中国文化负载词翻译策略

-On the Translation Strategies of Chinese culture-Loaded Words in Red Sorghum 摘要：随着各国间文化交流的日益频繁，文学作品的翻译在促进交流中的地位越来越举足轻重。而在这些文学作品的翻译中，文化负载词的翻译是最主要的障碍。由于各国间传统文化的差异，在翻译文化负载词时很难找到对等的表达，因此需要译者做各方面的权衡，既能不失本国文化特色又能让目的语读者承受。本文以归化异化为理论根底，以葛浩文翻译的莫言的"红高粱家族"为文本语料，从归化异化的角度分析探索葛浩文在翻译"红高粱家族"中文化负载词时所用的翻译策略。希望本研究能让更多人看到文化负载词翻译的重要意义，对以后的文化负载词翻译有所帮助, 从而将越来越多的中国文学作品介绍给世界。关键词：文化负载词 红高粱家族 归化与异化Abstract: With the increasingly frequent translation of literature works play more important role in promoting the munication between different countries. In the process of translating those literature works, translation of culture-loaded words remains a hard nut to crack. Due to the different cultural traditions among different countries, it is difficult to find the equivalent e*pressions in translating the culture-loaded words. Therefore, the translator has to judge and weigh, and successfully introduce these works to target readers without losing their essence and literary style. This paper, under the guidance of the foreignization and domestication, takes Red Sorghum translated by Howard Goldblatt as research materials, analyses and probes into Howard Goldblatts strategies in translating the Red Sorghum from the perspective of foreignization and domestication. Its e*pected that this study will enable more people to realize the importance of culture-loaded words translation and provide some help for the translation hereafter, thus introduce more Chinese literature works into the the rest of the world.Key words: culture-loaded words Red Sorghum foreignization and domestication1 Introduction 1.1 Research Value and SignificanceWith the frequent e*change in the field of economy, politic and culture between different countries, the world is ever shrinking into a global village in which every country attaches great importance to the cultural munication. China is rising as a economic and politic power in this global village. However, as its known to all, China's culture has a little influence in the world at present. How to make China's culture influential is being an urgent issue concerning people from all walks of life. Undoubtable, the best embodiment of a national culture is its literature works,. Therefore, we must pay great attention to the translation of those literature works.Due to the geographic, historic and ideologic differences, every country has its particular culture that is different from other countries , thus it is impossible to translate the works e*actly and accurately, especially the culture-loaded words. Nevertheless, the Chinese literature works contain a lot of culture-loaded words, the proper translation of these culture-loaded words remain the main obstacle in introducing Chinese literature works into the rest of the world. Translators is now trying hard to find ways to translate the culture-loaded words, making them understandable to the target readers as well as preserving their cultural essence. 1.2 Brief Introduction of the Red SorghumRed sorghum, one of the greatest works written by Mayan, contains abundant culture-loaded words, which reflect Chinese cultural characteristics as well as local conditions and customs. The work enjoys big popularity in our country and was once made into movie by ZhangYiMo. Then, by the effort of Howard Goldblatt, the Red Sorghum was translated into English and played a very crucial role in advocating Chinese culture and promoting international munication. Proofed by facts, the English version of Red Sorghum has achieved a great success in English speaking country.Red Sorghum is a novel about family and myth. It is told through flashbacks that depict events of staggering horror set against a landscape of gemlike beauty, as the Chinese battle both Japanese invaders and each other in the turbulent war years of 1930s. Red Sorghum won major literary awards in China and inspired the Oscar-nominated film. It is a book in which fable and history collide to produce fiction that is entirely new and unforgettable.1.2 Structure of the thesis This thesis is undertaken to analysis Howard Goldblatts translative strategies used in the Red Sorghum in light of foreignization and domestication. The thesis falls into three parts, the first part is the introduction of the background and research values of the paper, the second part argues the previous studies on the culture-loaded words and their translation strategies, and the last part is going to analysis the translation strategies used by Howard Goldblatt in translating the Red Sorghum.2 Literature Review2.1 The definition of cultureWe must e into culture when we talk about the culture-loaded words. It is necessary to have a brief introduction to the culture in order to get a better understanding of culture-loaded words. As GuoJianZhong says "there is no culture without language; language has its meanings only when it has reflected certain culture. This requires the translator to have a profounding sense of culture when he or she doing the translating work(GuoJianZhong, 1998: 12). From his arguments we can see the significance of culture. We know that culture is a ple* term to e*plain and difficult to define. Quite a lot of its definitions have been provided. Wang Li said that culture is the sum of material and spiritual wealth that created by human beings in the process of social and historical developement, including costume, production, diet, laws, politics, customs, habits, history, and sentiments, thinking patterns, values, literatures, arts, education and so on. All in all, culture reflects the whole life style of a nation(Wang Li, 2005: 127). We all know that Chinese culture is distinct from that of English because of different geographic environment, historical developement and social structure. LiJia has made a precise e*planation in this point, she puts forward that "Chinese traditional culture is based on agriculture, centered with patriarchal clan system, and standarded by ethics of Confucianism. However, traditional English culture is based on seaborne trade, centered with individual equality, and standarded by ethics of Christian(Li Jia, 2007: 21). As the culture-loaded words are bounded so firmly to the culture, we must make prior consideration to the culture in the process of translating. Only with a prehensive master of the culture can a translator do an e*cellent job.2.2 culture-loaded words2.2.1 Definition of culture-loaded words There are various e*planations of culture-loaded words. Wang Li argues that "language carrys certain cultural activities. As the basic unite of a language, words are definitely mirrored certain cultural characteristics. Phrases and idioms that represented distinct things in a culture are called culture-loaded words, which reflects a nations unique life style formed in the long historical developement(Wang Li, 2005: 127) culture-loaded words are also named as le*ical gap, which means the culture informations carried by the source language are absent in the target language (He WeiWei, 2021: 371).JiQinBin proposed that "culture-loaded words refer to the words contained particular cultural connotation, or a national culture can be e*pressed by the words. Language is related to the cultural developement closely. Language forms a crucial part of culture, it can reflect the culture and can be influenced by the culture as well (JinQingBin, 2021: 8). SongWenJuan regarded culture-loaded words as culture-specific items, the words that can not be mastered and accepted by the ordinary readers in the target language culture neither in the ideology nor in the culture are referred as culture-specific items (SongWenJuan, 2005: 107). The mon point is that the culture-loaded words incarnate certain cultural connotation. The translators will not be able to introduce the culture to the other countries if they do not attach importance to those words.2.2.2 Classification of culture-loaded words He WeiWei classified the culture-loaded words into different areas, including social system, customs, social code, weddings and funerals, native products, traditional drama, medicine, astronomy and so on (HeWeiWei, 2021: 317). Nevertheless, according to JinQingBin, culture-loaded words are classified into five categories: ecological culture-loaded words, material culture-loaded words, social culture-loaded words, religious culture-loaded words, linguistic culture-loaded words (JinQingBin, 2021: 16). Through the clear classification of the culture-loaded words, we may achieve a better understanding of those words, thus conducive to the translation of those words.2.2.3 Previous studies on the translation strategies of culture-loaded wordsAs the main block in introducing Chinese culture to the rest of the world, the efforts of translating the culture-loaded words should not be neglected. In recent years, this issue has attracted great attention from academic circle and aroused tremendous interest of many Chinese scholars who are engaged in this undertaking. Many of them has e up with optimizing strategies in translating Chinese culture-loaded words. WangChun proposed that the foreignizing translation is conducive to deliver the characteristics and connotations of Chinese culture. In the consideration of globalization and the boosting influence of Chinese, the foreignization can help to reflect Chinese culture faithfully on an equal footing as well as promote China's opening up to the outside word and e*change with other countries. Therefore, WangChun holds that the best way is the bination of literal translation, transliteration, literal translation with e*planation (WangChun, 2004: 48). Liu*iaoAn discussed some strategies under the guidance of the foreignization too: transliteration with free translation, literal translation with free translation and paraphrase. At the same time, translator must consider the te*t type and the demands of the readers in order to achieve the best transmission effect (Liu*iaoAn, 2021: 96). The translator has to emphasize the cultural factors in the source language in all respects, and try best to get cultural equivalence.LiZhaoGuo has introduced some methods from the perspective of cultural equivalence: transliteration, transliteration with free translation, translate, using corresponding culture-loaded words in the target language to replace the words in the source language, reserving the source te*tstruture color, annotation, and e*plaining the implication (LiZhaoGuo, 2003: 108). However, ZhaoNa, LiPei and YueYuQing thought that the translation should give priority to the rule skopos rule, the purpose of the translation determining the translative strategies. Translation is by no means the pure language transformation, and it represents the munication between different cultures. In the translation of the Wolf Totem, they concluded that Howard Goltblatt had applied domenstication(free translation, modeling application,), foreignization(literal translation, literal translation with annotation, transliteration), omission and supplement, not only reserved Chinese cultural characteristics but also plied with the English e*pressions (ZhaoNa, LiPei and YueYuQing, 2021: 101). Through the analysis of English version of The School, WangLi has summarized regular approaches to translating: semantic translation+e*planation, municative translation, municative translation+footnote, and the transformation of images, so as to achieve the best goal (WangLi, 2005: 127).SongWenJuan has also concluded several translation strategies from the perspective of foreignization and domenstication. From the angle of foreignization there are transliteration, transliteration with annotation, semi-transliteration, literal translation, literal translation with annotation. From the angle of domenstication there is paraphrase. At last, she summarized that the translators are inclined to use foreignization to translate culture-loaded words. For the sake of intercultural munication, it plays an active role in spreading source language and its culture(SongWenJuan, 2021: 109). Those previous studies shed some light on the translation of culture-loaded words and provided us with the clear idea about the translation strategies.2.3 A brief introduction to Howard Goldblatt As the translator of Red Sorghum is Howard Goldblatt, a prehensive understanding of him may serve as the guidance in the ne*t analysis of the translation strategies used in the te*t. Howard Goldblatt is a noted American translator of Chinese literature in contemporary era. He has translated more than 50 contemporary Chinese literatures during his 30 years translating career, and the works translated by him has won international prize repeatedly. The studies on him could roughly fall into three categories, the first is relating to his essays about his views on contemporary Chinese literatures and writers; the second is on his translation strategies and philosophy of translation; the third is about the works translated by him from the perspectives of certain translation theory or linguistic theory. JiaYanQin has concluded the the main translation philosophy of Howard Goldblatt. According to JiaYanQin, Howard Goldblatts principal translation philosophies are as followings: be loyalty to the source te*ts and target te*ts; translation is a kind of intercellular munication activity; translation means betraying and rewriting. At last, the author pointed out that although Howard Golgblatt agreed with the fact that translation was a kind of betray and rewrite, he regarded the loyalty as his chief norm during the process of translation(JiaYanQin, 2021: 64). In general, Howard Goldblatt holds that the main purpose the translation is to further cultural munication, and the translators should aim at facilitating the cultural e*change and munication. Moreover, the translation is the unification of loyalty and creation.3 The analysis of translation techniques in Red Sorghum As one of MoYans masterpieces, RedSorghum is characterized with Chinese culture and local customs and imbued with a lot of Chinese culture-loaded words. His work can win the Nobel Prize not only because of his talent, but also the translator Howard Goldblatt has contributed a lot to his success. Therefore, the study on the translation techniques applied by Howard Goldblatt in the translation of Chinese culture-loaded words is of great significance.3.1 The principle of foreignization and domenstication The root of the terms, namely foreignization and domenstication can be traced back to the German philosopher Schleiermacher. He presented a lecture Under the Different Methods of Translating in 1813. He found two methods which can affect the domestic readersunderstanding of the author. One is that "the translator leaves the writer in peace as much as possible, and moves the readers towards him; the other is that "the translator leaves the readers in peace as much as possible, and moves the writer towards them.(JinQingBin, cited in Schuttleworth&Cowie, 2021: 10) Literarily, foreignization refers to adopting the language features of the foreign language in the translation, taking in the ways of e*pressions in the foreign language and asking for translators to move towards the writers. In general, the translator should convey the contents of the source te*t through the e*pressions of source language used by the writer. The purpose of the foreignization is in considering the cultural differences e*isting among countries, preserving and reflecting the national characters and language style of the foreign land so as to render the readers to e*perience an e*otic atmosphere (WangYing, 2003: 39). Domestication means localizing the source language, giving top considerations to the target readers and conveying the messages in the source te*t through the e*pressions of the target language which the target readers used to (WangYing, 2003: 57). Domestication asks the translator to move towards the target readers and ply with their habits. The domestication is conducive to let the readers prehend and appreciate the translated te*t and enhance the te*ts readability. While dealing with the cultural differences in translation, the relation between them is by no means the opposite one, on contrary, the two can well plement and supplement each other. There is no absolute using of foreignization or domestication in the real practices of translation.3.2 Translation techniques of foreignization and its applications in translating the Red SorghumWhile using the foreignization, the translator always adopts the original sentence structure and languange style so as to keep the original flavor and convey the foreign culture to the target readers pletely. According to ZhaoNa, LiPei and YueYuQing, the foreignization including the transliteration, literal translation and literal translation with e*planation (ZhaoNa, LiPei and YueYuQing, 2021: 102). So this paper will discuss how the foreignization applied in the Red Sorghum from these three strategies.3.2.1 Transliteration Transliteration is the most direct and efficient way to introduce national unique words to the target readers without losing their cultural flavor. According to DengYiLian and ZhangShunSheng, Transliteration is a kind of transfer, referring to using a letter symbol to replace another letter symbol of a different writing system(DengYiLian and ZhangShunSheng, 2021: 40). Transliteration remains the major translation strategy when there is a big difference or le*ical gap e*isting between source language and target language. The main translation objects of transliteration are the name of the people, name of the place, name of the event and the newly emerging terms, it can effectively make foreign language and foreign culture prominent. As the time goes by, some of the words will bee part of the target language, such as Chinese words "kow tow, "kung fu, "tou fu and so on, which are universally accepted by English readers now. This phenomenon also appeared in the English version of Red Sorghum, such as "DouGuan(豆官，"WuDaLang(武大郎). For some special things which is unique to Chinese culture, Howard Goldblatt also applied transliteration. For e*ample: 1. 余司令正在奶奶的炕上睡觉。 (50) He was asleep on Grandmas Kang. (43) Chinese character "炕means a kind of heatable brick bed which is used in north China, and it has no correspondence in English. So Howard Goldblatt adopt the transliteration which not only enables target reader to enjoy the original Chinese culture but also helps to convey Chinese culture. In some situations, the original message cannot be transferred pletely by the mere use of transliteration, Howard Goldblatt tackle this problem by using transliteration with e*planation. 1. 观音 (78) Guanyin bodhisattva (64) 2. 清明节 (36) QingMing, the day set aside to attend ancestral graves. (33 ) In this way, Howard Goldblatt introduce to the western readers the special Chinese culture, and at the same time make them familiar with the pronunciations of this e*otic things.3.2.2 Literal translation We can also call literal translation the word-for word translation. In literal translation the translator need to be faithful to the original te*t contently and try to use the same form with the source language, thus reflecting the original flavor and meaning pletely. In the practices of translating culture-loaded words, most translators prefer the literal translation, because in this way, we can maintain Chinese cultural elements to the largest e*tent and be faithful to the original te*t as much as possible. When the surface mening of the word is coincidence with the deep meaning, the application of literal translation can e*press the original message and style clearly and briefly, and furthermore, represent the e*otic lan