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Ut5
fl
OF CALIFORNIA
[In much brieferform,this was the topic of the 1967 Faculty Research Lecture at the
UniversityofCaliforniaand ofan articlein Chinese under the titleof M
41i
toappearin CYYY (Fang-kueiLi Commemorative
Volume),1969.]
HERE
110
in elegance, but will certainlynot be a faithfultranslationof the original and mighteven affectthe outcome of the case. As forthe second
requirement,that of fluency,it is generallya desirable quality in a
discourse,as forexample when an interpretertranslatesforthe doctor
theinarticulateor incoherentspeech ofa sick or injuredperson. However,in the case ofa novelistor dramatistwho is portrayingdifferences
in expressivenessin the speech ofhis
in personalityby the differences
characters,it will of course not do to translateall the dialogues with
equal clarityand fluency.
Thus, we have to come back to the firstfactor,namely,fidelity,as
the main desideratumin translation.But beforeI take up the various
dimensionsof fidelityI must firstraise the question as to the nature
and size of the unit to be translated.The materialto be translatedmay
be a book, a poem, a dialogue in a play, or a speech, and the medium
in which it is to be translatedmay be eitherwrittenor spoken. The
size may vary anywherefroma word to a whole encyclopedia. One
importantaspect ofthe translationalsituationis thatlanguage, whether in theformoflive speech or in theformofwrittentext,is not apart
fromthe restoflife,but formsa part oflife.This truismwould hardly
need repeatingifit were not forthe factthatstudents,and sometimes
even we linguists,oftenforgetit and treatlanguage as ifit were somethingsui generis.But when you translatea text,it is always in a context,and when you translatesomethingspoken, it is always spoken in
a situation.
In this connection, attentionshould be called to the interesting
borderlinephenomena of language and non-linguisticsymbolicbehavior,such as voice quality,intonation,'gesture,and so forth.If the
same desired effectis to be attained,sometimesa word or a sentence
in one language mayhave to be "translated,"so to speak, by a gesture.
For example, in a certain situationan English sentence:
know
I
don't
FIDELITY
IN TRANSLATION
111
ence and punctuated the ends of paragraphs with pauses, my interpreterinto Japanese translatedmy pauses into sh-, thatis, a sort of
s or sh, with the air drawn in, as he rose froma go9 bow. Now is this
language? If not, then we have a translationof language into nonlanguage. Again, in the so-called simultaneoustranslationsetup at the
United Nations, the majorityof the interpretersare quite good in the
totalfidelityof theirtranslations.At one time,one interpreterforthe
Soviet Union, who was an Americancitizen,was so good in rendering
the exact effectof the speeches that he constantlyreceived lettersof
complaint,accusing him of unpatriotismor even of treason. It was of
course simplyhis job, and if he did not do it somebody else could.
It was not recorded,however,when a certaindelegate fromthe Soviet
Union emphasized his point by puttinghis shoe on the table,whether
his interpreteron his part also put his shoe on the table.
To returnto the question of the size of the unit to translate,thereis
no translationat the level of singlephonemes. A distinctionis usually
made between translationand transliteration.For example,when Oxford appears as Nioujin (* ) "Ox-ford," it is translation,while
New Yorkas Neou'iue (a1Lp) 2 iS transliteration.But when Cambridge
is rendered as Jiannchyau(011fr),it is half transliterated3and half
forDragunov is the same
translated.Similarly,Longguoofu(W):)
thing in reverse,namely, with the firstpart in translationand the
second part in transliteration.
A furtherdistinctionis usually made between transliterationand
transcription.Transliterationin the strict sense is the conversion
fromthe elementsof the writingsystemof one language into those of
another,whethersystematicallyor haphazardlyad hoc.For example,
when wordsin Cyrillicor Greeklettersare spelt in Roman letters,it is
transliteration.But when English words are writtenin Japanese kana
according to certain rules of writingthe sounds (as opposed to the
spelling) of English words, it is transcription.For writingsystemsin
which the graphicunit is the syllabicmorpheme,such as the Chinese,
rules of both transliterationand transcriptionwill be rathercomplicated to establish, whence the great divergence in writingforeign
names in characters.Add to this the divergencein the dialects of the
2 .Yaoyeukin standard Cantonese, but pronounced Niouyoakin another southern
dialect, presumablyspoken by the original transliterator
of this name.
3 3IIJin Cantonese is kimm.
112
CHYTHI4C
Graphological Translation
CHYTHNK
Transliteration
SPUTNIK4
Another example is in the name of the honor societyin orientallanguages at the Universityof California.Because Chinese and Japanese
are the major languages of the Orient, its name in Greek letters is
"Phi Theta," thatis, rP El3.Trivial as such examples are, graphological translationmay be of increasingimportancein view of the possibilityofgraphicalscanningin machine translationand othermechanical treatmentof writtentext.
Translation proper begins when we deal with meaningfulunits
frommorphemesand words on. While everyoneis more or less aware
of the multiplicityof meanings for the same word, translatorsoften
forgetthatthe levels of units betweenlanguages need not always correspond. For example, while Western translatorsusually render correctlyeach characterin classical Chinese into one word or one morpheme, as in yii wei (J?L) "take (it) to be," suoo yii (JAJi1)"wherewith," swei ran (AM) "although (it is) so," theyoftenovertranslate
when handling modern Chinese, in which many compounds should
4 C. J. Catford,
A LinguisticTheoryof Translation(Oxford,1965), p. 66.
FIDELITY
IN TRANSLATION
113
be translatedas single words. Thus, the formsin the preceding examples would be yiiwei "to think (mistakenly)," suooyii"therefore,"
sweiran "'although." As to the multiplicityof meanings for the same
word, it is usually a safe guide, as I. A. Richards has observed (in a
conversationwiththewriter),to tellwhetherthe same word occurring
in different
places is to be translatedinto the same word or different
words by noting whetherthe meanings come under the same numbered definitionin a monolingual dictionary.For instance, the word
eenice"under numberone goes into Germanfein, under numbertwo
into Germanhuibsch;
or, again, theword "state," under numberone is
German Zustand, under number two, Staat. This is of course not to
imply that one language is more ambiguous than the other, since it
worksboth ways. Thus, we have:
Chinese
English
tzuoh(1i )
do
shyy(JO)
make
jiaw (lJ)
call
in which tzuohis ambiguously "edo" or "emake"and jiaw is ambiguously "make" or "ecall,"while "emake"is ambiguouslytzuoh,shyy,or
jiaw. Similarly,we have thefollowingchain ambiguities:
(OPM)
chyngshyng
tyaujiann
({f]11)
wuhjiann(*fq4)
muhdih(1 ")
condition(s)
article
(s)
object(s)
objective(s)
114
FIDELITY
IN TRANSLATION
115
Original
Literal translation
Grammaticalbut not idiomatic
116
"eNosmoking,please"
"eNosmoking"
Idiomaticallyacceptable
The usual sign
English:
French:
Note that the French and the Chinese happen to agree literally,too.
A word of warningshould be said here against the strongtemptation to use an interestingliteraltranslationat the cost offidelityin the
other dimensions. If a translationis both.literal and idiomatic,well
and good, as in the French and Chinese above. Again, in: Ta bu hwai
hao-yihAT-,V-02) "He doesn't harborgood intentions,"the equating ofhwai with"harbor" is veryapt. When "The styleis the man" is
translatedas Wen ru chyiren (IZA02*kA),it is fairlyclose, thoughthe
Chinese is in wenyan,while the English is neutral in that respect.
is equated to "Ridiculous!"
When, however, Shiawhuah! (tE!)
then thereare problems.For while the Chinese can be used eitheras
non-politeor as insultinglanguage, the English can onlybe the latter
if applied to the person being spoken to. Even more subtle are the
shades of differencesbetween donq0syyle7(IMET)
and "frozen to
death." Most of the time,both are used eitherin theliteralsense or as
a hyperboleand the Chinese formwithor withoutneutraltone can be
used eitherway too. But depending upon context,one may be idiomatic in one but not in the otherlanguage.
A veryimportantdimensionoffidelitywhich translatorsoftennegor the relativefamillect is comparabilityinfrequencyof occurrence,
6
donq.syyle.
FIDELITY
IN TRANSLATION
117
118
Old meaning
Added meaning
"delicate (of things)'" "delicate (of
situations)"
"stress (in pronuncia- "to emphasize"
tions)"
"liquidate (accounts)" "liquidate (persons)"
"ideal (adj. of idea)" "ideal (perfect)"
FIDELITY
IN TRANSLATION
119
120
got the words cheuand jiah mixed up and came out with meiyeou
jiah
denanren
genmeiyeou
cheudeneuren
M
407 tt*J).
(9 t UIflJ
at this,andwhenthe
Of coursetheaudienceroaredwithlaughter
speaker
waspuzzledandaskedmewhattheywerelaughing
about,all
toher,"It'll taketoolong
I coulddo at themoment
wastowhisper
now,I'll havetoexplainit toyouafterwards."
andobviouscasesof
It is easyenoughtotakecareofsuchstriking
butit is theless obviouscasesthataremore
obligatory
categories,
Take theinnocenttricky
and moreeasilymisleadthetranslator.
sentence:"He puton hishatandwenton his
lookingor sounding
or a Chinese
way."In ninecasesout often,a French,a German,
it "faithfully"
student
ofEnglishwouldtranslate
withthepronoun
themesifhe weretostartcomposing
"his"in bothplaces,whereas
hewouldprobably
sageinhisownlanguage,
sayinChinese,
justsay:
Ta daylemawtz
tzooule
({IT4iFTT).11
is written
and
ofobligatory
Ofcourseifovertranslation
categories
as a
getsreadon a largescale,it can establish
a newusage,at first
thenas an acceptednewstyle.Thus,starting
withan
neologism,
oftheusesoftenseinEnglish,
a Chinesetransimperfect
knowledge
thesuffix
latoraddsmechanically
le whenever
he seesa verbin the
inhisowntalkandwriting
hedoesnotusethe
pastform,
eventhough
suffix
le in manyinstances
ofreference
to thepast.Again,he usesa
preposition
bey(R) for"by"whenever
he seesa passivevoicein the
ofthefactthatChinese
English
verb,unaware
verbshavenovoiceand
thedirection
ofactionofa verbworkseitherway,depending
upon
context,
andalsoforgetting
thatthepreposition
beyforpassiveaction
is usedonlybefore
verbswithunfavorable
meanings.
However,
once
thissortoftranslatese
is written
often
enough,
itgetstobe written
in
evenwhenno translation
originals,
is involved.
Whenthishappens,
it constitutes
whatin linguistics
is knownas structural
borrowing,
thatis,instead
ofborrowing
specific
wordsorphrases
discussed
above,
oneborrows
functional
(Tempty")
wordsora wholetypeofstructure.
So nowadays,
onesuffers
notonlyscolding
andbeating
butalsobeing
praisedorrewarded.
Besidesthetranslation
or omission
ofobligatory
categories,
there
11 In my translationof ThroughtheLooking-Glass,in which the Red Queen objected
to Alice's sayingthatshe had lost her way because all thewaysbelonged to the queen, I
had of course to render"her" literallyin order to make the point.
FIDELITY
IN TRANSLATION
121
)LM*JL)
122
lences with English "can" and "may," with keen equatable to the
awkwardand thereforeless frequentlyused "be willingto." There is
12 For furtherdetails,see CYYY (Ts'ai Yiuan-p'ei Commemorative
Volume) 1933, p.
148. An example ofYiddish intonationas a grammaticalformis foundin Catford,p. 54.
FIDELITY
IN TRANSLATION
123
only one word "hot" forboth tanq (X) fortemperatureand lah (4)
forthe taste. Among Chinese dialects, the sentence in Mandarin: Jeh
tang taytyan,keeshbu gowshian (5'tks;,
7%F Jft.) "This soup
is too sweet,but not tastyenough" would be difficultto translateinto
Cantonese withoutsome circumlocution,as both tyanand shian would
be called dhim (a) in Cantonese. In names of colors there is no
Tbrown" in Chinese and thereis no ching (W) in English. Many languages have no word fora length comparable to a yard,and the conception of teen-age would not be translatableunless the language
happens to have a common featurefromthirteento nineteen. It is
easy enough to translatesuch items, even with a high degree of accuracy, if it is a matterof givingthe mathematical,physical, or economic equivalents.But since such expressionsare oftenused forother
than theirpurelyquantitativeimport,fidelityin the otherdimensions
such as function,idiom, frequency,etc. will have greaterweight.For
instance,fora language withno word fordozen, "a couple of dozen"
will appear betteras "a couple of tens" than as "about twenty-four."
Incidentally,such linguisticand cultural differencessometimeseven
affectwhollynon-linguisticmatters.Thus, it is not only oftendifficult
to translate"quarter" into a language that has a dollar-likeunit but
divides it into fivetwenty-cent
pieces, but the existenceof the quarter
(or 20-cent piece, as the case may be) actually affectsthe prices of
things that can be convenientlysold over the counter-and in slot
machines!-so that the dimensionof frequencywill be affectedin the
translationof such items.Nobody would have said pas un sou if there
had not been such a coin as the sou. Nobody would have said meiyeou
ig benqtz(!1+) if therehad not been such a coin as the square-holed
'tcash."
Style is another dimension in which too much discrepancy will
obviouslyaffectthe fidelityof translation.One mayjazz up serious literatureinto modern slang, but thatwould be parody and not translation. Today's stylein one language can ofcourse be best translatedin
today's stylein another,especiallyif the subject is one which is being
talkedabout today. If it is a textofa past age, the translationleads to
problems. I have already mentioned the problemsinvolved in translating the Bible, and whole treatiseshave been writtenabout them.
For example, that very readable book, Trials of the Translator by
Ronald Knox (New York, 1949), is mainlyconcernedwithsuch prob-
124
FIDELITY
IN TRANSLATION
125
effectsof the French etpatati etpatata. Translating Woodeshinputelas "My heart palpitates"
putelde tiaw (
seems to givea prettyclose sound effect,but "My heartgoes thumpety
thump" has the advantage of comparabilityin length and style. To
quote fromJohn Ciardi:14
Everywordhas a certainmuscularity.
That is to say,it involvescertain
is likelyto linger
speechmuscles.Certainlyanymanwhois word-sensitive
overthedifference
betweenthelong-drawn
Italiancarinaand thecommon,
thoughimprecise,Americanusage "cute" whenapplied to an attractive
child.The physicalgesturesthetwowordsinviteare at leastas different
as
the Italianchild's goodbyewave ("Fa CUaO,
carina") withthepalm of the
hand up, and theAmericanchild's ("Wave bye-bye")withthebackofthe
hand up.
Even streetnames have to be translatedwith due regard to comparabilityin length.One writer,in makingfunof the streetname "Avenue
of the Americas," says: "Yes, this is the Street-of-the-Great-LeapForward-of-our-glorious
-People's -Commune-System-over-the-Capibut everybodyhere still calls it Sixth
talist-Butchers-of-the-West,
Avenue." To keep on the same theme,it is reportedthat the streetin
Peking on which the Russian embassyis situated has been renamed
"Anti-RevisionistAvenue": nine syllables. But in an actual photograph of the new streetsign thatI saw in TheNew YorkTimes,it says:
BUE)G59only threesyllables.Proverbsand commonsayingsare often
equatable between one language and another,preferablywith similar
rhythmiceffects.For example, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap" goes
quite well into Chinese as Jonqgua der gua, jonq dow der dow (MAIt
*h11D, * i? ), which says somethinglike "Plant melons (and you)
get melons; plant beans (and you) get beans."
In translatingsongs to be sung to the same melody,the requirement
of sound effectsis of course even more strict.Take, for example, the
firsttwo lines of Schubert's Erlkonig:
Wer
"Who
-Es -ist
+der Va - ter mit
`e-A +lov - ing fa - ther with
sei - nem
his +young
-und
+so
Kind.
child."
14 SaturdayReview,October 7, 1961.
-Wind?
+wild?"
126
Here the words marked+ and - are those which have been added or
omitted,respectively,forreasons ofrhymeand rhythm.(Note also the
bad stresspatternin "his young.")
The preceding is still a fairlyclose translation. In the HaidenRoslein, however, the demands of rhymeand rhythmare so strong
thatthereis even no point in countingthe pluses and minuses,as can
be seen in the opening lines:
Sah
"Once
ein Knab'
a boy
ein
a
den,
ing,"
mit
vie - len Freu his heart was glow in
den.
ing."'15
RAMAU
JRitiii;I
X VAJ
"Everywherespit,
Most bad habit.
It is loathsome
Schirmer'sLibraryed., Vol. 343, Eng. tr. Th. Baker, 1895, 1923, pp. 214, 228.
Yow ay weysheng.
Chejannyuehtair,
You shiu chingjye.
127
IN TRANSLATION
FIDELITY
3IWA*I,
$X Jqfl
1
Taangyeouweifann, #11342;09Ifyouviolate,
We willrebuke."
Miannchyh
mohguay. MIRA
thanliteral.Buttheactual
aboveis morerhythmic
The translation
signin Englishsaysin onesentence:
IN
THE
AND
HEALTH
PUBLIC
TO
REQUESTED
SPITTING
WITHIN
OF
INTEREST
IN
THE
CLEANLINESS
PASSENGERS
REFRAIN
THE
TRAINS
STATION'S
ARE
FROM
OR
PREMISES
whichwas runby
To be sure,in theearlydaysof thatrailroad,
ofthecivilized
therewerein theChinesenoticeovertones
foreigners,
thoseuncouthcountry
peoplehowto beinstructing
management
to
ofequalstalking
wasin a language
have,whiletheEnglishversion
in
in noticesis verycommon
forms
equals.Buttheuse ofrhythmic
Chinesein anycase.
between
it is a matter
oftranslation
Englishand
When,however,
books,I didnot
modern
as I didfortheLewisCarroll
spokenChinese,
statesof
havethehandicapofhavingto workwithsuchdisparate
sacofsoundeffects
waseasierwithout
andtherendering
languages,
the
In Through
as muchfidelity
in theotherdimensions.
rificing
I wasablenotonlytomakepointforpoint
especially,
Looking-Glass"6
thesamemeterand
in theplayon wordsbutalso keeppractically
stanza
thefirst
in all theverses.Take,forinstance,
patterns
rhyming
inJabberwocky:
toves
andtheslithy
'Twasbrillig,
Did gyreandgimble
in thewabe.
Allmimsy
weretheborogoves
Andthemomerathsoutgrabe.
itis:
In Mandarin
16 Under the title of TzoouDaw Jinqtz
Lii (*JAJ -Tf), it will formVolume II
San Francisco,1968),
ofReadingsin SayableChinese(AsianLanguagePublications,
lines can be foundon p. 32, lines1-4 (first
wherea betterversionof thefollowing
stanza).
128
/~i~X4~AU01
7k
FIDELITY
129
IN TRANSLATION
f
VA
J) 1;1:
lines 2 and 3 in the English say the same thing,while line 2 in the
translationwhich, though it is in the mood of the poem, has been
added rathergratuitously.Perhaps thisovertranslationcould compensate a little for the sin of omission in failingto translatethe initial
lettersin each line of the poem to spell out the name ALICELIDDELL.
Finally,a dimensionoffidelityofpracticalimportwhichhas already
been touched upon brieflyis the situation of use of the originallanguage and thatof the translatinglanguage, and thisofteninvolvesthe
interchangeof language and non-language. In translatingplays from
English into Chinese, I have oftenmet with cases where dialogue has
to be translatedas stage directionand vice versa. There is a Chinese
characterI ! which in certain contextseveryreader will pronounce
as [fiai].Now this involves the use of the "voiced h," a non-existing
sound in thenormallist ofMandarinphonemesand is thereforeon the
borderlineof language and non-language. To put it in English, the
usual practiceis ofcourse simplyto writetheword sigh,whichis then
translatingquasi-language and not ordinary language. One would
then be givinga stage directionin place of givinga translationof the
dialogue. Sometimes, during the act of translatinglive speech, the
situationitselfchanges beforethe translationis finished.Then what
should the translatordo? If he finishesthe translation,he will be
translatinga truesentenceinto a false sentence. If not, what? Here is
what a resourcefulairlinepilot did in announcingan emergencylanding, presumablyon a transatlanticflight.He startswith French:
Attention,mesdameset messieurs.C'est votrecommandant.Attachez
d'urgence.
pour un atterrissage
vos ceinturesde securiteet preparez-vous
Achtung,meineDamen und Herren,hier sprichtihr Flugzeugfiihrer.
und bereitenSie sich aufeiner
Sie ihrenSicherheitsgiurtel
Bitte,befestigen
Notlandungvor.
is A-OK.17
forgetit. Everything
Ladies and gentlemen,
Now is this a translation?And if so, what is the cdegreeof fidelity?
In all the preceding discussions about dimensionsof fidelity,treating themas iftheywere measurable,independentvariables,it mustbe
17 From a
130