探討《西游記》中佛教詞匯翻譯策略 A Tentative Analysis of Strategies of Buddhist Terms Translation in The Journey To The West

1、探討西游記中佛教詞匯翻譯策略a tentative analysis of strategies of buddhist terms translation in the journey to the west摘要 佛教思想，是一個(gè)民族語言文化的重要組成部分,蘊(yùn)涵著豐富的文化內(nèi)涵。季羨林先生曾在不同的場(chǎng)合，不同的文章里，對(duì)佛教與中國傳統(tǒng)文化的關(guān)系作過非常精辟的論述。作為一位著名學(xué)者他本人并不信佛，但他對(duì)印度文化和佛教，以及中國佛教歷史有著深入的研究，提出了即便是一個(gè)佛教徒也難有的深刻見地和學(xué)術(shù)觀點(diǎn)。比如，他說，真正影響了中國文化的各方面，社會(huì)的各階層，把宗教意識(shí)帶給中國人的是從印度輸入到中國來

2、的佛教。我們簡(jiǎn)直可以說，要想了解中國文化，最少應(yīng)該了解從印度傳出來的佛教思想。不了解佛教在中國歷史上和文化史、哲學(xué)史上所起的作用，否則，我們無法寫出什么中國哲學(xué)史、中國思想史、中國語言學(xué)史、中國音韻學(xué)史、中國建筑史、中國音樂史、中國舞蹈史等等。西游記一書中也有許多佛教思想的篇章。想在此做一下探討。本文在探討西游記中佛教詞匯翻譯的基礎(chǔ)上提出了四種翻譯方法:直譯法、套譯法、意譯法、直譯(意譯)加注釋法。關(guān)鍵詞：佛教，文化，西游記，翻譯策略。abstract table of contents1.introduction11.1background of the study11.2objective

3、s of the study31.3significance of the study32rationale32.1definition of buddhist.32.2translation theory32.3.1 definitions of translation42.3.2 criteria for translation42.4.2 strategy on the translation of buddhist53data description64data analysis64.1 relation between buddhist and culture64.2 differe

4、nt living circumstance64.3 different historical allusion74.4 different religions and beliefs74.5 strategy of buddhist terms translation74.5.1 literal translation74.5.2 equivalent translation84.5.3 free translation94.5.4 literal/free translation adding notes95 results and suggestions105.1 results105.

5、2 suggestions116. conclusion12bibliography12a tentative analysis of strategies of buddhist terms translation in the journey to the west a case study of w.j.f. jenners the journey to the west1. introduction1.1 background of the study krings (1986:18) defines translation strategy as translators potent

6、ially conscious plans for solving concrete translation problems in the framework of a concrete translation task, and seguinot (1989) believes that there are at least three global strategies employed by the translators: (i) translating without interruption for as long as possible; (ii) correcting sur

7、face errors immediately; (iii) leaving the monitoring for qualitative or stylistic errors in the text to the revision stage.the journey to the west was written by wu chen-en, and is considered to be one of the four great classic novels written during the ming dynasty (c. 1500-1582). the journey to t

8、he west in the same time, including buddhism, taoism, confucianism culture, the three blend together throughout. buddhist culture is the most visible part of the novel, the novels themes is the monk in this story of mentoring four buddhist sutras, buddhist culture in which the entire novel will be e

9、verywhere. novels with monkey, the goddess of mercy the mouth of a large number of promotional characters such as buddhism, monk mentoring often help meet the catastrophe is the buddhist gods. monk of the three disciples to the monk by the demon, and eventually became immortal also explained the out

10、come of the buddhist culture and thought. novels by monkey mentoring daily life, do not eat meat reflects buddhism, not killing, not lust and other taboos.buddhism was introduced from india into china in 6th century ad. one of the hen emperors sent a mission to the west of china and brought back the

11、 scriptures, indian monks and the images of buddha. since then chinese translation was made available and the further exchange of scholars among china, india and other asian countries brought about the rapid development of buddhism in china. buddhist monasteries and temples were built to promote the

12、 buddhism and some of the emperors were also the followers of buddhism. buddhism, just like confucianism and taoism, guides people to behave, to be honest and responsible. it promotes harmony and peaceful mind, sharing and compassion. buddhists never force people into their belief. buddhism emphasiz

13、es in awakening of mind. through learning, one will develop intellectual capacity to the fullest so as to understand, to love and be kind to other beings. buddhism does not believe in god. it believes in people. in buddhist teaching, there is no aggressive promotion of buddhism or strong rejection o

14、f other religions. all these make buddhism fall into the same scope of confucianism and taoist. its ability to co-exist with any other religions makes it being developed into one of the largest religions in china.translation buddhist terms from chinese to english really a challenge and also an inter

15、esting thing. to search at the internet, to study in the library, to read at home, finally i made the direction of my paper. /journal/41culture.htm2/?i261755_on_journey_to_the_west_in_the_religious_culture_and_religious_thought/main

16、/people/buddhism.php1.2 objectives of the studyenglish and chinese are both rich culture, especially in buddhist terms in the journey to the west. the author studies different strategies of translation, intend to explore the translation strategies in the area of buddhist terms. because the translati

17、on is not only the language translate, but also transfer the culture. a list of translation strategies will be presented and examples will also be illustrated. 1.3 significance of the studyevery nation has different cultures. with the chinese communication with foreigners, cultural connections are b

18、eing formed frequently and freely. for the foreign culture especially english culture impact, chinese culture has been in an awkward position of being marginalized. as a translator, having two nation cultures knowledge and exchange between the two cultures in a more balanced, preferably facilitate t

19、he culture communication. many of bilingual translation in china must have well chinese culture knowledge. combine some bilingual translation chinese scholars in-depth study of buddhist terms and introduced many translation methods. the author considers the culture effect to translate buddhist terms

20、, concludes some classification of translation approaches, introduce some translation approach about chinese buddhist terms into english. it is hoped that this thesis will helpful for translator. 2 rationale 2.1 definition of buddhist.to define “buddhist”. the following is the most common definition

21、 about it. buddhist (harper, douglas (2001). online etymology dictionary) 1810, from buddha + -ist. an earlier word in this sense was a direct borrowing of skt. bauddha follower of buddha (1801 in eng.), hence early erroneous hybrid forms such as boudhist, bauddhist.2.2 translation theory translatio

22、n as a means of communication, it takes place so naturally in our life. with increasingly cross-cultural communication in this information field, translation plays an important role in human civilization. 2.3.1 definitions of translationthe definition of translation is “translation is usually define

23、d in the dictionary as the process of “expressing the sense of a word, sentence, or text in another language”, or “giving the meaning of something written in another language”, or something to that effect. because translation involves the transfer of meaning from one language to another, it is first

24、 and foremost a language activity. but such a statement it is far from being enough to draw an overall picture of the subject. translation is meanwhile also a communicative initiative. all participants are setting to fulfill certain purposes. indeed, translation is a communicative activity. thinking

25、 dominate all human activities, language communication is no exception. as a sophisticated human activity, language communication is actually the verbal presentation of the participants inner thoughts.” therefore, translation is actually a language, communicative and thinking activity. while, these

26、activities are all different expressions of culture, therefore translation is a cross-cultural event in nature.2.3.2 criteria for translationwhat is good rendition? and how judge a rendition is good? those questions rely to the principles of translation. with respect to the criteria for translation,

27、 many translation researchers have presented different theories. in china the three character guide “信，達(dá)，雅“(faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance)proposed by yan fu, “忠實(shí)通順”(faithful and fluent)presented by zhang peiji; “等同概念”(equal concept)come from qu qiubai, nidas, who is a very famous america

28、n translation researcher, “功能對(duì)等”(functional equivalence) or “動(dòng)態(tài)對(duì)等”(dynamic equivalence). through these, it can be seen those views are mutual influence and complement each other, continuous improvement. although those opinions emphasis are different, these core are same, that is the rendition must b

29、e faithfully accurately express the meaning of original text, while keeping the original style. so-called faithfully express meaning of the original text should be faithful expression to the original literal meaning, image meaning and implicit meaning. but, these words, buddhist terms s, phrases, so

30、me may only are literal meaning, no image meaning, some may concurrently literal meaning or image meaning, but no implicit meaning. especially, any two languages culture could not be the same.2.4.1 principles of the translation of buddhistlanguage is a part of culture, and buddhist terms play an imp

31、ortant role in the journey to the west. because the cultural backgrounds between english and chinese languages are different, so there are some visible differences between the two. as a part of langue, buddhist reflect the rich and colorful features of a nation. therefore, there are some cultural di

32、fferences between english and chinese buddhist terms. that translator should be needed to comply with three principles: correctness, comprehensibility, and closeness. those are the renditions foundation.correctness is one of the principles a translator should always adhere to. an incorrect translati

33、on causes a misunderstanding of the original message, and cannot faithfully reflect the original style. comprehensibility means that the translation should cause no difficulties of understanding on the part of the target reader. an incomprehensible rendition cannot be regarded correct and close to t

34、he original. the principle of closeness requires that the translated text resemble the original text in style as closely as possible. “style” reflects the features of wording and phrasing of a text, including the degree of language formality, adoption of various rhetorical devices, syntactic arrange

35、ments, rhythmic patterns, etc. the three principles are interdependent. an incorrect translation causes a misunderstanding of the original message, and therefore cannot faithfully reflect the original style. similarly, an incomprehensible rendition cannot be regarded correct and close to the origina

36、l. also, stylistic inconsistency between the source text and the target text impedes a readers proper understanding of the authors intended meaning. 2.4.2 strategy on the translation of buddhistnevertheless, incorrect translations are pervasiveness. some translations, at first sight, appear to be “c

37、orrect” in the sense that they faithfully correspond to the source texts at both the lexical and syntactical levels. thus, it is necessary for us to grasp some techniques of buddhist terms translation. buddhist terms can be dealt with in four ways, 1) literal translation, 2) using ready english word

38、s (equivalent), 3) free translation, and 4) literal translation adding notes (free translation adding notes).3 data descriptionin order to process the research, the author needs to gather some chinese buddhist termsand their corresponding translations to illustrate the strategies of translating chin

39、ese buddhist terms into english. in the following, 30 chinese buddhist terms from source language text and target language text have been selected as examples. there are mainly from chinese classical works and other authoritative sources including (1) xi you ji (西游記) (2009) by wu chengen (吳承恩) and i

40、ts english version journey to the west (2008) translated by w.j.f. jenner. 4 data analysis 4.1 relation between buddhist and culturewhen chinese is learning english, the most barriers are not the vocabulary, grammar rules or the sentence structure, but are the habits of thinking in english, which le

41、ads to many different habits of mind in learning english. this paper is to focus on discussing the effects of cultural differences in translating chinese buddhist terms s into english.any language is a tool for expressing habits of mind, principal means for inter-cultural communication. as a part of

42、 language, they are the essence of cultural characteristics. so, buddhist terms are embodiment of culture. they involve a countrys history, geography, local conditions, customs and cultural background. it is very important use these terms correctly and makes clear the complicated relation between bu

43、ddhist terms and their relative background of cultural knowledge. so, while translating buddhist terms, it is greatly necessary to make use of the cultural knowledge.therefore, this paper is to reveal the differences of chinese and western cultures in various levels with many examples of buddhist te

44、rms. different people from different cultures may have different understandings of the same sentence if they know little about the target cultures. 4.2 different living circumstancebuddhist have tight relationships with peoples lives. it is hardly being denied that culture is determined by geographi

45、cal environment. the natural environment includes religions, geographical position, climate, and ecological condition. mode of thinking and behaving is formed as a side-product of their interaction with the environment. 4.3 different historical allusion buddhism is believed to have been introduced i

46、n china in 67 a.d. by the immigrants from central asia, india, and persia during the reign of the han dynasty from hotang (central china). it was introduced at a time when confucianism and taoism were predominant and equally rivaled the indian religious and cultural pluralism. with the collapse of t

47、he han dynasty around 220 a.d. and the confusion which followed, buddhism was initially introduced and was confined to the members of the chinese royalty and aristocracy. some considered it as corrupt form of taoism. during the three kingdom period, buddhism was studied as a subject as such luoyang,

48、 in north china, became a major center in translation of the buddhist scriptures. buddhisms origin in the west can be traced back to the initial encounters between the hellenesic and buddhist art which eventually led to the emergence of the greco-buddhist art in gandhara. however, the effusion of in

49、formation on buddhism was sporadic until the translation of the “jataka tales” into syriac and arabic during the 8th century, and the translation of an account of the buddhas life (titled barlaam and josaphat) to greek by john of damascus. johns work is said to have become very popular by the 14th c

50、entury. /buddhism-in-china/4.4 different religions and beliefsconfucianism, taoism and buddhism are the three major religions in china, although it is true to say that confucianism is a school of philosophy rather than a religion.buddhism is the most important religion in chin

51、a. it is generally believed that it was spread to china in 67 ad during the han dynasty (206 bc-220) from hotan in xinjiang to central china. during its development in china, it has a profound influence on traditional chinese culture and thoughts, and has become one of the most important religions i

52、n china at that time.while western religions are centered on the belief in one god, many believers of eastern religions seek to find enlightenment by looking within themselves./intro/religion/buddhism//605westr.html4.5 strategy of buddhist terms t

53、ranslationdifferent nature of culture can be reflected not only in english buddhist terms but also in chinese buddhist terms. in the course of foreign language learning, we are supposed to master the language and the habitual pattern of thinking as we do in our native language. 4.5.1 literal transla

54、tion literal translation does not mean to translate word for word, but to reserve buddhist terms vivid local colors style in translating on the condition that, 1) it does not violate the grammatical or semantic rules of the receptor language, 2) it will be easily understood by the receptor, 3) it wi

55、ll not bring forth any false or unnecessary associations (gu yueguo 2002: 165). in other words, to express its meaning without too much extension, a translator can easily find out some chinese buddhist terms completely or almost equivalent in both image and meaning with the english ones.in example 1

56、, 西游記（xi you ji）: journey to the west. (w.j.f. jenner 2008, 9787119017785)in example 2, 斜月三星洞 (xie yue san xing dong): the cave of the setting moon and the three stars. (w.j.f. jenner, 17)in example 3, 妄想（wang xiang）: wild thoughts(w.j.f. jenner, 420)in example 4, 落塵(luo chen): dust. (w.j.f. jenner,

57、 476)in example 5, (ding xin zhen yan): true words to calm the mind(w.j.f. jenner, 214)in examples 1-5 are provide to illustrate the strategy of paraphrase. that is to say, form those examples paraphrase make a literally translation, is one of the most common strategies in the translation of buddhis

58、t terms.literal translation is not only faithful to the content and style of the original, but also helpful to keep the local color of the original language and to create vivid images of local culture in terms of readers. some of them sound so like ready english buddhist terms. those show that through translating source language buddhist terms, new buddhist terms can be introduced into the receptor language. 4.5.2 equivalent translationsome english and chinese buddhist terms are equivalent in both form and c