首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
There are two ways in which we can think of literary translation: as reproduction and as recreation. If we think of translation
There are two ways in which we can think of literary translation: as reproduction and as recreation. If we think of translation
admin
2011-02-11
41
问题
There are two ways in which we can think of literary translation: as reproduction and as recreation. If we think of translation as reproduction, it is a safe and harmless enough business: the translator is a literature processor into which the text to be translated is inserted and out of which it ought to emerge identical, but in another language.
But unfortunately the human mind is an imperfect machine, and the goal of precise interlinguistic message-transference is never achieved; so the translator offers humble apologies for being capable of producing only a pale shadow of the original. Since all he is doing is copying another’s meanings from one language to another, he removes himself from sight so that the writer’s genius can shine as brightly as may be. To do this, he uses a neutral, conventionally literary language which ensures that the result will indeed be a pate shadow, in which it is impossible for anybody’s genius to shine.
Readers also regard the translator as a neutral meaning--conveyor, then attribute the mediocrity of the translation to the original author. Martin Amis, for example, declares that Don Quixote is unreadable, without stopping to think about the consequences of the fact that what he has read or not read is what a translator wrote, not what Cervantes wrote. If we regard literary translation like this, as message-transference, we have to conclude that before very long it will be carried out perfectly well by computers.
There are many pressures encouraging translators to accept this description of their work, apart from the fact that it is a scientific description and therefore must be right. Tradition is one such additional en couragement, because meaning-transference has been the dominant philosophy and manner of literary translation into English for at least three hundred years. The large publishing houses provide further encouragement, since they also expect the translator to be a literature-processor, who not only copies texts but simpll ties them as well, eliminating troublesome complexities and manufacturing a readily consumable product for the marketplace.
But there is another way in which we can think of literary translation. We can regard the translator not as a passive reproducer of meanings but as an active reader first, and then a creative rewriter of what he has read. This description has the advantages of being more interesting and of corresponding more closely to re ality, because a pile of sheets of paper with little squiggly lines on them, glued together along one side, only becomes a work of literature when somebody reads it, and reading is not just a logical process but one involving the whole being: the feelings and the intuitions and the memory and the creative imagination and the whole life experience of the reader.
Computers cannot read, they can only scan. And since the combination of all those human components is unique in each person, there are as many Don Quixotes as there are readers of Don Quixote, as Jorge Luis Borges once declared.
Any translation of this novel is the translator’s account of his reading of it, rather than some inevitably pale shadow of what Cervantes wrote. It will only be a pale shadow if the translator is a dull reader, perhaps as a result of accepting the preconditioning that goes with the role of literature-processor.
You may object that what I am advocating is extreme chaotic subjectivism, leading to the conclusion that anything goes, in reading and therefore in translation; but it is not, because reading is guided by its own conventions, the interpersonal roles of the literary game that we internalize as we acquire literary experience. By reference to these, we can agree, by reasoned argument, that some readings are more appropriate than others, and therefore that some translations are better than others.
Which of the following is TRUE of translation as reproduction?
选项
A、The translator can precisely transfer meaning between two languages.
B、The translator tries not to have his presence felt’ by his readers.
C、The translator can show the original writer at his or her best.
D、The translator actively produces the writer’s meanings.
答案
B
解析
细节题。由题干中的translation as reproduction定位至首段。该段引入此概念,第二段对其进行解释。第二句指出:he removes himself from sight so that the writer’s genius can shine as brightly as may be, [B]符合文意,故为答案。首句中的“the goal of precise interlinguistic message-transference is never achieved”表明[A]不符合文意,排除。其中的“the translator offers humble apologies for being capable of producing only a pale shadow of the original”表明[C]不符合文意。末句指出:翻译者为了不在翻译作品中留下主观烙印,使用了不带个人色彩的文学语言,其结果是原作者的创造力没有表现出来。[D]不符合文意。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/DreO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Changesinthewaypeoplelivebringaboutchangesinthejobsthattheydo.Moreandmorepeopleliveintownsandcitiesinst
1Betweenabout1910and1930,newartisticmovementsinEuropeanartweremakingthemselvesfeltintheUnitedStates.Amer
Dopeoplewhochoosetogoonexotic,far-flungholidaysdeservefreehealthadvicebeforetheytravel?Andeveniftheypay,wh
Inhistory,RomansoccupiedBritainforabout______years.
TheUnitedStateshasamajorracialproblemonitshands.True,Britainisfacingasimilarproblem,butforthetimebeingit
TheVictorianAge,eminentlyrepresentedbyDickensandThackeray,wasmostlyregardedasanageof______inEnglishliterature
Ricci,45,isnowstrikingoutonperhapshisboldestventureyet.HeplanstomarketanEnglish-languageeditionofhiselegant
ScientificandlearnedEnglishisnotmerelyinternationalinusinginternationalwords.Englishisfrequentlyusednationallyf
OneofthecharacteristicsthathavemadeMarkTwainamajorliteraryfigureinthe19thcenturyAmericaishisuseof______.
随机试题
某出版社与一畅销书作者正在洽谈新作出版的事宜,预计出版该书的固定成本总额为70万元,单位变动成本为10元/册;同时与作者约定,一次性支付稿酬100万元,另按销售量给予售价10%的提成。若预计该书的销售量为40万册,为实现税前目标利润150万元,该书的售价应
一次性给动物注射毒物,经过3个生物半衰期后,该毒物在体内的蓄积量为
患者,男,60岁,近期诊断出现低HDL—C血症,药师推荐的首选治疗药物是
患者男,55岁,有饮酒史,每天饮白酒约半斤,近日出现近记忆力严重丧失,时空定向力障碍,应考虑为酒精慢性中毒的()
设A,B均为n阶非零矩阵,且AB=0,则R(A),R(B)满足()。
近年来围绕南海问题,中国和菲律宾及其背后支撑的西方大国展开了激烈的斗争,针对南海问题,习近平在七一讲话中指出,中国不窥视他国利益,不嫉妒他国发展,但也决不放弃正当利益,说明中国开展外交的根本目的是()。
据2011年第二季度中央银行货币政策报告称:“6月末,基础货币余额为20.3万亿元(2010年6月末为15.4亿元),比年初增加2.1万亿元,同比增长32.7%;货币乘数为3.847,比上年同期低0.53。”请根据上述资料回答:(对外经济贸
商业信用已成为现代经济中最基本的占主导地位的信用形式。()
Agoodmanyproposalswereraisedbythemasses,______wastobeexpected.
在长度为n的有序线性表中进行二分查找,最坏的情况下,需要的比较次数为_____________。
最新回复
(
0
)