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1、Culture Propaganda and Foreign CultureIntroduction in Translation翻译的文化传播与外来文化引进摘 要: 翻译是不同国家民族间进行文化交流的媒介，但不同国家民族间由于地理、风俗、历史、宗教，语言表达间的差异造成人们理解外来文化内涵时的障碍。在归纳总结了中英国家的语言文化差异的基础上，本文从文化传播的角度讨论了翻译中对文化因素的处理方法( 1. 直译2. 直译加注3. 意译)。关键词: 文化 文化传播 文化差异 翻译方法 外来文化引进Abstract: Translation is the intermedium of carryin
2、g on the cultural communication among different countries and nationalities. But the obstacles always exist when people try to understand the intension of the foreign culture, which result from the cultural differences such as geography, customs, histories, religions and the ways of language express
3、ions. Under the generalization and summarization of language and cultural differences between Sino-Western countries, this paper discusses the methods of dealing with the cultural factors in translation in terms of culture propaganda (1. Word-for-Word Translation; 2. Word-for-Word Translation plus A
4、nnotation; 3. Liberal-Translation).Key Words: culture, culture propaganda, cultural difference, translation methods, foreign culture introduction1. IntroductionSince human being has developed culture, the communication of culture came into being, and the communication and spreading of culture can no
5、t be apart from translation. “Language is the carrier of the culture. Culture is the track of language. Translation is the transmission of cross-culture.” 1 The relationship between “language”, “culture” and “translation” is clearly described in these three sentences above. The great phenomenon of c
6、ulture propaganda is what the cultural characteristics or cultural elements transmit from a society to another society, from a district to another district. It is a flowing course of the culture spreading to the world outside from the place where the culture is produced. Foreign culture introduction
7、 relies on translation, but quintessence and dross always coexist in foreign culture. Therefore we should introduce boldly the advanced foreign culture that is helpful for the social development. In addition, China has great history and culture of more than 5000 years; we should also bring its cultu
8、ral marrow to the people of the world. In the process of communicating thoughts, language bears the weight of culture. Therefore, translation carries not only the information of language symbols itself, but also the cultural intension of that language. Only when translation enables people in differe
9、nt countries to communicate thoughts with each other, can culture propaganda be possible. As every language is produced basing on its cultural foundation, obviously, the distinctions of different cultures of different languages become the obstacles in understanding the intension of foreign culture.
10、How can we deal with these problems in appropriate ways when translating the text concerning national culture? The famous translator and linguistist in America, Professor Eugene A. Nida, said “Bilingual competence has almost always been regarded as an essential requirement for translatorsFor truly s
11、uccessful translating, biculturalism is even more important than bilingualism, since words only have meanings in terms of the cultures in which they function.” 2 According to his view point, translation requires translators to possess bilingual competence; furthermore, being familiar with different
12、cultures is even more important in doing translation. This paper probes into the matters of how to use appropriate translation methods in order to demonstrate the style, implication and exotic inspiration of the original culture in the translation through deeply understanding the differences between
13、 domestic culture and foreign culture and fully comprehending the meaning and cultural intention of the original text. 2. Cultural differences between Chinese and English LanguageThe differences of geography, customs, histories, religions and the way of thinking in different countries lead to the cu
14、ltural differences. Take eastern and western countries for examples, the differences reflected in their language are huge. It is impossible to analyze and sum up these problems across-the-board. Here, we only tick off some regular instances to make comparison. Summing up synthetically, these differe
15、nces are basically embodied in several aspects as follow:2.1 Traditional Cultures and CustomsChinese nation calls itself the successor of the dragon, and the worship to the dragon is unfailing. The intension and image of dragon soak into every corner of social life. In China, the emperor often link
16、with dragon. “Dragon” has the implication of “supremeness”, it apotheosizes the identity of the emperor, makes him more imperatorial. “真龙天子”，“龙体”，“龙颜”are the words that symbolize the emperor. “Dragon” in China is a mythic creature that indicates “luck”, “fortune” and “preciousness”. There are saying
17、s like “龙凤呈祥”，“龙马精神”，“卧虎藏龙”，“龙飞凤舞”，“望子成龙”in Chinese. Quite the contrary, “dragon” in Britain is a cruel and violent monster, and it stands for “evil”, it is also called the avatar of Satan (the old dragon). Many folk tales tell about evil dragons that upset humans lives and heroes of legend fought a
18、gainst dragons. In western countries, the most important traditional festival is Christmas. Christmas is celebrated for the birth of Jesus. To many people, it is a favorite time of the year involving gift exchanging, parties and feasting. In the light of the tradition, families make merry and give g
19、ifts one to another. In China, Spring Festival is the most significant event, and it is celebrated on 1st January, lunar calendar. The day of Spring Festival is considered as the first day of the New Year in China. Instead of exchanging gifts, those married adults will give red pockets (Money inside
20、) to children as a lunar New Year gift, also to those youth who are still single, wishing them good health and good fortune. (When foreigners first get to know about the “red pocket”, they feel puzzled because they think “money” is something that will spoil children.) 2.2 Geographical Environment an
21、d ClimateBritain is an island country, and it is surrounded by sea. Its geographical characteristics have great influence on peoples life. Britain has powerful navigation industry, and it had once dominated the sea (the 17th century) Many idioms are alluded thereout, such as “all at sea (Completely
22、disorganized or bewildered,茫然不知所措)”；“be on the rock” ( alluding to a ship running aground on rocks and breaking apart, now means Ruined, spoiled陷入困境，进退维谷)；“be in the same boat”(alludes to the risks shared by passengers in a small boat at sea, now means In a similar situation, in the same position, 与
23、共患难)；“trim the sails to the wind”(alludes to adjusting a ships sails to take full advantage of prevailing winds, now means “modify ones stand, adapt to circumstances”乘风破浪) Such kind of idiom is countless. Now let us come to the differences between Chinese and British climate. In Britain, the west wi
24、nd is a warm wind. Spring is very much in the air of the place where the west wind flows. “Ode to the West Wind”(by Percy Bysshe Shelley) is a poem that wins universal praise, it describes west wind: “Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air，With living hues and odors plain and hill”Another ind
25、ication was made in John Masefields “The West Wind”“Its a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds cries; I never hear the west wind but tears are in my eyes. For it comes from the west lands, the old brown hills. And Aprils in the west wind, and daffodils.”But in China, the wind that summons up the
26、spring is the east wind. The west wind is a cold wind, chilly and desolate. The image of the west wind in China is well described in Wang Anshis 残菊， “昨夜西风过园林，残菊飘零满地金”。and HuangChaos题菊花飒飒西风满院栽， 蕊寒香冷蝶难来。他年我若为青帝， 报与桃花一处开。Britain is located in the Northern temperate zone, west hemisphere. For British, s
27、ummer is a warm and benign season. Many poets write for the summer. For instance, Shakespeare had made a beautiful description about it in his Sonnet 18: “Shall I compare thee to a summers day, thou art more lovely and more temperate.”However, many Chinese do not understand why summer is lovely and
28、temperate. For Chinese, summer is only connected with “hot”. Peasants in some districts of China are even afraid of summer, for drought may come along with the summer, and the crops will be badly damaged. 2.3 Religion and Belief.Religion and belief of a nation is an important part that consists in i
29、ts culture. In the western world, the religionary culture which developed from the ancient Greek and Roman civilization plays the most important part in history. The Holy Bible has a great influence on the development of the language and culture of the whole western world. The development of the wes
30、tern arts, literature and philosophy can not depart from Bible. For instance, the idiom “apple of discord” that originated from the ancient Greek Mythology, and the like:“Achilles heels”：(the only vulnerable point唯一的致命弱点); “Cadmean victory”：(victory brought at the expense of great loss以巨大牺牲换得的胜利) “c
31、utting the Gordian knot ”(a bold solution to a complicated problem以斩钉截铁的方式解决问题)etc.Many literary allusions and idioms came from Bible:1.All is vanity.一切皆空3 (Ecclesiastes 1: 2, the Old Testament, 1048)2.All who take the sword will perish by the sword.玩火者必自焚3 (Matthew Chapter 26:52, the New Testament,
32、 54)3. eye for eye ，tooth for tooth以眼还眼，以牙还牙。3 (Deuteronomy 19:21, the Old Testament, 301)4.the apple of ones eye掌上明珠。3 (Deuteronomy Chapter 32:10, the Old Testament, 322)5. you reap whatever you sow. 种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆3 (Galatians 6:7, the New Testament, 334)6. bricks without straw做无米之炊；做吃力不讨好的事情。3 (Exodus
33、5, the Old Testament, 89)Buddhism is one of the most dominating religionary cultures. And the other religionary beliefs that have controlled over the thought of Chinese people are Confucianism, Taoism etc. Idioms like “借花献佛”、“闲时不烧香，临时抱佛脚”，“五体投地”，“回头是岸”，“顶礼膜拜”，“道高一尺，魔高一丈” are all concerned with those
34、 religionary culture. 2.4 Historical Culture Backgrounds Due to wars, development of art and physical culture, and different cultural customs, both China and the western countries have formed historical cultural backgrounds of their own characteristics in its long history respectively, and these bac
35、kgrounds affect the development of their language to some extend. These specific historical events, arts and cultural activities are very difficult to deal with in translation, because they can hardly be expressed in a correspondent way in the target language. Such as the idioms “meet ones waterloo”
36、 (which alludes to the battle of Waterloo that caused the downfall of the Napoleon Empire), “Watergate scandal” (about Richard Nixon), “challenge the ball”, “struck out” (originated from the American National game-Baseball), “from down town” (a lang. of Basketball) etc. The Great Wall of China is we
37、ll known all over the world. Many foreigners are surprised when they see the wonder. However, most of them do not know about the tragic story that thousands upon thousands of Chinese labors suffered from the hardships in building the Great Wall.Another great event of China was the Culture Revolution
38、 which happened soon after the liberation of China. When foreigners hear about Culture Revolution, they think it is good, because in their viewpoint, revolution means great change and improvement of the current social system. In fact, if they do not know about the history during the time after the L
39、iberation, they can not understand the true side of Chinese Culture Revolution and they can not imagine how tough the time it was.Other things like Peking Opera, Shadow Play, Kong Fu, Se, and Shadowboxing, as some kinds of Chinese traditional culture, are also a little bit difficult to be translated
40、 or explained when propagating abroad. 2.5 Different ways of expressing ideasDifferent notions of morals, different perspectives of seeing things and different ways of thinking result in different language expressions of ideas in the aspect of collocation, courtesy language and figurative language.
41、2.5.1 Different CollocationsGenerally speaking, most words, either Chinese or English, could find its equivalent words in each other. But once they are collocated according to specific culture intension and the usual ways of expression, the meaning produced could be dramatically different. For insta
42、nce, “bus boy”, “a piece of cake”, “go Dutch”, “big apple”, “cat walk”, “iron bowl”, “coffee break”, “pay phone”, “wet blanket”, “shade trees” If these words are translated directly into Chinese, those readers must be bewildered. The same situation happens ubiquitously in Chinese word collocation, s
43、uch as “彻砖”，“背黑锅”，“三缺一”，“穷光蛋”，“打的”etc. 2.5.2 Different Greeting Languages and Courtesy LanguagesIt is often the differences in usual practice of greeting and courtesy language that cause many embarrassments during the communication between Chinese and Westerners. Different expressions of greeting an
44、d courtesy language are important not only in daily communication, but also in translation. To Chinese people food stuff is all-important, so when people meet they will say “你吃了吗？”(Have you done?) or “你今天吃的是什么菜啊？”(What did you eat today?). And when people meet someone old, they say “你身体好吗？”(How is y
45、our body?) to show their concerns and respects. But if you ask a foreigner “How is your body?” He will probably be offended, because he will think that you suspect his health. In British countries, people talk about weather or say “How are you?”, “How are you doing?” to exchange greeting. Even when
46、they meet several times in a day, they keep saying like that. Sometimes it makes Chinese feel that the foreigners are so bored in asking “How are you?”. In fact, it is a common phatic language in English, which is equal to the Chinese “你好吗？”2.5.3 Different Expressions of Figurative LanguageThere are
47、 many types of rhetorical methods, and when they are used in different languages of different cultures, the meanings and implications vary a lot. Take one of the most important rhetorical methodsmetaphorical expression for example, it could be summed up to three different situations in translation:
48、1. totally equivalent, 2. partly equivalent, 3. unmatched:像鸟儿一样自由 as free as a bird披着羊皮的狼 a wolf in sheeps clothingAs brave as a lion 像雄师一般勇敢As proud as a peacock 像孔雀般骄傲不管白猫黑猫，能抓住老鼠就是好猫。Whether tabby or white were good cat provided caught mice拦路虎 a lion in the way壮如牛 as strong as a horse胆小如鼠 as timi
49、d as a rabbitA drop in the ocean 九牛一毛， 或沧海一粟A grain of hope 一线希望Top gun 顶尖高手Once in a blue moon 千载难逢Cry wine but only vinegar for sale 挂羊头卖狗肉neither fish nor fowl非马非驴 like a peacock in the barnyard鹤立鸡群Give a dog a bad name and hang him. 欲加之罪，何患无词When we deal with these metaphors, we should try our best to translate them correspondently. When
