On The Nature Of Translating

Historic records show "that, either in China or in the West, translating dates back to more than two thousand years ago. In this long period, countless works/materials have been translated and retranslated and quite a few remarks have been made on this activity -translating. Although translating enjoys such a long history and is now so prosperous, the real nature of it remains in the dark box. Many researchers have tried to study the nature of translating. However, unexpectedly, almost none of their solutions reveal the real nature of translating in a comprehensive way. In the present paper, the author devotes his efforts to the exploration of the real nature of translating. Basing his work on the analysis of some other representative unsatisfactory solutions, the author endeavors to make a somewhat thorough study of the problem.In Introduction, the history and the present situation of translating are first of all investigated. Through the investigation, the author wants to reveal that on the one hand, translating develops continuously and now plays key roles in society and in the daily life of human beings, while on the other hand, the nature of translating is masked. Then, in the second part of Introduction, in order to get the paper established on a set of unambiguous concepts, the author clarifies some important concepts concerned. In the last part of Introduction, a general survey of the historical and present situation of the issue is made.In Chapter One and Chapter Two the author makes an analysis of two seemingly diametrically opposite views: "translation is an art" and "translation is a science". The author argues that although scholars with their respective points of view are divided into these two schools, they, consciously or unconsciously, more or less, accept the view held by the opposite school. The author repeatedly declares that if art is not guidedby or departs from the objective and scientific law, it will become a random and disorderly activity, and thus the so-called art cannot become true art, and similarly, if science lacks the inspiring of the artistic creativity, it will be spiritless and lifeless, and thus the so-called science cannot be true science. To make the analysis more convincing and reasonable, the author provides examples of two extremes, one of which is of very strong artistic character and the other of quite strong scientific character. Through the analysis of the translations (TT) of these examples (ST), the author attempts to illustrate that in the translating of either poetry or scientific/technical materials, scientific character and artistic character coexist inherently. Moreover, in the fourth part of Chapter Two, machine translating is analyzed. The emergence of machine translating seems to be convincing evidence of the "science of translation". But, the author manages to reveal the artistic character of MT.In Chapter Three, the following two viewpoints are analyzed: "translation is both science" and art" and "translation is culture transference". Some scholars have got to realize that in studying the nature of translating, science and art cannot be separated from each other. However, most of these scholars do not accurately define their "science" and "art"; thus, they do not offer any sound solution to the problem. Moreover, some of them view the nature of translating mechanically. It seems that their viewpoint is dialectical, however, in fact, they do not apply dialectics well in their whole argumentations.The view that "Translation is culture transference" is partly correct, as one important aim of translating is to eliminate the contradictions and differences between two cultures. The "culture turn" also represents a great achievement in translation research. However, one cannot carry this to the extreme by regarding culture transference as the nature of translating.In Chapter Four, by analyzing some counterarguments against the views the author holds, the author reaffirms Huang Zhending's and his own viewpoints on the nature of translating, m...