jiang taigong’s fishing
DESCRIPTION
Being a good and efficient translator you need not only linguistic knowledge and ability but also those involved in other areas such as history and culture, since language is a living thing which is originated and evolves with the history and culture of a people. Therefore being wide-read is a virtue...TRANSCRIPT
Transhorsa Translation Co.,LTD.,Shanghaihttp://www.transhorsa.org Msn:[email protected] Translation & Proofreading
Jiang Taigong’s fishing...
When translating an article, it would be great if you could go through the whole thing
without stumbling on something such as a phrase very much rooted in the local custom
or culture, which is difficult to translate, etc. The fact of the matter is that you do get stuck
often enough that you have to turn to certain translation resources.
Speaking of a phrase loaded with culture or history, there is one just coming up to my
mind. Here is the idiom: ‘姜太公钓鱼，愿者上钩’ in Chinese language. If you translate it literally, it goes like this: ‘Jiang Taigong fishes, the willing fishes will swallow the bait’.
Does it make any sense to you? Not to me. First of all, fishes do not have the will like
us, human; second, fishes will never desire to swallow the bait to get caught and killed if
they do have will. Then, what exactly is this phrase trying to say? In order to properly
translate it, we need to know something about the history.
In eleventh century BC by the end of Shang Dynasty, there was an eighty-year-old man
named Jiang Taigong, or Jiang Shang, or Jiang Ziya. He was intelligent and capable,
and was a court official then. But the king was corrupt and dumb, so he was sick of
serving the king and retired to a little village by River Wei. There he was hoping to join
the rebel force but was not sure how to approach them. So he sat by the bank of River
Wei and fished all day long every day. He had a curious way of fishing, though. The
hook at the end of his fishing pole was straight, not crooked as was supposed to be, and
there was no bait on it; in addition to this peculiarity, the straight hook was put three
inches above the water.
All persons passersby were laughing at him and said that he could never catch one
single fish in a hundred years, but he did not care. One day the head of the rebel force
Zhou Wenwang came by River Wei and noticed him. They had a great conversation,
and so, Zhou Wenwang hired him as his advisor. With his guiding assistance, Zhou
Wenwang was able to defeat the king and establish Zhou Dynasty.
So, Jiang Taigong’s real intention was to gain notice of Zhou Wenwang rather than
fishing, or that big ‘fish’ was no other than Zhou Wenwang which /whom he intended to
fish. It is a special kind of ‘fish’ which /who could only be lured by his own will. With this
story in mind, how are we going to proceed to translate this idiom? Ideally, we should not
only convey the actual meaning of the phrase but also keep its literal sophistication. I’ll
leave this the readers to ponder...
As you could see, translating involves not only your linguistic ability but also your
knowledge of culture and history besides the knowledge of specialties which the articles
involve. It is important that you have translation resources to turn to when seeming
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Transhorsa Translation Co.,LTD.,Shanghaihttp://www.transhorsa.org Msn:[email protected] Translation & Proofreading
implausibility occur. Internet, with all its hazardousness, could be quite convenient and
within arms’ reach. Now people usually work on a computer, so when a problem like this
comes up, you can simply google the phrase and look for the most appropriate answers.
But sometime you are pushing for a deadline, say, you need to turn in your translation in
two hours, and you probably do not have enough time to go through all the historical
references just to clear up a meaning of a phrase. Therefore, it is important as a
conscientious and an efficient translator that you are wide-read and informed, well
prepared culturally, that is the best translation resources which you can rely on.
Summery:
Being a good and efficient translator you need not only linguistic knowledge and ability
but also those involved in other areas such as history and culture, since language is a
living thing which is originated and evolves with the history and culture of a people.
Therefore being wide-read is a virtue...
Author Information:
Hilda Zahn Translator of
Transhorsa Translation Co., LTD., Shanghai
http://www.transhorsa.org
Native translator & Proofreading
Addr:2601 Xietu Road, T1-16D Gateway Plaza, Shanghai 200030TEL: +(86) 021 51691621 33197285 FAX: +(86) 021 33197183