丽江古城建筑英译文本的分析

 2023-06-05 09:06

论文总字数:23799字

摘 要

本文旨在通过比较丽江古城导游词的英汉文本在语言文字,内容上的共同点,在用语、句式和内容客观性,篇章结构上的不同之处,从归化和异化角度看英译文本如何传播丽江古城文化。并用奈达、纽马克等名家的翻译理论来分析丽江古城导游词的翻译,探讨如何提高翻译技能,同时又能传播中国文化.

关键词:丽江古城;翻译;对比分析;文化传播

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Chinese Texts and Their Translations 1

2.1 Similarities 1

2.1.1 Concise Language 2

2.1.2 Objective Content 3

2.2 Differences 3

2.2.1 Factuality vs Elaboration 4

2.2.2 Water-tight Sentence vs Loose Sentence 5

2.2.3 Objectiveness vs Emotionality 6

2.2.4 Cohesion vs Coherence 7

3. Culture Transmission 9

3.1 Domestication 10

3.2 Foreignization 11

4. Conclusion 11

Works Cited 12

1. Introduction

With the development of globalization, an increasing number of people from the outside world come to visit Lijjiang of China, one of the best attractions in China. Therefore, more and more tourist materials about the ancient town are translated into English. Among the existing versions, some are successful, while, some are problematic, which calls for academic studies. These studies aim to improve the quality of translation through finding out the similarities and differences between Chinese and English.

Huang Xiaoling (2005) studies the differences of thinking mode. Ma Guozhi ( 2011) analyzes the differences and the similarities between C-E translations through language and sentence. But, both of them just study the similarities between Chinese and English widely and generally. There is no concrete tourism texts studied. Then, some other studies appear. Zhai Xiaoyi (2012) studies two different versions about the introduction texts of eight attractions. Wang Ruisheng (2013) studies the C-E translation in terms of language, culture, and thinking modes by taking the translation of the great grassland in Inner Mongolia as an example. Stimulated by these studies, the author tries to do a simple study of the tourism translation of the ancient town Lijiang, probing into the translation skills and the culture transmission.

Thus, this article begins with the similarities of two versions of the text, and it discusses the aspects of language and content. Then the author tries to illustrate the differences from the aspects of words, sentences, personal emotion contained in the text and the textual construction. At last, the author makes a simple analysis of the culture transmission of the ancient town from the perspective of domestication and foreignization.

2. Chinese Texts and Their Translations

2.1 Similarities

The Chinese texts and their translations of the ancient town Lijiang aim to introduce the history, landscape characteristics and values to the tourists, so there are many similarities in the two texts.

2.1.1 Concise Language

The two versions word briefly and concisely, and there are not many rhetoric words, but they strive to be accurate, and some professional nouns or terms are often used

1)古城建筑集汉、藏、白等各民族之大成,并具纳西族独特风格,是中国现存古城中极为罕见,保存完好的少数民族古城。选址和布局充分利用了地理环境和龙潭水系。建筑依山就势,层叠起伏。“城依水存,水随城在”成为古城的一大特色. (Wu Baozhang amp; He Changyi1999:247)

译文:

The building in the town have incorporated the best Han , Tibet, and Bai styles into the unique Naxi style so it is the rarest and best preserved ancient towns of minority ethnic people in China. The geographical features and the Heilongtan (black Dragon Pool ) river system were taken into account by the builders while selecting the site and planning the layout of the town. Houses have been built on the mountains slops tier upon tier. “The city depends on water for existence and water comes along with the city” has become of the main features of the old town. (Wu Baozhang amp; He Changyi 1999:671)

Here, either Chinese or English text conveys the meaning concisely. And also they can introduce Chinese ethnic culture to the foreign world. As is known universally, translation is for the purpose of communication. Yan Fu, a great Chinese translator, takes “faithfulness” and “expressiveness” as the fundamental standard of translation. According to Yan Fu, the above translation can transfer the information about the architecture of the ancient town to foreign visitors. As for “elegance”, it is not an easy thing, but the translator should do it as much as one can.

2.1.2 Objective Content

The tourism text aims to introduce the history, landscape features, and style of the ancient town to the tourists objectively. Therefore, it is pretty objective to reproduce the entities about the town.

1)丽江古城,坐落在玉龙雪山下丽江坝中部。因四周青山环绕,镇中碧水滢滢,宛如一方碧玉大砚而取名为“大研镇”。古城面积3.8平方公里,海拔2400米,人口25379人(1997),其中,纳西族16999人。

译文:

The ancient town of Lijiang was built in the middle of a flatland of the foot of Yulong Snow Mountain. It got its name “Dayan Zhen”(The Town of Big Ink Slab)because the town is surrounded by tree-covered mountains on all sides of crystal clear water running in the middle of it. It has the appearance of a big jade ink slab. The town covers an area of 3.8 square kilometers at an elevation of 2400 meters. It has a population of 25379, among whom there are 16999 Naxi people.

Both the above two texts express the history of the name of the ancient town objectively, and the information about its area, height, and population is also given without any personal emotion. They just transfer the details of the ancient town to us. According to the translation theory of Dynamic Equivalence by Nida, “translation should set out from the reaction of the recipients of the translation, focus on the meaning and spirit of the original, not formalized.” (Xu Jun, 2009:75) Therefore, “大研镇” is translated as “Dayan zhen” and “the Town of Big Ink Slab”. In order not only to convey the original meaning to the foreign visitors, but also to transfer Chinese culture, especially the ancient town culture, the translator employs transliteration and literal translation.

In the above two parts, the author analyzes the similarities between the Chinese and English texts of ancient town Lijiang. Here come the differences.

2.2 Differences

Due to the different geographical environment, historical conditions, production mode, social structure, and cultural traditions, different ways of thinking and aesthetic habits are formed. Traditional western philosophy advocates rationality, and emphasizes individual character. The English translation of the ancient town stresses the form, reality and rationality particularly. The sentence structures are in hypotactic formation, cohesive and logical, and words emphasize a concise and natural style. In contrast, as for the relationship between the subjective reason and objective image, the Chinese stress performance and subjective reasons. They also like to express their emotion by the images. The words are implicative, and phonological harmony is the tradition and habits of Chinese.

2.2.1 Factuality vs Elaboration

Most of the English texts of this ancient town are composed with a contracted style, which is straightforward and factual, and pays more attention to the accuracy of information. The objective and concrete images are used to convey the characteristics of the ancient town. In contrast, Chinese texts word exquisitely to pursue the beauty of the objective scenery of the ancient town and present a subjective emotional harmony. The dual parallel structures and four words are largely used for writing neatly and phonological harmony.

  1. “城依水存,水随城在”成为古城的一大特色。

译文:

“The city depends on water for existence and water comes along with the city” has become of the main features of the old town.

  1. 古城的街道以四方街为中心向四面伸展,小巷如网往来畅便,在适当部位有集散空地。街巷路面均用红色角砾岩(俗称五花石)铺成,雨季不泥,旱季无尘,石上花纹图案自然雅致,与古城十分协调。

译文:

The road of the old town radiate from Sifang Street (square street ) to form a new network connecting every corner of the city. Small squares are scattered along appropriate sections of the main streets. All the streets and lanes of the town are paved with the red breccia, which is neither muddy in the rainy season nor dirty in the dry season. These fine-grained stones cohere perfectly with the entire environment of the town.

Here, the original text uses many colorful rhetoric words, such as “城依水存,水随城在” “雨季不泥,旱季无尘” “自然雅致” to praise the beauty of the ancient town, and to pursue writing neatly and phonological harmony. But the English translation is quite concise and brief. As we all know, conciseness and briefness is of largely help to obtain the meaning of the original. According to Peter Newmark, “Communicative translation attempts to produce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of original. Semantic translation attempts to render, as closely as the semantic and syntactic structures of the second language allows, the exact contextual meaning of the original.” (Liu Junping, 2010: 152) “neither muddy in the rainy season nor dirty in the dry season” can express the meaning of “雨季不泥,旱季无尘” exactly.

2.2.2 Water-tight Sentence vs Loose Sentence

English pays attention to hypotaxis and stresses the logic and organic combination of sentence structures. Therefore, the logical and hypotactic characteristics of English texts are reflected in the translation of the ancient town’s tourism materials. Contrarily, Chinese texts pay attention to parataxis, and the sentence structures are loose and free.

1)三坊一照壁

指住宅建筑的平面结构形式,即一面正房,两侧厢房,再加上一面照壁围合成一个院落。白族和纳西族的民居多为这种结构。不同的是在具体装饰方面,各具自己的民族特色。在功能上,纳西族民居注意抗震,白族民居看中防风。丽江处于地震多发区,因此大研镇居民建房时强化穿斗式木结构的功能,使房屋具有“房倒屋不塌”的特点。

译文:

Sanfangyizhaobi

This is a kind of architecture with the principal room facing the south and two wing rooms and a screen wall behind the gate of the courtyard. It is typical residential architecture of the Bai and the Naxi nationalities. But there are some differences between the two. The Naxi style pays much attention to its anti-earthquake function and has a joint wood structure while the Bai styles more emphasizes wind preventing function. This is because Lijiang is situated in an earthquake zone。

2)丽江古城,坐落在玉龙雪山下丽江坝中部。因四周青山环绕,镇中碧水滢滢,宛如一方碧玉大砚而取名为“大研镇”。

译文:

The ancient town of Lijiang was built in the middle of a flatland of the foot of Yulong Snow Mountain. It got its name “Dayan Zhen”(The Town of Big Ink Slab )because the town is surrounded by tree-covered mountains on all sides of crystal clear water running in the middle of it.

In the detailed description of the architecture, many loose sentences are used in the Chinese text, while, in the English text, sentence structures are composed closely and logically.

2.2.3 Objectiveness vs Emotionality

English translation gives a good presentation of the minority architectural culture of the ancient town of Lijiang. The depiction of various constructions is objective and concrete. But most of the Chinese depictions of center street are far-reaching, wording colorfully, with the strong personal emotion.

1) 井干式意思是像水井上的栏木,也解释为其平面结构为“井”字形。这种房屋建盖是用原木或方木,横叠成屋墙,其四角结合处砍削加工,相接紧密。因此,又称“木楞”房。屋顶盖木片。这样的房屋,或单独1幢,或多幢围合成三合院、四合院等不同形式。这种民居建筑在云南以普米族和摩梭人较为典型。

译文:

Jingganshi, the style refers to the resembling the railings around the traditional Chinese wells. Or it can be explained as the one whose construction is like the Chinese character “井”. It is built with logs or wood shaped as desired. The logs are piled horizontally to make the wall, and the four corners of the house are closely connected. For this reason it is also called log house. The roof is covered with wood boards The houses can be detached, or put together to form a courtyard on three sides or four sides. It is typically residential architecture for the Pumi and Maosuo people.

  1. 古城的街道以四方街为中心向四面伸展,小巷如网往来畅便,在适当部位有集散空地。街巷路面均用红色角砾岩(俗称五花石)铺成,雨季不泥,旱季无尘,石上花纹图案自然雅致,与古城十分协调。

译文:

The road of the old town radiate from Sifang Street (Square Street) to form a new network connecting every corner of the city. Small squares are scattered along appropriate sections of the main streets. All the streets and lanes of the town are paved with the red breccia, which is neither muddy in the rainy season nor dirty in the dry season/ These fine-grained stones cohere perfectly with the entire environment of the town.

In the first example, the English text is to make the oversea friends understand what the “井干式” is. When reading the text, one can imagine the structure of the building easily and clearly. In addition, in the second example, there are many emotional words to show the writer’s appreciation and the affection to the ancient town. “雨季不泥,旱季无尘,石上花纹图案自然雅致,与古城十分协调” is just a kind of subjective feeling of the writer.

2.2.4 Cohesion vs Coherence

  1. With the help of morphological changes, the relational words and other conjunctions, the English stresses the surface connection between the clauses and sentences. But the Chinese stresses the meaningful connection or the coherence behind the words or sentences.

古城历史悠久,建于宋末元初,一直是区域政治及民族文化、教育的中心,曾一度成为滇藏贸易、中印贸易的枢纽。古城中店铺林立,铜器,毛皮制品、纺织品等手工业制品琳琅满目。做生意的大多是善于经营的纳西妇女。

译文:

The town was built in the late Song dynasty and the early Yuan dynasty. Since then, it has been the political, cultural, and educational center in this area. For a time, it has been an important trading center for business between Yunnan and Tibet, China and India. The town is full of shops with a superb collection of handicrafts made of brass, fur, leather and textile, most of which are run by shrewd Naxi women.

In this translation, two conjunctions, “Since then” and “For a time” make the translation cohesive and express the long history of the ancient town successfully. In the sentence “For a time, it has been an important trading center for business between Yunnan and Tibet, China and India.”, the prepositive attribute “important” and the postpositive attribute “for business between Yunnan and Tibet, China and India” are contained in the same sentence simultaneously. The postpositive attribute “with a superb collection of handicrafts” is a little long. These features vary from each other, though they are of large help to the cohesion of the text.

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