【摘要】翻譯是一項既復雜又富有吸引力的工作,因為它涉及了語際間的轉(zhuǎn)換和跨文化交際的活動,包括了兩種語言和兩種文化。本文分了四類探討了文化內(nèi)涵義及隱喻, 并討論了如何翻譯文化內(nèi)涵義中的隱喻。
【關(guān)鍵詞】文化內(nèi)涵義;隱喻;翻譯
【作者簡介】陳璐禎,福建省廈門第一中學。
1. Cultural implication and metaphor
When learning a language, we rely much on the dictionary to look for its meanings. Actually, the meanings provided in the dictionary only give us the literal senses. However, language is closely related to culture. According to some statistics, metaphor is the figurative expression which is used most frequently. Regarding how to analyze the cultural metaphor, it can be concluded to four categories.
1.1 Same image, similar sense
Although each nation has its own culture, they still have some experiences in common. In this way, they have come to the same understanding of the expressions in this aspect, and it is easy to accept the cross communication in such kind of things or events. For example, “stalemate”, whose metaphorical meaning is deadlock(陷入僵局).
1.2 Same image, different sense
Because of different national characteristics, people have different views on the same things, but the same image carries different sense, which indicates the differences in their traditional views. In Chinese, when people waste money, we usually use “揮金如土(spend money like soil)” to illustrate the event. In English, it is “spend money like water”. The reason for it is that China is a continent country with large land, while England is an island country, which is reflected in language.
1.3 Different image, similar sense
Owing to different traditional cultures, Chinese and English always express the similar meanings by using different images. For example, cattle(牛) are a kind of animal commonly raised and trained in China. Cattle are hard-working and used as the major means to help with farming. So cattle are usually used to describe persons who are willing to serve others. But in English, people use horse instead of cattle to create metaphors in this aspect, such as “willing horse”(老黃牛).
1.4 Absence of image and sense
Absence of image and sense means that the image and sense are exclusive to one language or culture. In this sense, this kind of cultural metaphor is difficult to have the substitute in another language. For example, in China, “喜鵲(magpie)”is the propitious bird, so“鵲報”means “the good news”, while“烏鴉”(crow) is culturally different. So, Chinese idioms related to “crow”(烏鴉) always indicate negative meanings, like “烏鴉嘴”, which refers to a blame for those who say inauspicious words.
2. Strategies of translation
When talking about the strategies of translation, we cannot forget the two terms—foreignizing and domestication. They are the general rules of translation. Referring to the cultural metaphor, the rules are also adopted frequently.
2.1 Foreignizing
Foreignization, in short, means transferring one object into another, which will help people from different culture to understand it easily. Such as “愛屋及烏” is “l(fā)ove me, love my dog”. The word “dog” in this phrase is the foreinizing strategy in translation, which is easily accepted by people from English-speaking countries.
2.2 Domestication
Another general rule is domestication, which refers to the culture-oriented expressions of literal translation, which minimizes the strangeness of foreign texts for the readers of the target language. The English phrases like “spring up like mushroom” should be translated into “雨后春筍”. In this way, the target language readers will make the sense, and the translation can reach the purpose of translation or cultural communication.
In all, foreignizing and domestication are the general rules. The most useful method consists in the real situation and context. Sometimes, we need to reproduce the image or replace it.
References:
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