Literary Translation: Ten Lectures

Author: Liu Zhongde
Editor-in-Chief: Zang Huijuan
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-01-09
Features: Professor Liu Zhongde is a highly respected elder figure in the field of translation and foreign languages in China. This book is a specialized work meticulously researched and compiled over decades by the author. With rigorous arguments, fluent writing, broad perspectives, and abundant translation examples, the book exhibits distinctive features.
Excerpt: In my opinion, both schools have their strong points and weak points when it comes to literary translation. There is a tendency to combine their theories into a comprehensive one. As a matter of fact, literary translation has a dual nature. That is to say, on the one hand, it is a science with its own laws and methods, and on the other, it is an art. Now let's have a further discussion of its dual nature in the following:
Translation Is a Science
We say that translation is a science because it has its own laws and methods. Take the translation between English and Chinese, for example. If we want to translate well, we must be entirely familiar with the content of the original and all the knowledge it concerns. In addition, we should have a relatively comprehensive and thorough study of English and Chinese so that we may do our work with high proficiency. Chinese and English have their respective characteristics. True, they have similarities, for example, the word order of the subject and its predicate, of the transitive verb and its object, and of the preposition and the object it governs; and at the same time, they have remarkable differences; for instance, the former has no articles, but the latter has the definite "the" and the indefinite "a" and "an." Although the two languages have their respective characteristics that are not quite alike, we can still do the translation between them. It is because language is the direct reality of thought and the basic law of reality—thought—language which reflects the objective existence is common to both English and Chinese, thus making it possible to express the same ideas and feelings in different languages. And quantities of translated works have long proved the possibility of translation. And at the same time, we must admit that the languages in which various peoples think and express their thoughts are quite different in characteristics and usage. This is the problem that troubles translators, including the veterans. No matter how we solve such a difficult problem. If one wants to be a qualified translator, one should, first of all, have a penetrating study and careful comparison of the similarities and differences between these two languages so that one may find the corresponding laws and methods in the translation between them, do translation effectively, and ensure the quality of translation. Corresponding laws do exist in translation. Take the following sentence as an example: The horse is a useful animal.
Postscript: After reading Ten Lectures on Literary Translation, I composed six quatrains:
The ancient world built towers in language's realm,
From then on, humans needed interpreters' art.
To express thoughts and emotions is no mere skill,
A strong man should not laugh at trivial things.
The bird from Yue land was translated thrice,
The Yue maid's feelings were turned into Chu verse.
Even Ji Dan and E Jun remain untamed,
Who knows the names of the interpreters?
The white horse carrying scriptures is but a tale,
Shi Tao first translated it with great effort.
A thousand years of Buddhist texts like the sea,
No longer are the side-parallel scripts used.
Theory originally comes from practice,
Dao An delved into hidden truths with rare skill.
A single mind reflects gains and losses clearly,
The Rectification seeks eight materials with precision.
The three difficulties of translation recall Liu Youling,
To write elegant prose is truly hard to rely on.
The master alone proposed startling views,
To revise "qiè" into a single character is renowned.
To delve deep and emerge shallowly,
To speak like pearls, shining in the eye.
The Ten Lectures will soon be completed,
Watch as the paper becomes precious in Luoyang.
Ma Zuoyi, 1990, at Qiuyidezhai