《论语》中仁的英译研究

Chapter four The Strategic Skills of Translation

Chapter Four The Strategic Skills of Translation

4.1 Transliteration

Transliteration is the conversion of a text from one script to another.[1]（ Kharusi, N. S. & Salman, A. (2011) The English Transliteration of Place Names in Oman. Journal of Academic and Applied Studies Vol. 1(3) September 2011, pp. 1–27）Systematic transliteration is a mapping from one system of writing into another, typically grapheme to grapheme. Most transliteration systems are one-to-one, so a reader who knows the system can reconstruct the original spelling. Transliteration is opposed to transcription, which maps the sounds of one language into a writing system. Still, most systems of transliteration map the letters of the source script to letters pronounced similarly in the target script, for some specific pair of source and target language. If the relations between letters and sounds are similar in both languages, a transliteration may be very close to a transcription. In practice, there are some mixed transliteration/transcription systems that transliterate a part of the original script and transcribe the rest. For many script pairs, there is one or more standard transliteration systems. However, unsystematic transliteration is common.

In The Analects, the core word ―Ren‖ can be translated into ―Renism‖. The suffix ―-ism‖ means systems, principle, ideology, thought or doctrine. It is convenient for readers to memorize it and easy to associate it with its conception. Besides, according to the grammatical rules, it can be transformed into different forms, such as Renist, Renistic or Renistically. In this way can we protect Chinese cultrue from disappearing, changing and deforming to the largest extent. In the same way, we can have Lihism (礼), Chism(智), Shinism (信)etc.

4.2 Translation Strategy

As what has been mentioned above, translation involves not only transmission of language, but also interpretation of different cultures. Up to this date, two ways are used in translation elements, one

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电子科技大学本科生学位论文

is foreignization which takes culture of target language as its reference and the other is domestication which regards culture of original language as its reference. In translation of The Analects, they selected different translation strategies, that is to say, Legge prefersforeignzation and Ku Hung-ming prefers domestication. Both James Legge and Ku Hung-ming are well aware that their target readers are those who do not get a very clear picture of ancient Chinese culture, accordingly many measures are taken by them for the sake of target readers. James Legge uses the translation strategy of foreignization, which aims at the western readers who come to China for missionary cause. First of all, the content, writing style, religious flavor and consciousness orientation of the original text are to a great degree preserved by James Legge. So this maintains the original meaning and styles of The Analects, providing idiomatic translated text for his target readers—missionaries who come to China to do missionary work, which would be convenient for them to read and get acquainted with Chinese culture so as to better promote their task. Then, the core terminologies, grammatical phenomenon are explained with notes when they appear at first time at the translated text. James Legge gives a detailed account of these core terminologies, such as ―virtue(仁)‖, ―filial piety(孝)‖, ―be true to the principles of our nature(忠)‖, ―the benevolent exercise of nature principle to others (恕)‖ and so on. Last, James Legge combines semantic translation with detailed annotation, being attentive to the real requirements of those western readers not having a good picture of ancient Chinese culture. That is, with very detailed notes and forewords, elaborated information on background and personnel names, his English version offers the western readers a very good access to the extensive and profound ancient Chinese culture. James Legge makes annotation at the foot notes during the course of translation of The Analects, thus to facilitate the readers to get a good understanding of the very meanings of original text, In example sentence 10, ―to myself it occurs to translate my doctrines have one thing which goes through them, but such an exposition has not been approved by any Chinese writer.(James Legge, 1893)As for Ku Hung-ming, he deliberately prefers domestication translation, regarding the well-cultivated foreigners as the target readers. First, Ku Hung-ming quotes the noted European writer?s words to do explanatory notes, which makes The Analects much appealing to the western people with sense of familiarity and gets their reading desire arise naturally. The subtitle of his

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Chapter four The Strategic Skills of Translation

English version is ―A New Particular Translation Quoting Goethe and other Western writers‘ annotation. His purpose is ―to call on the readers to have a thorough understanding of the connation of the thoughts conveyed in the text. With the aid of these annotations, the already familiar train of thoughts could arise attractive to those readers who have know about these writers. （Ku Hung-ming, 1996:346）Next, in view of the reading convenience of the foreign readers, Ku Hung-ming replaces all the numerous names of Confucian disciples with ―A disciple of Confucius, because these names are new and odd to western readers, and if they approach these names with a much familiar term, it proves better for their reading comprehension. For instance, all the sentences above go this way. Finally, Ku Hung-ming prefers free translation in a flexible way, whether in terms of translation of words, expressions or in terms of translation of the overall text structure. Ku Hung-ming‘s English version of The Analects revolves around the very purpose that it shall comply with the idiomatic English expressions and western mindsets, hence is easy for the target western readers to read, all of which could be seen in contrast with that of Legge?s. In the case of example sentence 5 and judging from the contrast of the two English versions, literal translation and fidelity to the original text is employed by James Legge, whose literal translation makes a compete fidelity to the original text, trying to preserve the previous sentence patterns and sequence of The Analects, and to a larger extent his text represents the previous writing style of the original text. While Ku Hung-ming‘s translated version is not bound by the principle of being fidelity to original text, but employs flexible translation strategies in a creative way, hence that centers upon the concerns of western readers. For the English equivalence of ―不敬，何以别乎, Ku Hung-ming?s translation is, ―If there is no feeling of love and respect, where is the difference?‖ This translation meets the purpose of enabling to convey ―a well educated British preferred expressions‖ to promote their understanding of Confucianism, and it shows that during the translation Ku gets in his mind a very good reader?s response awareness.

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