中英饮食文化不同对菜名翻译的影响 第2页
In addition to the principles and approaches, we should not neglect proper translating methods. "The English translation of Chinese dish names greatly depends on the motivation of naming them and it requires the translator to handle the relations between the headword and the premodifiers or postmodifers. Meanwhile, some rules for translation, namely the principle of pragmatism, the principle of conciseness and transliteration must be followed" (Liu, 2003:52)
China is one of the birthplaces of world civilization with several thousand years' history and has a high reputation for "Kingdom of Cuisine" for Chinese food culture. Food varies from place to place, and from nation to nation. Therefore, there is a regional difference in cuisine naming. Li Yuqing states that the cultural tradition of Chinese dish name is of highly sophisticated. These names are melodious, symbolizing auspicious and fortune. They involve the initiator's name; the animal's name; the plant's name; the place' name; the verse's name and the special meaning's name. (Li, 2001:95)
As to the following dish names, we may use the literal translation. Literal translation claims that we should keep the cultural characteristics of the original words as much as we can. In this sense, the original words broaden the reader's mind.
Zhang Enlai's collection titled Chinese Dish being Classical Tone-Chinese English bilingual text lists the following:
(1)红烧鱼(Hong Shao Yu) --- Braised Fish with Brown Sauce
(2)回锅肉(Hui Guo Rou)---Twice-cooked Pork/Double Cooked Pork
(3)炒肉丝(Chao Rou Si)---Sautéed /Stir-fried Pork Slices
(4)炖牛肉(Dun Niu Rou)---Stewed Beef(Zhang,2005: 18)
When the dish name involves the place name, it can be translated following the rule of "ingredients + place name+ style" or "place name + style + ingredients"
(1) 湖南肉(Hu Nan Rou)---Pork Hunan style
(2)广东龙虾(Guang Dong Long Xia)---Lobster Cantonese style
(3)家常豆腐(Jia Chang Dou Fu)---Toufu Home style
(4)中式泡菜(Zhong Shi Pao Cai) ---Chinese--style Pickles
Another dish that I want to point out individually is "桂林炸虾丸"(Gui Lin Zha Xia Wan)(see the appendix)--- Deep-fried shrimp balls with chili sauce. The simple translation from the Chinese title says something different: "Deep-fried shrimp balls from Guilin". This one is more about romantic scenery than about fortune. Guilin has two meanings here: first, Guilin is a city in the southwestern part of China famed for its chili sauce. It is generally said that they make the best chili sauce in China. Second, Guilin is famous for its scenic beauty. It is often said that Guilin has the most attractive scenery and the best natural features in China. It draws the imagination of a honeymoon in a romantic place. Despite the dish is engaging a lot with Guilin, the shrimp is not from Guilin. It's merely the chili sauce that is come from there.
Free translation is used to express the meaning of the original context, so it doesn't lay much emphasis on the form of a word and its surface meaning. It is always the case that cultural differences can be properly solved under the principle of pragmatic equivalence, when the equivalent culture-loaded words are not available in cross-cultural communication. Here are some examples of free translation:
(1) 百年好合(Bai Nian Hao He) --- Sweetened red bean cream with lotus seeds and dried lily. The unswerving translation from the Chinese title says "A happy marriage that lasts 100 years". The name is inspired by the dried lily, which denotes harmony in Chinese. (See the appendix)
(2) 全家福(Quan Jia Fu)---it is a combination of shrimps, pork, beef, chicken, lobster and mixed vegetables with brown sauce. The direct translation from Chinese title says "happy family" (Liu, 2006:60)
(3) 八宝鸡(Ba Bao Ji)---rice stuffed chicken
(4) 金玉满堂(Jin Yu Man Tang)---Shrimp and Egg Soup
(5) 老少平安(Lao Shao Ping'an) ----Steamed Bean Curd and Minced Fish
(6) 发财好市(Fa Cai Hao Shi)---it is a kind of Guangdong cuisine and it is black moss cooked with oysters. The direct translation form Chinese title says "Making a fortune with prosperous business"
(7) 玉带展花枝(Yu Dai Zhan Hua Zhi) ----Sautéed fresh scallop and sliced squids with vegetables. The straightforward translation from the Chinese title utters: "A belt of jade sporting flower stalks." In a Chinese dining table, flower stalk is the euphemistic name for sliced squid. The reason is totally beyond me. The vegetables are the green peas. The belt of jade reflects a combination of two ingredients: the green peas, with the same color of jade, and the fresh scallop, with the same pronunciation as belt in Chinese. (See the appendix)
To serve as an interpreter, one should translate orally on the basis of quickness. While translating in the restaurant, interpreter may add the explanation about the allusion. Take the following dishes for example. Translation may be accompanied by these explanations.
"佛跳墙"Fo Tiao Qiang (Buddha Jumping over the Wall)---- it is the Chief traditional dish in Ju Chun Yuan Restaurant in Fuzhou City. It is stewed with more than twenty materials including shark's fin, sea cucumber, scallop, abalone, fish maw, etc. The cooking procedure is very strict. The ingredients are well selected and the shape cutting is quite an art. It tastes mellow and tender. You can still savor its wonderful tasted when your tongue touches your lips or teeth for a long time afterwards". (Zhu, 2002:72)
Ren Jingsheng put her explanation as follow:
"叫花鸡"(Jiao Hua Ji)(Beggar's Chicken)---There is a legendary story connected to it. Long ago there was a beggar. One day he stole a chicken and was pursued by the owner. He was almost caught when he suddenly hit upon a good idea. He smeared the chicken all over with clay, which he found nearby and threw it into the fire he had built to cook it. After a long while the beggar removed the mud-coated from the fire. When he cracked open the clay he found, to his astonishment, that the clay together with the feather had formed a hard shell in which the chicken had been baked into a delicious dish with wonderful flavor. That night he had a very enjoyable meal. Hence there is the name of the dish. (Ren, 2001:57)
The differences between the West and China in history, social customs, religious practices, ideology, etc, bring forth many issues that need to be noticed in the process of translation. One of them is "cultural vacancy", that is, some words and expressions conveying the cultural features of Chinese have no equivalents in English language. Under the condition of cultural vacancy, we have to translate by transliteration.
Transliteration can transfer specific cultural elements into the target language. The Chinese dish has national culture. It is very difficult to find a reciprocal word while translating, which requires translators use transliteration at this moment. In the practice of translation, the transliteration of Chinese dish names have enjoyed great success. Such as "饺子"--jiaozi; "麻婆豆腐"--mapo tofu ; "炒面"--chow mein.
3.4 Summing-Up
From above, we know that when we use those cuisine names on the basis either primary motivations or secondary motivations among the Chinese people, just as Zhong Anni stated "it is an intralingua and intercultural issue" (Zhong, 2006:79). The straightforwardness of the primary motivations and the associative ness of the secondary motivations will not cause misunderstanding or misinterpretation. Yet when we translate the cuisine names into English there is a cross-language and cross- cultural problem. Generally speaking, the literal translation of these cuisine names based on primary motivations may not give rise to much misunderstanding or misinterpretation. But as for the translation of the cuisine names on the basis of secondary motivation, we should be very careful and cautious. It is suggested that we should follow the principles of stability and consistency in cuisine naming and its translation.
Therefore, one of the challenges for translators and interpreters is to learn to appreciate culture differences and also to keep up with the constant change that is happening all around us.
4. Combination of cultural difference with cuisine translation
4.1 Integration of cultural differences and translation
Culture and translation have a close relationship. Translation is to deal with two languages,to which cultures attached, so cultural differences bring enormous difficulties to translation. There is still a way for us to solve the problem if we know the laws and nature of the language.
Cultural differences bring about the difficulties of translation. Rendering a source language into a target language is to find out the equivalents between them. But people from different language background live in both a different world and absolutely a different society,so their mode of thinking,the knowledge of the world,the ways of distinguishing the cosmos are by far different. And a language is a reflection of the culture and a mirror of the society. It is culturalized deeply.
The purpose and characteristics of translation are to promote understanding among different countries and nations. Eugene Nida, a famous American translation theorist,defined translation as: Translation consists in reproducing the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. (Nida and Taber, 2001:12) However, to reproduce "the closest natural equivalent" in the target language is more or less influenced by the cultural differences.
4.2 Improving the quality of dish names' translation
Translations frequently produce misunderstanding or incomprehension because of differences in cultural orientation. Chinese dishes' names are multifarious with deep intension. Only on the basis of understanding Chinese and Western food cultural difference can the interpreter translate the Chinese dish name accurately and to make the westerners understand.
As China is with quite a rich food culture, the raw materials of some dish will not make the Chinese customer disgust. Take various wild animals such as the snake, frog for example. Because of cultural difference, westerns will be filled with disgust when they know that one dish is made of them. Meet this kind of situation, translators must consider foreigners' psychology of accepting, which is very important for the anticipated foreign audiences who know English. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to realize the anticipated function of translation and translating purpose.
In translating, we can see that the commonalities of different culture are relative and extensive while the cultural differences are essential and profound. It is impossible that the cultural obstacle doesn't exist in translation. That is to say, when translate occurs, there always exist some stumbling blocks that is of intercultural. Its translatability's limit is absolute. Literal translation adds free translation is a common tactic when interpreting a dish name. The combination of free translation and literal translation is a sign of interpreting successfully. Therefore, in the process of translating Chinese cuisine or menu that is a part of food culture, adopting the method of "change the mode while being bilingual" is very essential. Because of the particularity of Chinese grammar, there is no fixed formula or stipulation for translation of Chinese cuisine. What the interpreter should do is to learn to be flexible and pay great attention to making changes according to specific conditions.
We all have ideas about what kinds of foods are good to eat. We also have ideas about what kinds of food are bad to eat. As a result, people from one culture often think the foods that people from another culture eat are disgusting or nauseating. When the famous boxer Muhammad Ali visited Africa, for example, one member of his group was shocked to see someone pick a butterfly and eat it. Many people would find it disgusting to eat rats, but there are many different cultures whose people regard rats as appropriate food.
In the same way, there are some foods in Chinese dish that are regarded as taboo in the western culture. Some of Chinese dish is named for being lucky and resent the animal name or some other articles that westerners put the taboo on. Thus literal translation of raw materials should be used. If raw materials are also regarded as taboos that are avoided being eaten in western culture, this course can be omitted and does not need to translate. Such as "翡翠鱼翅"(Fei Cui Yu Chi), "红烧狮子头"(Hong Shao Shi Zi Tou). As we know, the emerald is not eatable, here what we called "翡翠"(Fei Cui) is only the vegetable. Lion, moreover, westerners will not eat. The intention is that we describe meatballs by dint of the mighty of lion. In this situation, it will cause "bloody" feeling if translating literally. And for example "脆皮乳鸽"(Cui Pi Ru Ge). Pigeon signify peaceful and in westerners' mind it should not be killed or be eaten.
In all, interpreter should pay attention to the essential material of Chinese dish when confronted dishes that are named for special meaning or blessing expression. So that choosing an effective translation for use in such situation. Not only that but also the cultural differences should not be neglected. Both the character of translation and the food cultural difference determined that faithfulness; fluentness and speediness are the ideal standard for translation of Chinese cuisine. This means that we should constantly summarize experience in practice, thus grasp skills of translating Chinese cuisine in a flexible way. We must slog away at our studies to improve the basic cultural knowledge that involves Chinese and Western food cultural difference, and then translate the Chinese cuisine in a way that foreigners can accept.
5. Conclusion
5.1The job that needs to be tackled whole-heartedly
Neither China nor the West is culturally homogenous. From above, we begin to realize that translation of Chinese dishes is a job that needs to be tackled whole-heartedly. Culture, especially material culture, such as music, food tends to vary in all the different parts of China proper much as it does in Western countries. Take the dining toolsfor example. Traditionally Chinese use chopsticks and Europeans use fork and knife. When one uses chopsticks he flexes his fingers to make the sticks hold the food. If you try it and feel the process carefully you will find that basically you are giving an inwards force. When one uses the fork and knife, he/she keeps cutting and sticking with the knife and fork. The force goes outwards.
I think this small detail has connection with the different characteristics of the Chinese and Western culture. Chinese culture put more focus on one's internal cultivation, while western culture is relatively more sensitive in external characters.
To be perfect, the Chinese dish has also to be artistically arranged and displayed on a platter like a fine work of art. Perfection in all these aspects can only be attained through skill and methodical preparation, which includes the selection of ingredients, slicing, and control of temperature, seasoning and cooking. Correct timing is vital, but another skill of a veteran Chinese chef is the ability to calculate the temperature of a high, medium or low flame. It is said that Chinese chefs can produce a hundred different flavors by judiciously blending the five basic ones-salt, sweet, sour, bitter and spiced. The most popular blends are fresh and salt, sweet and salt, sweet and sour, pepper and salt, spiced and savory, and piquant.
The quality of English translation of Chinese dish has some direct influence on the entry of Chinese food industry into the global market. This paper attempts to discuss some basic principles, skills and methods of English translation of Chinese dishes by analyzing the food cultural differences between Chinese and western countries. Translators must follow the principles of conciseness and stability according to the raw materials, and avoiding the cultural conflict. Meanwhile, one should also get hold of such skills as being brief instead of over elaborate. As to methods, the translator should adopt literal translation or free translation according to different translating purpose. In many cases, the transliteration of Chinese dish names have enjoyed great success.
However, just as what is stated above, this is an important task that is related to the fields of nutrition, tourism, catering, food science and medicine. There will be areas that are not covered in my paper. What we should do is trying our best to translate the refined and graceful cuisine names into English by keeping their original cultural connotations and helping foreign diners to appreciate the profound cultural contents. Meanwhile, we should take into consideration whether they are culturally acceptable to foreigners or not. In all, translators must be cautious in the practice of English translation of Chinese dish names. I sincerely hope that the findings are not only interesting but provide a sound basis for a further understanding to each other.
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Acknowledgements
My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to Professor Wang Ping and Yao Shulin, my supervisors, for their constant encouragement and guidance. And how would I have survived all diploma work without the constant support that they gave me.
Mr. Yao has walked me through the first stage of writing this paper. Without his consistent and illuminating instruction, this thesis could not have reached its present form. Also I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Professor Wang ping, who have taught me how to hunt for relevant material on the internet. I respect you deeply.
I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to the Foreign Language Department ofJinxing University as well as all my teachers. Thanks to their instructive guidance and comprehensive education during the four years' university, I can acquire the opportunity to further study my English.
My great gratitude also goes to those writers and editors whose works I have perused and benefited greatly. Without them the completion of the thesis would not have been possible.
I also owe my sincere gratitude to my friends and my fellow classmates who gave me their help in helping me work out my problems during the difficult course of the dissertation. My beloved family made me what I am and I sincerely hope that I can pay you back in way or the other.
Finally, I wish to express my sincere thanks to my foreign friends. Aissa who is from Algeria offers me some relevant material. Another two are Roy and Wen coming from America and Canada respectively. They correct some errors in my paper. Their knowledge and experience contributed immensely to the progress of my dissertation.
Appendix I : Trip to Xitang for Cates
『 Braised meat with preserved vegetable 』
Braised meat with preserved vegetable is a course of family dish in Xitang.It has been greatly favored by people for its simple making, delicious taste and rich nutrition.
Raw materials: Pig's rib meat,Preserved vegetable, Soy sauce,Candy
Manufacture method:The main raw materials of this dish are the best quality side meat of hog and the local preserved vegetable. The cooked meat with preserved vegetable has tender but not fat meat. It looks oily but not leaking and dripping when it's picked up, fully featured with slight sweet taste as well as rich rural flavor in the northern part of Zhejiang Province
『 Green soybean with water chestnut meat 』
It has been said that When Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty ate water chestnut during his trip down on Nanhu Lake in southern part of the Yangzte River, he was carelessly pricked by the horn of water chestnut .Then he said: "This small water chestnut would be so nice without horns". Since the emperor had said this in his majesty, the water chestnuts in Nanhu Lake grow horns no more.
Raw materials: water chestnut,green soybean
Manufacture method:Nanhu Lake Water Chestnut (commonly called Wanton Water Chestnut)has black skin and no horns and is characterized by smooth meat quality and aroma retaining in mouth, etc. Plump green soybeans should be prepared for "Green soybean with water chestnut meat", husked and soaked with warm water. The two layers of water chestnut skin should also be peeled and the meats be soaked with warm water, too. After the peeled water chestnut meats are cooked, one can see no more the black ectoblast but one and another crystal and limpid meats to be matched with the green soybeans. They look green for the green and purple for the purple and it really makes one's mouth watering with very comfortable feeling.
『 Quick-fried snails with soy sauce 』
Snails are a course of most common dish in the water region in southern part of the Yangtze River. Xitang has the interleaving waters and rivers. Wherever there is water there is snail. Snail is generally edible before and after the Tomb-sweeping Festival. It is said that eating snail helps people to be clear sighted as eating "Malantou", a kind of potherbs.
Raw materials: snail,shallot head ,capsicum slices and sugar
Manufacture method:Xitang snails are small in size, thin in shell and thick in meat. They are normally mixed up with shallot head, quick-fried capsicum slices, wine with sugar along with red soy sauce as well as aniseed soaked in very limited and thick soup. The dish is mostly very strong and fresh in sapor. It is really a major to drink wine and eat snail with some good friends in the gentle evening wind. 上一页 [1] [2]
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