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Ren Rongrong, 1983）Therefore, Professor Zhao’s version is better because it is more interesting and readable. In English pun, one word has two meanings just as “well” here. But in Chinese there is not a word indicating these two meanings. If translators only render the literal meaning, then the pun will be lost. So Professor Zhao used “jing” (“井”) and “jin” (“盡”) –which have the similar sounds –to make up for the use of a pun. And “jing” ( 井” means “well” and “jin” ( 盡” means “to the greatest extent”. So in this case “ ) “ ) both the meaning and the form of a pun are kept. Generally speaking, translators should try their best to keep puns in Chinese. 4.2(世博北京翻譯公司).2(世博北京翻譯公司) Homophone In addition to the homograph, the homophone also appears frequently in Alice. Homophone is a pun which makes use of the same or similar sound of different words. Like homograph, its funny effect should also be the aim of translation. The extract 7 is a good example of homophone. The pun here is on the use of two words “not” and “knot” which are homonyms. However, the original wit and humor have vanished in Version 2(世博北京翻譯公司) and there is no literal connection between “wo hai meiyou shuo dao” (“我還沒有說到！ and “shi yige ”) nanti” (“是一個(gè)難題”), so the effect of homophone disappears. In version 1, Professor Zhao creates a pair of Chinese pun of “dao” (“到”) and “dao” (“刀”) and retains the wit of the original homophone. In addition, the Chinese pun is within Chinese children’s appreciating abilities. Altogether, version 1 is better. Since there does seldom exist the equivalent words in Chinese that can express the double meanings of some words in English, literal translation usually cannot reproduce the effect of wordplay. Free translation is necessary here to make an interesting effect rather than a dry and dead translation. That is to say, it is a good way to use substitution to translate puns. Substitution calls for translators’ wisdom to
appreciate the original semanticand pragmatic effects of wordplay in a wide textual frame. Professor Zhao also uses this translation strategy wisely in the following example. In Example 8, “Tortoise” and “taught us” sound similar. But in Chinese there are not the corresponding words that happen to bear the same double meanings with the same sound. Professor Zhao tries to employ “Lao Wang” (“老王”) and “lao wang” (“老 忘”) to achieve a similar effect of phonogram. Here, although Professor Zhao’s version cannot match the original exactly in meaning, the wit of the pun has been naturally maintained. Moreover, this version is very reasonable and acceptable to children. However, Li translates “Tortoise” and “taught us” literally into Chinese as “lu gui” ( “陸龜”) and “gei women shang ke” (“給我們上課”), which cannot show the similarity of pronunciation between “Tortoise” and “taught us”. The combination of “lu gui” ( “陸龜”) and “gei women shang ke” (“給我們上課”) appears perplexing even to adults, let alone to children. In this case, the wit imbedded in the pun could not be illustrated in the translation. Compared with the first version, the second one only brings out the linguistic meaning of the word game and the humorous sense has lost. The first version changes the linguistic meaning completely, but the humorous effect is retained, which is the most important. Substitution used by Professor Zhao is the method applied to translation of puns when translators cannot reproduce the pun literally in Chinese. It calls for the translators to create some new puns in Chinese to compensate the original puns. Example 9 is the same as Example 8. “Porpoise” and “purpose” in the sentence are homonyms, while “Porpoise” means ‘sea mammal with a blunt rounded snout, similar to a dolphin or small whale’ and “purpose” means ‘thing that one intends to do, get, be, etc; intention’. But it is impossible to reproduce the pun in Chinese so as to maintain both the literal meaning and the style of pun. So Professor Zhao uses “liyu”
（ “鯉魚” and “liyou”（ ） “理由”，these two homonyms, to compensate the original ） pun. Here, Professor Zhao uses the translation strategy of substitution in order to keep the sense of pun. However, in Version 2(世博北京翻譯公司), Li uses “haitun” “海豚” and “mudi” “目的” , abandoning （ ） （ ） the form of pun to keep the meaning without adding any note. Li just translates the surface meaning, which does not make any sense of a pun in Chinese. Therefore, not only could Chinese readers possibly understand the translation completely but also the effect of the pun is totally lost. 4.3 The Analysis of Assonance Translation Assonance is the repetition or resemblance of vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of a sequence of words, preceded and followed by different consonants. Since it is often used in poetic language to create a musical rhythm, assonance is also used in Alice to create a funny sense. In Example 10, “pig” and “fig” are assonance. Li’s version simply translate them into “zhu”（豬）and “wuhuaguo”（無花果）literally. This will probably make Chinese children get confused about Carroll’s intention, since “zhu” （豬） “wuhuaguo” and （無 花果）have no connection in either sound or form. Professor Zhao in version 1 solves the enigma by changing “wuhuaguo”（無花果）to “shu”（書）, which has a similar sound to “zhu” （豬） Chinese. Moreover, because “shu” in （書） the object Chinese is children are more familiar with than “wuhuaguo”（無花果）, child readers can still have the chance to enjoy the pleasure. Although the surface meaning of version 1 is not exactly the same in Chinese as in English, the implied meaning in English has been satisfactorily translated. And the rhetorical effect does not change. With the wit as well as fluency maintained, Chinese children could have the luck to appreciate the original flavor. In Example 11, assonance, such as ‘crocodile and Nile’, ‘tail and scale’, ‘grin and in’,
翻譯公司 (責(zé)任編輯：世博翻譯公司) |