从文化翻译观看《风声》中文化负载词的英译

A Study on the English Translation of Culture-loaded Words in The Message from the Perspective of Cultural Translation Theory

Since its publication in 2007, Mai Jia’s novel The Message has received favorable comments from the literary and critical communities, winning awards such as the 2007 “Moutai Cup” People’s Literature Award for novel and the 12th Literature Award of the Ba Jin Literature Institute. The English translation of The Message has also garnered extensive media publicity in the West and has been favored by Western readers. The publication of the English translation of The Message will be an opportunity for Chinese novels to go global, which is largely attributed to the high-quality translation by the translators. The book contains a large number of culture-loaded words, and the translators’ skillful handling of these terms significantly impacts the quality of the translation. From the perspective of the cultural translation theory, this paper analyzes the translation of culture-loaded words in the English translations of The Message by Olivia Milburn and Christopher Payne. Through research, on the basis of considering the acceptability of readers, the adoption of translation methods such as cultural transplantation, cultural compensation and cultural substitution can effectively disseminate Chinese culture and meet the expectations for cultural exchanges in the cultural translation theory.

麦家小说《风声》自从2007 年成书出版之后，获得了文学界和评论界的好评，斩获了2007 年度“茅台杯”人民文学奖长篇小说奖、巴金文学院第12 届文学奖等奖项。而其英译本也吸引了西方广大媒体的宣传报道与评论，受到了西方读者的喜爱。《风声》英译本的出版将是中国小说走向世界的一个契机，其中离不开译者高质量的翻译。书中蕴含着大量中国文化负载词，译者对文化负载词的巧妙处理很大程度上影响着译文质量。本文从文化翻译观的角度出发，分析《风声》米欧敏与克里斯托夫·佩恩英译本中文化负载词的翻译。研究结果发现，在考虑读者接受度的基础上，采用文化移植、文化补偿、文化代替等翻译方法可以有效传播中国文化，达到文化翻译观中对文化交流的期待。