Faithfulness In Translation

reject or add something to retain its original style. Take the Chinese sentence ‘我的

心扑通扑通地跳.’ for example, the translation ‘My heart palpitates.’ has already

achieved its Chinese meaning, but the sentence ‘My heart goes thumpety thump.’ is

better in the style of sound effect. So the latter is a more faithful translation.

However, such an effect is more important in the idioms and proverbs. To the English

proverb ‘As ye sow, so shall ye reap.’, the Chinese version ‘种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆。’

is a good choice. To the Chinese saying ‘养兵千日用兵一时’, it may be all right to say

‘Armies are to be maintained for years but used on a single day.’. But it is better to

say ‘Armies are to be maintained in the course of long years but to be used in the

nick of time.’. For the expression ‘in the course of long years’ is more symmetrical

to the expression ‘in the nick of time’. Let’s have a look at the English saying

‘One boy is a boy, two boys half a boy, three boys no boys.’. The literal meaning of

this sentence is very clear, but how to make a translation reach its original meaning at

the same time not destroy its original sound effect? The Chinese saying ‘一个和尚挑水吃，

两个尚抢水吃，三个和尚没水吃。’ is a perfect choice in the respect of true faithfulness.

When translating a foreign prose or poem, a translator will always lay emphasis on its

original meaning while neglecting its original rhyme and rhythm. So in most cases a

translator should make some changes to maintain its balance, beauty and entity. Take

these lines for example:

In a Wonderland they lie,

Dreaming as they go by,

Dreaming as the summers die.

Please ponder the translation:

本来都是梦里游，

梦里开心梦里游，

梦里岁月梦里游。

In the original, the second and the third lines roughly possess the same meaning. In

the translation, although the translator has added something to the second line and

mingled its original order, these changes haven’t changed the original meaning at all.

On the contrary, these changes descend the ‘feeling-tone’ from the original and the

Chinese version does bring to the readers the spirit hidden in the original.

In conclusion, as long as we have a solid language foundation, as long as we grasp a

wide range of both Chinese and English vocabulary, as long as we have a broad knowledge

of different cultures and traditions of different countries, we will bring to the readers

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perfectly the same feeling as the original will give them.

Bibliography:

漫谈翻译
翻译论集
神似与形似

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