论文总字数：33325字

摘 要

本文的研究对象是人民文学出版社发行,“哈利·波特”系列书籍简体中文版中文化专有项的翻译方法。本文首先简要介绍了文化专有项的含义，然后分析译者在翻译“哈利·波特”丛书中文化专有项的过程中所使用的翻译策略。本文旨在归纳出有助于将文化专有项翻译得“信、达、雅”的翻译方法。

关键词： 哈利波特；文化专有项；翻译方法

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements i

Abstract ii

摘要 iii

Table of Contents iv

Chapter One Introduction 1

Chapter Two Culture-specific items and translation 2

2.1 Culture-specific items 2

2.2 Translation strategies 3

Chapter Three Analyses of translation examples of culture-specific items in Harry Potter books 5

3.1 Incantation and magic spells 5

3.2 Names of animals and plants 8

3.3 Magic potions 11

3.4 Magic props 12

3.5 Titles and appellations 13

Chapter Four Conclusion 15

References 16

Chapter One Introduction

Since 1970s, the research of translation has begun to focus on culture. The aim of translation is not only translating words or sentences from different languages, but also becoming a way to spread culture and to communicate across different cultural background. With the development of intercultural communication, how to spread the information from culture to culture is becoming more and more important. Especially the translation of culture-specific item is a difficult point in the communication between different cultures.

So far, the research of the translation of the culture-specific item mainly focuses on the translation methods and strategies. In these researches, both of the language of the origin texts and the language of the translated version are in the Indo-European language family. Only a few of the researches focus on Chinese and English. And half of these researches exams how to translate the Chinese culture-specific item into English. And the other half of the researches which based on foreign languages focus on the translation of the culture-specific item in the subtitle of movies and TV series.

Based on the Harry Potter series and its Chinese Simplified version published by People’s Literature Press, this paper discusses the translation of the culture-specific item in five different categories. First, it introduces the translation strategies of culture-specific item. And then, it moves on to analyze the text based on the translation strategies given by the Spanish translator Javier Franco Aixela.

Chapter Two Culture-specific items and translation

2.1 Culture-specific items

The definition of culture-specific item given by Javier Franco Aixela, a Spanish translator, is “the textually actualized items whose function and connotations in a source text involving a translation problem in their transference to a target text, whenever this problem is a product of the nonexistence of the referred item or of its different intertextual status in the cultural system of the readers of the target text”（Franco Aixela 1996: 58）

Culture-specific items include special noun, idioms, proverbs, allusions and so on. It is the word has special meaning and concept in the same cultural background and don’t exist in any other culture. It reveals the unique of its nation or country.

In translation, culture is an inseparable aspect. Social and cultural backgrounds decide the deeper meaning. In the source language, the culture is often accepted by the reader unconsciously. However, because of “literal translation”, it often causes culture shock in the target language that the generic or local-color expression used in the original language and in the considerate of the cultural factor. Due to the different habits of different culture, religious beliefs, values, education, social organization, legal and political factors, the language of different country and communities corresponding in the content are not the same. Therefore, the same words will rise to different linguistic and cultural awareness in communicating with the people from different countries in different cultures.

Therefore, during the translation process, translators need to take into account the constraints of the target language towards the cultural contexts, so that they can translate more appropriately and correctly. More importantly, the accurate cognition of the linguistic context depends on translators’ cognitive ability of the cultural context and our adaptability of cognition, emotion, behavior and other aspects of the people in different cultural background and knowledge of different cultures.

2.2 Translation strategies

In China, there are two systems of translating strategy. One is brought up by Qiu Maoru in 1997. He thinks there are seven ways for translator to balance the relationship between the meaning expressed by the oriental text and the translated text. The seven methods are:

1. Retaining the cultural flavor of the original message;

2. Transference;

3. Transliteration;

4. Transliteration and adding the word which can express the category it belongs to;

5. Replacing the original express to the one with cultural flavor in the target culture;

6. Explaining

7. Translating the meaning that the oriental text implies.

The other is the concept ‘cultural default’ raised by Wang Dongfeng. He concludes five strategies of translating cultural expressing:

1. Translating directly and retaining the traits of oriental text;

2. Combining the liberal translation and the transliteration;

3. Domestication;

4. Deletion;

5. Mechanical translating.

The most well-known one is the Spanish translator Aixela’s eleven translation strategies:

1. Repetition;

2. Orthographic adaptation;

3. Linguistic translation;

4. Extratextual gloss;

5. Intratextual gloss;

6. Synonymy;

7. Limited universalization;

8. Absolute universalization;

9. Naturalization;

10. Deletion;

11. Autonomous creation.

The two Chinese systems contain less strategy than Aixela’s, and describe the strategies in a different way. But actually more of them mean the same method of translating. And some of the 11 translation strategies given by Aixela are more adapted to the translating between two languages in the same family of languages, for instance, Spanish and English both belonging to the Indo-European languages. This article will not refer to the strategy from only one translation strategy system, but will base on all the three systems as the basic theory to discuss the method used in translating the culture-specific items in Harry Potter series.

Chapter Three Analyses of translation examples of culture-specific items in Harry Potter books

3.1 Incantation and magic spells

Incantation and magic spells are in a large proportion of the culture-specific items in Harry Potter novels. There are more than 100 kinds of spells in the seven books. The Chinese translation adapts several different strategies to translate appropriately and to help the readers understand the story and the circumstances when it includes using different spells. As for the incantation and magic spells are created by the author, J. K. Rowling, they not only have no corresponding word in Chinese, but also be new to English vocabulary. But, these spells have the origin of Latin, and some of their have the same form with English words. So the most strategy of the translations used is the repetition. They use the liberal meaning of the spell. And several are used the intratextual gloss, using the mix of the pronunciation and the function to translate a word. These two strategies are the most used in translating this kind of culture-specific items.

3.1.1 Repetition

“Riddikulus (滑稽滑稽)” is a spell that refers in the third novel Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. “Riddikulus” means ridiculous. It is used to defense “Boggart”, a magic creature which can transform to the most fear thing in the mind of the person when he or she faced it. The translation directly uses the Chinese meaning of the word “ridiculous”. In the Chinese translating version, most of the spells are translated into combinations of four words. It conforms to the reading and speaking rules and habit of Chinese. For that, the translator adapts the repetition strategy, translating it into “滑稽”. The repeat of one Chinese word makes the spell more understandable and easier to read.

“Crucio(钻心剜骨)” is one of the three “Unforgivable Curses”. It can torture people by making people feel intolerant painful, being overwhelmed with soreness and even die for it. “Crucio” means crucify, to execute somebody by crucifixion or to torment somebody in a cruel way. The Chinese translation is a repeating of two words. “钻心” and “剜骨” has the same meaning. They both represent the intolerant pain.

“Accio(飞来咒)” is an easy and wildly used spell in the books. It always used to make objects fly straight to the spell caster and when it is used, it should add the name of the things that want to get. For instance, in the forth book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, during the Triwizard Tournament, Harry Potter uses “Accio Firebolt” to get his broomstick. “Accio” is Latin for “to summon”. The Chinese translation “飞来” directly uses the meaning of the word as translation.

The repetition strategy is the directly literal translation. It is wildly used in the translating of the Incantation and magic spells. It is useful and effective to reveal the meaning of the spells. A little modifying can make the Chinese translation catchy in tune and easy to read and understand. It seems to be the mostly used strategy in translating spells. For more instances, “Finite Incantatem(咒立停)” is a spell use to stop other spells. It is combined by “finite” and “incantation”. Finite is Latin for finites, means having a limit or an end to something. It is translated into “咒立停”. After modifying of the sequence, it is more like a Chinese spell, which makes Chinese readers more easily to accept.

3.1.2 Intratextual gloss

“Alohomora(阿拉霍洞开)” is a spell used in the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. It is a spell used to open any lock. Its function is the same as a master key. There is no origination in Latin or English. There is only a similar word, “aloha”, in Hawaiian used when people meet and farewell. It is no reference for translating this kind of word, so the translators use the pronunciation of this word “阿拉霍”，and combines the function of this spell “洞开”, which means open entirely, as the Chinese translation of this spell. This uses the combination of the transliteration and the liberal translation of the word, explaining the meaning of a totally new item inner a five words Chinese phrase.

“Avada Kedavra(阿瓦达索命)” uses the same translating method as “Alohomora”. This spell is one of the three Unforgivable Curses, and it is the most evil incantation among all the magic spells. It can kill people immediately and can’t be reversed or defended. Maybe the spell origins from an ancient spell “abracadabra” from some minority religions. The Chinese translation also uses the pronunciation as a part, “阿瓦达”, the pronunciation of the first part of this spell Avada expressing by Chinese letters. “索命” means kill someone or the coming of one death. It reveals the function of this spell.

The intratextual gloss strategy is used in part of the spell and incantation which cannot be directly translating in literal. They are not like the spells that origin from Latin or have similar form in English. They have no reference in existing languages. So there is no corresponding Chinese word or meaning for these culture-specific items. Then it is effective and full of creative that combining the transliteration and the liberal translation to expressing the meaning of a new spell. For some spell which contains some meaning or information literally, the translators usually tend to adapt the literal and free translation, including repetition (totally literal and free translation) and intratextual gloss (partially transliteration combining with the liberal translation). Sometimes, the context has special requirements, such as the translation of “Wingardium Leviosa(羽加迪姆勒维奥萨)” in the first novel. It uses total liberal translation in order to make the context fluency and the expression correct.

The translators of the Harry Potter series fully take the context and the reader’s acceptance into account. They extensively use three or four-character phrases in order to deepen the reader’s impression and corresponding the language rules of Chinese. Their translation of incantation and magic spells meets the acceptability requirements of the reader from a different cultural background and especially for the Chinese children, for the considerate that children have a quiet different reading habits and perspective than adults.

3.2 Names of animals and plants

In the Harry Potter series, there is a splendid and amazing magic world. It consists of numerous magic creatures. These creatures are not existing but created from the author’s imagination. Also, some of the creatures have the original form from the European myths, legends and fairy tales. For instance, the “veela” is a female elf that can transform in human and animals from ancient Eastern European folktales. So the translation can directly adapt the former translation “媚娃”. However, the rest which don’t have origins and created from nowhere can only be translated from the information given by the author such as the description of the creature or the function of plants.

3.2.1 Synonymy

“Thestral(夜骐)” is a created creature having big, bony figures and dragon-like faces bearing white, glittering eyes lack expression. They are lured by the scent of blood and only be visible to people who have witnessed death. This creature has the property of death and darkness. According to which, “夜” in Chinese representing the night is a synonymy to the dark character of “Thestral”. And “Thestral” can be used as transportation, such as the horse in Chinese history. “骐” is the name of a kind of black horse. As the description of “Thestral” is like a black horse, “骐” is the best symbol in Chinese character to describing the look of “Thestral”.

“Dementor(摄魂怪)” is a human-shaped evil and dark creature covered with scabby skin, approximately three meters, and is covered in dark hooded cloaks of long ripped black cloth. Its breath sounds rattling. Its hands are “glistening, grayish, slimy-looking, and scabbed”. “Dementors” are eating human happiness for living, so that they can cause depression and despair to anyone near them easily. They can also take away a person’s soul, making their victims an ‘empty-shell’. The word, “dement”, means making somebody crazy or lose their mind. After a “Dementor” giving its victim a kiss and consuming the soul, the victim is in a situation like the patient has the disease Dementia. However, there is no exact Chinese expression for this creature. Therefore, the translators use the phrase “摄魂” to expressing what a “Dementor” can do. And the concept of “摄魂” is long existing in Chinese culture. The replacing of the same meaning makes the context more easily for readers to accept.

During translating culture-specific items, some words’ explanations can be found in the dictionary very clearly. But their translations are with obvious features of the oriented language. Their structure of word is according to the method of western countries’ language. This kind of translation for Chinese is like Chinglish for English speakers. They are not coincidence with Chinese grammar and the speech habits of the Chinese people. In this case, replacing with the synonyms or near-synonyms that Chinese readers are familiar with would make the translation more authentic and idiomatic. However, using synonyms is to improve the idiomatic of the translation, and to make the readers easier in acceptance, more in line with the target of reader’s reading habit. It is different from Aixela’s purpose, in order to avoid duplication and repetition.

3.2.2 Linguistic translations

“The whomping willow(打人柳)” is a very violent willow tree that will hit anything comes within the range of its branches. In the second novel Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, “the whomping willow” has destroyed Mr. Weasley’s car and Ron’s wand when Harry and Ron drive towards the tree and eventually hit on the tree. The word “whomp” means making noises by beating something overwhelmingly. “The whomping willow” actually is a willow that will attack things near it, so the translating “打人柳” emphasizes and describes the tree in a direct and clear way. In other words, the translation contains the indicated meaning of the tree in the original text. Just like another culture-specific items, a magic animal called “blast-ended skrewt(炸尾螺)”, it also adapts the linguistic translation by use the translation of the indicated meaning of this creature.

“Hippogriff(鹰头马身有翼兽)” is a kind of magic creature that has the head and the front legs of a giant eagle, the body, hind legs and tail of a horse, and has swings on the either of both two sides of its bodies. The magic creature “Hippogriff” has an origin of the monster with the body of a horse and the head, wings, and claws of a griffin in Greek mythology. The Chinese translation “鹰头马身有翼兽” uses the description of the three major different and weird places in the appearance of this creature to name it. It helps the Chinese readers, who may not be very well clear of the Greek myths, to understand and image what kind of creature it is in their mind, which is beneficial in the fluency and coherency of the context.

The method “linguistic translation” is to keep the indicating meaning of the original text as much as possible in translating. Most of the animals and plants in the Harry Potter series are magic creature created by the author J. K. Rowling or origin from mythology and legend. The translating names of these creatures play an important role in influencing the imagination of the readers from other languages. It is more than hard to complete the process of describing and establishing an image of a creature in reader’s brain only through a few characters in the translation, under the circumstances that the reader maybe has no knowledge and concept about this creature until they read the novel. The translation of a creature’s name can make it more clearly to show the image of magical creatures, including their physical characteristics, appearance and magical abilities in the readers mind by using the linguistic translation.

The fantastic magic world in Harry Potter series amazes the reader across the world. Meanwhile it can hardly say that it is easy to translate this series. As for the translators the translating of these culture-specific items can be really tricky, especially the work of translating the names of the magical creatures which can be found everywhere in the novel. If the Chinese translation of magical creatures is inappropriate, then it is as equal as spoiling the author’s efforts, or may make the reader of the Chinese version think that the original work is not wonderful and colorful as well. So, in fact, the success of the Harry Potter series can also, more or less, attribute to the successful of the translation in stimulating and satisfying the reader’s imagination.

3.3 Magic potions

Magic potion is another measure for wizards and witches besides spells to solve their problems. Potions are magical mixtures used to create a number of effects on the drinker. The names of different potions are mostly given according their effect and function. As it is in a magic world, therefore there are many novels and even odd usage of the potions that are more creative in the real world. So that these potions become a unique part of the magic world culture which makes their names a new category in the culture-specific items. As for these names are given according the effects, so it is also taking the functions of these potions into considerate when translating and make it in a good proportion, in order to make the translation more clearly and avoid breaking the coherent of the context. Therefore the method adapted in translating is mainly the universalization (including the limited universalization and the absolute universalization.)

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