How Chinese Language and Culture Influence Our Thinking

For a long time, the idea that language and culture may shape our thinking was considered amongst people including linguists, literature scholars, historians, sociologists. Then how language and culture influence our thinking? Recent years, plenty of researches have begun to unravel it. This paper aims to analysis it on the basic of Chinese Language and Culture.

The Influence of Chinese Language

Chinese language is the mode of our thinking. For example, when considering something, we Chinese combine the outline about this thing and describe it deeply in one specific aspect in our mind by Chinese language unconsciously. This is an instinct which is actually determined by our mother tongue. As a result of that, some speech habits, such as what follows in this paragraph, would certainly affect our thinking, which is worth to take more considerations.

First of all, the strict appellation system reflects the influence of Chinese language in particular. For one thing, when we call mother’s sisters the elderly aunt (Dayi in Chinese), the second aunt (Eryi in Chinese), the third aunt (Sanyi in Chinese) etc, which is sufficiently diverse from the western countries, a caste idea is exposed perfectly. We were educated to think with a strict pecking order since we learned language. Now it seemed somewhat ridiculous in ancient China that a younger child was called as an elder not a name by an aged but relative and everyone take it for granted (It still exists but is not so strictly nowadays.) In A Dream in Red Mansions, for instance, Jia Yun, 5 years older than Jia Baoyu, calls Baoyu uncle. For another thing, aunt in English includes mother’s sister and father’s sister in Chinese. The appellation, divided into so clearly, actually suggests that women are on a lower footing in family and society. Generally, we believe that father’s sisters are closer in relationship and, hence, we call mother’s sisters differently.

Second, the way we speak mirrors the way we think. We often beat around the bush in anywhere and anytime—we are not used to come to the point directly when talking, which reflects our ways of thinking. Do you notice the difference of proposing marriage between western and eastern countries? When proposing marriage to a girl, a western gentleman says, “I love you! Will you marry me?” While the Chinese way is a little interesting, that is, “Would you like to grow old with me?”

Moreover, many Chinese proverbs are influencing our thinking. Second thoughts are best(三思而行) is a model example. We often think and think again before put something into practice.

The Influence of Chinese Culture

As a matter of fact, proverb is more than a form of language—it is a form of culture as well. Culture has deep roots in our thoughts.

The theory that man is an integral part of nature, which was advocated especially by Confucius, was accepted in ancient Chinese. We have thought in that way since then. We prefer harmony in the society all the way. As a result, we built and rebuilt the Great Wall to defend attackers to avoid wars. And the Silk Road was cut long time ago to arouse cultural communications. What’s more, Zheng He made his voyages to spread Chinese culture in Song dynasty. The history apparently indicates that harmony is in our mind as a consequence of the culture.

Besides, FENG SHUI, the unique culture of china, also shows its affects in our thinking. FUNGSHUI is a Chinese folk belief that specifies ways of organizing buildings to take advantage of wind-water forces according to geographic location.

[1]When we think about constructing buildings, FENGSHUI influences us a lot. For example, we think locating parts of a house in certain directions to be a bad luck.

Apart from these, the idea of the Benevolent Love Man of Confucius, the idea of non-attack of Mozi and Buddhism, all of these cultures, have a great influence in our thinking.

In conclusion, the influences of Chinese language and culture can be everywhere.

Reference: [1]. Chinese Mythology A to Z, Mythology A to Z [M] .New York: Facts on File,2004-7

 

第二篇：The Influence of Difference between western and Chinese Culture on Chinese

The Influence of Difference between western and Chinese

Culture on Chinese-English Translation

Name: YaoyanMing No.: 20075061194

English Major School of Foreign Languages

Supervisor: Ma Xiaohuan Title: Instructor

Abstract： Culture is closely related to the Chinese-English translation; the Chinese –English translation not only means the conversion of Chinese and English, but also the transmission of culture. However, the difference of between Chinese and western culture has given great barrier to Chinese-English translation. So the thesis will mainly concentrate on the different cultures? influence on the Chinese-English translation by analysis of the relation of culture and translation, the detail about difference in some aspects and how to deal with translation involved in culture factors.

Key word: culture difference; Chinese-English translation；The influence of Culture

摘要：汉英翻译文化与密切相关，汉英翻译不仅仅是两种语言的转换更是不同文化的交流，然而种种因素所致中西文化的差异给汉英翻译带来巨大的影响与困难。本文主要通过讨论文化与翻译的关系，中西文化差异的一些具体表现及如何处理汉英实际翻译中的文化问题来研究中西文化差异对汉英翻译的影响。

关键词：文化差异; 汉英翻译；文化影响

1. Introduction

Translation is a communicative process and instrument of two language community with the goal to transfer the information of the original version to target version without any deformation. Because of the close relation between culture and the translation, culture may have an effect on the translation to a large extent. It?s conductive to achieve the criteria of translation (faithfulness, expressiveness and gracefulness), having a wide knowledge of culture. Margin of knowledge and text, only these facets in term of Chinese –English translation will be discussed

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2．Close Relationships between Culture and Translation

Language is the production and reflection of culture, which also determines the close relation of the culture and translation, the instrument carrying the culture. Before talking the relations of them, it?s essential to give a definition of what?s the culture.

What?s the culture? Culture has its narrow and broad sense. The narrow sense of culture means to show people the ability of using words and the general knowledge. Such as learning culture cultural level The generalized culture Refers to the humanity in the process of the development of the social history created all the material wealth and the spiritual wealth, such as literature, art, education, law, science, and so on . Therefore, cultural coverage is very wide, it is a complex system, language as a part of culture, and it reflects a national and colorful cultural phenomenon.

2.1 Translation Promotes the Spreading of Culture

Since written human history, it is not difficult to find that the human civilization is also a trough. Especially in the west, each time in the history of human progress and development, the figure of translation can be found. In the history, several translation climaxes have also brought the integration of Chinese culture and other culture. In china, translation either on the social development or to the Chinese culture Formation has played an indelible contribution.

Buddhist sutra translation in China, the greatest impact is the ideological and cultural aspects. Buddhist thought, a kind of superstition, has an impact on nation and national long-term backwardness.

In the impact of culture on language, literature, academic thoughts, especially in language ,not only absorbed the Sanskrit word, also used the Chinese word formation created a lot of words, such as a Bodhisattva, day, Hall, hell significantly.

The third translation climaxes in Chinese politics, economy, culture and people's state of mind produced strong impact.

Our literary translator Fu Lei on Chinese artists to the world cultural responsibility said: “the only race home, without prejudice to a kind of special artistic 2

integrity conditions, to instill some new blood into the world, the culture ability has become richer and richer, more perfect, more and more shine with great splendor.” To make the Chinese culture integrate into the world culture, we must also translate in a fair position.

2.2 Culture Affects the Art of Translation

Because culture is the restriction of language, once the different language is used for communication that is the achievement of translation However, different cultural background create different expressions, what refers to in Chinese culture can?t find its counterpart in English, which give rise to the possibility that some idiomatic expressions can?t be translated into English all of these need the understanding and expression of culture and require not only control of Chinese and English language skills, but have double different cultural knowledge. Then which aspects they are in different culture?

3. The difference of China and West in Culture

3.1 Different Ways of Thinking Bring Different Language Structure

In china, people thought of heaven, nature and man as interrelated and the nature and human are subject to the same Law, human and nature are harmonious and unified. So this philosophy formed the holistic thinking. In Western philosophy, the individual is given much position. In western people?s opinion, individual is independent of the nature and human should get something from nature, thus forming the individual thinking. The two different thinking can be represented in the language with such features:

First, the difference in grammar. In Chinese syntax, there are no obvious signs to show tense and tone whereas, which in English has been changed, the modal verbs and inflection are used to designate tense and voice, except for this, the article can demarcate the nouns. But in Chinese, these features can?t be found.

Second, the different in construction of syntax Chinese is a parataxis language in which almost all the sentences have been created like water running on the marbles 3

naturally. A sentence is composed of several phrases without any logical relation in form but existing in fact from the prospect of meaning .The meaning of the sentences may be changed by adding or reducing the words. Different from Chinese, English is a hypotaxis language constituted by the sentences connected by the conjuncts which keep one sentence to another one fluid. Look at the example:

曲曲折折的荷塘上面，弥望的是田田的叶子。叶子出水很高，像亭亭的舞女的裙。层层的叶子中间，零星地点缀着些白花，有袅娜地开着的，有羞涩地打着朵儿的；正如一粒粒的明珠，又如碧天里的星星，又如刚出浴的美人。微风过处，送来缕缕清香，仿佛远处高楼上渺茫的歌声似的。这时候叶子与花也有一丝的颤动，像闪电般，霎时传过荷塘的那边去了。叶子本是肩并肩密密地挨着，这便宛然有了一道凝碧的波痕。叶子底下是脉脉的流水，遮住了，不能见一些颜色；而叶子却更见风致了。﹙朱自清《荷塘月色》﹚

As far as eye could see, the pool with its winding margin was covered with trim leaves, which rose high out of the water like the flared skirts of dancing girls. And starring these tiers of leaves were white lotus flowers, alluringly open or bashfully in bud, like glimmering pearls, stars in an azure sky, or beauties fresh from the bath. The breeze carried past gusts of fragrance, like the strains of a song faintly heard from a far-off tower. And leaves and blossoms trembled slightly, while in a flash the scent was carried away. As the closely serried leaves bent, a tide of opaque emerald could be glimpsed. That was the softly running water beneath, hidden from sight, its color invisible, though the leaves looked more graceful than ever.

From the example, we can find no conjuncts are used to link the sentence in Chinese. The sentences go one by one without density like sand everywhere at first sight. But the logical relations of sentences have been converted among them, which is different from the English target version. In the English version, the conjuncts like and, while, as, though and present participle and past participle taken to join the sentences so that the version is cohesive and the logical relationship is very pellucid.

So, in the English-Chinese translation, different construction in language must be considered. In Chinese, almost no words linking another sentence, some sentences 4

may be only words or phrases, all of which is another way in English. When dealing with translation, which one is the subject and what?s the real relation between sentences must be given much attention.

3.2 Religious Belief Inhibiting the Possibility of Translation

In China, Confucianism advocating benevolence thought Buddhism promoting samara and Taoism publicizing fate telling and immortality by practicing formed the Chinese religious systems different from the most important religion in west ,Christian making people believe God created the world theory ,the pardoned crime redeemed theory and the heaven and hell theory.

The life hope lies in believes in Jesus Christ primarily, because he makes reparations on the cross, and he after third reactivates from dying, causes to repent believed that his person all crimes all remit, and obtains forever life that can exceed the devil and the death. Take the Taoism as an example, in their belief, the world consist of five elements: Gold, Wood, water, Fire and Earth with five corresponding directions. Every direction has its god, Gold god in the west, wood god in the east, Water god in the north, Fire god in the south and Earth god located in the center. And the five gods balance each other.

In Buddhism, the Buddha is the highest, followed by Bodhisattvas, arhats. Hindus think as long as the repair clear, they can get rid of transmigration into the immortal Buddha

The core policy of the Confucius is benevolence, emphasizing the friendship and harmony between man and man, man and society and man and nature. Just for such difference cause much trouble to Chinese-English translation in some expressions. For example:

The majority of American who believe in Christian, thinking God (God) can create everything, and God helps those who help themselves(上帝帮助自助者). (God help those who help themselves). While Chinese people believe in Buddhism, believe that “Buddha” around the world, and the Related expression such as “idle time does not burn incense, cramming”(闲时不烧香，临时抱佛脚) etc. Another proverb: “one boy is a boy, two boys half a boy, three boys have no water to eat”（一个和尚挑水吃, 5

两个和尚抬水吃, 三个和尚没水吃）, the main problem is that the Christian English monk this is quite strange to them, and the reference monk is little-known. Therefore, when translated into English, it is very difficult to reconcile. The another example can show the great difference that can be discovered in this saying “谋事在人，成事在天”。Most people translate it into that man proposes God dispose. In china,“天” (haven)has a wide range of meanings than god, so heaven was substituted by God causing many meaning lost. In some sense, such a translation isn?t successful.

Another great religious difference that can be depicted is the attitude toward the dragon. Long long ago, the Chinese forefather, Huang emperor defeated the commander of a tribe, Chiyou, and united all the tribes around the areas of Yellow River. The great man taught people how to till the land, tame the animals and making clothes. After his death, he became a dragon and flew to the heaven as a god. In memory of him, people created many images about dragons. In fact, the dragon is just a totem for people to idolize, just a symbol of Chinese people with the connotation of unity and inclusiveness. With the extending of the history river, Confucius has gained its dominant position in Chinese culture. Under the influence of it, the image, dragon has been exclusive to the Sovereign, representing powerful. As a result, the dragon has two meanings; one is the fore father of Chinese People, the other is power. Later, people have the belief that the dragon could bring them lucky and prosperous. Nowadays ,Chinese people often say “我们是龙的传人”。（we are the descendants of dragon）In 1970s,four countries in Asia gained the rapid development in economy, so we nicknamed them “亚洲四小龙” On the contrary, there?s no such a fascinating legend about dragon, in westerners? mind, dragon is only a ferocious and devil animal which should be killed. In a poem by Anglo-Saxon, there was a man fighting against the dragon, at last, the evil was killed by the hero. Because of this, that we say we are the descendants of the dragon is often misunderstood that we are aggressive and violent. This is one of the reasons why some of western countries hold hostile to us. Chinese esteem the dragon as powerful, but American and English take the tiger as powerful. With the“亚洲四小龙”only Four tigers in Asia will be accepted by them and four dragons in Asia may cause misunderstanding.

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3.3 Different Living Environment Produces Different cultural Meaning

As we all know, Britain is located in the west of Asian-European continent, Atlantic Ocean to the west, subject to the temperate marine climate. Under the prevailing west wind, the warm and wet air is brought to the Britain, making there warm and rainy. In contrast, the wind from the east sends the chilly and dry air. So in the Britain, many people give their hymn to the west wind, in one of the very famous poems composed by Shelly, Ode to the West Wind the west wind give highly praise by the poet. maybe this can?t be understood by Chinese not knowing the situation in English, because in China, the Pacific Ocean give the warm air to this land, awake trees ,grasses and flowers and caress our faces gently making us a little sleepy like a song. Therefore ,most of poets have write many works to sing the spring breeze, that is ,eastern wind, such as “小楼昨夜又东风，故国不堪回首月明中”。In this line,(东风)eastern wind also refers to spring wind. If we translate “东风” into English ,we must think it twice how to translate it for the wind is complete different from the wind in westerners eye.

Another phenomenon taking place is the different connotation about the animals. The special climate form the special animal-husbandry culture, the horse is the most important transportation, which is opposite to Chinese agricultural culture. In China, the cows play a very important role in cultivating land, planting the grains. We often hear Chinese people say “老黄牛精神”，referring to someone who works diligently without complaining about any hardship and suffering. What afflict us is that in Britain, no cow in their life, they have no ideas that what the cultural connotation means as for cow. once the “老黄牛精神” is turned into the spirit of an old cow literally, everyone may perplexed by your words.

Except for this, another difference is their opinion about the animals such as dogs and cats. In China, the dogs are kept for guarding the doors that the thieves can?t come in and the cats for catching rats so as to prevent the rats from gnawing households ?clothes and grains. But in western society no matter cats or dogs, they are the members of men?s family as a membership of pet. Because of this, mention of the cats and dogs, many people will have an image of lovely and cute pets. Of course, 7

there?re many idioms in English used to compliment the pets and take them as a person such as“ Every dog has its day(人人皆有得意日),lucky dog(幸运儿)；a clever dog(聪明孩)：love me, love my dog(爱屋及屋) rain cats and dogs(下倾盆大雨)”，here，many people can?t detect that why rain cats and dogs have the meaning of pouring rain. In fact, in ancient Britain, it?s changeable as for the weather, just now, it?s sunny, now the cloud has covered the sky, beginning raining so that the cats and dogs have no time giving them to shelter themselves from the heavy rain, as a result, many cats and dogs were claimed by the pouring rain. Later, rain cats and dogs had been used to designate the heavy rain to show their sympathy to the pets.

In China, dogs are connected to the loyalty as well as derogated connotation. In Chinese view, the birds are regarded as the pets taking place of the dogs.so the idiom “爱屋及屋” is expressed in China like this love me ,love my birds. With regards to the dogs , most of the expressions with dogs are terrible meaning and few good meaning,“狗仗人势；狗咬狗；狗眼看人低” for example. In these Chinese idioms, the dog holds a special meaning of a person sly and deceiving. The good meaning with dogs often are used to show the love of parents to their children as a nickname of a boy such as “狗儿，狗剩”etc. Then find appropriate terms in translation, not all the words with dogs convey the derogate meaning.

3.4 Different Customs Can’t Be Ignored in Chinese-English Translation

China has five thousand years of history during which many habits have been introduced and accept by Chinese people as the integration of different ethnics. Referring to the difference of Chinese and westerners, there are a lot of things to say which can?t be ended even by composing a book. So here, just several main aspects will be discussed.

First, Greetings and Terms of Address. It?s estimated that in English there are at least a dozen different greetings, from Hello to more specific and longer ones like“ How are you getting on ?or How is everything with you? People choose the proper one to greet different people they meet on different occasions. For example, people greet a new acquaintance with “how do you do” ? And expect the same answer, but they greet their old friends differently. When friends meet, you may find more 8

than once they uttering“ how are you”? At the same time to each other, and they both answer Fine, thank you”. Differently, Chinese speaker may greet their friends or new acquaintance with ninhao(您好) or nihao（你好），whether r they meet each other for the first time or at any time.

Another noticeable difference between two greeting system is that most Chinese people tend to greet their friends or acquaintance with that have you eaten? or Where are you heading for? Obviously, if we greet the native speakers of English in this way, it will certainly cause misunderstanding.

Sometimes, different terms of address can be equally misleading for Chinese learners of English or English learners of Chinese. While in China“tongzhi(同志)” was once used to call all the people ignorance of the sex ,education background and position，meanwhile, “shifu”( 师傅) is frequently used to show respect for strangers. However, in English, Mrs., Mr., Miss, MS would be appropriate in similar situation.

Another feature of Chinese culture is the kinship terms. Terms such as uncle, aunt, grandpa, grandma, and granny are used as honorific titles for senior people or some elder strangers, as in granny Li or Uncle Zhang, the native speakers may be puzzled if they are addressed in this way by people outside the immediate family. Similarly, the use of the respectful titles: Chairman Mao, premier Zhou, director Ma is very less common in English. The English-speaking people often address their men with title such as captain in army or john, Jim etc, when meeting friends. Without knowing these things in translation, big mistakes will be made by you.

Second, thanks and compliments. Cultural difference also evident in the ways gratitude and compliments are expressed. It is noted that people in the West tend to verbalize their gratitude and compliments more than Chinese speakers and that the Westerners tend to accept thanks and compliments more directly and frankly than Chinese do.

When a native speaker express his thanks to the Chinese, the Chinese speaker may say no ,no, to decline his gratitude .the Chinese doesn?t mean he doesn?t deserve thanking ,just wanting to show his modesty. In such situation, the English may say something like I’m glad to hear that, or It’s my pleasure to acknowledge and accept 9

the thanks.

There is a story about the difference ,one day, an American invited a Chinese couple for a dinner, the Chinese couple couldn?t speak English ,so the hire a interpreter with them ,during the dinner ,the host made an eulogy to the dress of the Chinese wife ,while ,the interpreter knew little cultural difference between Chinese and American ,so he explained to the American host with “where, where”(哪里，哪里) in English to show their modesty, which made the host at a loss ,the host had no choice but to say “everywhere ,everywhere”.

As a translator, he or she must be responsible for his or her job. The mistakes in culture difference not only cause embarrassment but also retard the process of the communication.

Third, Privacy and Taboos. Although people of different culture have many common areas of privacy or taboos, there are also areas where our culture differs from Western culture. As the saying goes“ A man?s home is his castle,”the western people place a high value on privacy. It?s not appropriate to ask questions about private things like family, salary, heights or weights. How much do you earn? You make a lot of money, don?t you? Or what?s your name? Except for this, we had better avoid the expressions linked with sexual intercourse, some organ of human body, and racism.

Fourth, Respect and Humility Chinese people have their special way to address the elder and other people. When addressing one?s elders or superiors, Chinese have traditional used language that is more respectful than that used for people of one?s own generation or of low status. On the other hand, when referring to oneself while speaking or writing to the elder, it has been customary to use terms of humility or self-effacing expressions. Not to do so would imply the same attitude of no respect. For example,“您老” ；“您高寿” ；“令尊” ；“令爱”to show respect and “鄙人” ；“犬子”to show humility etc.

This matter of honorifics is especially troublesome for English people trying to communicate in Chinese. The reason is that English has few such terms, and of these, even fewer in present times. In English, no matter speaking or writing to the superior or to the same generation, you is you, me is me regardless of the age, position and 10

rank. In formal occasion, they will use names to represent the respect.

3.5 Historic Meaning Have an Influence on Translation

China has a long history with expansive and splendid culture, in the process of evolving of history, many allusions were created by people, in the usual speaking or in the study, the allusions can be discovered everywhere . The allusions, representing the history prominently, carrying the most of information about history and enclosing the characteristics of a nation during the different period of history, are the treasure of our culture.

Many allusions connected with a historical period containing special meaning at that time. Translating them in English, peculiar to china with historic meaning is very difficult. Given give a full transcript of the content of them it?s not enough just understanding the words and sentences. Behind the semantic equivalence is the cultural meaning and historical background which should be given sufficient attention, only by doing this, we can truly achieve the three perfect respects sound, form, meaning, For example, “东施效颦”which not difficult for Chinese to comprehend the connotative meaning, almost all the Chinese have the knowledge of “东施”（Tungshih)who was a mediocre girl living in the same period with the beauty , Hsi Shihi. In order to attract people?s eye, she also imitated his shi to frown her eyebrows. To her disappointment, what she had done made her look uglier. Later, people use this idiom to express what someone had done make the matter worse. If we just translate the idiom into tung hih imitate His shi hih without any explanation, many foreigners wouldn?t know what it is. Who is tung shih and who is shi hih? Where did they come from? With the view to make the foreigners to contrive the image of the figures of the both girls, the best way to deal with the translation is literally translation with the interpreting like this Tung Shih imitates Hsi Shi (hShih was a famous beauty in the ancient Kingdom of Yueh.Tung Shih was an ugly girl who tried to imitate her way) ( 杨宪益译)

Every idiom and allusion is a reflection of the information that time .doing well in translation of the allusions requires appropriate methods based on the mastery of the profound meaning of the allusions and the difference of history, or the misleading 11

will emerge.

In 1990s, Japanese made an investment in Nanjing to build a hotel, name 古南都旅馆. If it is translated as “Hotel in old city, Nanjing”, it is not wrong, but have little taste, like to eat watermelon rind. The hotel is now translated as “grand”, the three aspects ，sound, form, meaning is the best choice. Nanjing is located in south of the Yangtze River, is a famous cultural city with a long history, is one of the seven ancient capitals of China, since Third Century there have been ten dynasties and regime established their capitals here，the translator cleverly put English sound and meaning of Grand and the unique ness into Nanjing history and culture together, the "shape" of the effect is impeccable. “Grand" this translation is the embodiment of" nine points of culture, a language" an inspired passage, fully reflecting the wide knowledge of the translator.

From above, an important thing can?t be neglected is the processing of culture in translation. Thousands of years? history connects with the Chinese language, when Chinese language is translated into English, the carrier of culture will converted and the context the readers are in is different, which leads to such situations: first, the target language can?t find its counterpart reflecting the cultural meaning in original language in the target language. Second, the readers of translation version have no knowledge of the cultural background of Chinese. Some readers even try to interpret the version from his or her own viewpoint in the context of culture which he or she has derived from. So before the translation, it?s necessary to have a thorough and profound insight into the cultural connotation in the words and detect correct information so that the readers can make it clear what it is about. Then even if the cultural difference has brought such impediment for us, are there any methods for us or any principles to overcome the hardship and difficulty? The answer is “yes”. But it isn?t true to any substances. The following we will talk is the key to these problems.

4. The Principle and Methods of Translation Closed to Culture

4.1 The Principle of Translation in the Context of Culture

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As for the principle of translation, many scholars have proposed their different theories. yanfu, the translator of Evolution and Ethics had given his three principles: faithful; expressly and graceful. Luxun thought that there were two aspects must be considered, that is, the version should be expressed firstly and then, It should be kept in terms of the style and the manner off original version. Another translator, Fulei had said: “Translation is just like the imitation of the painting, the core is how to make it similar to the spirit of the original work, not the form of it.” American translation theorist Eugene Nida's concept of translation is:" translation is to reproduce the information of the original language and the closest equivalent body language – firstly, meaning, secondly, style. These propositions have different emphases, but the center point means to be faithfully and accurately express the meaning of original text, to maintain the original style, pay attention to presenting the original style. It actually refers to through a language recreating another language and reflecting the thought and culture.

Translation is the recreation of works; an excellent version is the text containing almost all the style and content faithfully, the text integrating several methods of translation. In Fact, the barrier to the possibility of translation is that words have the same referring meaning in different language but no cultural meaning or associative meaning in the other language or have same literal meaning but different pragmatic meaning or secondary meaning.

4.2 Verity of Methods of Translation Involving the Cultural Factors

Methods of translation are mainly literal translation, free translation and annotating the set of usage, etc. In the process of translation, according to the actual facts, we can use different translation methods.

First, Literal Translation. As long as it conforms to the rules of grammar and acceptable to the target readers, literal translation method can be adopt. The Professor, Liu Zhongde thinks “Translation, as a conversion between two languages, the translators must seek truth from facts, without any subjective factors.” (P14) Therefore he proposed the literal translation, free translation as secondary translation. One hand, it can retain the original characteristics of culture, on the other hand, it also 13

fully spread the source culture, and so Literal translation is the best method of translation. Some idioms translation has entered into the target language, and most people do not know that they originated from foreign countries. Take these for example:

一帆风顺 smooth sailing 易如反掌 as easy as turning one's hand

三三两两 in twos and threes 不可理喻 be impervious to reason

三月里刘薰宇君来信说互生病了，而且是没有希望的病，医生说只好等日子了。四月底在 《时事新报》上见到立达学校的通告，想不到这么快互生就殁了。（朱自清《哀互生》 ）

In March, I heard from Mr.liuxunyu that hushing was sick and hopelessly sick at that. The doctor said that there was nothing he could do but wait for the day to arrive .Toward the end of April, I came across an obituary issued by Lida School in the newspaper Current Affairs .How quickly the day had arrived!(Tr Liu shicong)

“等日子”was translated into “wait for the day to arrive”, from the context, it?s easy to understand, what?s more, it also conveyed the style of euphemism of text.in the last sentence,“殁”was explained by “how quickly the day had arrived” ,Which not only correspond to the context ,expressing the meaning of “殁”，as well as represent the tone of sighing

Second, free translation. Because in another language, readers do not understand the cultural background, but also in the target language, you cannot find the corresponding expressions. At this time, what you have to do is only to abandon its form and rhetoric, using the free method in order to clearly express. This method mainly deals with the sentences containing associative meaning which can?t find from the literal counterpart in target language .Look at this one:

接着他们用绳子五花大绑，把节振国捆得像个粽子似的，又是一顿拳打脚踢，节振国嘴里鼻孔里鲜血直冒（王义《赤胆忠心》 ）

They gave him a god cuff and kick, trussed him up like a fowl and then went on walloping and kicking him until his nose and mouth were a bloody pulp.

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Because of cultural difference, there is no image of trussed “zongzi” in westerners? mind, if translated literally, it may torture their mind what?s the “zongzi”. When readers are familiar with these translations, they can easily understand them. But the disadvantage is that it has make the original image of the animal disappear, reducing the force of expression.

Third, Annotation Method. Most of Allusion stemmed from history in China, whose meaning can?t be understood literally, while free translation cause the vivid image of figure or animals lost.so annotation is the best choice for keeping the feature of original works.

“司马昭之心,路人皆知” may turned into“ Siam Zhao's ill intent is known to all-the villain's design is obvious”, “门可罗雀” can be translated into“You can catch sparrows on the doorstep-visitors are few and far-between”,

Fourth, Borrowing Method. It?s the same that human beings have similar experience in some aspects such as felling, sympathy etc. So there are some idioms conveying same icon meaning and same cultural meaning. When handling translation, we can take them once they can be used. “practice makes perfect”own same meaning with “熟能生巧”, in Chinese “破釜沉舟” draw from strategy at war responding with burn one?s boats in English.

Take rhetorical creativity Idioms are representation of various rhetorical skills. Therefore, in term of the translation of idioms, in addition to considering the national form and the correct expression of the original version, we also had better want to take consideration of the aesthetics by using rhetorical means, such as symmetry, rhyme, alliteration, tone, word repetition ,so as to not only make the words refined and tasty, sonorous and forceful when read, or creatively process Chinese idioms, make them match some English idioms in rhetoric form, becoming easier to understand and easier to spread. For example: 抓人、押人、查夜、跑腿，是得力人手；论领导，还年轻。俗话说：”嘴上没毛，说话不牢，再过上六七年也许差不多。（柳青《铜墙铁壁》）

He?s good at nabbing criminals, escorting them under guard, night control, messenger work ? , As the old saying goes: “Downy lips make thoughtless slips”. Maybe in 15

five or six years he?ll be ready for it. “嘴上没毛，说话不牢” corresponds to “Downy lips make thoughtless slips”. Lips are the same with slips in rhyme and trochee can find in the sentence. The translation has given a feeling of conciseness and pellucidity.

5. Conclusion

Culture is the achievement of people?s intelligence generation by generation during the thousand years? history that the cultural difference can?t be depicted to the end by the score- pages thesis. As a matter of fact, as for the practice of translation, the cultural difference won?t happen alone without intertwining other complicated factors cohesiveness ,discourse and aesthetics ,for example. What?s worse, some differences create the situation: abiding by the criteria of translation, the different cultural meaning can?t be expressed, representing the special Chinese culture, no beauty, even no terseness. So no fixed methods for translation, some can be taken from the above methods, some can?t. Which method is the best rely on the version that you are dealing with. All of these have told us there is a long way for us, especially a translation learner.

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