Research on Common Problems in the Process of Chinese Translation of Western Museological History Works (3)

Fourth, the translation problems and countermeasures that cause reading difficulties to the readers of the target language

Translators have a certain degree of initiative, in the process of engaging in the Chinese translation of museological works, translators must consider the target language readers, in order to let them understand some of the difficulties in the original text, translators can add corresponding explanatory information through two ways: in-text explanations and out-of-text explanations.

(1) Explanations in the text

It refers to adding some explanatory information to the body of the text, such as in parentheses or dashes. For example, a colloquial translation of the original text: With cloak and dagger flourishes, she made her way to..., as far as the translation of "cloak and dagger" is translated literally as "cloak and dagger", this proverb does not have any other meaning in Chinese, while English means "secret espionage", so it is necessary to add an explanation in parentheses for the reader to understand, and the final translation is " During the period when cloaks and knives (metaphorically for secret espionage) prevailed". If you translate according to the meaning and delete these two images, it will erase the foreign cultural information, so that the reader cannot appreciate the expression of the original language, which will also weaken the transmission of the original style to a certain extent.

(2) Explanations outside the text

It refers to adding some explanatory information outside the body of the text, mainly in the form of footnotes or endnotes. There are 14 translations of "Museum Change", 37 translations of "American Museum", and 40 translations of "Museum Masters", mainly involving some names, place names or old names of countries, organizational structures, genres, and conversion of measurement units. For example, "some critics have pointed out that in the relationship between Barr and the governors, Barr is a Svengali or Talilang, but in fact Barr usually does not look at the color and is not smooth", I looked up "Svengali" and "Talilang" and learned that they represented "obedience to obedience" and "sleekness", respectively, and then attached the details to the footnote. Another example is the "Ashcan School", which is translated as the "Garbage Box School" in the main text, in order to facilitate the reader's understanding of the connotation of the Garbage Box School, add a translation note "The Trash School is the anti-academic school of painting in the United States in the early 20th century, also known as the Eight School, which originated in Philadelphia, usa around 1908, and they used realism to depict urban life." The translation notes added by the author are all in the form of footnotes, and the advantage of footnotes is that on the one hand, they do not interfere with the fluency of the reader's reading of the main text, and on the other hand, if the reader really needs to read the annotations, they can be seen directly at the bottom of the page, without turning the page, which is more convenient than the endnote.

Fifth, some other problems and countermeasures in the translation process

(i) Translation of politically sensitive words

When translating foreign works into Chinese, translators should uphold their own political and cultural positions, pay attention to the translation of some politically sensitive words, be cautious and cautious, avoid making political mistakes in translation, and implement translator intervention or correction of concepts or expressions that do not conform to our political and cultural positions. For example: By similar arraignments with the Treasure,Foreign,Indian and Colonial Offices there were subsequently sent Oldham and Wilfred to Japan,Formosa,and Corea,... (130) This original text involves a politically sensitive word "Formosa", according to the 21st Century British-Chinese Dictionary, the first draft is translated as "Formosa", and then searched for "Formosa" on Baidu, Baidu Encyclopedia showed as "the name of Taiwan Island by early Westerners", and then opened the entry, directly "Taiwan (provincial administrative region of the People's Republic of China)", so the final draft was "Taiwan", thus avoiding the use of colonial translations. This shows that the translator "lived under a specific regional ideology at a specific time." ... Authors have borders, translators have borders. ”

(2) Translations of punctuation marks commonly used in some museum circles

The title of the exhibition, the name of the sculpture and the name of the painting are all italicized in English, with capital letters. However, when translated into Chinese, it is necessary to follow the Chinese punctuation usage, not italics, the exhibition title uses double quotation marks in Chinese (e.g. treasures of Tutankhamen held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1974, translated as "Treasures of Tutankhamun"), and the title of the sculpture is used in Chinese (e.g. Apollo Belvedere and Laocoon, the names of these two sculptures are translated as "Apollo of Belvedere" and "Laokorn"). The names of the paintings are also used in Chinese (e.g. Duccio di Boniseña's famous painting Madonna and Child, translated as The Virgin Mary and the Holy Child).

VI. Conclusion and Recommendations

With the continuous development of The Chinese museum community and the continuous advancement of the discipline construction of museology, it is expected that more Western museology history works will be translated into China in the future, so the author puts forward the following suggestions: (1) The translation should be attached to the "Translator's Preface" (or "Afterword"), so that from the translator's point of view, a brief overview and comment on the content of the whole book can be made to guide the reader to understand the outline of the book. (2) Translations should be accompanied by a comparative table of important term translations, and terms with relevant authoritative definitions may be appended to the Chinese translation terms after translation. The author's personal ability is limited, it is impossible to be competent to compile a dictionary of terminology in the discipline of museology, which requires the cooperation of a team of authoritative experts in the museological community to achieve, then in the current situation, the translator can actively seek the consent of the editor and the editor-in-chief, and give the translation a reference table for the translation of terms, laying the foundation for the compilation of the dictionary of terms. (3) Translations should be accompanied by a comparative table of important personal names, so that on the one hand, it is convenient for readers to know the corresponding original English names, and on the other hand, it is convenient for the future compilation of relevant dictionaries of important names in museology. (4) Before translating western works on the history of museology, future translators should refer to published relevant translations, such as the American Association of Museums Museum Management Series 7 Volumes, Museum Changes, American Museums, Museum Masters, etc., and maintain the unity of terms, important concepts, personal names, place names, and organizational names as much as possible.

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This article is from the third issue of China Museum in 2021

Author | Chen Shuangshuang

Editor| Yang Yichen

Works published in this public account (including the title and the layout design, text graphics, etc.) added by the editor shall not be reproduced, excerpted, adapted or otherwise used without the authorization of China Cultural Relics Newspaper, and if authorized to reprint, please indicate the source and author.