谈英汉励志谚语互译-文学学士毕业论文.doc

论文编号：

华南师范大学增城学院

本科毕业论文（设计）

题 目： 谈英汉励志谚语互译

姓 名： 黄静文
学 号： 050114224
系 别： 外语系
专业班级：商务英语05级B班
指导教师： 翁涛

2009年 4 月 23 日

On Translation of English-Chinese Encouraging Proverbs

A Thesis Submitted
to the Department of Foreign Languages
Zengcheng College of South China Normal University
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

By Huang Jingwen
Tutor：Weng Tao

April 23,2009

Table of Contents
Abstract i
中文摘要 ii
1. Introduction 1
2. The Definition of Proverbs and Encouraging Proverbs…………………………………….1
3. The Origins 1
3.1 Origins from the folk 1
3.2 Origins from the Bible 2
3.3 Origins from Shakespeare’s works 2
3.4 Origins from Aesop’s Fables 2
3.5 Origins from other languages………………………………………………………………………...2
4. The Contents 2
5. Differences between Chinese and English in Encouraging Proverbs 3
5.1 Differences of historical stories 3
5.2 Differences of meanings of words 3
5.3 Differences of language application 5
5.4 Differences of geographic politics and social life 5
5.5 Differences of production way 5
5.6 Differences of religious belief 6
6.The Principles of Translation………………………………………………………………….6
7. The Translation Methods and Relevant Examples 6
7.1 Literal translation……………………………………………………………………………………….6
7.2 Paraphrasing…………………………………………………………………………………………….8
7.3 Combination of literal translation and paraphrasing……………………………………………..10
7.4 Borrowing……………………………………………………………………………………………...10
8. Items to Be Focused 10
8.1 Establish image………………………………………………………………………………………..10
8.2 National and cultural color…………………………………………………………………………..11
8.3 Features of language form…………………………………………………………………………...11
8.4 Art of language………………………………………………………………………………………..12
8.5 Abbreviation forms…………………………………………………………………………………...12
9. Conclusion 12
10. Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………..13
11. Acknowledgement………………………………………………………………………………………14

Abstract
This paper contains nine parts. They are introduction, the definition of proverbs and encouraging proverbs, the origins, the main contents, differences between Chinese and English in encouraging proverbs, translation principles, translation methods, items to be focused and conclusion.
Firstly, introduce the main idea and writing purpose of the essay.
Secondly, proverbs are some concise and vivid phrases and sentences descending in the folk with relatively stable forms which summarize the experience of people’s life and work and have the function of teaching and persuading.
Thirdly, to be concrete, proverbs are from the folk life, the Bible, Shakespeare’s works, Aesop’s Fables and other languages. They are the summary of people experience in everyday life, so they originated from people’s daily life and experience. Proverbs have a long history.
Fourth, the main contents of proverbs are exploring life philosophy and summary of social experience.
Fifth, differences between Chinese and English in encouraging proverbs are differences of semantic association, pragmatics, geographic politics and social life, production way, religious belief and historical stories.
Sixth, foreignization and domestication are the two translation principles.
Seventh, there are four translation methods. They are literal translation, paraphrasing, combination of literal translation and paraphrasing and borrowing.
Eighth, some attention should be drawn on how to translate English and Chinese proverbs.
Ninth, draw a conclusion of the essay. After reading this paper, one may translate the encouraging proverbs properly.

Key words: proverbs; translation principles; translation methods

中文摘要
这篇论文包括了九个部分。
第一，介绍论文大意及写作目的。
第二，谚语及励志谚语的定义。谚语是流传于民间的、形式相对稳定的、简洁而生动的语句，它总结了人民大众生活和工作的经验，具有诲人和劝解的功能。
第三，谚语的来源。有民间流传的，来自《圣经》的，有来自莎士比亚的作品和《伊索寓言》的；有借自西方民族语言的谚语。
第四，谚语的主要内容，探讨人生真理、总结社会生活经验和为人处世的修养。
第五，汉英谚语表达上产生差异的原因：词义的联想意义差异，语用差异，地域政治与社会生活差异，生产方式差异，宗教信仰差异和历史典故差异。
第六，英汉翻译原则---- 异化和归化。
第七，翻译方法，直译法、意译法、直译和意译法及同义谚语套用法。
第八，需注意的地方。
第九，总结。通过阅读这篇论文，能较恰当地翻译英汉励志谚语。

关键字：谚语；翻译原则；翻译方法

1．Introduction
To master English proverbs is an indispensible way to learn English. Proverbs are concise, profound and philosophical. If proverbs are used in an article, it can be more persuasive. Proverbs are the popular language expressions with people.
The categories of proverbs are abundant in variety. I am pretty interested in encouraging proverbs for they can encourage me to strive to realize my goal. Therefore, I write this essay in order to make a better translation on English-Chinese encouraging proverbs.

2. The Definition of Proverbs and Encouraging Proverbs
Proverbs are some concise and vivid phrases and sentences descending in the folk with relatively stable forms which summarize the experience of people’s life and work and have the function of teaching and persuading.
Encouraging proverbs are the proverbs which imply positive meanings and encourage people to make great efforts to achieve their goals and not to give up when faced with difficulties and frustrations.
Proverbs are the prime of human’s wisdom and are vivid, profound. There is always a saying, “Old proverbs are the children of truth.” “古谚是真理的儿女。”（董尉君，1999：1）
During 1846—1852, the former British Prime Minister John Russell once said, “A proverb is one man’s wit, and all men’s wisdom.” “谚语是以个人的妙语，表达众人的智慧。”（董尉君，1999：1）
As an important form of folk literature, proverbs summarize the experience, wisdom and lessons with concise language forms. A famous British scholar Thomas Fuller once said, “A proverb is much matter decocted into few words.”“谚语将事物的诸多方面浓缩成片言只语。”（董尉君，1999：1）
There are a great number of proverbs in English and in Chinese. Their common features are vivid, concise, precise and profound.

3. The Origins
Proverbs originate from life and are the condensation and embodiment of national language and culture. Proverbs can reflect cultural background of a nation, such as, geography, history and religious. Studying a nation’s culture must study its proverbs first. To be concrete, they come from folk life, the Bible, Shakespeare’s Works, Aesop’s Fables and other languages.
3.1 Origins from the folk
Many English proverbs are the summaries of common people’s daily life. For example,

(1)Make hay while the sun shines.
良机勿失（太阳好，晒稻草。）
（董尉君，1999：2）

3.2 Origins from the Bible
The Bible is the classic of Christian and a great works in world literature treasure. The Bible Old Testament is in Hebrew and the Bible New Testament is in Greek. In 1611, the British Empire James I period, 47 scholars translated the Bible into English, which is named the Authorized Version. From then on, the Bible is more popular all over Britain, and so are the proverbs in the Bible. For example,
(2)Olive branch.
橄榄枝（和平）（胡龙青，2008）

3.3 Origins from Shakespeare’s Works
Asides from the Bible, the majority of the English proverbs come from Shakespeare’s works. The Renaissance from the late 16th century to the early 17th century went over the whole Britain inextricably. During that time, the prime period of literature appeared. It is also the prime period for English proverbs. People use the English proverbs when they are talking and creating poems and dramas. Shakespeare is just as the great dramatist and poem in this period that used English proverbs in his 37 plays and two epics and 154 sonnets. For example,
(3)Brevity is the soul of wit.
简洁是智慧的灵魂。
(4)Cowards die many times before their death.
懦夫一生死几回。
(董尉君，1999：2)

3.4 Origins from Aesop’s Fables
Many English proverbs come from Aesop’s Fables. Aesop was a legendary ancient Greek fable writer. It is said that he was a slave in 6th century to 5th century BC. He was intelligent, whose fables reflected people’s wits. For example,
(5)Slow and steady win the race.
慢而有恒，赛跑必胜。
(董尉君，1999：2)

3.5 Origins from other languages
Another important source of English proverbs is from other languages, mainly from western
countries. For example,
(6)No one can call back yesterday. (the Netherlands)
昨日之日不可追。
(7)He who has not tasted bitter knows not what sweet is. (France)
未尝苦味，不知甘甜。
(董尉君，1999：2)

4. The contents
English proverbs nearly cover all aspects of social life. The main contents are listed as follows.
4.1 Explore Life Philosophy
Many English proverbs are the daughters of exploration of life value and meaning. For example,
(8)Life is short and time is swift.
生命短暂，光阴飞逝。
(9)Life is long if it is full.
生活充实，生命就长。
(董尉君，1999：2)

4.2 Summary of Social Experience
These proverbs summarize the living experience involved with different aspects, which is accumulated by people for long-term. For example,
(10)Make hay while the sun shines.
良机勿失。（太阳好，晒稻草。）
(董尉君，1999：2)

5. Differences between Chinese and English in Encouraging Proverbs
Culture has prominently national characteristics. It is peculiar creation of different nations in certain historical, geographic, religious and customary environments. Culture is the ground in which languages exist and develop. Languages can not exist without culture. The fundamental task of languages translation is the transmission and communication of cultures. As a result, in order to make better translation, a translator must explore the cultural features and differentiations between English and Chinese.

5.1 Differences of Semantic Association
Semantics is generally considered to be the study of meaning in language.
Languages have obvious national features, not only in phonetics but also in lexicology and semantics. Words have different associating meanings in distinct context. Associating meaning is a kind of internal meaning. It is a complement to the dictionary meaning. In certain context, such an internal meaning can create a certain associating atmosphere and has unimaginable influence and effects in readers’ head. For example, as for dog, there are Love me, love my dog (爱屋及乌), Lucky dog(幸运儿) in English（傅敬民，2004：227）.

5.2 Difference of Pragmatics
A general definition for pragmatics is that it is the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication. In other words, pragmatics generally refers to the study of natural language understanding, and specifically the study of how context influences the interpretation of meanings.
There is a close relationship of the differences between English—Chinese application and the cultural background of the two languages. National culture is a holistic system which affects every aspects of its language. In Chinese, community value is more important so that there is a small distance between interpersonal psychologies. Therefore, when Chinese people talk with each other, they are closer and involve more details. On the contrary, in English, individual value is more important so that there is a longer distance between interpersonal psychologies. They shy away from personal details when talking. It is not difficult for us to find that “thank you ” in English is more frequently used than “谢谢”in Chinese. “谢谢” in Chinese are not used among family members. On the other hand, English—speaking people think that they should say “thank you” to anyone offering help to ourselves. Therefore, “thank you” is frequently used among family members. This reflects the differences of interpersonal psychological distance.
The basis of individual sense of safety is different in English—Chinese cultures. The hero in English—speaking people’s head is a self—made man. （“自我成功的人”或“白手起家的人”） It results from self—reliance. For example,
(11)God helps those that help themselves.
天助自助者。
(12)Life is a battle.
生活即是一场战斗。
(13)Every man is the architect of his own fortune.
每个人都是自身命运的建筑师。
(傅敬民，2004：229)
These English proverbs tell us that only if you are dedicated yourself to your goal, you can succeed and obtain sense of safety, while Chinese people often say, “四海之内皆兄弟”(all men are brothers), “在家靠父母，出门靠朋友”(rely on parents at home but friends outside), “一个好汉三个帮”(He who would do great things should not attempt them all alone.). This indicates that Chinese people hope to find safe places.
Another example, a Chinese student prepares a feast for his American friends. He said, “There is nothing special in this meal. Please understand.” The Americans feel very perplexed and think that why you don’t make good preparations. The other Americans feel curious that indeed there is a feast. Later the American praises that he can not only cook well, but also speak native English. But he replied, “no, no, not good.” This reply makes the Americans very embarrassed. They don’t know whether they said something wrong or he doesn’t accept their praise. The Chinese student masters the language itself but doesn’t fathom the essence of the language. Because the Americans don’t understand the Chinese culture, they can’t communicate well with the Chinese student.
As a result, on account of the differences of cultures, pragmatics implies the connotation of national culture. Translation is not only the transformation of two languages, but also the communication and transplantation of two cultures.

5.3 The Differences of Geographic Politics and Social Life
Some words can reflect the national natural geography, environment, climatic conditions. These words are the national geography symbols. Cultural equity lies in certain geographic space and inextricably reflects the natural surface. This results in the differentiations in different languages. “泰山北斗”(A person who is extremely respectable and prominent), “付诸东流”(down the drain) have strong Chinese national color, while when Dover and Calais meet is used to describe “something impossible”. Dover refers to the British port, while Calais refers to the French port. The two ports are far away from each other. The foreigners, who don’t know the geographic conditions, can’t understand its real essence. Ancient China was an inland country, in which land played a crucial role. There are many important things, ranging from the Peasants Movements to the Land Revolutionary, are close to Land. So there are many phrases involved with “土” in Chinese, such as, 土洋结合(combine indigenous and foreign methods), 土崩瓦解(to collapse like a house of cards). (傅敬民，2004：230)If the character “土”is translated literally, the English—speaking people will be confused. Britain is surrounded by sea. Therefore, there are many phrases in English involved with sea.

5.4 The Differences of Production Way
Production way is the means of obtaining production material. It is the basis of human society’s existence. Labor production creates world and language. Nearly every industry has its own analogous phrases.