In a sense, the grand temple and the State Cathedral, although both refer to religious places, are different because the former in the sacrificial to the ancient people and the latter the Christian religion. The use of the latter would not arouse the foreignness of the text but derives readers’ attention to Western custom of being loyalty to Gods, instead of Chinese tradition of showing respect to the ancestors.
3.2.2 Social Cultural Images
Eg6: 孟懿子问孝。子曰：“无违。”
Version1: Meng Yi asked what filial piety was. The Master said, “It is not being disobedient.”
Version2: Meng Yi asked about the treatment of parents. The Master said, “Never disobey!”
Version1 obeyed semantic translation theory, translating the cultural image xiao（孝）as “filial piety”, while version2 is much simply, just communicatively rendered into “the treatment of parents”. As one aspect of social ritual at that time, xiao is honored by Chinese people as a traditional virtue for thousands of years. As an old sayings goes, “Filial piety ranks the first of all virtues”, being xiao is not only referring to the behavior of serving the parents, but also implying to piety and respect in ones heart. Xiao has been endowed with profound culture and moral meaning, deeply rooting in Chinese people’s mind. Thus, it is quite accurate to annotate xiao as “filial piety” to review the specific cultural connotation.
Version2 dealt with the word in a so simple way that loses part of original meaning. Plain words would not catch readers’ eyes to raise their attention. The Western readers could not understand the vital importance of this cultural image to the whole passage.
3.3 Translation of Numbers
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 serve 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.
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