The Makings of a Good Translator
Ke Ping
(Nanjing University, kepingATnju.edu.cn, http://nlp.nju.edu.cn/kep/)
Translation is interesting and enjoyable on the one hand and difficult, challenging and even infuriating on the other. It is interesting and enjoyable because, as the saying goes, “all human life is there”. When doing translation, we seem to be traveling freely all over the world and throughout history, meeting fascinating people and experiencing different things. But translation is also challenging and infuriating because, as we mentioned earlier, it is one of the most complex things to do in the world. A translator always has hard nuts to crack with respect to language and the subject of the material to be translated. With various things to worry about and deal with, he often has to toil away for weeks, months, and even years before a project commissioned to him can be completed. And yet once a clanger [mistake or blunder] is dropped in the completed work, his reputation will suffer / is gone, as the old rhyme [a short poem or song, esp. for children, using words that rhyme] says,
Many critics, no defenders,
translators have but two regrets,
When they “hit” no one remembers,
When they “miss” no one forgets. (Picken [Ed.], 1989:61)
So it is never easy to be a translator. He needs many kinds of capabilities and aptitudes
We know that every profession or trade has its own standard of qualifications. What, then, are professionally required of the practitioner of so demanding an occupation as translation? What, indeed, makes a good translator?
Among all the good qualities that are found in good translators we may identify at least five essential ones:
1 Solid linguistic knowledge and
high language proficiency
2 Adequate extralinguistic
knowledge and the ability to acquire it
3 Sensitiveness and superior
critical-thinking ability
5 Effective command of the
principles and procedures of translation
It is apparently taken for granted that the translator knows well the languages he translates from and into. But for various reasons, linguistically unqualified translators may at times be found operating.
Lin Shu (1852-1924), a fabulous literary translator in late Ching and early Republican years in Chinese history, is one of such examples. Lin did not know any foreign language, but he managed to render more than 180 volumes (mainly fiction) from various European languages into classical Chinese with the aid of eighteen friends and cooperators who sight-translated the original into plain Chinese for him first. His first translation was Dumas fils
Lin’s translation is a phenomenon worthy of serious socio-cultural studies, but it is undeniable that his extraordinary way of operation inevitably resulted in a number of funny mistakes in his translation, e.g.
In December, 1977, the former U.S. President Jimmy Carter made a visit to Poland. As Polish is a minor language, the American State Department offered high payments to hire a freelance translator of Polish. But that translator turned out to be not so proficient in the Polish language, because he made awful mistakes as soon as he began to work. In translating the speech President Carter made at the airport, he put “when I left America” into Polish as “when I deserted America”. Carter said that the 1971 Constitution of Poland was a great historic document, which was however rendered into Polish as “a subject matter laughed at by the people”. Right after the airport incident, the poor, linguistically unqualified Polish translator was fired.
A case involving Chinese is given in the following:
Case: “我真想捶你一顿”
(Feng [Ed.], 2007, p. 74.)
These episodes indicate that proficiency in the source and target languages is a prerequisite for translation. To be proficient in a language means to be able to use it well because of training and practice. What goes into the training a translator receives in his or her working languages? Many things, especially the following three kinds of linguistic knowledge: structure-related knowledge, meaning-related knowledge, and usage-related knowledge.
(1) Structure-related Knowledge, including
■ Morphological knowledge: knowledge about the internal structure of words. We have been learning or using English for many years. But since English is a language so different from Chinese, we can never be so cocksure of what an English sentence or passage really means without being crystal clear about its syntactic and textual structure as well as the lexical and grammatical meanings of the expressions it contains. We might take the English auxiliary verb “shall” for an example. Grammar books tell us that in modern English “shall” is used to express the future tense in the first person. But in daily usage, we rarely say “we shall ...” or “I shall …”; instead we often say “we will ...” or “I will …”. The word “shall” is found to be more often than not used with the second and third persons to form a future or conditional statement expressing the speaker’s will or intention. It may or may not carry the stress. When taking a special stress, “shall” expresses obligation or compulsion; when not carrying the stress, it expresses a promise or threat. If unaware of this special grammatical meaning the word carries when used with the second and third persons, we would hesitate or err when translating such statements as the following:
You `shall do what you are told.
叫你做什么，你就做什么。
You shall not catch me so easily next time.
下次你不会这么容易就抓到我了。
If you work well, you shall have higher wages.
你如果好好干，就可以加工资。
You shall die. (= I/We will make you die.)
我要杀了你。
Yet few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning. (TEM-8 (2005) EC translation script)
然而很少有人会向书索取它们可以为我们提供的东西。最常见的现象是：开卷之初，我们思绪繁杂、固守歧见，要求小说叙述真人真事，要求诗歌表现虚假，要求传记吹捧夸耀，要求历史附会我们固有之偏见。如果我们打开书本之前，能够摈弃这些先入之见，那将会是一个极好的开端。{instead of “*……我们认为小说说的是真人真事，诗歌说的是虚幻的东西，…….”}
■ Syntactic
knowledge: knowledge about how
words combine to form phrases and grammatical sentences. Just consider what a great difference in meaning there exists between the
much quoted phrases of “A dog bites a man” or “A man bites a dog.” (Alfred
Harmsworth, a British newspaper magnate: “When a dog bites a man, that is not
news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news.”)
■ Textual
knowledge: knowledge about the textual structure of the original. Two most important aspects of textual knowledge are
cohesion and coherence. Cohesion is
the structural and/or semantic relationships holding between the different elements
of a text. This may be the relationship between different sentences or between
different parts of a sentence. For example, In:
Paris? I’ve always wanted to go there.
there
is a link or cohesive tie (called anaphora)
between Paris and there. Coherence is the relationships which link the meanings of sentences
in a text or the utterances in a discourse. In English a paragraph will be said
to have coherence if it is a series of sentences that develop a main idea, that
is, with a topic sentence and supporting sentences which relate to it. A
sentence will be said to be coherent if the subject is close to its verb and
modifiers, and hold hands with what they modify. Don’t write, e.g.
Robert Henri felt like Whitman, that
America was a land of artistic opportunity,
but
Robert Henri, like Whitman, felt
that....
(2) Meaning-related Knowledge, including
■ Semantic
knowledge: context-independent knowledge about what individual words and
sentences mean, and about how the meaning of a phrase is related to the meaning
of the words it is made up of, e.g. how the figurative meaning of the phrase “a
heart of stone” is derived from the meanings of “heart” and “stone”.
■ Pragmatic
knowledge: context-dependent knowledge about what individual words and sentences mean
in situations and particular occasions of use, e.g. what B means in the following dialog can only be inferred
pragmatically from the context in which the interlocutor makes the statement:
A: Can
you come for dinner tonight?
B: I
have an exam tomorrow.
(3) Usage-related
Knowledge: knowledge about how words,
expressions, constructions, etc., are normally or actually used (as in a
particular form or sense) in a language community.
To be proficient in a language means not only to master its grammar and vocabulary, but also to be familiar with the idiomatic ways of expressing things in the language. This requires that the translator understand the dialectal or stylistic variants of the source and target languages, including not only formal or literary expressions, but also jargon, slangs, euphemisms, jocular sayings, etc. For example, when somebody says in Chinese that he or she likes to “煲电话粥”, we should know that the guy likes to chat for a long time on the phone. To give this Chinese slang an idiomatic and stylistically equivalent English translation, we have to know such colloquial or equally slangy English expressions as “to do marathon talk on the phone” or “to shoot the breeze on the phone”. Similarly, to put the newly born Chinese slang “傍大款” into good English, we should know what the phrase means in present-day Chinese society. Then we may give it a plain paraphrase like “(for a young lady) to find/escort a rich man for financial or material benefit”. But that is not enough. To produce a translation that is closest to the original not only in meaning, but also in style, as we noted earlier in our discussion of the definition of translation, we’ve got to know or find out an equivalent slang in English, which is perhaps “to find a sugar daddy”.
“没商量” in “爱你没商量” (TV script by Wang Shuo 王朔) is a Chinese colloquialism, meaning “没有讨论的可能”, “不容（对方）提出异议”. So the phrase turned into English should be a colloquialism, too, e.g. “I love you, no ifs, ands or buts” [something that you say to a child to stop them arguing with you when you want them to do something: I want no ifs and buts - just get on and tidy your room now. (CALD2)]. If rendered into English as “I Love You, Whether You Consent or Not”, the relish or attractive quality of the original would be totally lost.
The English title of the Chinese director Feng Xiaogang [冯小刚]’s 2009 heshuipian [贺岁片], or movie conventionally premiered [(US) prɪˈmɪər] in a year’s end to honor the coming New Year, Feichengwurao [非诚无扰] is If You Are the One. “The one” in English, however, usually goes with a postmodifier, for example:
As a business executive, your notice entitlement is an immensely significant part of your overall job rights. It is not legally necessary for the same notice entitlement to apply to both you and your employer. Ideally, you will be due a lengthy period of notice if your employer wishes you to leave. On the other hand, you will probably not wish to be subject to a correspondingly onerous commitment if you are the one who is keen to go. Saying this is, of course, much easier than persuading an employer to agree to it. (BNC)
But if you are the one with the remit [the task or area of activity officially assigned to an individual or organization 委托权限；职权范围: the committee was becoming caught up in issues that did not fall within its remit. (NOECD)] to make ‘abc’ happen, this book may well be a useful aid to guide you. (BNC)
To express the meaning of “correct or exact one”, one uses the phrase “the right one” (with or without a postmodifier) in English, for example:
1874 Sayce Compar. Philol. ii. 69 Hypothesis after hypothesis, until the right one is at length hit upon. (OED)
1876 Geo. Eliot Let. 3 Feb. (1956) VI. 220 Don't wear glasses telles quelles [as it is] but consult about getting the right ones. (OED)
Therefore the correct translation of the title of that popular comedy film starring Ge You [葛优] and Shu Qi [舒淇] should be:
If You Are the Right One
The following is a case which indicates the importance for bilingual workers or translators to command English for Specific Purposes (专门用途英语):
Case: 1. “I
wear well.”
中方人员对撒切尔夫人：“您看起来气色很好。”
译员：“
撒切尔夫人：“
译员
中方人员
译员：“
撒切尔夫人：“
译员：“我出席晚会才穿这个颜色呢。”
其实，撒切尔夫人这两句话的意思分别是：“我这人经得起折腾。”和“这是我们党（保守党）的颜色。”译员显然没有理解撒切尔夫人的幽默。
Case: CA 981事件
2007年4月，一架执行从北京至纽约CA 981号航班的客机，在肯尼迪国际机场降落后，机师和机场控制塔出现沟通问题而险些造成意外。肯尼迪机场控制塔人员批评国航机师英语水平低，但国航方面指甘乃迪机场控制塔人员没有使用国际民航组织通用的航空英语。(CNN对CA
981事件的报道)
It should be noted that by language proficiency is also meant one’s competence in the target language.
，你只有记住这句话，训诫鞭策自己就是了。张谷若
The quotation is derived from the Old Testament, meaning “
and very aptly conveys the meaning of the original. The following examples may illustrate the point:
Despite the great age gap between them, an instant affinity asserted [state strongly: Justice will assert itself] itself.
尽管他们两人年龄很不相当，但是情投志合，一见如故。 {Cf. 立即有了亲密的关系}
This is the policy upon which we shall act, come what will.
这就是我们奉行的政策，成败利钝，在所不计。 {Cf. 不论发生什么情况}
Many Chinese learners of English love to use the word “introduce” as a translation of the Chinese word “介绍”, but “introduce” is rather formal a word in English. It is actually more idiomatic to render the idea of, say,
我想向你们介绍一下我们的学校。
into English as:
I’d like to tell you / share with you something about our school.
than:
I’ll give you a brief introduction to our school.
And we should also know that in English people introduce a person, but not so often a place or thing. For the 介绍 of a company, a university, a government agency, etc. native English speakers use the word “profile” instead of “introduction”.
The rapid economic development in
奥巴马演讲的文言文版汉译
Hello，Chicago!
芝城父老，别来无恙，
If there is anyone out there who still
doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders
if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the
power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
余尝闻世人有疑，不知当今美利坚凡事皆可成就耶？开国先贤之志方岿然于世耶？民主之伟力不减于昔年耶？凡存诸疑者，今夕当可释然。
It’s the answer told by lines that
stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by
people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their
lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their
voices could be that difference.
今夕之释然，皆蒙美利坚民众之协力——学塾祠庙之外，市井乡野之间，万千父老心焦似焚，苦待竟日，愿献一票之力。其中，平生未尝涉国事者，数亦不少，而今有此义举，皆因一念不衰——今夫天下，非同既往，愿发吁天之声，必成动地之势。
It’s the answer spoken by young and old,
rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native
American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a
message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or
a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and always will be, the
United States of America.
今夕之释然，皆仰吾国同胞之齐心——何谈贫富老幼之差、党社宗族之异，惶论发肤肌体之别、志趣爱恶之分。吾国既以“合众”为名，吾辈则更无疏离之意，红蓝二党并肩而立，数十邦州挽手相合，无分你我，共称一家，昂然于世，齐声一呼，天下乃有此释然。
In a communicative act involving the use of language (as translation really is), language is a means or tool by which something is communicated. In most circumstances, what is communicated (i.e., the “communicative content”) is something outside the realm of language. Obviously, to communicate effectively, the participants in a communicative act must have adequate [satisfactory or acceptable in quality or quantity (NOECD)] extralinguistic knowledge.
Extralinguistic knowledge consists of two types of non-linguistic knowledge, i.e. real world knowledge and subject matter knowledge:
(1) Real World Knowledge (or Common-sense Knowledge) is the general,
non-linguistic knowledge about the world or, in Storey’s
words, “what people
naively know about the real world” (Storey, 1992). For
example, when asked whether 35,000 × 58,000 is larger or smaller than 1, a human
being will readily give the answer “larger” without actually performing the
calculation. They resolve the question by using their real world knowledge
― in this case, the basic arithmetic knowledge about the kind of value
that can be yielded by multiplying two positive integers. If a computer is
asked the question, however, it normally needs to calculate the two numbers
before being able to give an answer.
For instance, if you want to buy a computer for yourself and you go to a dealer in your city
In the similar vein,
to translate adequately, the translator must share or make efforts to share the
knowledge the source writer shows or manipulates in composing the source text.
In other words, they have to know what is being talked about by the source
writer.
(2) Subject Matter Knowledge: knowledge about
what is referred to or talked about in the text to be translated.
Case: “我想就基础设计和详细设计讨论一下它的深度”
中国一家化工公司为引进美国丁二醇生产工艺技术而与美国一工艺设计公司举行谈判。在谈判过程中，中方主人说了这样一句话：”我想就{工程}基础设计和{工程}详细设计讨论一下它的深度。”假如译员不了解行规和中方主人的真实意图，可能会把这句话译为：
For the basic and detailed engineering
design, I’d like to discuss their depth.
但如果这样译的话，美方就会很难理解译文里的depth指什么，因为美国工艺设计公司的惯例是不做基础设计和详细设计，而把这两种设计交给工程公司做。由于此次谈判引进的生产工艺技术难度大，中方公司希望美方公司能够承担基础设计，中方公司仅承担详细设计。因此，两种设计的分界点必须明确。由于事前掌握了中方公司的意图，译员当时就把中方主人的话准确地译成了：
For the basic engineering design and
detailed engineering design, I would like to know the definition, or division.
(Based on Feng [Ed.], 2007, pp.146-147)
Sufficient command of the knowledge of the subject matter of the original is one of the essential requirements of a good translator. Therefore, some translation programs provided by tertiary institutions in Europe and the United States require or strongly suggest that the students take a group of courses in a specific subject area, e.g. the Bachelor of Science program in Translation Major in the Institute for Applied Linguistics at Kent State University in the United States stipulates that the student taking the program must complete a Subject Area Specialty module, which is a departmentally approved coherent sequence of courses in one or more other disciplines and which accounts for as many as roughly one third of the total credits needed for graduation from the program.
Since a translator may need to translate a variety of things and since human knowledge is to a great extent interrelated, the translator is desirably something of an all-rounder [a versatile man]. Ideally, the translator should be as knowledgeable or erudite [having or showing a wide knowledge gained from reading; learned] as possible, knowing something about everything.
In the translation of the following sentences, relevant subject matter knowledge is essential:
Sensing that this might be similar to the Israeli war on Suez [A ship canal, about 166 km (103 mi) long, traversing the Isthmus of Suez and linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez with the Mediterranean Sea. Built under the supervision of Ferdinand de Lesseps, it was opened in November 1869 and after 1875 came under British control. The canal is strategically important in that it provides the shortest route for international sea traffic travelling between Europe and Asia without circumnavigating Africa. The British withdrew in June 1956, and in July President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt nationalized the canal, precipitating a crisis in which Israel invaded Egypt and Great Britain and France sent armed forces to retake the canal. United Nations intervention forced an armistice, and the canal was reopened in April 1957. The canal was again closed in July 1967 during the Arab-Israeli War and remained closed until June 1975. (Based on AHD4 & Oxford World Encyclopedia [1998])] in 1956, Syrian leaders called on the other Arab states to make good on their pledges to come to her assistance.
叙利亚的领导人感到此事可能同1956年以色列为了苏伊士运河问题而发动的战争（*以色列对苏伊士的战争）相似，因而请求其他阿拉伯国家信守誓约，给予援助。
We bombed the Axis
我们轰炸了轴心国在欧洲的统辖区（*轴心国的欧洲）。
（中国）中东铁路
Chinese Eastern Railway (*Middle-East Railway)
“-化” is a familiar derivative suffix in Chinese. “Such-and-such a 化” has almost become a vogue expression in contemporary Chinese. To
properly translate expressions ending with this suffix into English, one has
know about the object or event the expression is used to denote:
经济全球化 economic globalization
国际关系民主化 to exercise/practise democracy in international relations
科研成果产业化 to apply scientific research findings/results to industrial production
教育产业化 (to build) a market-oriented education
知识社会化 (to build) a knowledge-driven society
国民经济信息化 (to build) an information-based national economy
保证决策的科学化、民主化 to ensure that the decision-making process is scientific and democratic
Case: “你反映的问题，我会告诉法院，由他们处理。”
有一次，朱镕基总理出访新加坡，并发表了演讲。在回答听众提问时，有人反映他在中国打官司遇到了困难。朱总理当即表示：“你反映的问题，我会告诉法院，由他们处理。”现场的译员译为：“I will instruct the
Supreme People’s Court to handle it”。话音未落，总理就纠正译员说：“I cannot INSTRUCT
the court. They are independent.”总理的法政知识和政治敏锐性使译员心悦诚服。
(Based on Feng [Ed.], 2007,
p.101)
One interpreter did not know what “
Of course, it is impossible for any person to know everything there is to be known. It is possible, however, to know how and where to find things out. It is worth remembering the old saying that “two (or more) heads are better than one”. To research a subject and talk to specialists or other translators, the translator usually needs to set up “temporary informal networks”, which may not be called as such, but exist nonetheless. It is advisable to keep records of who you talk to on a given subject, or names of organizations to ring. You never know when you may need them again. (Picken [Ed.], 1989, p. 49)
Samuel Johnson, a truculent 18th century English man of letters, made the following gem of observation on knowledge:
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.
A translator’s knowledge consists of three parts: knowing; knowing where to find out; knowing how to find out where to find out. (Picken [Ed.], 1989, p. 50)
. The second and third parts of the knowledge are actually some ability ― the ability to acquire knowledge (both linguistic and extralinguistic) needed for the fulfillment of a translation task.
So if you come across the technical term GATT /gaet/ (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, a treaty to which about 100 countries are party and which has been in operation since 1948 to promote trade and economic development) when translating an economic document and you need to get some in-depth knowledge about this treaty in order to truly comprehend the original, you should know where to find out that knowledge in an efficient way. For example, you may consult the term in a quality general or specialized encyclopedia. And then you should know where such reference tools can be located or accessed if you do not happen to own them yourself.
Case: How to find out the genuine
English equivalent of “（中国）中东铁路”
A
translation like “Chinese Middle-East Railway” is counter-intuitive [contrary to intuition or to
common-sense expectation (NOECD)] and queer because westerners have historically used the term
“Middle-East” to refer to the specific geographical
area of southwest Asia and northeast Africa; they cannot logically use it to
refer to some part of China.
We
cannot find “（中国）中东铁路” in an ordinary Chinese-English
dictionary because the term is an encyclopedic one. So we should seek the
knowledge needed for correctly translating the term in an encyclopedia.
In the
Chinese version of Wikipedia, we keyed in the term “中东铁路” and were redirected to “東清鐵路”.
At the
bottom of the entry “東清鐵路” we found the apparent English
equivalent of the term ― “Chinese Eastern Railway”. But this
needs to be confirmed in an authoritative English encyclopedia.
We
looked up “Chinese Eastern Railway”
in Encyclopædia Britannica and found
the following information:
“railroad constructed in Manchuria by
Russia in the late 19th century. The privileges for the line were obtained from
China in the wake of the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) as part of a secret
alliance (1896) between Russia and China. Two years later Russia extracted from
China a further agreement to allow an extension of the railroad to Port Arthur
(亚瑟港 [Lushun的原称 (1898-1905)]) and Dairen on the Yellow Sea, but this South Manchurian
Railway was transferred to Japan after the defeat of Russia in the
Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Planned as an extension of the Russian
Trans-Siberian Railroad, the Chinese Eastern Railway was Russia’s shortest
route to the warm-water port of Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan. In 1924, when
the post-Revolutionary Soviet government renounced Russian imperialist
territorial claims in China, it nevertheless retained control of the railway.
Three years later, the Chinese seized the line, but they were forced to restore
it in 1929. In 1935 the Soviet Union sold the railway to the newly formed
Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. At the end of World War II, Chiang
Kai-shek's Nationalist government negotiated the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Aug. 14,
1945, in which the Soviet Union agreed to nonsupport of the Communists in the
Chinese civil war, receiving, in return, partnership in the Chinese Eastern
Railway for a 30-year period. In 1953, however, the Soviet Union returned its
share of the railway to the People's Republic of China.” (Chinese Eastern Railway. [2007]. Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago:
Encyclopædia Britannica.)
The encyclopedic information provided by
Encyclopædia Britannica confirms that
the genuine English equivalent of “（中国）中东铁路” is “Chinese Eastern Railway”.
If you are translating something related to computer technology and you have a technical term that is quite new and you cannot find it in any reference book available to you, e.g. “virtual reality”, you should know how to find out where to find it out. You may try, e.g. two ways: either you may go to consult a computer person to beg him to tell you where to find out the meaning of the term; or you may resort to the resources available on international computer networks (e.g. the Internet). You may know, for example, that such famous portal websites as Yahoo, Sina (
Professional translators must have a near-perfect understanding of the subtleties and nuances of meaning in one language, culture and context in order to convey the same meaning in a different language, culture and context. They need to have a sensitive heart and an analytical mind. These are especially important when they mediate [be an intermediary or reconciliator between two persons or sides] between two widely different language-cultures such as English and Chinese. To translate, e.g. the English saying “It is a wise father that knows his son” into Chinese, a translator should reason with himself why a father who knows his son should be described as wise: since not every father (far from it!) may be judged wise, he should deduce (like an englishman would) that the message of the saying is: not every father knows his son. So the correct Chinese translation for this English saying should be:
难得有父亲真正了解儿子。
instead of:
*了解儿子的父亲是聪明的父亲。
Prof. Yao Jinqing [姚锦清], reviser of the draft Chinese version of Irvin Stone’s biographical novel of Sigmund Freud, The Passions of the Mind, once told the present author that he went through the greatest agonies when revising those passages that reflected the draft translators’ complete lack of sensitivity to the cultural milieu or environment of the story. The language used by them, according to Prof. Yao, was a kind that we usually find only in such typically Chinese novels as Shuihu Zhuan (The Outlaws of the Marshes) or Xixiang Ji (The Romance of the West Chamber), e.g. *“他下得山来，走将过去”. In translating a passage describing a scene of festivity in the woods near Vienna, one translator used the expression *“茶楼酒肆，花前月下”. At one point, one of the two drinkers at a pub asks the waiter to bring them something:
Boy, fetch me a pen and a piece of paper.
which was put into Chinese as:
*店小二，且拿纸笔来，一边伺候。
These absurd translations remind us of what Mr Fu Lei 傅雷 (1908-1966), the renowned translator of French literature, had this to say about translation: “Though his work may resemble mechanical imitation, the translator should take as his proper task the cultivation of an artistic mind …” (译事虽近舌人，要以艺术修养为根本 ……) (Fu 1979) Translation is certainly not always something artistic. But the translator should develop an artist’s sensitivity to the original as well as to the world around him.
Case: 1. “A little more than
kin, and less than kind.”
In Act I, Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet,
Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle who has killed Hamlet’s father and usurped the throne,
calls Hamlet “my son [an affectionate or familiar form of address
to a boy or man, as used by an older person]”, at which Hamlet speaks aside: “A little more than kin, and less than kind”:
(CLAUDIUS: … But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,―)
HAMLET [Aside]
A little more than kin, and less than
kind.
(CLAUDIUS How
is it that the clouds still hang on you?
HAMLET Not
so, my lord; I am too much I’ the sun.)
(I,ii)
Several famous translators came up with different
translations of this line:
(国王： …… 可是来，我的侄儿哈姆莱特，我的孩子——)
哈姆莱特 [旁白] ：
超乎寻常的亲族{Ö}，莫不相干的路人{X}。(朱生豪) {Pun lost.}
亲上加亲，越亲越不相亲。(卞之琳) {X The second half of the sentence doesn’t make sense.}
比亲戚亲一点，说亲人却说不上。(曹未风) {X}
比侄子是亲些，可是还算不得儿子。(梁实秋) {X The contrast between 侄子 and 儿子 does not exist in the original.}
比亲戚过了头{Ö}，要说亲人还不够。(孙大雨)
说不亲亲上亲，说亲又不亲。{张今}XX The entire
sentence doesn’t make much sense
(国王： 为什么愁云依旧笼罩在你的身上？
哈姆莱特： 不，陛下；我已经在太阳里晒得太久了。)
Given that kin, which means “akin” or “of the
same kin; related by blood.” (AHD4), is tied to the word kind by alliteration) and that (especially in early modern English)
kind means “natural; in accordance
with nature or usual course of things; (of persons) lawful, rightful” (OED) or
“not degenerate and corrupt, but such as a thing or person ought to be: what
mightst thou do, were all thy children kind and natural” (Kind. [n.d.].
In Shakespeare Dictionary. Retrieved
via Lingoes Translator 2, 2010 [Version 2.7.1] [Computer software]), Hamlet’s comment on his uncle’s calling
him “my son” is loaded [(of a question or statement) charged with some hidden or
improper implication] with
two important nuances of meaning: “You went too far in trying to be my kin
(father)”, and “You did not behave as a normal human being would, i.e. never
kill one’s kin”. Of the above six renditions only 孙大雨’s can be credited as being roughly up to the original with respect to
these two nuances of meaning. A probably better version may be derived from
this version:
做亲戚做过了头，要说是同类却不太够。 (柯平)
Case: 2. 手指如绳串珍珠，长篇大论轻松译
新中国成立初期，由于高级翻译人才匮乏，冀朝铸间或也参加一些重要会谈的口译工作，他的能力和水平皆不同寻常，令人叫绝。有一次，周恩来总理发表大段讲话，冀朝铸一点没有记录，只是总理讲一会儿，他屈起左手一根手指；再讲一会儿，又屈起一根手指。等总理讲完，他的左手恰好握成拳头。然后，他从容上阵，翻译一段，伸出一根手指，再译出一段，又伸出一根。等整段讲话译完，左手又恢复了原状，真是妙极了！在场工作人员无不叹为观止：“今天周总理的讲话和冀朝铸的翻译都是世界第一流的……”
事后，有人向冀朝铸同志求教。他回答说：“谁也无法用双手抓起成百颗散在盘中的珍珠。但是，如果用细丝绳把珍珠串起来，那么一根手指就能拎起。”可见，注意讲话的内在逻辑就能极大地提高记忆力。冀朝铸同志的手指就是串珍珠的细丝绳！
(Feng [Ed.], 2007, pp.56-57.)
A translator’s sensitivity and
critical-thinking ability can often be perceived in the translation annotations
the translator makes either by way of providing additional information to help
target readers to understand the original better or as a self-monitoring device
to help themselves to review the rationality or justifiability of any decision
they make when solving difficult problems in a translating task, e.g.
南京大学英语系毕业研究生、2011年韩素英青年翻译奖汉英翻译一等奖并英汉翻译优秀奖得主、兰州大学外国语学院青年教师、现在英国University of Sussex攻读Intellectual History专业博士的万兆元2011年参加韩素英青年翻译奖竞赛时提交的汉英参赛译文 (http://nlp.nju.edu.cn/kep/TContHSy23rd2011_WanZhaoyuan(WinnerOfThe1stPrizeInCeT)-Translation.htm). {证书与受奖、参赛回眸、2012年3月英国University
of Sussex录取其为思想史
(Intellectual History) 专业博士生的通知}
More important than all that is discussed above is the translator’s sense of commitment to the original author and the target readership. For any translator, knowledge and talent is finite; the problems and difficulties he may encounter, however, are virtually infinite. Nothing less than a professional spirit marked by dedication and a strong sense of responsibility can urge him to go to all lengths to find things out and ensure the maximum faithfulness of his work to the original.
Hu Shi [胡适] (1891-1962), an eminent Chinese
Nationalist scholar and diplomat, identifies three commitments of a translator:
译书第一要对原作者负责任，求不失原意；第二要对读者负责，求他们能懂；第三要对自己负责任，求不致自欺欺人。
(胡适. [1923, April 1]. 译书. 《努力周报》), as cited in陈福康, 2000, P. 210.)
What
……由于我热爱文艺，视文艺工作为崇高神圣的事业，不但把损害艺术品看做像歪曲真理一样严重，并且介绍一件艺术品不能还它一件艺术品就觉得不能容忍，所以态度不知不觉地变得特别郑重，思想变得很保守。译者不深刻的理解、体会与感受原作，决不可能叫读者理解、体会与感受。而每个人的理解、体会与感受，又受着性格的限制。选择原作好比交朋友：有的始终与我格格不入，那就不必勉强；有的人与我一见如故，甚至相见恨晚。但即使对一见如故的朋友，也非一朝一夕所能真切了解。想译一部喜欢的作品要读到四遍五遍，才能把情节、故事，记得烂熟，分析彻底，人物历历如在目前，隐藏在字里行间的微言大义也能慢慢琢磨出来。……《老实人》的译文前后改过八遍，原作的精神究竟传出多少还是没把握。 (傅雷 1957)
Professor Cai Mingjiong [柴明熲] of the Graduate Institute of Interpretation and Translation (GIIT) of Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), when interviewed by Shenjiang Fuwu Daobao (申江服务导报) about the competitive entrance examination for the simultaneous interpreting graduate program the Institute began to offer in 2003, stressed that candidates had been eliminated not only for poor pronunciation and intonation, and weakness in logical reasoning, but also for making up or inventing things when they were not able to understand the test material (Feng [Ed.], 2007, 9-11 pp.). What Professor Cai stressed is a translator’s commitments to both the original author and the target readership.
A good translator, like a good practitioner in any other profession, has the courage and habit of pursuing truth and perfection. What they most care about is the truthfulness of their work and the quality of their product, rather than the sensational effect of what they present.
Case: 1. “受伤的鸭子”
曾担任邓小平英文翻译的施燕华第一次“出道”、正式参加翻译工作是为接待外国领导人的盛大宴会翻译菜单。一只“受伤的鸭子”给施燕华上了生动的“第一课”。
那是进入外交部不久，施燕华来到灯火通明的人民大会堂宴会厅，怀着兴奋的心情欣赏涉身外交以后的“处女作”—— 那摆放在宴会桌上的一张张译成英文的精美菜单。施燕华曾为这项简单的工作付出了许多心血与时间。但是，意外的事情还是发生了。就在宾主入席、宴会正式开始前后，不少来宾在席间交头接耳、窃窃私议，有的甚至发出轻微的笑声。让外国客人发笑的就是施燕华精心炮制的“杰作”—— 那张菜单！从他们相视而笑的神情中并不难发现，“老外”的注意力不在玉盘珍馐、美味佳肴之上，而正是那张菜单！忐忑不安的施燕华随手拿起一张菜单琢磨。不看犹可，一看菜单，施燕华就傻眼了，窘得她恨不得钻进地缝里去。原来，她把菜单中的一道“罐闷鸭（Braised Duck）”译成了“受伤的鸭子 (Bruised Duck) ”。这显然是粗心大意的过错。施燕华呆住了：真没想到，错了一个字母（将“a”打成“u”），就出了这么大的洋相！脸上火辣辣的施燕华不知所措，她一个劲地埋怨自己为什么不仔细一点，多检查几遍。现在后悔也没有用了，白纸黑字放在那里。施燕华难过得几乎要掉下眼泪……
从此以后，那只“受伤的鸭子”好像发出“呷呷”的叫声，时时在提醒着施燕华：外事无巨细，外交无小事！施燕华认识到：在翻译中，哪怕是点滴疏忽都会造成不良影响，甚至后果不堪设想。现在，她就是这样告诫分配到外交部翻译室的一批又一批年轻人。
(Feng [Ed.], 2007, pp.28-29.)
Case: 2. The present author’s feedback to the
inquiry of an undergraduate who wished to be enrolled in NJU’s MA Program in
Translation
[Reading the school records, the
Scholarships & Awards and Certificates sections of the applicant’s
CV, I had the impression that she was one of the top students of her class
(in fact, she indicated in the very first section of her CV that academically
she ranked second among 92 students of the class). But the CV itself and the
sample academic work the student provided were full of unforgivable mistakes in grammar, usage, and mechanics.
More unforgivable than that is that some work supposedly of her own was
apparently copied from some published texts. The following is my reply to the
email along with which the student sent me her CV (she did not even sign
the mail).]
August 20, 2009
Dear Ms Huang Yaqian,
Thank you for sending us your
biodata
and sample academic work. If you wish to enrol in our MA program, you
should be ready to improve your English and ways of doing things (study and
academic work included of course), especially:
■ Always use English correctly, in grammar, usage,
and mechanics. If you're not absolutely sure of the correctness of anything
you're to write down, consult reference tools and do all necessary researches
to make sure that it is right before setting it down to paper;
■ Always separate your own ideas and their
expression from those of others, otherwise you will be guilty of plagiarism;
■ Follow conventions in formal communications;
■ Don't take paper qualifications too seriously. It
is more important to really know your stuff.
Sincerely,
Ke Ping
The last important quality that we find in good translators is an effective command of the principles and procedures (strategies or methods) of translation, by which is meant
n that they correctly understand what translation means;
n that they are able to differentiate a correct translation from an incorrect one, and a good translation from a merely passable one; and
n that they internalize the set of principles and strategies or methods needed for the solution of different kinds of problems encountered in translation.
In the translation courses the Department of English offers, you will have opportunities to engage in concentrated study of those principles and procedures.
By way of summarizing what we’ve discussed above about what makes a good translator, let’s:
■ observe a couple of real-life situations in which the qualities clients most expect to find in a translator are outlined,
■ reflect on a translation scholar-cum-practitioner’s point of view of what a translator should be like, and
■ review the motto of the former Yenching University (1919-1949), which was founded under the name of “Peking University” and which was one of the precursors of the present-day Peking University.
What important qualities do real-life clients of translation service would like to find in a translator? The following are some relevant cases.
Case: 1. A job off from Swisscom (ad in The
Guardian)
From The Guardian
Please use the contact information found at the end of the ad - please
do not reply to the list or to me.
Head of English Language Service
Your job: Based
at Swisscom’s headquarters in
Your profile:
In addition to an irreproachable standard of English,
which is your mother tongue, you have a profound knowledge of
the German language and culture. Your educational background is
excellent and includes a degree in German (French and/or Italian are also an
advantage) and a diploma or equivalent in translation.
You have broad-based experience in professional translation (ideally in
telecommunications) and in managing other translators, both in-house and
freelance. Furthermore, you are able to use your initiative,
flexibility and sound interpersonal skills
in order to cope with the pressure of working to tight deadlines.
Your next step:
Please send your application dossier to the address below, quoting reference
5198. For further information, please contact:
Paul O’Neil tel. 0041 31 342 73 38, e-mail: paul.oneil@swisscom.com
Swisscom
HR-P-HQ
CH-3050 Bern
Deborah Shannon,
Academic Text & Translation
Case: 2. A job offer from JD Edwards (email from
Lionbridge)
Dear Sir or
Madam,
I am Isabelle
Girollet from Lionbridge company. We have received from one of our customers a
job offer for a German translator. This is quite urgent. Thank you for taking
into consideration this offer on your mailing list.
We,
Lionbridge, are an American company specialised in Software Localisation. Here
is our web address: http://www.lionbridge.com. if you would like to know more about our company.
We are very
often working with an American customer, JD Edwards based in Denver, Colorado
(U.S.A.). They regularly need translators from different countries on their
site. JD Edwards is specialised in ERP [enterprise resources planning], Human Resources,
Financials and Accounting translations.
This time, the
JD Edwards German team is looking for a German translator. Here is their
announcement:
JD Edwards
German team is interested in hiring a full-time in-house German translator. The
ideal candidate would have worked with HR and/or ERP terminology, have a
background in Microsoft terminology, and possibly some AS/400 [Autonomous System: a collection of
gateways (routers) under a single administrative authority]
knowledge.
He/She would
primarily focus on our human resource product suite. Since the product suite is
fairly new for the international market we need to build a repository of terms
and make sure the translations make sense in a German speaking market.
Enclosed the
more detailed job description:
Function
Summary:
Translate J.D.
Edwards software and documentation products from English to German.
Experience
and Education:
- Native fluency of German
- Excellent grammatical skills in English and German
- Four years proven translation
experience
- Windows and PC skills
- Analytical skills
- Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines
- Degree in translation preferred
- Organizational skills and ability to multi-task
- Familiarity of translation tools required
- Team work and corporate environment
experience
- Ability to follow guidelines
Responsibilities:
- Translate
J.D. Edwards software and documentation products from English to German with a high degree of accuracy and speed
- Effectively
manage time to produce in a deadline-driven production environment
- Edit translations
- Be a team
player
- Share
expertise within team and across the Translation department
- Share
technical and process knowledge with language team and entire department
- Adhere to
team translation standards and preferred word usage
- Work closely
with the team
Here are
additional comments regarding this offer:
- JD Edwards
would like the translator to start working on their site in Denver as soon as
possible. They have an opening right now.
- Regarding
the salary, it will depend on the experience. In this case, JD Edwards is
looking for a translator with industry experience and hopefully some HR
knowledge.
- When the
translator starts working at JD Edwards, JD Edwards will pay at the very
beginning for one month of shared accommodation and car.
- JD Edwards
will provide and pay for the visa application. However, this means they are
looking for people who are willing to commit for at least a two to three year
stay, otherwise they have to reimburse a portion of the visa costs. JD Edwards
supplies then with the working permit: the H1B visa.
If one of you
is interested in this job offer and would like to apply, please contact us via
phone or email as soon as possible. Here is our phone and fax number:
Lionbridge tel: +33 4 92 95 20 03/00 fax:
+33 4 93 65 32 12. Please contact Isabelle Girollet or by email: isabelle_girollet@lionbridge.com
If you want to
apply, please send us by email your resume. We will forward it to JD Edwards.
They will review your resume and if they are interested in they will ask you to
do a translation test via email.
Thank you for
your time and consideration.
Best Regards,
Isabelle
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please do not
reply to the person posting the message. Please find the
address within
the message itself and use that. Thank you!
Sponsored by:
helping
translators do better business
Case: 3. Huawei’s language service
division
■ 中国华为公司（通信设备制造商）在全球五大洲共有六大分部。截至2006年5月，华为产品在国际市场上覆盖90多个国家和地区，全球排名前50名的电讯运营商中，已有28家使用华为的产品和服务。公司重视现代企业管理制度，每年花100多亿人民币聘请IBM等企业的专家担任管理顾问。
■ 公司要求每个部门都要做到全球最好，并每月都对员工进行考核，优秀者可得到当月的加工资名额奖励。
■ 公司录取员工不看8级考试成绩，主要看内部招工测试的成绩（这两年也开始看学校，不要来自学风不好的学校的学生）。
■ 新员工接受3个月的内部培训（其中包括理论内容，还包括2周的文化培训，介绍全球化背景下的价值观念）。
■ 公司设有翻译中心，有专职译员340人，为全球客户提供“无时差”服务。
■ 中心订有《翻译质量规范》，长达200多页，且版本在不断升级。
■ 2007年共接待900多次国外代表团来访，其中一半为政府代表团，非常缺口译人才。
(Based on与华为翻译中心陈总晤谈笔记, April 28, 2008)
Eugene Nida (1914-2011) is a famous translation scholar as well as translation practitioner who works in the capacity of a translation consultant to the United Bible Societies. He frequently describes what a professional working in that position should be like in the following way:
(1) a keen intellect with a sense of structure and scientific imagination;
(2) a capacity to communicate effectively with others;
(3) a fundamental empathy [(1) the ability to understand other people’s feelings and problems: a doctor who had great ~ for her patients (2) ability to identify oneself mentally with e.g. a work of art that one is looking at, and so to understand its meaning 神入；移情；共鸣] with the cause of communicating the Good News, and with those who do, and a willingness to work closely with all kinds of Christian groups;
(4) a warm personal touch and a sense of humor with which to relate to others, and not to take himself too seriously. (Black, M. & W. Smalley. [Eds.], 1974:xx)
Nida’s description of what a bible translation consultant should be like, which is actually his own portrait, should apply equally well with a good bible translator and, by extension, a good translator in any field.
Freedom Through Truth
For Service
因真理 得自由 以服务
It goes without saying that a qualified translator should have a good command of their working languages and be familiar with the subject matter of the original. They should own a sophisticated sensitivity to diverse experiences and circumstances and a keen analytical ability to approach the most complicated linguistic phenomena in a rational way.
In addition to all these, truly good translators should also have, in Nida’s words, an “empathy” with the enterprise of intercultural communication through translation and, as the motto of Yenching University directs, a faith in and awareness of one’s duty as a human being to seek truth, freedom, and the service of their fellow countrymen and fellow human beings.
Thank You!