严复中英文简介.doc

严复（1853——1921）：triple principle of translation信（faithfulness）：忠实准确达（expressiveness）：通顺流畅雅（elegance）：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则达尚焉……易曰修辞立诚子曰辞达而已又曰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，expressive，and elegantIt is difficult enough to be faithful to the original，and yet if a translation is not expressive，it is tantamount to having no translation.Hence expressiveness should be required too……The Book of Changes says that the first requisite of rhetoric is truthfulness. Confucius says that expressiveness is all that matters in language。

He adds that if one`s language lacks grace，it won`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，I also aim at elegance.I strive for elegance not just to make my translations travel far，but to express the original writer`s ideas better，for I find that subtle thoughts are better expressed in the vocabulary and syntax of pre-Han 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 former，as a matter of necessity，not trying to be different.……Yan Fu (simplified Chinese: 严复; traditional Chinese: 嚴復; pinyin: Yán Fù; Wade–Giles: Yen Fu; courtesy name: Ji Dao, 幾道; 8 January 1854 — 27 October 1921) was a Chinese scholar and translator, most famous for introducing western ideas, including Darwin's “natural selection,“ to China in the late 19th century.LifeYan Fu studied at the Fujian Arsenal Academy (福州船政學堂) in Fuzhou, 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, while teaching at the Fujian Arsenal Academy and then Beiyang Naval Officers' School (北洋水師學堂) at Tianjin.It was not until after the Chinese defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95, fought for control of Korea) that Yan Fu became famous. He is celebrated for his translations, including Thomas Huxley's Evolution and Ethics, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, John Stuart Mill's On Liberty and Herbert Spencer's Study of Sociology. Yan critiqued the ideas of Darwin and others, offering his own interpretations.The ideas of “natural selection“ and “survival of the fittest“ were introduced to Chinese readers through Huxley's work. The former idea was famously rendered by Yan Fu into Chinese as tiānzé (天擇).He became a respected scholar for his translations, and became politically active. In 1895 he was involved in the Gongche Shangshu movement. In 1912 he became the first principal of National Peking University (now Peking University).Translation theoryYan stated in the preface to his translation of Evolution and Ethics (天演論) that “there are three difficulties in translation: faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance“ (譯事三難：信達雅). He did not set them 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 a cliché in Chinese academic circles, giving rise to numerous debates and theses. Some scholars argue that this dictum actually derived from British theoretician of translation, Alexander Fraser Tytler.。