, in Chinese there are: 白开水(plain boiled water); 白菜(Chinese cabbage); 白字(wrongly written or mispronounced character); 白搭(no use); 白费事(all in vain), etc.
2.4.3 Black
Black, either in Chinese or in English, has the same meanings. For example, black means sad. People would wear black at the funeral.
In English, black also means angry. For example, black in the face 脸色铁青; to look black at someone 怒目而视.
What’s more, black also means sinister or evil. But in translation, the word “black” or the character “黑”needn’t appear. For example, 黑心evil mind; 黑手evil backstage manipulator; 黑幕inside story; 黑线a sinister line; black sheep 害群之马; black day 凶日; black future 暗淡的前途
3.0 Conclusion
“Culture consists of all the shared products of human society”. This means mot only such material things as cities, organizations and schools, but also non-material things such as ideas, customs, family patterns, and languages. Putting it simply, culture refers to the entire way of life of a society, that is, “the way of people.”4 Examples like those above are fairly common when people of different languages and cultures communicate with each other. From the cultural differences, misunderstandings may arise, even though the language used in communication may
4Yanchang.Deng and Runqing. Liu , Language and Culture (Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and research Press, 1989) p.3.
be faultless. The same words or expressions may not mean the same thing to different peoples. Because of cultural differences, a serious question may cause amusement or laughter; a harmless statement may cause displeasure or anger. Because of cultural differences, jokes by a foreign speaker may be received with blank faces and stony silence. Yet the same stories in the speaker’s own country would leave the audience holding their sides with laughter.
Bibliography
[1] Chen, Wenbo. English Idioms and Chinese idioms, Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1982.
[2] Deng, Yanchang., and Liu, Runqing. Language and Culture Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and research Press, 1989.
[3] Hu, zhuanglin. and others, Course of Linguistics, Beijing: Beijing University Press 1988.
[4] Wang, Zhigui, A Collegiate Course in Chinese-English Translation (Revised), Jinan: Shangdong University Press, 2001.
[5] Zhang, Weiyou. Lexicology of English Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1998.
[6] Zhang, Ye. English Proverbs Jilin: Jilin people’s Press, 1986.
[7] Wang, Zhigui, A Collegiate Course in English-Chinese Translation (Revised), Jinan: Shangdong University Press, 1999.
[8] New English-Chinese Dictionary (Revised edition), Shanghai: Shanghai translating Press, 1985.
[9] Longman Modern English Dictionary, World publishing corporation, 1995.
[10] Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English, The Commercial Press, 1993.
浅谈英汉翻译中的文化因素
【摘要】本文讨论的是文化因素在翻译中的影响。

翻译是一门不完艺术。

想与来自不同国家而拥有不同文化的外国朋友好好相处那也并不是那么容易的事。

你所说的话对一个中国人来说事表示礼貌，但是很有可能在西方的文化中他会使你显得不礼貌。

所以，文化因素在翻译中担任着一个非常重要的角色。

【关键词】文化因素，英汉翻译。