Text B Translation and Cultures

Pre-reading Exercise

Before reading Text B, translate the following terms into Chinese and look them up in an English-English dictionary. Compare your translation in Chinese and English definition.

individualism___

idealist___

materialism___

landlord___

capitalist___

political___

ambition___

propaganda___

peasant___

criticism___

Among different cultures one can find similar traditions and practices, as well as totally different or even contradictory ones. Shared cultural elements make cross-cultural communication possible, which means translation, a form of cross-cultural communication, is feasible to some extent. Different traditions, however, often present varied social and political concepts, thus posing cultural barriers and putting translators in a difficult situation where lots of cultural elements have to be translated. In the worst case, translators might find themselves in a dilemma where there is almost no way out.

For example, Chinese medical theory is heavily based on Taoist philosophy from which气(chi)，阴阳 (yin and yang), and五行 (five elements, including Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth) are developed. For Chinese physicians, a healthy body must maintain balance and harmony of the yin-yang, five elements and the Chi through proper nutrition, even nutritional breathing. Sometimes an illness might be caused by“too much fire”in a patient's liver(肝火过旺). How can a translator convey the same concept to western readers? In this situation, cultural references or connotations outrun the language.

On the contrary, everyone has the same physical drives regardless of race, color, culture, and age. A man drinks water to quench his thirst and eats food when hungry. It follows that“I am hungry”can be readily translated into Chinese. However, besides physical drives, men devote themselves to a wide range of pursuits, such as pleasure, profits, and religions. People from different cultures generally have varied perspectives on these issues. Western society and Westerners' relations with the spiritual world are influenced by Christianity. In contrast, the Chinese establish relations with world and the society mainly on the basis of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. In Western liberal tradition, society is made up of individuals. An individual has much freedom in what he wants to do while in China proper relations, such as husband-and-wife, supervisor-and-subordinate, and teacher-and-student relations, manifest themselves in the hierarchy of society. Attached to these relations are expectations of behavior，rituals, and face-giving. These cultural differences between Eastern and Western societies pose difficulties to English-Chinese/Chinese-English translators.

Moreover, a figure or creature may have opposing connotations in different cultures. There is a saying that goes, “One person's meat is another person's poison”. A symbol sacred in one culture may be deemed evil in another. A typical example is the symbol created by the mythical beast: “the dragon”(龙). The dragon represents power and authority in Chinese culture. However, it is often used in a derogatory manner to describe a fierce person, as in the sentence“The woman in charge of the accounts department is an absolute dragon. ”When translating this sentence into Chinese, translators have to either use a different metaphor, such as“母夜叉”(an ugly, female devil in Chinese culture) or just paraphrase it.

It sometimes occurs that metaphors used in the source language do not exist in the target language. In this situation, cultural barriers will be erected and translation dilemmas inevitably ensue. For example, there is an old Chinese saying“不到黄河心不死”(Literally, it means refusing to stop until one reaches the Yellow River). This expression actually means“refusing to give up until one reaches one's goals”. Translators have to find equivalent expressions or paraphrase it when doing translation, because the Yellow River, which is inextricably linked to Chinese culture, does not exist in the Western world. Verbatim translation will not create the same image in the minds of western readers as it does with Chinese people.

How to deal with cultural barriers that translators encounter?

Translators cannot do their job well without taking cultural references into consideration. They ought to keep in mind that both the source language and the target language should be given the same emphasis during the process of translation. The concept of“functional equivalence”, first proposed by Eugene A. Nida, provides a guiding principle for translators when dealing with translation problems related to cultural differences. It emphasizes that the equivalence of cultural elements overweighs that of words. The“faithfulness”of a translation lies in whether cultural connotations from the source language have been successfully conveyed to the target language.

An understanding that regards translation as a cultural rather than a linguistic conveyance, should be promoted. The act of translation is no longer“transcoding”but rather an act of communication. As we know, metaphors and culturally charged idioms not only add flavor to texts, but also represent the worlds created by different peoples. Although the importance of metaphors varies depending on text types, keeping the original metaphor(s), or at least transferring them as much as possible, should be put at the top of translators' priorities. With this being said, it is acceptable that translators ignore metaphors when dealing with reports or surveys where metaphors play a relatively less important role and clarity is the top priority. In other words, translators have a wide freedom of seeking alternatives to first comprehend the meaning of the expression under consideration and then use everyday common phrases to get the point across.

In short, a good translation is determined by an excellent trade-off between how to maintain culturally charged expressions and how to avoid unreadability. (By Wayne)

For Fun

Eugene A. Nida (born on November 11,1914) is the developer of the dynamic-equivalence Bible translation theory. He has been a pioneer in the fields of translation theory and linguistics.