PDF《Translation》

s belief, customs, techniques and language that characterize the life of the people. Language is a very important medium to express cultural notes. People read and write and communicate with each other in languages on the basis of cultural understanding. In this sense, culture and language intrinsically depend on each other in communications. Very importantly, culture conditions the forms of languages. No language can be separated from its culture. In translation practice, translators should be clear about the relation between culture and language, and the importance of the cultural implications in communication. See the following example: 1) 周瑞家的听了笑着说道:D阿弥陀佛, 真真坑死人的事儿,等十年都未必这样巧的呢! ‖ (Cao &

Gao, 2000) This is a part from one of the master pieces of Chinese classical novels ―《红楼梦》(A Dream of Red mansions by Cao xueqin). It has two different English translation versions which are both widely accepted in China: one was done by famous Chinese translator Yang xianyi (杨宪益) and his wife, Gladys Yang;

the other was translated by British sinologist David Hawkes. Let'

s compare their translations of the sentence above: A. DGracious Buddha!‖ Mrs Zhou chuckled, DHow terribly chancy! You might wait for ten years without such a run of luck!‖ (Yang xianyi and Gladys Yang, 2012) B. DGod bless my soul!‖ ZhouRui'

s wife exclaimed, DYou would certainly need some patience! Why, you might wait ten years before getting all these things at the proper times!‖ (David Hawkes, 1977) These two examples clearly show that the two translators have very different cultural awareness when doing the translation. As a traditional Chinese person, Yang had a conventional understanding of the religious note mentioned in this sentence: 阿弥陀佛. In china, Buddhism is the dominating religion. So Yang translated this as: DGracious Buddha‖;

while the British translator was more interested in God. This is quite accepted in different groups of readers. The translation versions are different because of the translators'

different cultural awareness. But Yangs'

translation makes the readers (especially the foreign readers) know more about the Chinese culture. III. CULTURAL FACTORS AND CULTURAL AWARENESS There are important cultural factors in both language teaching and translation practice. Each language has its own genius, and to communicate effectively one must respect the genius of each language;

To preserve the content of the message the form must be changed (Nida and Taber 1969), and translation just means to convey the genius of languages in different forms. According to Nida, a culture of a society is reflected in certain aspects of its language, but a language does not, however, reflect the culture automatically (Nida, 2002). Translators should consciously avoid close reproduction of the syntactical structures of the source language, and aim at a natural rendering in the receptor language. In translation practice, translators should also take the important cultural factors into account to get the better version of translation. In his book DLinguistics and Ethnology in Translation-Problems‖, Nida listed the following cultural factors that are closely related to the translation practice: the ecological culture, the material culture, the social culture, the religious culture, and the linguistic culture. (Nida: 1964) As we are considering the Chinese-English translation practice, we will see some examples and try to interpret the importance of cultural awareness in Chinese-English translation. 1. The ecological culture The ecological-culture refers to the system established by a nationality in the process of adapting, utilizing and transforming the environment. Generally it covers the religious beliefs, modes of production, lifestyles, social organization and customs of this nationality when it interacts with the environment. The ecological culture can adjust the relationship between man and nature according to the requirement of ecological rules, actively reflect the features of eco-system working, and lead the eco-system towards harmony, stability and prosperity. In Chinese-English translation practice, we find it very significant to have eco-cultural awareness to make a better version in translation. See the following examples: (2) ……古人所言的梧桐一叶而天下知秋的遥想,大约也就在这些深沉的地方.(Yu Dafu, 2005) In this sentence, the expression 梧桐 has very rich cultural contents in Chinese culture. Firstly it means nobility. That'