Foreign Translation Research Articles

Translation Methods of Vernacular Literature Works

Translation is a cultural exchange, not just a linguistic transformation. Foreign translation of vernacular literature works is also an important way to promote the Chinese folk culture. However,the cultural omission hinders foreign readers from gaining a deeper understanding of Chinese vernacular culture.Therefore, this thesis selects the English translation of Turbulence as the object of study, aiming to explore the translation strategies of vernacular language such as the names of people, and the names of Shaanxi snacks present in the work. For the purpose, the translator carefully collates the names of people and special snacks in Shaanxi that appear in the work. Besides, the author will combine the above examples to make an in-depth analysis of the translation when writing the paper. The following conclusions have been drawn: Firstly, when the author of the original wants to highlight the uniqueness of Chinese folk culture, she should use domesticating translation, because this kind of translation strategy can retain the characteristic content of the original. In addition, if the author wants foreign readers to understand the local snacks, the translator should use the direct translation. The direct translation method can give the Western readers a basic understanding of the main ingredients used in the special snacks.

Study on the English translation of excerpts from Mencius: Gong Sun Chou based on translator’s subjectivity

The translator is the subject of translation, serving as a medium for cultural exchange and communication. However, translators in the external dissemination of Chinese culture have long been neglected and marginalized. With the “cultural turn” in translation studies, translators have gained due attention. As one of the representative works of Confucianism, Mencius is an important part of traditional Chinese culture, but its foreign translation is later than the Analects of Confucius and other classics, which also reflects the problem of scholars’ insufficient investment in its research. This paper makes a comparative analysis of how the English translation of the core concepts of Mencius by James Legge, Derk Bodde and D.C. LAU reflects the translator’s subjectivity, and in turn how the translator’s subjectivity affects their translation strategy, in order to make a contribution to the foreign translation of classics.

Invisibility and Hypervisibility: Rabindranath Tagore and His Self-Translated English Works in the Western World

Abstract Translation inherently involves grappling with cultural, power, and knowledge dynamics. It encompasses the shaping of ideas by those in control and the influence of translation on the perception of cultures, peoples, and texts. While translation can empower marginalized voices, it may also reinforce power imbalances by favoring dominant languages and cultures in colonial contexts. Translation is a crucial instrument in shaping, reflecting, and challenging global power dynamics. Lawrence Venuti classifies translation strategies into domestication and foreignization, associating the former with Anglo-American hegemony and the latter as a challenge to Western cultural dominance. He suggests that these strategies result in different outcomes for translators’ visibility: domesticating translators go unnoticed, while foreignizing translators emerge from obscurity. However, the translation practices in colonial and postcolonial contexts demonstrate that Venuti’s binary categories may oversimplify the complexities of translation activities. Rabindranath Tagore’s self-translation from Bengali into English complicates Venuti’s theory, as both domesticating and foreignizing translations coexist. Tagore, as a translator, and his English audiences engage in both strategies. His foreignization goal, introducing Indian culture to the West, is achieved through domesticating his poetry for acceptance. Simultaneously, his English readers adopt both approaches, connecting Tagore’s writing to the English literary tradition while exoticizing differences. This results in Tagore transitioning from invisibility to hypervisibility, but within two decades, he fades into obscurity in the Western world. Tagore’s experience underscores that pursuing visibility exclusively or relying solely on foreignizing translation strategy cannot effectively challenge Western hegemony. Instead, efforts should be made to safeguard against the pervasive influence of imperial power in the cultural exchange between the non-Western (English-speaking) world and the West (English-speaking world).

Domestication and Foreignization Translation Strategies Used in Nepali Constitution

This research examines the domestication and foreignization translation strategies used in the Constitution of Nepal 2015 analyzing official and unofficial translations of the constitution. How these translation strategies have been used to convey the source language (SL) message to the target language (TL) readers despite the linguistic and cultural differences is searched. The corporate author’s official translation of the Law Book Management Board (LBMB) and the unofficial translation by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) have been used to collect, analyze, and interpret data. Venuti’s translation theory of domestication and foreignization is used for the theoretical framework. The objective of this research is to find the effectiveness of these two strategies for the translation of the Nepali constitution. This research finds both the domestication and the foreignization translation strategies have been used in parallel for the translation of the Constitution of Nepal 2015. It concludes that using both strategies simultaneously as complements of one another increases the comprehensibility of the translation.

Translating metaphors in Chinese satirical literature: A foreignization approach

The paper delves into the complexities of translating metaphors in Chinese satirical literature, emphasizing the cultural and linguistic nuances involved. It highlights the importance of metaphors in expressing satire and the challenges posed by cultural differences between Chinese and English. The paper advocates for a foreignization translation approach to preserve the original’s cultural essence and satirical tone, balancing it with explanations to aid understanding in the target language. This method ensures the retention of literary value while facilitating cross-cultural dialogue and appreciation of the source culture’s literary aesthetics.

A Study on the Idiomatic Phrases in English Translation of Frog Based on Translator Behavior Criticism

Idiomatic phrases are unique constructions in the Chinese language, which are fixed in terminology, closely semantically integrated, and phonetically harmonious. They are independently used lexical units in the language. Frog is written by Mo Yan, and it contains a lot of idiomatic phrases, which is a great challenge for translators. Based on the theory of Translator Behaviour Criticism, the “truth-seeking-pragmatic” continuum evaluation model is applied in this present research. This paper takes Ge Haowen's English translation as an example, exploring the translation strategies he chose in the face of different linguistic environments, and carrying out a descriptive analysis and research on the idiomatic phrases in it. To provide a reference to the foreign translation of Chinese literature, the angle of the study of Frog can be broadened and help translators to master the skills of translating Chinese idioms.

Tre nyanser av adekvans. Om grader av källbundenhet i spänningsfältet mellan det vernakulära och det kosmopolitiska i tre svenska översättningar

It is well known that the Swedish literary culture is open and that the most common overall translation strategy for high prestige fiction is adequate, in the Toury sense (2012 p. 70). But are there different degrees of adequacy? And do translators favor vernacular or cosmopolitan stances in their overall adequate translations? Are there any signs of commercial vernacular­ ism on the cover of the studied Caribbean novels translated from English, French and English/ Spanish? By employing the transformations reduction, substitution and retention, the results of the study show that retention is by far the most used transformation by the Swedish publishers and translators, concerning both the paratexts and translated texts. Commercial vernacularism is detectable on the covers. However, the strength of retention varies within the overall adequate translations; from an adequate translation conforming to Swedish expectancy norms for trans­ lated high prestige fiction, which is employed by the translator of the novel Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid, over a foreignizing translation strategy reminding the reader of the presence of the culturally Other, used by the translator of Maryse Condé’s novel Traversée de la mangrove, to the abusive fidelity translation challenging the tolerant Swedish reader’s expectancy norms and translation ethics reading the translation of The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. The study shows that there are three nuances of adequacy in the studied material.

The Application of Domestication and Foreignization Strategies in Translation of Tourism Texts

With the implementation of China’s reform and opening-up policy and economic development, the tourism industry has also grown rapidly, attracting an increasing number of foreign tourists to choose China as their travel destination. To better promote and introduce scenic spots, the English translation of tourist attractions is crucial. The choice of translation strategy has become a focal point and core in the translation work of tourist texts. Newmark’s text function theory provides theoretical guidance for the application of domestication and foreignization translation strategies in translating tourist texts. Therefore, the translation of tourist texts demands not only accurate conveyance of the original information but also linguistic simplicity. Tourist texts belong to the typical “vocative” functional category, primarily aiming to convey information and induce action. Simultaneously, they contain a wealth of highly distinctive cultural information. Therefore, the translation of tourist texts should accurately convey the original information while maintaining linguistic simplicity and accessibility. This requires translators, during the translation process, to integrate the different functions and communicative purposes of the text, considering the audience’s receptiveness and determining the application of domestication and foreignization translation methods based on practical considerations. This paper, based on the two translation strategies of domestication and foreignization, combines the Wudalianchi Global Geopark Text for Outdoor Interpretation Panels and Outdoor Discovery Land for Popularization of Science as an example to explore how to apply domestication and foreignization strategies in the translation of tourist texts, aiming for better communication effectiveness.

Problems of Translating Navoy's Lyrics into Foreign Languages

This article critically examines the translations of Alisher Navoi's ghazals and rubai into English by both Uzbek and foreign translators. The study employs a rigorous analysis to evaluate the achievements and shortcomings of these translations. Methodologically, it employs a comparative approach to highlight variations in linguistic nuances and cultural interpretations. The results shed light on the diverse approaches taken by translators, offering insights into the challenges faced and suggesting improvements for future endeavors. The implications of this research extend to the broader field of literary translation, emphasizing the importance of preserving the cultural and linguistic richness of Navoi's poetry in English renditions. Highlights: Cross-cultural Examination: This study conducts a comprehensive analysis of Alisher Navoi's poetry translations into English by both Uzbek and foreign translators, emphasizing the cultural nuances embedded in the process. Translator Strategies: The article highlights diverse translation approaches, evaluating the achievements and shortcomings of English renditions of Navoi's ghazals and rubai, providing valuable insights for future translation endeavors. Preserving Literary Richness: Through a comparative method, the research underscores the importance of maintaining the cultural and linguistic richness of Navoi's poetry in English translations, contributing to the broader field of literary translation studies. Keywords: Bilingual Dictionary, Translation, Ghazals, Rubai, Word Choice

PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATING NAVOY'S LYRICS INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES

The article talks about the translations of Alisher Navoi's ghazals and rubai into English by Uzbek and foreign translators. Their achievements and shortcomings are thoroughly analyzed. Some suggestions and recommendations were given and relevant conclusions were drawn

Exploring the Chinese-Western Culture Conflict in the Translation of Culturally Loaded Words in the English Translation of Romance of the Western Bower

Romance of the Western Bower, which is regarded as an outstanding representative work of Chinese opera classics, contains rich, culturally loaded vocabulary. Cultural backgrounds and lifestyles of specific ethnic groups naturally incorporate their respective cultural characteristics when translators from different cultural backgrounds make literary translations. For this reason, this paper chooses the English translations of Xu Yuanchong, Hsiung Shih-I and Henry H. Hart as the objects of study and analyzes in-depth their strategies in dealing with culturally loaded words. Through the three dimensions of social culture, religious culture, and linguistic culture, it aims to explore the Chinese and Western cultural exchanges and conflicts in the translation process. Finally, it is concluded that when dealing with Chinese cultural load words, Chinese translators are able to convey the inner meaning of the load words more clearly than foreign translators, while foreign translators are able to convey the meaning of the original text more concisely by using more varied words in English. Although the translation strategies of the three translators are different, all of them have successfully realized the fusion of Chinese and Western cultures. This excellent work, which is rich in cultural heritage, can be promoted and recognized globally.

A Comparative Study of Biological and Geographical Image Translation in Existing Versions of Hard Roads in Shu

Hard Roads in Shu, a famous poem by Li Bai, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, has been translated into the English and American worlds with a certain degree of alteration of its original meaning. This paper analyzes the translation of geographical imagery and biological imagery in the four English translations of Hard Roads in Shu from the perspective of Chinese and foreign comparisons based on the translations of four Chinese and foreign translators, which focuses on analyzing the three dimensions of the direct translation treatment and the free translation treatment, the embodiment of rhetorical devices such as couplets, and the different word choices of the four translators in translating biological and geographical imagery. In the end, the study finds some better solution and suggestions for the future translation of geographic and biological imagery in other languages while retaining the flavor of the source language, so as to achieve the purpose of cultural exchange.

A Review of Research on the English Translation of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China

After combing through the literature on the English translation of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China from 2015 to 2022, it was found that most of the relevant research focused on three aspects: translation strategies, external communication and national image construction, and research based on discourse analysis. However, the research on these three aspects is not balanced. The first two aspects have more literature and more in-depth research, while the third aspect has fewer papers and more scattered research. The analysis shows that the research on the foreign translation of important party and state documents based on discourse analysis shows the characteristics of scientific methods and novel perspectives, and has strong academic value. Research in these three aspects can be further integrated, expanded and explored under the theoretical framework of discourse analysis, which can produce more theoretically innovative research results.

Research on Cultural Foreign Translation and Acceptance of Terms with Chinese Characteristics: Taking “Hukou” as an Example

Research on Cultural Foreign Translation and Acceptance of Terms with Chinese Characteristics: Taking “Hukou” as an Example

Minimal speech cell of military translation study in the Arabic-Russian language combination

The article proposes an approach in the standardization of “minimal translation cell” concept in Russian translation theory and translation practice in the scope of consecutive translation. The results of the theoretical study were confirmed by practical translation experience gained in operational conditions of military-professional communication abroad. The core itinerary of description and standardizing of translation units in German-Russian and Romance-Russian languages configurations proposed earlier by Russian and foreign translation scientists are projected in this paper onto the Arabic-Russian language combination. The author applies an approach of explication the translation units nature by the method of describing the characteristic of their minimal partibility value. An attempt has been made to trace the regularities of the minimal translation cells selection in live speech situations of military communication, despite their inherent alternativeness. Experienced in military translating practice the models of communicative translation strategies such as a source texts segmentation into the smallest translation cells are represented. In this regard, the article makes it reasonable to implementing the concept of "minimal translation cell" into the theory and practice of translation. The initiative of training entry-level Arabic language military interpreters in the strategy of selecting final partibility reference units from the source texts, i.e. the shortest speech syntagms containing the key points of the messages. In this paper, the author considers it necessary to place additional emphasis on the most important characteristic of translation process in the military professional communication as the translation legitimacy, which obliges the military interpreter to carry out legitimate translation actions while understanding of the consequences of unintentional errors and possible distortions of military data in combat environment.

Особенности семантики и функционирования лексем цветообозначения в языке русских и китайских СМИ (на примере зеленого цвета)

The article deals with color-term lexemes in the modern Russian and Chinese languages. The focus is on a comparative study of the semantics and functioning of the lexemes ‘zelenyi’ (green), ‘绿’ (green, lü), and ‘青’ (a polysemous color name with the meaning of ‘green’, qing) in the Russian and Chinese mass media; their language connotations are investigated. The study employed the descriptive and comparative methods and the method of contextual analysis. The article analyzes the main and implied meanings of green-color terms through the examples of expressions and phrases with a green lexeme found in Russian and Chinese linguistic databases such as the Standardized terminology base for foreign translation of Chinese characteristic discourse, Russian National Corpus, General Internet Corpus of Russian, etc. The author seeks to investigate the multiple meanings of green-color lexemes in the Russian and Chinese languages, notes the expansion of their meaning, especially in the Russian and Chinese mass media. The conducted research shows that the emergence of the new meaning of the green-color lexeme is closely connected with the cultural and social changes in Russia and China. The importance of using linguocultural color lexemes in the language of modern media is emphasized by the fact that the lexeme ‘green’ as a bright language feature performs the function of expressive informing, conveys the national value. The initial analysis of the polysemy and metaphoricity of the Chinese lexeme ‘青’(qing) carried out in the article fills a gap in the study of the use of the polysemous color name ‘青’ (qing) in translation of texts written by the Russian classics into Chinese and contributes to further in-depth lexicosemantic, lexicographical, and translation studies on the translation of this lexeme.

A Study on Translation of Numbers in the Analects of Confucius from the Perspective of Cultural Translation Theory—— a Case study of the Translation Version by Gu Hongming

The language of the Analects of Confucius is concise, rich in connotation and highly abstract, so the problem of lack of meaning or semantic insufficiency is very obvious, and the numerical meaning is one of the most obvious examples. Based on Susan Bassnett view of cultural translation, this paper analyzes Gu Hongming’s translated version of Analects and finds that there are great cultural differences between Chinese and Western numerals in terms of definite reference and vague reference. In addition to definite reference, Chinese numbers also have the function of vague reference; In English, numbers are mostly used in definite reference, and vague reference is mostly based on larger numbers. This increases the difficulty for translators and readers to understand the original work. In addition to having a solid bilingual foundation, the translator should have a profound bilingual cultural knowledge to realize the translation of cultural information behind the language. The theory of cultural translation has certain feasibility in guiding the translation of Chinese classics into English, which can promote the foreign translation of Chinese classics and has certain practical significance in promoting the transmission of Chinese culture to the world.

The Construction of Cultural Identity of the Minority : The Domestication and the Foreignization of Chinese Image in The Woman Warrior

Chinese Americans are a group which shows the feature of cultural hybridity, and The Woman Warrior describes the life experience of a Chinese girl in a foreign land and her imagination of her distant homeland. From the perspective of post-colonialism, cultural identity is gradually constructed and changed. The Woman Warrior translates some Chinese images into English shows the construction of cultural identity which is different from the mainstream culture. The translation strategies adopted by the novel can be divided into domesticating translation and foreignizing translation. The two translation methods have different characteristics and play different roles in the construction of cultural identity. This article adopts post-colonial theory, cultural identity theory and translation strategy theory to analyze the characteristics of domesticating translation and foreignizing translation in The Woman Warrior, and explores translation strategies that are more conducive to the construction of cultural identity through comparison. Finally, it is concluded that foreignizing translation is a more effective translation strategy under the premise of constructing cultural identity.

Translation Strategies in Consumer-Oriented Texts: Are They Always TT-Oriented?

This paper aims to analyse translation strategies in consumer-oriented texts involving the English-Arabic language pair on two scales, a general scale in light of Newmark’s (1981) semantic and communicative strategies and a cultural scale under Venuti’s (1995/2008/2018) two orientations in translation strategies, domestication and foreignization, to determine both overall and cultural tendencies of the chosen data. The study adopts a functional translation approach as a theoretical framework that serves to determine the purpose of employing different strategies at the macro-level. This examination helps to evaluate whether consumer-oriented texts lean towards a TT reader, i.e., having more communicative and domestication translation rather than semantic and foreignization translation. The results reveal that both semantic and communicative translation frequently occur in the general translation procedures used in the data of GCC in-flight magazines, which are used as a data sample of consumer-oriented texts. As for cultural strategies, the analysis shows that domestication is the predominant cultural strategy when translating these texts, occurring in around 98% of total cultural procedures.

Typology of Metaphor Transfer Techniques (German Translation of A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s ‘The Gulag Archipelago’)

In this article, we propose an original typology of metaphor transfer techniques based on the analysis of domestic and foreign translation theorists’ experience. The relevance of the study lies in the need to review existing classifications of techniques, unify terminology, identify principles of systematization, and clarify the scope and content of translation operations. The novelty of the research lies in the description of a new developed typology, which structures techniques according to types based on the principle of preserving the original figurative basis, and subtypes depending on the method of transferring form and content, as well as reproducing extralinguistic components. The methodological basis of the study is classification, as well as a comparative analysis of original metaphors and their translations, conducted with the support of a definitional analysis of metaphorically used lexical units, contextual and component types of analysis. The application of the typology on the German translation of A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ (A. Peturnig, 1974), accompanied by translation commentaries, has shown that all examined techniques have the potential to ensure a high degree of adequacy in translation, with the core being the reproduction of pragmatic effect and successful implementation of communicative tasks.