- 上一篇：从中西方文化差异探讨大学英语教学中的文化教育
- 下一篇：本哈德•施林克小说《朗读者》“平庸的恶”现象研究
First of all, the strategies adopted in the translation process are out of the subjective choice of the translator. Such kind of choice has always been the subject of controversies, and there have been distinctions between foreignization and domestication, between author-orientation and reader-orientation, between literal translation and free translation, so on and so forth. The debate of the foreignization and domestication approaches, for example, the well-known scholar and translator Fu Lei prefers foreignization by stating resemblance in spirit rather than resemblance in form. The translator also has to decide on what kind of language or specific expressions to be used in the translation and therefore the overall linguistic style of the translation. Moreover, subjective translation strategies mentioned above could also result in disparate styles in the target text. The major difference lies in the fact that the domestication approach generally adjusts the source text to the taste and expectation of the target language, or the implied readers while the foreignization approach commonly carries certain exotic flavors either in the designations, expressions or even foreign connotations. The Chinese translation of Gone with the Wind by Fu Donghua could be a very elaborative example. The translator domesticated the foreign places and names with Chinese prefixes and suffixes like adopting the Chinese family names and common village suffixes, “substituted the humorous, poignant or indecent sayings with Chinese proverbs …deleted long passages of descriptions and analysis which are irrelevant to the plot and tiresome to the readers (Fu Donghua, 1979: 3)”.As a result, Chinese readers could hardly feel anything exotic in the whole book.
Secondly, the language transformation is far more complicated than mechanical code switch. The natural variances between the two languages and the flexibility of the texts and corresponding abundant connotations in particular have enabled rich space for creative and subjective expressions, or in other words, have created various possibilities for the phrases, sentence structures and rhetorical devices. It is the selection, or inspired creation of the possible options that proves the subjective artistic creativity and aesthetic inclination of the translator. It could be even amazing to some readers that how disparate the translations of the same source text could be.
In addition, the achievement of a dynamic equivalence between the two languages also requires adequate cultural awareness of both languages. According to the German scholar Hans Vermeer (1997: 46), translation is a communicative activity purpose. This purpose, to a large extent, determines the cultural agenda of the translator and thus decides the translation methods and strategies to be adopted in order to produce a functionally adequate translation. Actually, translation is an occasion where two cultures meet and negotiate while the translator works as a medium, which, however, does not mean that the translator is culturally neutral. The cultural identity and inclination of the translator are inevitably displayed in the selection of expression and translation methods, etc. The cultural identity and values of the translator could be so different that they might either affirm the ideology and literary approach through translation, as the Chinese translation of the literature from the former Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s; or on the other hand, the translator might choose to negate prevalent cultural or literary model and initiate a reform through translation of certain literary works, like the political novels introduced by Liang Qichao. Whether the intention is to affirm or negate, the translator, with the cultural awareness, seldom leaves his/her subjectivity behind in the translation.
Moreover, translation takes place in concrete, definable situations which are limited in time and space and involve members of different cultures. These situations are somewhat embedded in given cultures, which in turn, condition the situations. For instance, the translator as a writer has in his/her consciousness the implied readers so as to regulate the translation strategies for fulfilling the functional purposes. In translation studies, Bassnett illustrates the interrelationship and essential interdependence of language and culture by means of the following metaphor: Language, then, is the heart within the body of culture, and it is the interaction between the two that results in the continuation of life-energy. In the same way that the surgeon, operating on the heart, cannot neglect the body that surrounds it, so the translator treats the text in isolation from the culture at his peril (Bassnett, 2004: 14).