Chapter 5 Analysis on TranslationMethods of Culture-loaded Words in The Scholar

to replace and substitute the linguistic elements in the TL.”(Bassnett, 2004:27) To sum up, if cultural conflict occurs in the process of translation, the translator could cast away the literary images of the SL text and rewrite or even change the form of the original. Therefore, proper rewriting of the SL is a preferable method in order to achieve cultural equivalence. And in example (6), “龙” is translated literally as the author employs the word “龙” to describe the long queue of carriages and a scene of bustling activity, which is natural and understandable for the TL readers. So here the literal translation assists translator with transferring cultural meaning of original text directly and effectively.

5.1.4 Culture-loaded Words Related to Color

The color contains rich cultural meaning. It reflects the history, aesthetics and cultural psychology of a nation. As a result, the color terms of different countries mirror different connotative meaning. Now let’s look at the following example.

(7) 侯庄征君坐稳了。两个太监笼着缓绳,那扯手都是赫黄颜色,慢慢的走过了乾清门。

When he was in the saddle they took the bridle—even the reins were of the imperial yellow—and conducted him slowly through Chienching Gate.

In traditional Chinese culture, the color“黄颜色” is the symbolization of emperor, which is always associated with power and stateliness. While the associative meaning of this color term does not exist in target readers? linguistic environment. So the translator chooses to add “imperial” to “yellow” to reproduce its original cultural connotation. This handling of adding completely meets the standards of cultural translation theory.

5.2 Translation of Material Culture-loaded Words

Material culture-loaded words and expressions reflect every aspect of life of people in a particular community, such as products, tools, food, costumes, etc. In The Scholar, there are some material words that are unique to the Chinese culture. Some examples are given below to show the special cultural connotations and their respective translation strategy.

5.2.1 Culture-loaded Words Related to Food

There are obvious divergences in different nations in the aspect of dietary habits. Therefore, sometimes it is difficult to find the counterparts in other countries for the Chinese food. Some examples are as follow.

(8) 柜上摆了许多碟子：桔饼、芝麻糖、粽子、烧饼?

On the counter there are plates of preserved oranges, sesame sweets, dumplings, cakes…

(9) 那礼是一尾鱼、两只烧鸭、一百个粽子、两斤洋糖?

A servant with a box came with the porter carrying with gifts: a shad, a brace of duck, a hundred sticky rice dumplings and two catties of white sugar…

In ancient China,“粽子”was made by people in memory of the great patriotic poet Qu Yuan who jumped into river for his despair of homeland. From then so, people started to row dragon boats and eat“粽子”to commemorate him. And nowadays it becomes a kind of delicious food enjoyed by people to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, and people have turned it into a cultural tradition. In terms of food ingredient, it is actually a sort of rice dumpling wrapped in reed leaves. Through the English version, we can see that the Chinese cultural term“粽子”is translated into “dumplings” and “sticky rice dumplings” respectively. Obviously, the translator adopts paraphrasing to convey to the TL readers the semantic information of the SL text. This translation strategy helps translator to achieve faithfulness to the original on semantic level. Only one deficiency of translation, the version fails to express the cultural distinctiveness embedded in Chinese. In the eyes of the target readers, “dumplings” equal to “混沌” or “饺子”， and they have nothing special. So the cultural connotation is not be showed well by this method of translation. A suggested amendment is to use transliteration and render it into “Zongzi” with explanation of its cultural background.

(10) 正月十二日，娄府两公子请吃春酒。

On the twelfth of the first month, after his return, the Lou brothers invited him to dine with them.

This so-called“春酒” refers to a kind of “spring liquor” named for its process of production: fermentation starts in winter and liquor matures in spring. Besides, it also represents a custom of inviting relatives and friends to dinner during the Spring Festival. According to the context, we can see that“春酒” in the original means a sort of banquet of the Chinese New Year, which is rich in national cultural characteristic and popular in the area of Zhejiang and Jiangsu. But because of cultural difference between two languages, there is no thing equal to “春酒” in TL. If it is translated directly into “spring liquor”, the TL readers are certain to have difficulty in understanding and appreciating the cultural information in SL. Therefore, the translator use paraphrasing to render it into “dine with them” that reflects its original cultural connotation. By this translation strategy, the version and the original are equivalent in cultural function. And just as the view from Bassnett, cultural functional equivalence could settle the problem of untranslatability between different cultures.

(11) 初二、十六跟着店里吃“牙祭肉” ??

…but on the second and sixteenth of every month you will have meat with us… The culture-loaded word“牙祭肉”in example (11) was used in the old days to mean a portion of meat given to the clerks, craftsmen or apprentices on the second and sixteenth of each month in the lunar calendar by business owners. This term reflects

a

traditional

custom

that

people

abstain

from

meats

on

the first and 15th of every lunar month for worshiping Buddha, and they start to eat meats until the next day. So in fact“牙祭肉” just refers to the meat . If this word is literally translated, there will exist “zero of meaning” and the foreign readers definitely cannot comprehend what it is. As a result, Yang adopts the translation of omitting to directly render it into “meat” for smooth cultural transfer. Through paraphrase, the cross-cultural communication is successfully achieved. 5.2.2 Culture-loaded Words Related to Costumes

(12) 头上戴了冠子,身上穿了大红外盖, ?? When she had put on her chaplet and scarlet tunic...

In this sentence, it can be seen that both “冠子” and “大红外盖” are translated literally. This strategy of translation not only keeps the versions faithful to

original text on linguistic level to maximum extent but also provides foreign readers an opportunity to appreciate unique cultural flavor from ancient China.

(13) ??,因问他道:“老爹去年准给衣巾了?

“Were you granted the clothes and cap of a licentiate last year, sir?” he asked Mr.Cheng.

“衣巾”, in this example, refers to the costume of a licentiate who has passed imperial examination in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Here, the Yangs first translate“衣巾”into “the clothes and cap” directly and add the words “of a licentiate “ to make up its cultural information. In short, the translators combine literal translation and paraphrasing to deal with the culture-loaded word. This handling of translation contributes to reproduce the cultural connotation of original text, thus the version the cultural equivalence between the SL text and TL text is achieved successfully.

(14) 次早,遣家人去邀请鲁编修,直到日中才来,头戴纱帽,身穿蟒衣,?? The next morning a servant was sent to invite Mr.Lu; but only at midday did the compiler arrive, wearing his gauze cap and embroidered official gown…

In the sentence“蟒衣”refers to the official gown that is embroidered with the pattern of dragon in Ming Dynasty. Only the officials are qualified for wearing such kind of clothing. It is well known that dragon, in ancient China, is the symbolization of power and dignity. Here the translators adopt omitting and just translate it into “embroidered official gown”, which may fail to give target readers complete cultural information of the source text. Thus a suggestion for the translated is to add the image of dragon to the version to reproduce its cultural connotation.

(15) 赵爷今年五十九，两个儿子，四个孙子，老两个夫妻齐眉，只却是布衣。

Dr Chao is fifty-nine this year and has two sons and four grandsons while his wife has grown old with him; he is still an ordinary citizen.

(16) 和尚道恭喜：“荀小相公，而今挣了这一顶头巾，??”

The monk, who said, “Congratulations, Mr. Hsun, on becoming a scholar…” (17) 杜慎卿道：“苇兄，小弟最厌的人，开口就是纱帽。”

“Wei-hsiao”, said Tu, “nobody irritates me more than these people who can talk