【完结】Cultural Differences and Domestication and Foreignization in Proverb Translation_English Corner

楼主 2014-08-07

Table of Contents

- Abstract	主楼
- Introduction	1L
- An Overview on Proverbs	2-7L
- General Introduction to Proverbs	2-4L
- Definition of Proverbs	2L
- History of Proverbs	3L
- Sources of Proverbs	3L
- Characteristics shown in Proverbs	5-7L
- Features from the Structural Perspective	5L
- Features from the Rhetorical Perspective	6L
- Features from the Cultural Perspective	7L
- Domestication and Foreignization in Proverb translation	8-12L
- Definition of Domestication and Foreignization	8L
- Domestication in Proverb Translation	9-10L
- Domestication Influenced by Culture	9L
- Domestication Based on Commonness	10L
- Foreignization in Proverb Translation	11L
- Combination of Domestication and Foreignization	12L
- Conclusion	13L

◇ Cultural Differences and Domestication and Foreignization in Proverb Translation
◇ 就文化差异谈归化译法与异化译法在谚语翻译中的应用

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     Abstract

          Proverbs are the essence and crystallizationof a nation’s language and culture. They are concise in form, rich in meaning, vivid in image and abundant in cultural information. Francis Bacon oncecommented that “The genius, wit and spirit of a nation are discovered in its proverbs”. Proverbs express so much cultural information that theirunderstanding and translation, therefore, is becoming increasingly important. This paper is aimed at a study of domestication and foreignization in proverbtranslation according to the cultural differences.

           Domestication and foreignization are two main translationstrategies in today’s translation field. Domestication is target language and culture oriented, while foreignization is source language and culture oriented. When the direct translation of source language is hard to understand for targettext readers, domestication needs to be employed. Every proverb has its ownunique characteristics. Domestication translation will lose the original flavorand style that are worth preserving. The purpose of translation is for culturalexchanges. With the development of information in the context of globalization, people of different nations have more opportunities to contact one another andtheir cultures. Foreignization becomes the mainstream of proverb translation.Besides, if there is still something hard or unfamiliar for readers, acombination of foreignization and domestication will be a good strategy.

谚语是一个民族的语言与文化的精髓所在。谚语大部分来自各族人民对长期的生活经验的科学总结。经过长期的实践中的提炼，谚语的用词十分讲究音律和谐、寓意深刻。培根说:“一个民族的天才、机智和精神都可以在它的谚语中找到”。谚语承载了丰富的文化信息，因此对谚语的理解与翻译显得愈发重要。这篇文章是对文化差异影响下归化译法与异化译法在谚语翻译中应用的初步研究。

归化与异化是目前主要的两种翻译方法。归化是以目的语及其文化为取向的翻译方法，而异化则是相反的。当直接翻译对目的语读者来说难以理解时，需要使用归化译法。每个谚语都是独一无二的，有时归化会失去原文本来的风味与风格。翻译的目的在于文化交流。在全球化环境下，信息全面发展，各族人民互相接触的机会越来越频繁，文化交流也相对地变多，异化译法成了主流的谚语翻译方法。除此之外，如果仍然有些信息是读者不熟悉或者不能理解的，则可以把归化译法与异化译法结合起来用。

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by：西西

NOTE：原创帖，请勿转载。

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JessieAqua(热心会员)

沙发 2014-08-07

引用
话说这篇文的句子都不难，而且生僻词也不多。因为楼主写文的时候是木有中文的，所以下面都没有翻译。如果有兴趣，可以尝试着阅读下去.
Thanks for your reading.

引用
Domestication - 归化翻译法，旨在尽量减少译文中的异国情调，为目的语读者提供一种自然流畅的译文。
Foreignization - 异化翻译法，是故意使译文冲破目的语常规，保留原文中的异国情调。

Introduction

        In translation, peopleinevitably encounter difficulties resulting from the cultural differences between the source language and the target language. These obstacles are especially common when people translate proverbs, because they are often full of cultural information. Domestication and foreignization are two most commonly used strategies in responding to the obstacles. There have been discussions between the two translation strategies. Domestication uses symbols and other devices from the target language to achieve the purpose of mitigating the sense of heterogeneity to target text readers, making the translation intelligible, while foreignization achieves the meaning by borrowing cultural elements from the source culture, aimed at preserving as much as possible the original cultural characteristics in order to make readers of the target language get close to the foreign culture in question. Some hold the idea that foreignization should be more widely used than domestication during translation, some hold the opposite opinion and still some others take a position in between the two extremes and regard both as necessary.

       The paper is atentative study of proverb translation according to the cultural differencesand argues that the two translation strategies, domestication and foreignization, are not contrary but mutually complementary.

       Proverb translation has been extensively researched, with different scholars attaching importance todifferent aspects, but culture plays an important or even leading role and is of great significance in translating proverbs from one culture into another.

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JessieAqua(热心会员)

板凳 2014-08-07

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An Overview on Proverbs
- General Introduction toProverbs
- Definition of Proverbs

Proverbs comedown from generation to generation. As an English proverb goes, “Proverbs are the daughters of daily experience.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s English–Chinese Dictionary (6^th Edition) describesa proverb as “a well-known phrase or sentence that gives advice or sayssomething that is generally true”. A British churchman of the 17^thcentury named Robert South remarked that “What a proverb, but the experienceand observation of several ages, gathered and summed up in one expression.” in the first chapter of “Sermons”.

According to the above definition, proverbs can be summarized as fixed, concise and idiomatic expressions that reflect profound truths and experience and are in popular use among common people’s daily life.

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JessieAqua(热心会员)

地板 2014-08-08

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An Overview on Proverbs
- General Introduction toProverbs
- History of Proverbs

Proverbs have a long and remarkable history in Chinese, which is said to probably date back as early as to the time beforewords came into being and used as communicative tools when people’s thoughts were transmitted by means of telling stories or singing songs and as a result, proverbs, often in oral form, had enjoyed its abundant popularity as a means of exchanging social discourse among common people. (Wang, D. C. 2003) Some Chinese historical documents have kept a record of proverbs since thousands of years ago. Most of the proverbs mentioned in Zuo’s Commentary (左传) are from the Zhou Dynasty as “Zhou proverbs” (周谚). Besides, terms like “Xia proverbs (夏谚)” can also be found in Mencius. These proverbs have contributed to the preservation of the Chinese culture andcivilization as we know today.

English proverbs, in contrast, firstly appeared in the early 8^th century, the old English period. At that time proverbs were in the manuscripts of churches in Latin. In the medieval time, Geoffrey Chaucer, father of English poetry, used plentiful humorous proverbs in his master pieces, which reflected the human life and work at that time. At the Age of Elizabeth (1550 - 1620), the use of proverbs reached its peak. Proverbs were widely used by Lyly (1554 - 1606) in his works. Then proverbs are popular among people and they existed in tapestries, paintings and even the tableware. William Shakespeare used an abundance of proverbs in his works, which made his characters vivid and lifelike. During the19^th and the 20^th centuries, there were also authors adopting proverbs widely in their writings, such as Walter Scott (1771 - 1832), Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870), Anthony Trollope (1815 - 1882) and Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1920).

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JessieAqua(热心会员)

4楼 2014-08-08

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An Overview on Proverbs
- General Introduction toProverbs
- Sources of Proverbs

     As a product of life, proverbs are tracedback to people’s daily life and work. They are well-received by common peopleand used widely in daily situations.
Proverbs are closely related to people’slife. They generalize the experience of people’s social activities, reflecttheir demands, desires, and ideals, and express their thoughts, emotions, andvolitions. For example, the proverb “Makethe hay while the sun shines.” was from agriculture. It is just like Chinese“打铁趁热” (Strikewhile iron is hot.), which came from a blacksmith’s life. Proverbsare often guiding principles to life, offering enlightenment in solving theirproblems from life.

     Proverbs may originate from literature,art, religion, etc. Some of them came from literary masterpieces and classics, andsometimes celebrated figures’ creation. In China, the first historical documentthat has kept the record of proverbs is Zuo’sCommentary (左传), and many proverbs have their origins in it.

     In the Christian world, a great number ofproverbs are from the Bible, the mostinfluential holy book to believers of Christianity, such as “You cannot make bricks without straw. (similarto the Chinese proverb 巧妇难为无米之炊)”. William Shakespeare contributed considerably to the developmentof the English language and English proverbs. Many lines he used in his playsbecame popular in daily life and finally became well-established proverbs. Forinstance, the proverb “Discretion is thebetter part of valour. (勇敢贵审慎慎重为勇敢之本)” is in his novel “The History of Henry Ⅳ” (the 1^stPart) (Act Ⅴ Scene Ⅳ).

     English proverbs haveanother source, that is, from another language. Historically, English mixed andinteracted with foreign languages such as Latin and French and has taken alarge portion from them, with proverbs being an essential part. “Do as the Romans do.” is from Latin; “Live and let live.” is from German.

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JessieAqua(热心会员)

5楼 2014-08-09

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An Overview on Proverbs
- Characteristics shown in Proverbs

Proverbs display special characteristics to facilitate people’s memorization. They are special both in terms of grammatical structures and keen observations of life, carrying rich rhetorical devices and cultural information of the language-speaking community. Proverbs like “No pains, no gains. (一分耕耘，一分收获)” is rhymed and succinct enough in structure, and at the same time, profoundly reveals English-speaking people’s view on the relationship between success and hard work.

- Features from the Structural Perspective

Through a long time’s use and abstraction, the wording of proverbs is special. Proverbs made up of a single sentence are often concise, parallel in structure and rich in meaning and implications. The widely known proverb “No news is good news. (没消息就是好消息)” is a case in point in displaying those features. In contrast, proverbs containing more than one sentence are often paratactic in structure. In English, for example, the proverb “Where there is a will, there is a way.” is composed of two parts in structure, which are also rhymed or form alliteration in pronunciation (where—there—there; will—way). Coincidentally, the equivalent Chinese translation “世上无难事，只怕有心人” is also made up of two parts. The two proverbs are well-matched and well-balanced in structure.

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JessieAqua(热心会员)

6楼 2014-08-09

引用
Rhetorical - 修辞学
a) Rhyme - 押韵
b) Simile - 比喻，明喻
c) Metaphor - 暗喻
d) Personification - 拟人
e) Antithesis - 对偶

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An Overview on Proverbs
- Characteristics shown in Proverbs
- Features from the Rhetorical Perspective

      What makes a proverb unique is not only its special structure, but also the extensive use of rhetorical devices often employed, such as rhyme, simile, metaphor, personification, antithesis and repetition, illustrated respectively as follows.

        a) Rhyme: Rhyme consists of alliteration, that is, the use of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words and consonance that is the repetition of the same letter or sound at the end of the words.
        Waste not, want not. (Alliteration)
        墙头一棵草，风吹两边倒。(Consonance)

        b) Simile：By simile is meant that two concepts or two dissimilar things are imaginatively and descriptively compared by means of words like “as”, “like”. In the following example, simile displays itself with the words “like” and “如”.
        March come in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. 三月天气来如猛狮去如绵羊。
        In the example, March is compared to a lion and a lamb by the use of the word “like”.

        c) Metaphor：Metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison.
        Books are ships that pass through the vast sea of time. 书是驶过时间大海的船只。
        In this example, books are directly compared to ships with no use of words like “like” or “as”.

        d) Personification： Personification attributes human characteristics to impersonal things, inanimate objects, or abstractions. A good illustration of this figure of speech is the proverb “Action speaks louder than words.” in which “action” is personified, capable of language like a human being.

        e) Antithesis：In antithesis, sharply contrasting ideas are juxtaposed in a balanced or parallel phrase or grammatical structure, as demonstrated in the proverb “宁为玉碎，不为瓦全, which means that it is better to die when life is a disgrace.

        Besides the most commonly displayed rhetorical devices discussed above, there are also others like allegory, onomatopoeia and hyperbole. Proverbs like “No rose without a thorn. (玫瑰有刺)”; “The frog’s own croak betrays him. (言多必失)” and “Marriage is both heaven and hell. (婚姻既是天堂，亦是地狱)” are good examples of each of them. They add vividness, vigor and beauty to the proverbs.

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JessieAqua(热心会员)

7楼 2014-08-10

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An Overview on Proverbs
- Characteristics shown in Proverbs
- Features from the Cultural Perspective

     Proverbs are, to some measure, the soul of the culture of a language-speaking community. Displaying its cultural commonness with other societies, they more importantly reveal and convey its individuality shaped by its geography, history, religion, ideology, tradition, values and other social institutions. For instance, the majority of proverbs of a marine nation are describing sailing, suffering of wind and rain, fishing, etc., while proverbs of nomadic peoples are more likely about desert, grassland, cattle, sheep, camels and so forth.

  a)  Religion
     Religion is basically a kind of social ideology. In Britain and other countries where Christianity is dominant, people believe in God, and place hope on the so-called Zion and the eternity. Christians believe God is the creator and dominates all things in universe, so people should listen to, revere, and adore Him. In China, however, the prevalent religion is Buddhism. Buddhism acknowledges the existence of Buddha, but it is not the only deity on top. Buddha is in everybody’s mind and everybody is able to become the Buddha. The differences between the two religions are embodied in a large number of proverbs. For example, the English proverb “God helps those who help themselves. (天助自助者)” reflects the authority and honor of God, while the Chinese proverb “放下屠刀，立地成佛” (The butcher who lays down his knife, at once becomes a Buddha.) suggests Chinese people’s belief in Buddha.

     In the tenet of Christianity, people can atone for his sin, receive forgiveness as well as eternity and everybody is able to enter the paradise. All of these are the favors of God. The proverb “God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb. (上帝送暖风给被剪毛的羔羊)” means that God often gives grace to people who are in trouble. Unlike Christianity, Buddhism emphasizes comeuppance, which means that people who often do good will receive good luck while evil people will certainly get penalty. Proverbs like “心底善良，强似烧香” (Honest and good is more important than burning joss sticks.) and “善必寿长，恶必早亡” (Good people surely will be long lived, while evil people will die early.) are both typical examples.

  b)  Culture
     Ancient Britain was once invaded by other nations. As a result of that, this nation has a variety of sources that have shaped the current culture as we know it. These cultures also affect the proverbs, of which the most influential ones are from ancient Rome and Greece. Among proverbs originating from those cultures are “All roads lead to Rome. (条条大路通罗马)”, “Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched. (凡事不要高兴太早)” (Aesop’s Fables: The Milk-Woman and Her Pail) and “A live ass is worth more than a dead doctor. (活驴胜过死医生)” (Italian Proverb).

     In the Chinese culture, things are quite different. Besides the proverbs from Buddhism, a religion coming from ancient India, almost all the other proverbs are native. A large portion of them can be found in classic Chinese literature, such as The Analects of Confucius, Zuo’s Commentary, and the four most famous novels from ancient China. For instance, “说曹操，曹操到” (Speak of the devil and he will come.) (Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Chapter 12) and “人急造反，狗急跳墙” (Despair gives courage to a coward.) (Dream of the Red Chamber: Chapter 27).

  c)  The Geographical Environment
     Different geographical environments shape different cultures. The Great Britain is an island country, with marine life being an essential part for its people, so the media used for transportation and trade with other countries in the British history is ships. The marine industry experienced full-fledged development and consequently a lot of sea-related sayings found their way into the English language, gradually becoming established as English proverbs. “Hoist your sail when the wind is fair. (乘风扬帆)”, for example, is among those many proverbs describing British people’s marine adventure.

     Chinese civilization has originated on land, though it has a long coastline. Blessed with abundant agricultural resources, China was highly developed in farming in history and a majority of Chinese were engaged in farm work, as a result of which, the Chinese language has been greatly enriched in terms of proverbs depicting agricultural practice. One example is “一分耕耘，一分收获” (No pains, no gains.).

  d)  Value
     Chinese and English-speaking people have different and sometimes contrastive values in life. Basically speaking, Chinese are collectivistic while English-speaking people are individualistic. Collectivism in the Chinese culture emphasizes group benefits, group cooperation and group union, prizing coherence in the society, attaching importance to family values, society and nation’s well-being, having a strong sense of collectivism with a close relationship between individuals and groups. The Proverb “前人栽树，后人乘凉” (One sows and another reaps.) expresses the dedication of Chinese people to the society.

     In such English-speaking cultures as the U.S., people attach much greater importance to individualism, which emphasizes egoism and me-first mentality, They pursue equality, freedom and achievements of individual values, seek personal pleasure from material possessions, and take delight in being different from others in behavior and ideas. Under such influences, the relationships between individuals and the community seem very loose. The proverb “He that has a full purse never wants a friend. (钱包丰厚的人从来不缺少朋友)” reflects, to some degree, individualism and money worship featuring the English-speaking community.

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JessieAqua(热心会员)

8楼 2014-08-11

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Domestication and Foreignization in Proverb translation
-Definition of Domestication and Foreignization

Idiom translation is part of the general translation strategies. Debates concerning literal translation and free translation have been in existence for long in the translation community both at home and aboard. Now domestication and foreignization gradually replace literal translation and free translation, becoming the focus of the translation theory research and exploration. There have been different definitions of domestication and foreignization, among which the most popular one is the definition given by Venuti. According to him, Domestication refers to TL-culture-oriented translation in which expressions acceptable in target language culture are exploited and adapted in order to make the translated texts intelligible and suitable for target text readers. Foreignization is SL-culture-oriented translation, which strives to preserve as much as possible the original flavor in order to retain the foreignness of the SL culture as well as to signify the difference of the foreign text (Venuti, 2004:19-20).

In brief, domestication means that the translator will make the text familiar to readers and foreignization demands that readers move close to the author. The representative advocate of domestication is Eugene A. Nida and the representative of the other strategy is Lawrence Veunti.

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JessieAqua(热心会员)

9楼 2014-08-11

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Domestication and Foreignization in Proverb translation
-Domestication in Proverb Translation
- Domestication Influenced by Culture

Cultural differences between two distinctlanguage communities frequently result in misunderstanding in communication. Ifa proverb is translated directly, target language readers are sometimes unableto arrive at the original meaning and the translation fails to make sense and abreakdown in communication arises. If such is the case, domestication is morereasonable than foreignization. “Asstrong as a horse”, a commonly used expression in English, is translated as“壮如牛”. In western countries, where warswere frequent, the horse was important and life would have been inconvenientwithout the animal. In Shakespeare’s play “RichardⅡ”, the expression “a horse fora kingdom” suggests the essentiality of the horse at that time.Historically, there was little foreign aggression in ancient <st1:country-region w:st="on">China. People thenlived peacefully and agriculture was well-developed, so cattle featured moreprominently in people’s daily life and the translation “壮如牛” seems more suitable for Chinesereaders.

Domestication fills in the gap between the twolanguages and makes the translation closer to the readers. For instance, an Englishproverb has it that “One boy is a boy,two boys half a boy, three boys no boy.”. If it were translated as “一个小孩是一个小孩，两个小孩算半个小孩, 三个小孩等于没有小孩”, it would probably makelittle sense to Chinese speakers. The target text by means of domestication is “一个和尚挑水吃，两个和尚抬水吃，三个和尚没水吃”, which iscomprehensible to the native Chinese ear, as people exposed to the Buddhistculture are familiar with the story of the three little monks. Another exampleis the Chinese proverb “不要班门弄斧”. Its literal meaning is “Don’tdisplay your axe at the door of Lu Ban.”. English speakers, being confusedas to who the man Lu Ban is, would fail to make out the real meaning of theliteral translation. The domesticated translation “Do not try to teach your grandmother to suck eggs.”, on the otherhand, will be readily accepted by native speakers of English.

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JessieAqua(热心会员)

10楼 2014-08-12

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Domestication and Foreignization in Proverb translation
-Domestication in Proverb Translation
- Domestication Based on Commonness

Although differences widely exist betweencultures of the source and target languages, there are still common values,views, experiences, etc. shared by the human race, which lends a hand to thetranslation of proverbs. In this case, the proverbs of the target language encodinghuman commonness can be domesticated.

People in a lot of societies have realizedthe precious value of time and created proverbs in this regard. “时不待我” in Chinese is roughlyequivalent to the English “Time and tidewait for no man.” . They both indicate the lapse of time and tell people tovalue time because life is so transient that people should not waste it. Anotherexample is “Haste makes waste.”,which coincides with the Chinese “欲速则不达”. Still another example is “Failure is the mother of success.”, which is translated by means of domesticationas “失败乃成功之母” in Chinese and shares exactly the samemeaning of the English one.

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JessieAqua(热心会员)

11楼 2014-08-12

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Domestication and Foreignization in Proverb translation
- Foreignization in Proverb Translation

     Translators mostly use domestication intranslation practice, as they may be worried that target text readers will havedifficulty understanding the original meaning of a foreign proverb ifdomestication is not employed. However, sometimes domestication makes theproverbs lose their own flavor.

     Foreignization emphasizes exoticism. Beinga quintessential part of language, proverbs usually reflect every aspect of thelanguage-speaking community, and therefore, to present the proverbs of onepeople to another in a proper way seems to be of considerable importance. Topreserve as much as possible the original features of a proverb in translation,foreignization becomes a useful strategy.

     The English proverb “Forbidden fruit is sweet.” is now translated as 禁果是甜的. Forbidden fruit is somethingspecific in the western culture, but nowadays most people are acquainted withit. The foreignizaition of the translation also helps people who don't know theallusion understand it. Another example is “sourgrape” in the story “The Fox and the Grape” from “Aesop's Fables”. It istranslated as “酸葡萄” and hasbecome popular among Chinese.

     Nowadays, thanksto economic globalization and cross-cultural exchanges, people have more opportunitiesto contact foreign cultures and the understanding of them becomes easier. Foreignizationhence gains popularity and is preferred in transmitting exotic flavors of the sourcelanguage with the advantages of being faithful to the original language, beinghelpful in promoting cultural exchanges and conducive to enriching the targetlanguage culture among the others.

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[ 此帖被JessieAqua在2014-08-12 14:02重新编辑 ]

JessieAqua(热心会员)

12楼 2014-08-12

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Domestication and Foreignization in Proverb translation
- Combination of Domestication and Foreignization

     Domestication and foreignization both have its advantages and limitations. Excessive domestication and foreignization both bring trouble to target language speakers. Therefore, it is often advisable to use a combination of both.

     In spite of economic globalization which brings people across the world closer than ever before, there are still culture-specific things alien to those people outside the circle of the culture in question. For instance, “to carry coals to Newcastle.” may be translated either as “运煤到纽卡索” employing foreignization or as “多此一举” by means of domestication. Neither translation is desirable, for the first one may not make sense to a Chinese, as he or she probably does not know Newcastle is a coal-rich city, and the latter loses the original meaning and flavor, failing to convey the cultural element of the source proverb. So a third translation “运煤到纽卡索，多此一举”, a combination of both, seems to be a much better one in balancing the meaning and culture.

     In China, there is a proverb “己所不欲，勿施于人”, which can be translated as “Refrain from doing to others what you don’t want to be done by.”. In English, there exists a somewhat related proverb “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”. A quotation of Jesus from the Bible also says that “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” (Matt. 7: 12). This is “the Golden Rule (金科玉律)” in Western countries believing in Christianity and the translation will be “己所欲，施于人” by using foreignization. It has no logical relationship with “己所不欲，勿施于人” employing domestication. The two proverbial expressions throw light on the essential differences of two cultures – aggressive culture in the Christian world and passive and conservative mentality in the Chinese culture.

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[ 此帖被JessieAqua在2014-08-12 21:27重新编辑 ]

JessieAqua(热心会员)

13楼 2014-08-12

    Conclusion

      Proverbs are small pieces of human wisdom which have passed down from generation to generation. They are a cultural as well as linguistic phenomenon. Different languages have different expressions of proverbs, so it is of significance to translate them in a proper way.

       Domestication and foreignization are nowadays two main translation strategies in dealing with culture-laden proverbs. In the past, people tended to use domestication more than foreignization. Because of economic globalization, the whole world becomes smaller and people from all around it feel closer and are more frequently than ever before exposed to foreign cultures, which means people now are able to understand the proverbs from other nations. As a result, foreignization can be more often adopted in the future.

     Furthermore, this paper is far from complete in the discussion of the topic. Many issues in proverb translation are yet to be explored. The translation of culture-related proverbs requires more research from different perspectives.

[ 此帖被JessieAqua在2014-08-12 21:23重新编辑 ]

[English Note] 【完结】Cultural Differences and Domestication and Foreignization in Proverb Translation