浅谈初级翻译技巧

浅谈初级翻译技巧

徐舒

Translationtechniquesforbeginners

徐舒

摘要：作为一门技巧，翻译要求译者能以最佳的方式将源语言转换为目标语。这篇文章主要探讨了一些使用的翻译方法来帮助翻译初学者熟悉各种翻译技巧和翻译策略从而提高翻译效率并提高翻译质量。

Abstract：Translationasatechniquerequirestranslatorstoseekforthebesttoconveythesourcelanguageintothetargetlanguage.Thisessayfocusesonsomeworkableapproachestoassisttranslationbeginnerstogetmorefamiliarwiththetechniquesandstrategiessoastoimproveefficiencyandbetterqualityofrendition.

关键词：翻译技巧策略初学者

Keywords：Translation，beginner，technique，strategy

Translationisanart，anditsetshighrequirementsfortranslatorstoachievedesirableversion.Thisessaydirectsattranslationbeginnersandprovidesfeasibletechniquesandstrategiestoimprovetranslationefficiencyandquality.

Withthehelpoftranscodingnotebookandmasteryofcertaintranslationtechniques，translatorsareliabletoworkmoreproductivelyandefficiently.

Beforerendering，it’sadvisableandnecessarytoaskaseriesofquestionswhileskimmingoverthepassageforthefirsttime.Whoisitsreadership?Whatregisteristhetextin?Whatisthepassagemainlytalkingabout?Style?Suchquestionsprovideinformationthatishelpfultobetterunderstandthewrittenstyle，possiblewaystodevelopthearticleorpredictthecontentinadvance.Inaddition，trytofindsomeillustrationsorcluesthatmayfacilitategraspinggistofthepassage，suchassub-titles，numbers，markedcollocationsorterminology.

Lookingupnewwordsistime-consumingduetotheunfamiliaritywiththetopicandlackoftherelevantvocabulary.Atranscodingnotebookisagreatassistortospeedup.Writedownimportantterminologies，collocations，idioms，newwordsandotherusefulinformationthatwillbehelpfulandusefulinthefuturetranslationonthetranscodingnotebook.Whenfacedwiththesamelexicalproblems，referringtotranscodingnotebooksavesalotoftime.Furthermore，longtermmemoryofnewvocabularyispreferablefortranslation.Translationbeginnersacquiretheabilitytoguessmeaningsofthenewwordsthroughcontextisalsoagoodmethod，butitisnotrecommendedasitmayslowdownthespeedandwastetimeifthemeaningofthewordscanbeobtainedinashortertimebyusingdictionary.

Itisinevitabletoencountersomedifficultpointsthatcannotbedealtwithinstantlywhenwearetranslating.Underliningormarkingthemandturningbacktothesedifficultpointstilltheendofthetranslationwillbeamoreefficientway.Sometimesreadingsentencesbeforeorafterthesedifficultpointsmaybehelpfultoworkouttherightwaytotranslatethemaccordingtothecontext.

Backgroundinformationisalsoregardedasthenecessityfortranslationbeginners.Themoreoneknowsaboutatopic，theeasierandfasteritistotranslateapassagethatrelatestoit.Itrequiresbeginnerstogetaccesstovarioussourcesofinformation，suchasnewspaper，magazine，television，internet，moviesandsoon.Accumulatingsuchinformationthroughtranslatingpracticeisindispensableaswell.

Duringthetranslationprocess，translatorsareinevitabletomeetwithdifficultiesinfindingequivalentsatword，phraseandabovetextuallevelintargetlanguagetotranslatesourcetext.“Translatorhastoestablishapproximationsandmakedifficultchoices”(Omar，1996:43)toachievebestperformance.Therefore，theproficiencyofusingstrategiestocopewithproblemsatlexical，grammatical，textual，andpragmaticlevelsmakesitquickerandeasiertotranslatethesourcetext.Thefollowingaresomedetailedexamplescomingalongwithrelevanttranslationstrategies.

Wordlevelproblemandstrategy

Sourcetext:thatleftatoddlerdead

Targettext:(back-translatedfromChinese)

Rendering:causedachilddie

Theword“toddler”inEnglishisatermforayoungchildwhoislearningtowalk，whilethereisnopreciseequivalentinChinesetotranslatethisspecificword.Englishhasmanyspecificwordsunderthesamesemanticfield，whileChinesetendstohaveonegeneralwordtorefertospecificones.Inthiscase，thestrategyistofindageneralwordtotranslateintargetlanguage(Baker，1992:26).Toddlercanbeseenasonetypeofchild.Therefore，usingamoregeneralword“child”inChinesetoreplace“toddler”coversthecorepropositionalmeaningofthemissinghyponym.

Thisstrategyiscommonlyusedinfindingequivalentintheareaofpropositionalmeaning.However，itfailstopreciselyconveythespecificdefinitionofthesourcelanguageintargetlanguage.

Phraselevelproblemsandstrategy

Sourcetext:thecountry'solderethnicgangswereinvolvedinaseriesoftit-for-tatdrive-byshootingsthatleftatoddlerdead

Targettext:(back-translatedfromChinese)

Rendering:thecountry’searlyformedethnicgangswereinvolvedinaseriesoftooth-for-toothshootingsagainsttheauthorityandcausedthedeathofatoddler

ThereisnoequivalentidiominChinesetorendertheEnglishidiom“tit-for-tat”.Themeaningoftheidiomis‘equivalentretaliation’.Chinesedoeshaveanidiomthathasameaningsimilartothatof“tit-for-tat”，butitconsistsofdifferentlexicalitems.InChinese，theidiomyi-ya-huan-ya，whichbacktranslatedastooth-for-tooth(meansrepaymentinkind，asforaninjury;retaliation)hasmoreorlessthesimilaridiomaticmeaningwithdifferentliteralmeaning.Inthiscase，“usinganidiomofsimilarmeaningwithdissimilarlexicalitems”(Baker，1992:74)intargetlanguagethatthetargetreaderarefamiliarwithtoreplacesource-languageidiomcouldconciselyandnaturallyconveythemeaningofwhatisbeingcommunicatedortranslated.

Abovetextuallevelandstrategy

Sourcetext:Youarenotgoingtobustacapinmymo'fo'ass.YouliveinasuburbanstreetinCountiesManukau.

Targettext:(back-translatedfromChinese)

Rendering1:Youarenotgoingtofireinmyass.YouliveinCountiesManukauasuburbanstreet

Rendering2:Youdarenotchallengeme.YouliveinCountiesManukauasuburbanstreet.

Rendering3:Youdarenotbeardthelioninhisden.YouliveinCountiesManukauasuburbanstreet.

Accordingtothecontext，theutterancespokenbyapolicesergeantwasactuallyakindofwarningandcontempt.Forthefirsttime，wearepronetojusttranslateditas“youarenotgoingtofireinmyass”basedonitsliteralandpropositionalsense.Inthiscase，thestrategysuggestedistoachievethepragmaticequivalenceatthecostofsemanticequivalence(House，1977:28).Butifwewentforthesecondrenditionas“youdarenotchallengeme”，itsucceededinmakingthepragmaticmeaningclearandobvious.However，thisrenderingseemedtobemorestraightforwardandhaveexcessiveexpressivemeaningcomparedwiththespeaker’soriginalutterance.Atlast，thefreetranslationbyapplyingaChineseidiom“beardthelioninhisden”isadopted.Itsliteralandpropositionalmeaningistotugthelion’sbeardinhisden，whileithasametaphoricalandexpressivesensethatreferstoconfrontingapowerfulrivalonhisterritory.ThisrenderingcansuccessfullyandaccuratelyconveytherealandimpliedmeaningofthespeakertotheChinesereaders.

Literaltranslationfailstouncovertheimpliedmeaningthattheauthortriestomaterializebehindthesurface(Rabassa，1989:11).Translatorsshouldstrivetoworkoutthemostappropriaterenderingthatconveythepragmaticmeaningofthesourcetextratherthanjustsemanticallyrenderitinthetargettext.

Asaproverbgoes，“Practicemakesperfect.”Techniquesandstrategiesoftranslationshouldbeacquiredbycontinuousexercises.Translationbeginnersareboundtogetinvolvedinmassivetranslationtaskssoastoimprovetranslationefficiencyandquality.

References：

Baker，M.(1992).Inotherwords.Acoursebookontranslation.London:Routedge.

House，J.(1997).Amodelfortranslationqualityassessment.Tubingen:GunterNarr

Verlag.Nida，EugeneA.&CharlesR.Taber(1974).TheTheoryandPracticeofTranslation.Leiden，E.J.Brill

OmarSheikhAl-Shabab(1996).InterpretationandtheLanguageofTranslation:CreativityandConventionsinTranslation.JanusPublishingCompany

Rabassa，G.(1989).NoTwoSnowflakesAreAlike:TranslationasMetaphor.TheCraftofTranslation.UniversityofChicagoPress

作者单位：中国民航飞行学院外语学院