How to Translate Well
How to Translate Well
After a few month of English translation,I have gained a new skill.Now I know how to translate a article beautifully.Translation is a discipline based on comprehensive ability , it covers the comprehensive knowledge and the differences between Chinese and western culture.It has higher requirements to the personal ability and daily accumulation.Before I start this work, I always have a misunderstanding: If I master a large vocabulary, I will translate well. Translation is just put a lot of vocabulary spliced together.But when I really come into contact with this work, I find that my original thinking is pretty narrow.When I translate a sentence, I don't know how to mix the words up.If We simple put the words together,it will be Chinese-English.
The essence of translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that author intended the text.At this time,I must stress that“in the way that author intended the text”。We should pay attention to the Writing skills ,intention and style of author.Modern translator Fu Yan?s translation standard "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance" is highly expressed in the concept."Faithfulness" means making the translation correct. It should be loyal to the original, and the translations should strike to the facts ."Expressiveness" means the repression is smooth .We should make the translation conform to the modern Chinese grammar and language habits. In the translation,there should not be too many error. "Elegant" refers that the translation is beautiful and nature, and we should make the translation vivid, image.In the follows,I will tell you how to translate a article well.
1.Translation steps
The first step is reading article.We should know the content of the article, and then analyze the article from the perspective of a translator. Understanding the cultural background of the article ,the author's writing intention, writing technique, can help us translate more smoothly .Taking Evaluation of Second Language Acquisition Research for example, I am an engineering senior, I do
not know too much knowledge of linguistics.Before translating,I have read some article about linguistics,such as Foreign Language Teaching Research Under the Perspective of Contrastive Linguistics written by Ligang Yang. In the process of translation, the practice of the modified should account for a big proportion, as the teacher said, we should read the translated articles again and again until it is read as fluently as yours writing.The intention of course should be taken into consideration when we translate.General speaking,there are three kinds of readers——experts, the highly educated and the man without highly education. When we choose the appropriate translation
methods ,we should consider the translation purpose and their level of understanding.
About The Natural Sciences,The Social Sciences And Politics ,in the translation,we must know some name of institution such as President?s Science Advisory Committee,Council of Economic Advisers and so on.I do not know the politics of America,I have study when I meet it.The social sciences sometimes do not have too many relationship with logic,I have to comprehend it and remember it.
2.Translation methods
There are many kinds of translation methods, such as literal translation, free translation, faithful translation, idiomatic translation, but mostly we use "literal translation" and "free translation". "Literal translation" usually has too many limits, and "free translation" should be measured,it should be straight and alive.Although, now our translation can not join literal translation with free translation, but the whole translation chapter should be fluent and the words we choose should be properly.
In Evaluation of Second Language Acquisition Research, I mostly use literal translation,because the sentences do not have too much literary connotation,and we do not have to express an emotion in the article,so I don?t use free translation.The Natural Sciences,The Social Sciences And Politics i s the same as the first one.But some sentence I use clause.By using it, the sentence sounds more smoothly.For example,”This article is based on a large number of literatures we collected “.
3.Culture strategy
About the culture strategy,there are three levels.The first is about the material,it includes construction ,clothes, foods and so on.The second one is about the regime,it includes system,laws and some custom.The third one is about the spiritual culture,it includes Philosophy, science, literature and art. In translation, the cultural factors are crucial points. There are big cultural differences between the east and the west. A good translation should cooperate with a language environment, after all, the translation purpose is to let the person understand the meaning easily and the intentions of the author faithfully .
In The Natural Sciences,The Social Sciences And Politics ,the system is a important point.The management department of American government is quite different from Chinese,if we can?t understand which belongs to which,then we can?t translate it well.
The strategy to do it well,in my opinion,we should center on the original author,then we can transmit the author?s idea to the reader more accurately.About the name that is appeared in the article,I don?t translate it because if the readers want to know more about the details,they can look up easier.
4.Responsibility
Firstly, we should be responsible for the author, that is to say not distort the author's means.Don?t write down the words the author did not say ,or it may misunderstand him.But we must know that the translator can't enter the author?s brain,we can?t understand what the author want to say at that time one hundred percent.What can we do is only according to our ability to surmise the intentions of the author.
Secondly,we should be responsible for the readers.We should translate according to the conditions of readers such as cultural background,levels of knowledge and reading habits.
The last but one, we should be responsible to ourselves,at least it should for our satisfaction. Or even if the translation really reach the expected of our reacher, but we will feel ashame due to some of the original cause, and translation work is a failure.
The last but not least,we must be responsible for the media .Media refers to Chinese and English.So we can?t use mixed language ——Chinese-English.It will be a shame if we do so,because we have read so much and learned so many,and Chinese-English is not official,the foreigners may not understand it.
5.Way to Improve Translation
Before the translation what we should do first is to strengthen our basic quality.The basic quality refers that the translator must have some basic conditions.Except for the serious and meticulous scientific attitude, the translator must have three other aspects of quality, namely a high level English ,higher English culture and abundant subject professional knowledge.A lot of translation practice shows that the higher the three aspects of quality is , the more successfully the translation work is.About how to promote the English level, more attention should be paid to build up the foundation, expand the vocabulary and extensive our read scope. it is best to train listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating the five aspects together at the same time, we can improve your English more quickly compared with single translation .In the aspect of English culture, we should strengthen the aspects such as grammar, logic and rhetoric knowledge study.Spending more time in modifying articles
will be more helpful.In terms of discipline knowledge, we can learn more about related knowledge,we can read more English journals if we have time and grasp the subject development.
The language translation is a creative activity, it has a strong practicality.In the translation study we should pay more attention to practice in the future.Without practice is the same as wanting to learn swimming but not staying in the water. Of course, we should practice in a scientific way.As a beginner without useful advice, it is better to find some materials that suits their level for translation practice.After our English levels are improved, we can find some simple knowledge articles of related professional to translate.The more we practice,the more we will gain.
6.Problems Met in the Translation
1.English nouns and the prepositions are used often,so does Chinese verb.For example,”Political issues that rarely emerge in public in the natural sciences may touch on social scientists in ways that cost them heavily.”There are 4 prepositions and 4 nouns in this short sentence.When I translate in ,I use 2 clauses,then it is read smoothly and concise.
2.English passive voice is used more than Chinese passive voice, and we sometimes don?t passive voice but we can also express a passive meaning sometimes even without a subject.”It is significant that individual natural scientists are not held responsible for the political uses to which their research is put.”At here,”natural scientists”is the subject,but the author uses passive voice.When we translate it ,we should use the active voice.
3.Often in English ,generally we should avoid repetition, therefore, not only can we use pronouns to replace nouns, verbs, adjectives, but also we have a corresponding word to replace it.But when we translate English into Chinese ,we are not afraid of repeating.The more specific the noun is,the vivider the sentence is.”The National Science Foundation yielded to the demand that it permit them to come into the programme,but nearly two decades later was still issuing its warning that it would not support studies …designed to endorse particular social policies or to promulgate solutions of specific social problems?.”In this sentence,the author uses two pronouns to replace nouns.The first it leads an attributive clause,the second it replaces The National Science https://www.wendangku.net/doc/3a12095610.html,ing it can avoid repeating.
4.To express the same meaning, the structure of English is tight, while the structure of Chinese is pine.Many times,an English sentence in always only a few words, but when it is translated into Chinese,it will be very long.Because a word may have many means, and often an adjective contains the author?s emotion,when we translate it,we must show his emotion,then the sentence becomes longer.
5.The subject part of the English can be very long, it may includes a few attributive led by the preposition phrase , when we translate it into Chinese ,we often use clauses to express or divide it into a few sentences.For example,”The social scientists?involvement as individuals is all the more conspicuous,by comparison with that of the natural scientists,because they have a less formidable set of professional organisations to represent them.”When I translate,the subject is divided into a sentence,and the rest is another sentence.
7.Summarize
Language is the important tool of human communication, translation is also a kind of cultural communication.As Newmark said, translation is a science, art, technology as well as a kind of taste.Translation is not just being proficient in a foreign language .Only with the help of dictionaries and reference books but lacking deep study of primitive culture,it is difficult to guarantee the quality of translation.When we are doing translation,we must be familiar with the two languages,we should transmit information through the language as well as understand its behind the cultural and spiritual so as to realize the differences between Chinese and western https://www.wendangku.net/doc/3a12095610.html,nguage is not only the carrier of information but also the carrier of culture.Different ethnic groups tend to form their own unique cultural patterns because of different environment and different understanding of the world.Human understanding of information form and content in a great extent depends on the ethnic cultural pattern.The original readers and the author generally have common culture background, so the original readers will be effected through the surface of the word formed to understand the the original cultural connotation, and the translator have to base on their own language and culture background to convey information and express feelings, therefore the translator must be a real sense.Translators should not only be proficient in the original language and translation of person the two languages but also go through various information channels to understand both culture reflected by language.Being familiar with their differences and finding the spot of maximum limit to reduce the gap between the original and the translated language.
In a highly informational and globalization of the modern society, the translation has been playing a more and more important role.As wo second major is English, translation is a difficult but long-term task for us.We should learn English as well as translation to spread the Chinese ancient brilliant culture to the world.