1、Antoine Berman Translation and the Trials of the Forign 翟配配nA brief introduction to Antoine BermannHis important worksnImportant terms:trial of the foreign,receiving the foreign as foreign,literal translationnBermans remarks before the negative analyticnThe negative analyticOutline Antoine BermanuAn
2、toine Berman(1942-1991)was a French theorist and translator of Latin American literature and German philosophy.u His ideas has been highly influencial and has inspired current theorists such as Lawrance Venuti.Important worksuLpreuve de ltranger:Culture et traduction dans lAllemagne romantique,1984T
3、ranslated into English asThe Experience of the Foreign:Culture and Translation in Romantic Germany,1992 异的考验:德国浪漫主义时期的文化与翻译uPour une critique des traductions:John Donne,1995 Translated into English as Toward a Translation Criticism:John Donne,2009翻译批评论:约翰邓恩Translation is the trial of the foreign.Thi
4、s is in a double sense.1.It establishes a relationship between the Self-Same(Propre)and the Foreign(l Etranger)by aiming to open up the foreign work to us in its utter foreignness.2.Translation is a trial for the Foreign as well,since the foreign work is uprooted from its own language-ground.And thi
5、s trial,often an exile,can also exhibit the most singular power of the translating act:to reveal the foreign works most original kernel,its most deeply buried,most self-same,but equally the most distant from itself.Receiving the Foreign as Foriegn 在贝尔曼的翻译思想中,翻译的目的不再是完成交流、传和介绍,而是完成一种伦理行为。The properly
6、 ethical aim of the translating act is receivingthe Foreign as Foriegn.在贝尔曼看来,伦理行为是指“认可和接纳作为他者显现的他者”。这是贝尔曼翻译伦理的核心内容,也是其“直译”翻译策略的基石。Literal translationnHere literal means attached to the letter.关注能指的作用nBy laboring on the letter,translation,on the one hand,restores the particular signifying process of
7、 works and,on the other hand,transforms the translating language.The analytic of translation/negative analytic 1.DefinitionThe examination of the system of textual deformation thatoperates in every translation and prevents it from being atrial of the foreign.2.Analytic in two senses ua detailed anal
8、ysis of the deforming systemuin the psychoanalytic sense:the system is largely unconscious,present as a series of tendencies of forces that cause translation to deviate from its essential aim.The goal of analysis is to discover these forces and to show where in the text they are practiced.Remarks be
9、fore the negative analytic1.the analysis proposed here is provisional,it needs to be further revised in order to be systematic.2.This negative analytic should be extended by a positive counterpart.Then these two analytics can produce a critique评论,评判 of translation.3.The psychological approach to lan
10、guage and linguistic systems can contribute to a translatology.4.The focus will be the deforming tendencies that in the domain of literary prose-the novel and the essay.Twelve deforming tendencies十二种变形倾向1.rationalization2.clarification3.expansion4.ennoblement and popularization5.qualitative impoveri
11、shment6.quantitative impoverishmentTwelve deforming tendencies7.the destruction of rhythms8.the destruction of underlying networks of signification9.the destruction of linguistic patternings10.the destruction of vernacular networks or their exoticization11.the destruction of expressions and idioms12
12、the effacement of the superimposition of languages1.Rationalization 合理化uRationalization recomposes sentences and the sequence of sentences,rearranging them according to a certain idea of discursive 散漫的,不着边际的order.uRationalization makes the original pass from concrete to abstract,not only by reorder
13、ing the sentence structure,but by translating verbs into substantives,by choosing the more general of two substantives.eg.英:You are talking delightful nonsense.汉:你虽信口胡诌,但也蛮有情趣。2.Clarification 明晰化 There are two kinds of explications:uExplicitation can be the manifestation of something that is not app
14、arent but concealed or repressed,in the original.This kind of explication is the supreme power of translation.uExplicitation aims to render clear what does not wish to be clear in the original.The movement from polysemy to monosemy,paraphrastic or explicative translation both are the modes of clarif
15、ication.eg.英:A series of these little surprises exhausts;and he was wearing pumps,a poor preparation for any country.汉:这样深一脚,浅一脚,磕磕碰碰,直走得你精疲力竭。何况阿济兹穿的是一双浅口软底鞋。穿这种鞋,在哪个国家走路都是不行的。3.Expansion 扩充nRationalizing and clarifying require expansion,an unfolding of what,in the original,is folded.nThe addition
16、adds nothing,that it augments扩大 only the gross mass of text,without augmenting its way of speaking or signifying.nExplication may render the text more clear,but they actually obscure its own mode of clarity.The expansion is a streching,a slackening,which impairs the rhythmic flow of the work.It is o
17、ften called overtranslation.nwell:deep and vertical nExpansion flatten,horizontalizing what is essentially deep and vertical.4.Ennoblement 高雅化uRhetorization consists in producing elegantsentences,while utilizing the source text,so tospeak,as raw material.Thus the ennoblement isonly a rewriting,a sty
18、listic exercise based on-and at the expense of the original.But good speaking in the original has nothing todo with the rhetorical elegance extolled by therewriting that ennobles.In fact,the lattersimultaneously annihilates both oral rhetoric andformless polylogic.Examplen英:I picture myself going up
19、 to bed,among the unused rooms,and sitting on my bed-side crying for a comfortable word from Peggotty.n汉:我现在看到这样一幅图景:我一个人孤孤单单地到楼上冷冷清清的屋子里去睡觉,我坐在床沿上,一边哭着一边想象坡勾提来安慰我。5.Qualitative impoverishment 性质受损uThis refers to the replacement of terms,expressions and figures in the original with terms,expressions
20、 and figures that lack their sonorous richness or,correspondingly,their signifying or iconic richness.u When this practice of replacement is applied to an entire work,to the whole of its iconic surface,it decisively effaces a good portion of its signifying process and mode of expression-what makes a
21、 work speak to us.eg.Murderstone 摩德斯通6.Quantitative impoverishment 数量缺失nThis refers to a lexical loss.(loss of lexical variation)nThis loss perfectly coexists with an increase of the gross quantity or mass of the text with expansion.nThe translating results in a text that is at once poorer and longe
22、r.Moreover,the expansion often works to mask the quantitative loss.eg.sadness,sorrow,grief:悲哀7.The destructions of rhythms 韵律的破坏The deforming translation can considerably affect the rhythm-for example,through an arbitrary revision of word order and punctuation.eg.英:Wilful waste makes woeful want.汉:平
23、日里挥金如土,到头来生活叫苦。8.The destruction of underlying networks of signification 对原文潜在指示网络的破坏nThe literary work contains a hidden dimension,an underlying text,where certain signifiers correspond and link up,forming all sorts of networks beneath the surface of the text itself.nIf such networks are not transm
24、itted,a signifying process in the text is destroyed.nThe misreading of these networks corresponds to the treatment given to groupings of major signifiers in a work,such as those that organize its mode of expression.Example天净沙天净沙秋思秋思 枯藤/老树/昏鸦,小桥/流水/人家,古道/西风/瘦马。夕阳/西下,断肠/人/在/天涯。Sky-clear Sand (Tien-chi
25、ng Sha)Autumn ThoughtsWithered vines,old trees,crows at dusk;A Small bridge,flowing water,a few houses;An ancient road,a lean horse in the west wind,The evening sun sinking in the west-A heart-broken traveler still at worlds end.9.The destruction of linguistic patternings 语言模式的破坏nRationalization,cla
26、rification,expansion,etc.destroy the systematic nature of the text by introducing elements that are excluded by its essential system.nWhen the translated text is more homogeneous than the original,it is equally more incoherent and,in a certain way,more heterogeneous,more inconsistent不一致的.ExamplenThe
27、 pale winter sunshine had strengthened a little as the morning wore on and there was a hint of warmth in it and an extra patina of bright gold lay on every twig and fallen beech leaf.n日头徐升,冬天淡淡的阳光热力渐强,现在倒有了些暖意。每条嫩枝,每片山毛榉落叶都涂上薄薄一层金黄的光泽。10.The destruction of vernacular networks exoticization 方言网络和异国情调
28、的破坏The importance of vernacular networks:the polylogic aim of prose inevitably includes a plurality of vernacular elements.the tendency toward concreteness in prose necessarily includes these elements,because the vernacular language is by its very nature more physical,more iconic than cultivated lan
29、guage.prose often aims explicitly to recapture the orality of vernacular.10.The destruction of vernacular networks exoticization 方言网络和异国情调的破坏nThe traditional method of preserving vernaculars is to exoticize them.ntwo forms:1.a typographical procedure(italics)is used to isolate what does not exist in
30、 the original.2.Exoticization may join up with popularization by striving to render a foreign vernacular with a local one.Unfortunately,a vernacular clings tightly to its soil and completely resists any direct translating into another vernacular.Example英:Then what might your meaning be in calling me
31、 Sir John these different times,when I be plain Jack Durbeyfield the haggler?汉:俺分明是平平常常的杰克德北,一个乡下小贩子,你可三番两次,老叫俺“约翰爵士”,到底是什么意思?11.The destruction of expressions and idioms 对固定表达方式和成语的破坏nIt is evident that even if the meaning is identical,replacing an idiom by its equivalent is an ethnocentrism.nTo pl
32、ay with equivalence is to attack the discourse of the foreign work.eg.英:Thats a stale old yarn.汉:这早已是陈谷子烂芝麻了。12.The effacement of the superimposition of languages 多种语言重叠的消除nThe superimposition of languages in a novel involves the relation between dialect and a common language,a koine,or the coexiste
33、nce,in the heart of a text,of two or more koine(共同语).nThe relation of tension and integration that exists in the original between the vernacular language and the koine,between the underlying language and the surface language,etc.tends to be effaced in translation.Examplen英:Masr Davy,said he.And the
34、old name in the old tone fell so naturally on my ear!Masr Davy,tis a joyful hour as I see you,once more,long with your trew wife!n汉:“卫少爷,”他说道,用旧声调发出的那个旧称呼那么自然地进入我的耳朵!“卫少爷,我又看到你,见到你跟你这位贤惠的太太一块儿,真是我的喜庆日子!”Evaluation of Bermans negative analyticn The analytic of translation can be used to discover thes
35、e deforming tendencies and show where in the text they have emerged.It can also help the translator to maintain the forignness of the source text consciously.nHowever,the deforming tendencies can not be avoided because languages and cultures are so different,so Bermans negative analytic is too strict.