严复中英文简介教学内容

1、严复中英文简介严复( 18531921) : triple principle of translation信(faithfulness):忠实准确达 (expressivenesS : 通顺流畅雅(elegancy :文字古雅Yan fu put forward this “three character guide ” in his preface to the translation of T.H.Huxley's book Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays(天演论译例言1898)译事三难信达雅。求其信已大难矣。顾信矣不达。虽译尤不译也。

2、则达尚焉。易日修辞立诚。子日辞达而已。又日言之无文。行之不远。三者乃文章正轨。亦即为译事楷模。故信达而外。求其尔雅。此不仅期以行远已耳。实则精理微言。用汉以前字法句法。则 为达易。用近世利俗文字。则求达雅。往往抑义就词。毫厘千里。 审择于斯二者之间。夫固有所不得已。岂钓奇哉。Translation has to do three difficult things： to be faithful, expressiveand elegant It is difficult enough to be faithful to the original , and yet if a translati

3、on is not expressive it is tantamount to having notranslation.Hence expressiveness should be required tooThe BooChanges says that the first requisite of rhetoric is truthfulness. Confucius says that expressiveness is all that matters in langua geHe adds that ifone's language lacks grace it won&#

4、39;t go far.These three qualities, then, are the criteria of good writing and, I believe, of good translation too.Hence besides faithfulness and expressivenesS also aim at elegance.I strive for elegance not just to make my translations travel far, but to express the original writer's ideas bette

5、r for I find that subtle thoughts are better expressed in the vocabulary and syntax of preHan prose than those of the vulgar writings of today. Using the latter often leads to distortion of meaning which, however slight, results in vast misunderstanding. Weighing the pros and cons I opted for the fo

6、rmer, as a matter of necessity not trying to be different. Yan Fu(simplified Chinese:严复;traditional Chinese 窗复;pinyin: Yan F。Wade -Giles: Yen Fu;courtesy name Ji Dao,黑道;8 January 1854 27 October 1921)was aChinese scholar andtranslator, most famous for introducing western ideas, includingDarwin's

7、 "natural selection," to China in the late 19th century.LifeYan Fu studied at the Fujian Arsenal Academy 福州船政 堂）inFuzhou Fujian Province. In 1877 79 he studied at the Navy Academy in Greenwich, England. Upon his return to China, he was unable to pass the Imperial Civil Service Examination,

8、 while teaching at the Fujian Arsenal Academy and then Beiyang Naval Officers' School Q匕洋水自市 堂）at Tianjin.It was not until after the Chinese defeat in th+irst Sino-Japanese War （1894 -95, fought for control of Korea） that Yan Fu became famous. He is celebrated for his translations, includingThom

9、as Huxley's Evolution and Ethics, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, John Stuart Mill's On Liberty and Herbert Spencers Study of Sociology. Yan critiqued the ideas of Darwin and others, offering his own interpretations.The ideas of 'hatural selection!' and "survival of the fitt

10、est" were introduced to Chinese readers through Huxley's work. The former idea was famously rendered by Yan Fu into Chinese ati a nZ表撵）.He became a respected scholar for his translations, and became politically active. In 1895 he was involved in theGongche Shangshu movementIn 1912 he became

11、 the first principal of National Peking University (now Peking University).Translation theoryYan stated in theprefaceto his translation of Evolution and Ethics (天演 Iw) that "there are three difficulties in translation: faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance"事三H： 信逵雅 ).He did not set th

12、em as general standards for translation and did not say that they were independent of each other. However, since the publication of that work, the phrase "faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance" has been attributed to Yan Fu as a standard for any good translation and has become aclich in