Translation and Identifying the idioms and phrases in Chinese Translation
A translator in any languages can translate the text as per his/her experience in the domain industry, but sometimes translator may not aware of some particulars idioms and phrases in each and every language and it has been also observed that Chinese translator may not realize this at the time of translation. As idioms are not the similar to the text, to be translated. it can be difficult or even impossible to achieve a perfect translation in which all information is transmitted from one language to another. In most cases, one has to decide the parts of information to be left out so as to achieve the best possible translation, as it is often not possible to preserve the exact style of writing, its evoked senses, or both, in translation. An idiom is a usually fixed expression “whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the constituent words”. As idioms evoke additional senses to the figurative meaning, they are also often indicative of and encapsulate the culture in which they originate. While they “enhance naturalness and create an impression of fluency” their cultural specificity also means that it is often nearly impossible to fully translate all of the evoked senses into the target language. Being in this industry since 12 years and sometimes we had also find that even professional Chinese translators or native Chinese speaker find these kind of difficulties in translating idioms and even using the machine translator may not help because it should not be straight away translated word to word , it may lost the meaning of the original context and does not deliver the appropriate and 100% correct translation. It is better to consult the manual dictionary and also Chinese translator should have the knowledge of the source language to understand enough and to source the exact, appropriate and equivalent meaning. For some cases in which an exact idiomatic equivalent or approximation cannot be found, a Chinese translator would normally replace the idiom with a non-idiomatic synonym, for it is more important to preserve the idiomatic meaning rather than the evoked senses. If translating an idiom into a non-idiomatic phrase results in the shedding of information and meaning, then the opposite would also be true: translating a non-idiom to an idiomatic expression would add information and meaning to the text. As a professional translation agency specialize in Chinese translation services we would suggest to the translator, please don’t even touch the machine or google translator specially using translating these idioms in the translation Industry and it is better to find the idioms meaning from written current journals as well as manually to use the dictionary of that language and you find the particular Chinese idioms and phrases’ equivalent meanings and also explained in sentence structures. Which will make you to understand and you will be getting domain experiences while doing the translation regularly. Being a native Hindi translator even we can not explain and translate some idioms and phrases, so just think about how complex would be to translate in to target language. Behind every Idioms and phrases, it has a history and it was structured situationally to the articles and text, so it is not so easy to translate as simply. The translated text tends to trend towards a more formal register or the standard grammar of the target language, while normalization refers to a tendency of translators to follow the conventional writing styles of the target language and stay away from idiosyncratic or otherwise creative uses of the language. Optimally, a translated text should preserve information while maintaining the writing style of the original. When this is not possible, as is often the case with figurative speech, a common practice is to simplify and make explicit the implications. However, as per current investigations of translations from English to another language, English-to-Chinese texts were often found to include idiomatic expressions (usually in the form of Chengyu 成语) where there were originally no idiomatic, metaphorical, or even figurative expressions. As some firm stands before these difficulties and created an initial small lexicon of Chengyu and they have been increasing the database. Chengyu, often translated into English as “Chinese idioms” are prototypically four-character, non-compositional phrases derived from historical lore or classical literature. “The Chinese idiom ‘Chengyu ‘ is a set phrase, an old expression, prevalent in society, used by the common folk, has seen ages of constant use, usually in fourcharacter form with varying constituent constructions and diverse origins. The meanings for some of the idioms can be deduced from their composite constituents. By contrast, with some of them, their meanings cannot be gained from their constituents unless we know the semantic fields or historical sources. The fixed form in its structure and semantics is its critical characteristic. It functions as a lexeme in sentences and behaves more vividly and symbolically than its synonyms represented by common lexemes. Its formation can be derived, inherited, or borrowed.”
An example of a prototypical Chengyu
守 sh ǒ u (to guard) 株 待 zhū dài (tree stump) 兔tù wait rabbit
分 fēn (divide) 崩 bēng (rupture) 离 lí leave 析xī split apart ‘to completely fall apart’
Chengyu Pinyin English Translation
无论如何 wú lùn rú hé “no matter the circumstances” | 全力以赴 quán lì yǐ fù “to go all-out; spare no effort” | 动荡不安 dòng dàng bù ān “in turmoil” | 堆积如山 duī jī rú shān “to pile up, like mountains” | 迫在眉睫 pò zài méi jié “imminent” | 各种各样 gè zhǒng gè yàng “a wide variety”
竭尽全力 jié jìn quán lì “to use all of one’s strength or resources” |引人注目 yǐn rén zhù mù “to attract a lot of attention; highly conspicuous” | 下落不明 xià luò bù míng “to have one’s whereabouts be unknown” 理所当然 lǐ suǒ dāng rán “an assumed certainty” |Essay 半途而废 bàn tú ér fèi “to give up halfway, wasting previous effort” |显而易见 xiǎn ér yì jiàn “obvious, evident”|Tourism 古色古香 gǔ sè gǔ xiāng “antique flavours” |耳目一新 ěr mù yī xīn “refreshing” |顾名思义 gù míng sī yì “as the name implies; self-explanatory” |五花八门 wǔ huā bā mén “a wide, kaleidoscopic variety” |各行各业 gè háng gè yè “a variety of occupations” |熙熙攘攘 xī xī rǎng rǎng “bustling with activity”
目不暇接 mù bù xiá jiē “to have so many details, they cannot be seen all at once” |闻名遐迩 wén míng xiá ěr “extremely well-known; world-renowned” |叹为观止 tàn wéi guān zhǐ “breathtakingly impressive” |大街小巷 dà jiē xiǎo xiàng “every nook and cranny of every street” |相映成趣 xiāng yìng chéng qù “to contrast, usually in a complementary manner” |不胜枚举 bù shèng méi jǔ “too many to count” 前所未有 qián suǒ wèi yǒu “unprecedented” |垂涎欲滴 chuí xián yù dī “to desire something so much, one is drooling” 讨价还价 tǎo jià huán jià “bargaining” |首屈一指 shǒu qū yī zhǐ “to be second to none” | 各式各样 gè shì gè yàng “all types and kinds” |大快朵颐 dà kuài duǒ yí “to heartily enjoy a meal” |琳琅满目 lín láng mǎn mù “a feast for the eyes” |流连忘返 liú lián wàng fǎn “to be so utterly captivated that one forgets about home” |独一无二 dú yī wú èr “unique; without compare”|应有尽有 yīng yǒu jìn yǒu “to have everything one might expect or desire” |各种各样 gè zhǒng gè yàng “a wide variety”