In The Analects, one of the main features is the high frequency of using the numeral words. The total quantity of numeral words appeared in The Analects is more than 220, which includes “ 一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 百, 千, 万, 数, 再, 两, 屡”, and “三”is the most widely used on among the seventeen words, appearing nearly 70 times. The meaning and function of these numeral words are not the same throughout the whole passage.
Eg7: 三人行， 必有我师焉。
Version 1: When I walk along with two others, they s erve me as my teachers.
Version 2: When three men meet together, on of them who is anxious to learn can always learn something of the other two.
The flexibility of classical Chinese could be found here in the numbers. In this case the number ‘三’ does not mean the exact number ‘three’ semantically. It means ‘a couple of ’or ‘some’. Therefore both first two versions failed to render it correctly. The faithful translation of three is a formal equivalence instead of functional equivalence. In ancient Chinese classics, the meaning of three is various; in most occasions it is not used as an accurate number. While in western culture, such kind of usage is rarely seen, so when dealing with these words, the translator should have a good understanding of the original passage and the customs of language using.
Thus, Version 1 and Version 2 both employ the semantic translation about the translation of ‘三’, but they both lose the true meaning of ‘三’. The communicative translation should be applied in this sentence instead of semantic translation.
I suggest the right translated version should be like this:
When three men or more meet together, on of them who are anxious to learn can always learn something of the others.
Eg8: 四海之内，皆兄弟也.
Version1: …then all within the four seas will be his brothers.
Version2: in that way he will find all men within the corners of the Earth are his brothers.
‘四海’ is put faithfully into ‘four seas’ in version1, which is semantically correct, but would cause difficulties in understanding. In the ancient times, Chinese believed the four seas nearly covered the world and thus it stood for the world in Chinese. Semantic translation is used Version 1, which keeps ancient Chinese limited knowledge, but may cause misinterpretation among the western readers while Version2 adopts communicative translation, making it understood for the western readers.
3.4 Translation of Idioms
The Analects i s also an abundant fountain to the development of Chinese idioms. With condensed structure and profound signification, it conveys a large sum of cultural information. Moreover, for this reason, the translation of idiom is worth researching for the sake of culture transmitting.
Eg9: 有教无类。
Version1: In teaching there should be no distinction of classes.
Version2: Among really educated men, there is no caste or race-distinction.
‘Traditional Chinese mode of thinking attaches more importance to intuitive understanding. More often than not, the Chinese readers rely on his intuitive grasp of the message rather than strict formal analysis to understand them. He relies on his intuitive grasp of the message rather than strict formal analysis to understand the grammatical relations. Intuitive comprehension often leads to excessive vagueness of the language.’(Lin Miqing, 1992: 326). Classical Chinese tends to be concise. And it is the tradition to express emotions or make comments in a mild and tactful way.
In this verse Confucius intended to say the poor and the rich, the noble and the humble, etc. should have right to be educated. Version2 takes the “educated men” as subject, which just carries part of the intended meaning. And the use of word “race” is improper, in Confucius’ living period, there was no concept of race, and the only ethnic group was Han. Only to western people, they paid much attention to the discrimination of various races. Thus this idiom should be rendered more semantically than communicatively, and version1 is a better one.
4. Conclusion
The above is an attempt to probe into some translation strategies for cultural translation in The Analects. With the new tendency of culture-oriented in translation field, a systematic theory for culture transmission is essential. The main translation methods are as follows: semantic translation and communicative translation and the author then analyze some typical examples ari
sing from The Analects.
However, there is not a fixed translating rule or regulation for which method to use in cultural translation since it turns out that the combination of two translation methods will achieve more ideal effect sometimes. Therefore, a translator should be flexible when doing cultural translation.
Chinese classical literature has concise structure and condensed implication, and reflects the wisdom and traditional ideas of ancient Chinese people. When dealing with such kind of translation, the translators try to keep literal meaning of original version, and in process of flavor, style, and cultural spirits. Hence, when doing cultural translation, they should firstly make clear the meaning of the original text, meanwhile, the comprehension of two culture background should be taken into consideration as well.
