摘 要

林语堂是我国一位杰出的翻译家、思想家和文学家，也是为数不多的同时用英语和汉语两种语言写作的中国作家之一。他的作品《老子的智慧》作为中国文化典籍英译的范本，在国外广受好评，深得外国读者的欢迎。《老子的智慧》是一部讲述中国古代思想家老子的哲学思想的著作。老子是道家学派思想的代表，他的思想对中国传统经济和文化等方面都产生了深远的影响。在林语堂编写、翻译《老子的智慧》的过程中，中西传统文化和文化思想相互融汇、冲突。为了探讨《老子的智慧》作为一部中西文化交融的翻译作品成功的原因，本文将通过对原文和译文进行比较，希望能找出并分析林语堂《老子的智慧》中所体现的翻译中的文化协商与交融，这对中国传统文化典籍的翻译和传播具有重要的启示。

关键词：翻译；老子的智慧；文化协商；林语堂

Abstract

Lin Yutang, an outstanding Chinese translator and writer, is one of the few Chinese writers who wrote in two languages—both English and Chinese. As a model of English translation of Chinese cultural classics, his work "The Wisdom of Laotse"（《老子的智慧》）has received great praise abroad, and is very popular among foreign readers. "The Wisdom of Laotse" is a book about the philosophical thinking of the ancient Chinese thinker “Laotse”. Laotse is a representative of Taoist School, and his thoughts have exerted a profound influence on the economy and culture of traditional China. In the process of Lin's writing and translating, traditional Chinese culture and Western cultural thought conflicted with each other. In order to explore how The Wisdom of Laotse becomes successful as a translation work which negotiates Chinese and Western culture, this paper will figure out and analyze the cultural translation and negotiation embodied in Lin Yutang ’s The Wisdom of Laotse by comparing the original text and the translated version, which reveals its important enlightenment to the translation and dissemination of Chinese traditional cultural classics.

Key Words: Translation; Lin Yutang; The Wisdom of Laotse; Cultural negotiation

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Research Purpose 2

1.3 Research Significance 2

2 Lin Yutang's Three Translation Standards and Cultural Translation Negotiation 3

2.1 Lin Yutang’s Three Translation Standards 3

2.2 Cultural Translation Negotiation 4

3 Cultural Factors in the Original Texts and Difficulties in the Translation 8

3.1 Culture-loaded Words 8

3.2 Traditional Chinese Concepts 9

3.3 Chinese Cultural Allusions 10

4 Lin's Negotiative Translation Strategies and Methods to Solve Cultural Questions 12

4.1 Lin Yutang's Negotiative Strategies 12

4.1.1 The Comparison between Laotse and Chuangtse 13

4.1.2 The Comparison between Eastern and Western Thinkers 13

4.1.3 “No-action” in Translation 14

4.2 Lin yutang's Negotiative Methods 14

4.2.1 Adding Phonetic Notation 15

4.2.2 Adding Extra Explanation 15

5 Conclusion 19

References 21

Acknowledgements 23

The Cultural Translation Negotiation of Lin Yutang’s The Wisdom of Laotse

1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background

Lin Yutang (1895-1976), a great Chinese translator and writer, mainly created works including "The Art of Life"（《生活的艺术》）, "Moment in Peking"（《京华烟云》）and "The Wisdom of Laotse". Among them, "The Wisdom of Laotse" is a book written and translated in 1948 that illustrates the philosophical thinking of the ancient Chinese thinker Laotse. Lin reorganized Laotse's classic “Tao Te Ching”（《道德经》） and re-edited it as seven essays: “The Character of Tao”, “The Lessons of Tao”, “The Imitation of Tao”, “The Source of Power”, “The Conduct of life”, “The Theory of Government” and“Aphorisms”. Lin Yutang also pointed out, "Laotse is the first philosopher hidden outside people’s vision in the world." His philosophical thinking is part of traditional Chinese culture and the result of the wisdom of the Chinese nation.

In addition, The Wisdom of Laotse also is a good example of cultural translation negotiation. In the 1950s and 1960s, translation was regarded as a transfer between two languages, and in the 1970s the studies of translation officially changed from only text translation to including the related studies of culture, society, history, and politics outside the text. In fact, the process of translation is a process of negotiation between two cultures. For today ’s world, scholars believe that The Wisdom of Laotse can still play a positive role. Under the trend of globalization and world economic development, there are increasingly frequent cultural exchanges between China and the Western countries. The success of "The Wisdom of Laotse" is worthy of research and investigation by all translators who translate traditional Chinese culture into foreign languages.

1.2 Research Purpose

Nowadays, intercultural difference in translated negotiation has been greatly noticed with the development of international trade and the influence of economic globalization. The choices of translators in translating are crucial for making Chinese classic culture go out. In order to better spread Chinese culture and let traditional Chinese culture on the world stage be accepted by the Western world, translators must well deal with the relationship between different cultures and resolve problems in translated negotiation between Eastern and Western culture. "The Wisdom of Laotse" is a literary work quite popular in Western readers. As two classics of traditional Chinese culture, Tao Te Ching and The Book of Changes (《周易》) are venerated as a wisdom collection of ancient Chinese society. The Wisdom of Laotse" is such a book written and translated by Lin Yutang depend on Laotse’s Tao Te Ching. Translation is a communication and negotiation between two cultures. This paper attempts to find out the cultural difficulties Lin encountered in the translation process and Lin's thoughts and the methods he used when facing problems by exploring the original and translated works of Lin Yutang's "The Wisdom of Laotse".

1.3 Reasearch Significance

This paper discusses the embodiment of Lin’s translated negotiation thought in The Wisdom of Laotse starts with Lin Yutang’s translation theory. By analyzing difficulties caused by cultural differences in the translation of The Wisdom of Laotse,investigate when translate Chinese culture works into foreign languages what strategies and methods should we adopt if facing such problems. In the international stage, translation of traditional literary works is a main factor of Chinese culture "going abroad" project. As a philosophical work of traditional Chinese culture ture which is widely enjoyed by foreign readers, exploring the success of The Wisdom of Laotse is not only of great significance to the dissemination of traditional Chinese culture, but for the contemporary translators how to master the growing demand for translating Chinese literature, and keep balance between traditional Chinese culture and the reading needs of Western readers are also of great significance.

2 Lin Yutang's Three Translation Standards and Cultural Translation Negotiation

2.1 Lin Yutang’s Three Translation Standards

In Lin Yutang’s work "On Translation"（《论翻译》）, 1933, Lin put forward his three translation standards: faithfulness, fluency and beauty. Like all most translators, Lin Yutang regards faithfulness as the first criterion, believing that the translation must first convey the meaning of the original text, and proposes that the translation should be based on sentences rather than words.Lin divided the faithfulness into four categories: literal translation, stiff translation, free translation and abused translation. Stiff translation is the result of extreme literal translation, and abused translation is the result of extreme free translation. Free translation and literal translation should be integrated rather than absoluted. About this, Lin used to say: "The faithfulness that the translator can achieve is compared, but not absoluted.”（“译者所能谋达到之忠实，即比较忠实之谓，非绝对的忠实之谓。”）Lin also considered that the translator should be responsible to readers in terms of their translated work, which is the standard of fluency. In terms of fluency, Lin Yutang believes that there must be two things being achieved: the first is translation must be sentence-based, and the second is translation must be based entirely on the language psychology of the reader. Because under the different conditions of culture and environment, readers may hold different opinions about one same thing. In response to the cognitive differences between China and the West, translators need to translate according to the psychology of the target reader.And In terms of the standard of beauty, Lin Yutang said that beauty means being responsible for art. Translators should treat translation as an art, love it as love of art, and pay attention to the use of language in translation so as to show the beauty of words. However, Lin Yutang also believes that it is impossible for translators to translate all the beauty of the original text. Translation should not only play a role of expressing the meaning of the original text, but should also expresses spirit, so as to allow audiences of different translation versions to communicate with each other. During the translation of "The Wisdom of Laotse", Lin Yutang’s translation theories were also fully reflected. Lin pointed out that Laotse 's s diction is refined and concise. As the natural Founder, in Laotse’s works there is a consistent philosophy into the natural thinking style. So that Lin always avoided talking in a round-about way in the process of translation to preserve Laotse's style of language. As sentences in Chapter 3 of The Wisdom of Laotse:

Laotse:

不尚贤，使民不争。

Lin：

Exalt not the wise，so that the people shall not scheme and contend.

In this example, Lin upholds his standard of faithfulness, which is basically a literal translation, keeping the order and negative form of the original sentence, the expression is smooth, and the translation matches the original meaning using only 13 words.Laotse’s language is obscure and vague, even when it is interpreted in Chinese, leaving plenty of room for imagination, so that translators should not express it in a unduly clear way. If the translator translates according to his own understanding, the translation will deviate from the original text, violating the principle of translation: it is neither loyal to the original meaning; nor can it reflect the beauty of translation, and moreover may destroys the charm of the language. As Johhann Gottfried von Herder, the pioneer of German Sturm und Drang, said, “The task of the translator is explanation, to guide the reader to understand the composition of the language, nationality and history, so as to reveal the characteristics of the original work.” (On the Origin of Language,1986)

2.2 Cultural Translation Negotiation

The example above not only shows Lin Yutang’s translation standards, but also reflects Lin cultural negotiation idea in his translation thoughts. The study of translation theory has made great progress in recent decades, and great changes has also happened. In the 1950s and 1960s, translation was regarded as a transfer between two languages, and in the 1970s the studies of translation officially changed from only text translation to including the related studies of culture, society, history, and politics outside the text. Susan Bassnett（2001）, the international famous translation theorist, discussed the specific content of cultural translation theory in her work Translation, History and Culture. What she has came up with the first is translation should take culture as the unit of translation instead of just depend on the original text. The second, translation is not only a simple process of decoding and reorganization, but also an act of communication. Third, translation should focus on the functional equivalence in the target culture, not be limited to the description of the original text. Fourthly, the purpose of translation is to meet the needs of culture and the needs of different groups in a certain culture. Actually, the process of translation is a negotiation between two cultures. With the development of translation in nowadays, people have deepened their understanding of translation. Translation is not just the conversion of two languages, but there are meeting and conflict negotiation between two cultures. In the pluralistic society, intercultural translation negotiation is the premise of achieving shared values and cultures.The essence of translation is the cultural negotiation and finding a compromised scheme. The translation negotiation includes at least two parts from the perspective of translation research: the first is the original language text and the cultural background of the original language, and the second is the target language text and the cultural background of the target language. The translator conducts translation negotiations based on the functions of the translation in two different languages and cultural backgrounds, therefore, the target audience can fully understand the original text from the translated version, which includes not only the original meaning, but also the aesthetics, emotions and psychological activities of the original version,values and outlook on life and so on, in other words, to make the target reader learn about the atmosphere and background of the text comprehensively. Translation brings new cultural elements to the target language, and this translated culture is no longer the original foreign culture, but a culture that has been transformed by cultural negotiation during the translation process, with the cultural connotation of both the Chinese and Western languages. The foreign culture and the local culture collide, conflict, exchange, and negotiate in translation, forming a special new culture, becoming an integral part of it after being intergrated into the local cultural system.

3 Cultural Factors in the Original Texts and Difficulties in the Translation

3.1 Culture-loaded Words

When Lin translated The Wisdom of Laotse, the cultural factors in the original text brought great difficulties and challenges to the translation. For example, a few culture-loaded words like idioms and allusions are embodied in some of the texts. Culturally loaded words are words which mark the uniqueness in a certain culture, directly reflecting the gradual accumulation of a specific ethnic group in the long historical process, which is different from the unique activities of other ethnic groups. The translation of Chinese culture-loaded words from Chinese to English is a difficult point in translation. Laotse’s thoughts have a profound influence on the Chinese nation and can be said to be a precious spiritual heritage of Chinese culture. In philosophical thinking, these cultural factors are the difficulties that translators need to consider repeatedly. For example, in Chapter 21, page 130: