A Cultural Turn In Translation Studies(1)(2)
2016-04-29 01:00
导读：. ”3 In the following passages, we will discuss some language phenomena both in Bai and English from the cultural view.3. Several definitions for cultureTaylor in his ‘primitive culture' defined c
.”3 In the following passages, we will discuss some language phenomena both in Bai and English from the cultural view.3. Several definitions for cultureTaylor in his ‘primitive culture' defined culture as, “Culture is a complex system that includes all the knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, laws, customs and any other talents and habits mastered or accepted by the members of a certain society.” English and Culture Dictionary (Longman,1922) identified “culture, as custom, beliefs, art, music and any other products of human thinking. Culture is the product of a certain society in a certain period, such as the Ancient Greek culture”4The famous American linguist Dr Nida thought that ‘a language is always a part of a culture and the meaning of any text refers directly or indirectly to the corresponding culture, ultimately words only have meaning in terms of the corresponding culture. Without the knowledge of the beliefs and practices of other cultures a translator’s perspective of the world is tragically restricted’ (Chinese translators journal 2000/5).The Bai people and the English speaking people live in different geographical environments. The different climate and geographical objects lead to different customs, different beliefs and different attitudes to things. Each has their own unique culture.
Here we select some language phenomena from Bai folk stories and songs, and try to analyse these phenomena at the cultural level in order to improve our translation technique and realize successful cross-cultural communication.4. Bai people’s attitude toward colours4.1 Bai people revere the colour white“Humans live in this colourful world, their feeling to the colour is heavily affected by their native cultural tradition, their attitude to the colour is also an essential part of the culture. Colour words are the finite figure of the culture, full of native cultural character. Every nationality has her own attitude to the colour. In the different cultures, the same colour may express the different cultural psychology, lead to various associations, and it has unique cultural connotation in the different cultures.”5To most Bai people and westerners “white” has some similar connotations: purity and innocence. But it has quite opposite connotations, too. White dress is the traditional colour for brides at western weddings but a traditional colour at funerals for Bai people. To wear white would be offensive at western funerals, they have black dress on that occasion.But the colour ‘white’ has much more connotations in Bai culture. Revering the colour ‘white’ is a unique phenomenon in Bai culture. Why do Bai people call themselves ‘Baizi or Baini’? ‘Bai’ means the colour ‘white’, opposite to black. If you come into a Bai village in Dali, you seem to be in a white world, the white houses of Bai people, white lanes and the white three pagodas in the far distance. A custom is still kept in Jianchuan: a bride's parents would like to give her a pure white sheepskin cloak as a special gift on her wedding day. But the opposite situation will be seen in Naxi area, people there feed flocks of black sheep, and a Naxi woman would like to wear a black sheep skin cloak instead of the white one. “The Lisu people in Nujiang think it's pretty ‘to dress up as black as a crow’, and the Bai people in the same area would say, ‘dress up as white as a magpie’, they think white is beautiful.”6 So the Bai people prefer the white sheepskin cloak and white clothes.White-loving was not only popular among the common Bai people, but also in the Bai royal family in the historical period. Zhou Quefei, a scholar who lived in the Song Dynasty (1127—1279) recorded in his book, ‘Answering for people outside Yuanning’, “In the Dali kingdom, the king wears a white cloak and the queen likes to wear ’Zhaoxiao’ and ‘zhaoxiao’ is a kind of white dress.”7 Even the king was titled as ‘Bai king’, the white king. Some historians think that the white-revering custom of the Bai people is related to their primitive totem worship beliefs. The colour ‘white’ may have been the symbol of an old Bai tribe at that time, and the custom is still kept in Bai clothes and their habits.In the minds of Bai people, the colour ‘white’ is the symbolization of kindness, goodness, righteousness and beauty. In contrast black always indicates evil, criminals, darkness and ugliness. In many Bai folk stories, ‘white dragon’ is always a righteous, good hero and favoured by people, but ‘black dragon’ always stands for evil forces and is hated by people.Because ‘white’ always leads the Bai people's associations to fine things, they created a lot of beautiful songs related with the colour ‘white’. A famous one is ‘A white lady in the white moonlight’.
