Harvard-Yenching Institute

Dimensions of Fidelity in Translation With Special Reference to Chinese

Author(s): Yuen Ren Chao
Source: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 29 (1969), pp. 109-130
Published by: Harvard-Yenching Institute
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DIMENSIONS OF FIDELITY IN TRANSLATION

WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CHINESE
YUEN REN CHAO
UNIVERSITY

Ut5
fl

OF CALIFORNIA

[In much brieferform,this was the topic of the 1967 Faculty Research Lecture at the
UniversityofCaliforniaand ofan articlein Chinese under the titleof M
41i
toappearin CYYY (Fang-kueiLi Commemorative
Volume),1969.]

HERE

are translationsand translations.Whenever a sen-

tenceofthistypeis heardby BertrandRussell,he willalmost

invariablyremarkdryly: "Then there must be at least four

translations."Now how would you translatethe sentence "There are
translationsand translations"into a language thathas no distinction
between the singularand plural formsofnouns, or forthatmatterinto
a language that has a dual numberin addition to singularand plural
forms?The answer is, you cannot. If you tryto translateit word for
word, or even if you smooth out the grammar,to inferfromit that
thereare at least fourtranslationswould then be completelynon sequitur. I cite this example in order to show that translationis such a
multidimensionalaffairthatforany givenmaterialthereare not only
fourtranslations,but usuallymanymorethanfourtranslationsaccording to the relativeimportanceto be assigned to various dimensions.
In the late i800's the prolificChinese writerYen Fu A& (18531921), who translatedinto Chinese Thomas Huxley's Essays,John
StuartMill's SystemofLogic,HerbertSpencer's PrinciplesofSociology,
among otherthings,used to set up threerequirementsfortranslation:
fidelity,lucidity,and beauty-well, to give up the sound effect(on
which more later) fora closer translationof the contentof his three
criteria,let us say: fidelity,fluency,and elegance forwhat Yen Fu
called shinn,dar, yea (ft, X, f). But the thirdrequirement,namely,
elegance, is not always valid. Suppose at a court trial,forexample, a
man is sued forhaving said in English: "You are a damn fool," and
the Chinese court interpreterrendersit as: Nii sh ig heenbu jyhhuey
Jk), the translationhas no doubt gained
de ren (f - i4F i7
109

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110

YUEN REN CHAO

in elegance, but will certainlynot be a faithfultranslationof the original and mighteven affectthe outcome of the case. As forthe second
requirement,that of fluency,it is generallya desirable quality in a
discourse,as forexample when an interpretertranslatesforthe doctor
theinarticulateor incoherentspeech ofa sick or injuredperson. However,in the case ofa novelistor dramatistwho is portrayingdifferences
in expressivenessin the speech ofhis
in personalityby the differences
characters,it will of course not do to translateall the dialogues with
equal clarityand fluency.
Thus, we have to come back to the firstfactor,namely,fidelity,as
the main desideratumin translation.But beforeI take up the various
dimensionsof fidelityI must firstraise the question as to the nature
and size of the unit to be translated.The materialto be translatedmay
be a book, a poem, a dialogue in a play, or a speech, and the medium
in which it is to be translatedmay be eitherwrittenor spoken. The
size may vary anywherefroma word to a whole encyclopedia. One
importantaspect ofthe translationalsituationis thatlanguage, whether in theformoflive speech or in theformofwrittentext,is not apart
fromthe restoflife,but formsa part oflife.This truismwould hardly
need repeatingifit were not forthe factthatstudents,and sometimes
even we linguists,oftenforgetit and treatlanguage as ifit were somethingsui generis.But when you translatea text,it is always in a context,and when you translatesomethingspoken, it is always spoken in
a situation.
In this connection, attentionshould be called to the interesting
borderlinephenomena of language and non-linguisticsymbolicbehavior,such as voice quality,intonation,'gesture,and so forth.If the
same desired effectis to be attained,sometimesa word or a sentence
in one language mayhave to be "translated,"so to speak, by a gesture.
For example, in a certain situationan English sentence:
know

I
don't

may betterbe translatedinto French by a shrugof the shoulders than

by the words Je ne sais pas spoken in any French intonation.On one
occasion, when I was givinga lecture in Chinese to a Japanese audi1 That is, in so faras pitch characteristics
are not a part ofthephonemicsystemof the
language being used.

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FIDELITY

IN TRANSLATION

111

ence and punctuated the ends of paragraphs with pauses, my interpreterinto Japanese translatedmy pauses into sh-, thatis, a sort of
s or sh, with the air drawn in, as he rose froma go9 bow. Now is this
language? If not, then we have a translationof language into nonlanguage. Again, in the so-called simultaneoustranslationsetup at the
United Nations, the majorityof the interpretersare quite good in the
totalfidelityof theirtranslations.At one time,one interpreterforthe
Soviet Union, who was an Americancitizen,was so good in rendering
the exact effectof the speeches that he constantlyreceived lettersof
complaint,accusing him of unpatriotismor even of treason. It was of
course simplyhis job, and if he did not do it somebody else could.
It was not recorded,however,when a certaindelegate fromthe Soviet
Union emphasized his point by puttinghis shoe on the table,whether
his interpreteron his part also put his shoe on the table.
To returnto the question of the size of the unit to translate,thereis
no translationat the level of singlephonemes. A distinctionis usually
made between translationand transliteration.For example,when Oxford appears as Nioujin (* ) "Ox-ford," it is translation,while
New Yorkas Neou'iue (a1Lp) 2 iS transliteration.But when Cambridge
is rendered as Jiannchyau(011fr),it is half transliterated3and half
forDragunov is the same
translated.Similarly,Longguoofu(W):)
thing in reverse,namely, with the firstpart in translationand the
second part in transliteration.
A furtherdistinctionis usually made between transliterationand
transcription.Transliterationin the strict sense is the conversion
fromthe elementsof the writingsystemof one language into those of
another,whethersystematicallyor haphazardlyad hoc.For example,
when wordsin Cyrillicor Greeklettersare spelt in Roman letters,it is
transliteration.But when English words are writtenin Japanese kana
according to certain rules of writingthe sounds (as opposed to the
spelling) of English words, it is transcription.For writingsystemsin
which the graphicunit is the syllabicmorpheme,such as the Chinese,
rules of both transliterationand transcriptionwill be rathercomplicated to establish, whence the great divergence in writingforeign
names in characters.Add to this the divergencein the dialects of the
2 .Yaoyeukin standard Cantonese, but pronounced Niouyoakin another southern
dialect, presumablyspoken by the original transliterator
of this name.
3 3IIJin Cantonese is kimm.

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YUEN REN CHAO

112

writersand the result is even more complicated. I used to know the

name of the famous English natural philosopher as #X, which is
Nayduan in Mandarin. It was not untilmanyyearslater thatI learned
that in some variety of Cantonese the characters are pronounced
Noaytoan,being a fairapproximationto the Germanpronunciationof
the name Newton.Effortshave been made, in which I have takenpart,
to establishequivalences between syllabictypesin Westernlanguages
and Chinese charactersfor at least a one-way consistent system of
but because
transcriptionof sounds, ifnot a systemof transliteration,
of considerationsof elegance and compatibilityin length (see below
on sound effects),no systemhas yet been adopted eitherofficiallyor
in practice. A somewhat unimportantformof transliterationis the
conversion of one formof writinginto similar-shaped elements of
anothersystemofwriting,called by C. J. Catford"graphologicaltranslation." For example:
Original

CHYTHI4C

Graphological Translation

CHYTHNK

Transliteration

SPUTNIK4

Another example is in the name of the honor societyin orientallanguages at the Universityof California.Because Chinese and Japanese
are the major languages of the Orient, its name in Greek letters is
"Phi Theta," thatis, rP El3.Trivial as such examples are, graphological translationmay be of increasingimportancein view of the possibilityofgraphicalscanningin machine translationand othermechanical treatmentof writtentext.
Translation proper begins when we deal with meaningfulunits
frommorphemesand words on. While everyoneis more or less aware
of the multiplicityof meanings for the same word, translatorsoften
forgetthatthe levels of units betweenlanguages need not always correspond. For example, while Western translatorsusually render correctlyeach characterin classical Chinese into one word or one morpheme, as in yii wei (J?L) "take (it) to be," suoo yii (JAJi1)"wherewith," swei ran (AM) "although (it is) so," theyoftenovertranslate
when handling modern Chinese, in which many compounds should
4 C. J. Catford,
A LinguisticTheoryof Translation(Oxford,1965), p. 66.

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FIDELITY

IN TRANSLATION

113

be translatedas single words. Thus, the formsin the preceding examples would be yiiwei "to think (mistakenly)," suooyii"therefore,"
sweiran "'although." As to the multiplicityof meanings for the same
word, it is usually a safe guide, as I. A. Richards has observed (in a
conversationwiththewriter),to tellwhetherthe same word occurring
in different
places is to be translatedinto the same word or different
words by noting whetherthe meanings come under the same numbered definitionin a monolingual dictionary.For instance, the word
eenice"under numberone goes into Germanfein, under numbertwo
into Germanhuibsch;
or, again, theword "state," under numberone is
German Zustand, under number two, Staat. This is of course not to
imply that one language is more ambiguous than the other, since it
worksboth ways. Thus, we have:
Chinese

English

tzuoh(1i )

do

shyy(JO)

make

jiaw (lJ)

call

in which tzuohis ambiguously "edo" or "emake"and jiaw is ambiguously "make" or "ecall,"while "emake"is ambiguouslytzuoh,shyy,or
jiaw. Similarly,we have thefollowingchain ambiguities:
(OPM)
chyngshyng

tyaujiann
({f]11)
wuhjiann(*fq4)
muhdih(1 ")

condition(s)

article
(s)
object(s)
objective(s)

The most specifickind of context in which a word or a sentence

occurs is that of an actual instance of occurrencein a situation.This
constituteswhat is in the terminologyof communicationtheory a
tokenof the word or sentence as a type.Thus, when Mencius interviewed King Huey of Liang and the king said: "Soou _Q(Sir) !"I the
word soou (which happened also to be a one-word sentence) was a
5 Probablynot as blunt as "Old man!" or as deferentialas Legge's "Venerable sir!"

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YUEN REN CHAO

tokenof the typesoou.Because philologistsare chieflyconcernedwith

the analysis of actual texts in specific contexts,while linguists are
primarilyinterestedin typicalformsin general,I oftencharacterizethe
differencebetween the two disciplines by saying thatphilologyis the
study of tokensand thatlinguisticsis the studyof types.Translation
of a historicaltextis then the translationof a tokenand should, after
adequate researchin the context,yield a definitivetranslationof the
original.This is, however,only true in so faras the interpretationof
the originalis concerned. Since the user of the translatinglanguage
and the heareror reader may each varyas to his own backgroundand
as to the circumstancesof hearing or reading, theremay still be the
necessityof differencesin the translationeven for the same specific
text. Hence the controversiesover the old versus the new versionsof
the ChristianBible, since to readers of the older generationthe Authorized,or Douay Rheims,versionwill have verydefiniteassociations
and overtoneswhich theymiss in the modernversions.On the other
hand, the new generationmay possibly get betterapproximationsto
the effectofthe originalfroma modernversion,so its defendersclaim,
than froman old version,since it never grew up with it in the first
place.
So much for the problems of size in translation.Now, to examine
more closely the various dimensionsoffidelity,one importantdimension is that on the scale of semanticversus functionalfidelity.Is the
translationto tell what the originalmeans, or is the translationto do
whattheoriginaldoes in thegivensituationofuse? As an extremecase
of purelyfunctionaltranslation,withzero degree of semanticfidelity,
I shall cite the example of Dr. P. C. Chang's interpretingof the lecturesby the famousfemaleimpersonatorMei Lan-fang.This was how
it went at the beginningof one of Mei's lectures in 193o:
Mei: "Sheaudih jehshie ryhtzchernggehweyinchynjauday, jensh
gaanshieh de heen." (/1>AZ IIiE -TJfN*iW&849 j)
Chang: "The fundamentalprinciple of Chinese drama is simplicity
itself."
and so it went on forthe rest of the hour.
But as examples of translationin a more serious sense, take the
sentence: Ne vousderangezpas, je vousen pris! A semantictranslation
of it into English mightbe "Do not disturb yourself,I pray you!"
while a functionaltranslationmightbe simply"Please don't bother!"

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FIDELITY

IN TRANSLATION

115

The second translationis functionalbecause that is what one would

say in English under the same circumstances.But ifwe look closer at
the constituentsbeing translatedin this and in fact any other material for translation,we shall find that the differencebetween the
semanticand the functionalis a matterof degree. To be sure, there
would be no point in equating derangezto "derange" since thatwould
be giving the etymologicalcognate and not translating.But a close
semantictranslationcould be "disturb yourself."On the otherhand,
"I request you" for je vous en pris is closer semantically,while
eeplease" is functionallywhat one would more likely say in cases
whereone would sayje vousenpris. But isn't themeaningofa word in
a contextor in factisn't the meaningofany linguisticformthatwhich
one would normallysay under those circumstances?If so, then the
best semanticfitin a translationwill have to be also functionallythe
most suitable to use. The idea of semantic translation,however,is
not completely without meaning-no pun intended. By semantic
translationone usuallyrefersto themostcommonlymetwithmeaning
of a word, and, otherthingsbeing equal, to the etymologicallyearlier
meaning.This is again a matterofdegree, since all semanticmeaning
is in one sense functional.
Correlatedhighly,thoughnotidentical,withthesemantic-functional
dimension, is that of literal versus idiomatictranslation.The term
literal is a misnomer,since it would seem to mean transliteration.In
or
actual usage, of course, a literaltranslationmeans a word-for-word
translation.The sign TsyyLuh Bu Tong (!t
morpheme-for-morpheme
WTZ3) says literally"This road doesn't go through,"but the idiomatic equivalentis "Not a Through Street" (or "No Thoroughfare"
in England). Jau Tie Jih Sy (MANOPI?) says literally"Signs Pasted
(will be) ImmediatelyTorn," but is idiomaticallyequivalentto "Post
No Bills." From anotherpoint ofview a literaltranslationmay also be
regarded as a fine-grainedtranslation,but not necessarily of high
overallfidelityifit is not idiomaticor functionallymisleading.In this
literal-idiomaticdimension there are also differencesof degree on a
sliding scale. Thus, between the French and the English formsof
signs about smoking,thereare thefollowingpossible steps to consider:
Prierede ne pas fumer
"Prayer of not a step to smoke"
"Request of not smoking"

Original
Literal translation
Grammaticalbut not idiomatic

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YUEN REN CHAO

"eNosmoking,please"
"eNosmoking"

Idiomaticallyacceptable
The usual sign

There is one usage by which a literal translationis applied to a

smootherformthan a word-for-word
translation.To quote again from
Catford,6adding a comparisonwith Chinese, we have:
It's rainingcats and dogs
Original
I1 est pleuvant chats et chiens
Word-for-wordtr.
I1 pleut des chats et des chiens. Literal tr.
Free (idiom.) tr.
I1 pleut a verse.
Chinese: Ta sh shiahj mhau her gooumen. {fIi
m,a5MT .
Shiahj mhau goou ne.
ill"D.
(Yeu dah de jeanjyr sh) shiah- (ff i iDh
) T
mhau shiah goou le.
ri T A.
W -kT.-Il .
Chingpern dah-yeu le.

English:
French:

Note that the French and the Chinese happen to agree literally,too.
A word of warningshould be said here against the strongtemptation to use an interestingliteraltranslationat the cost offidelityin the
other dimensions. If a translationis both.literal and idiomatic,well
and good, as in the French and Chinese above. Again, in: Ta bu hwai
hao-yihAT-,V-02) "He doesn't harborgood intentions,"the equating ofhwai with"harbor" is veryapt. When "The styleis the man" is
translatedas Wen ru chyiren (IZA02*kA),it is fairlyclose, thoughthe
Chinese is in wenyan,while the English is neutral in that respect.
is equated to "Ridiculous!"
When, however, Shiawhuah! (tE!)
then thereare problems.For while the Chinese can be used eitheras
non-politeor as insultinglanguage, the English can onlybe the latter
if applied to the person being spoken to. Even more subtle are the
shades of differencesbetween donq0syyle7(IMET)
and "frozen to
death." Most of the time,both are used eitherin theliteralsense or as
a hyperboleand the Chinese formwithor withoutneutraltone can be
used eitherway too. But depending upon context,one may be idiomatic in one but not in the otherlanguage.
A veryimportantdimensionoffidelitywhich translatorsoftennegor the relativefamillect is comparabilityinfrequencyof occurrence,
6

Op. cit.,pp. 25-26.

7 A subscribed circle indicates optional neutral tone, that is, either donq-'syyle
or

donq.syyle.

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FIDELITY

IN TRANSLATION

117

iarityof the expressionsin the originaland the translation.Too great

a discrepancyin thisrespectwill affectfidelity,even thoughthe translation is accurate in other respects. As is well known in information
theory,the less oftena thingis talkedabout, the moreit means to talk
about it. Sometimesthe verythingsone talksabout may be a familiar
thingin one cultureand strangeand exotic in another.In such a case,
ifthe thingis the main topic of the discourse, it cannot be helped. An
account of a game in the World Series can veryeasily be translated
into Japanese, but would make poor reading in Chinese, in which
terms about soccer are heard every day, but not those of baseball.
However, in cases where a familiarexpression is used casually as a
figureof
figureof speech, then sometimesa translationby a different
speech of the same importbut witha comparabledegree offamiliarity
will result in a higher degree of overall fidelitythan an apparently
faithfultranslationwhich is veryunfamiliar.For example, to speak of
reachingthe thirdbase mightbe rendered,in Chinese, as reachingthe
"elisteningstage" in a game of mahjong, where the apparently"free"
translationhas greater fidelity,because it is a better match in the
frequencyof occurrence. Technically, the third base is in Chinese
But at the lecture on these problems of transladihsan leei (
tion, at which there were probably thirtyor fortyChinese-speaking
membersof the audience, I asked how manyhad heard the expression
dihsan leei and not one of themraised his hand. My daughter,Rulan
Pian, was in the audience, but did not raise her hand, because she had
just learned the termthat same afternoon,as I had myself.
Beforecontinuingwith the considerationof the other dimensions,
let us consider fora momentone aspect of the translationwhich has
to do with the dimension of size, literalness,and frequency,namely
the phenomenon of calque, or translation borrowing. In ordinary
borrowingfromone language to another,a foreignword or expression
is takenoverand adapted to the phonemes of theborrowinglanguage,
as forexample,English menu ['meniu] or ['meiniu] fromFrench menu
In such
fromCantonese dzaapsby(94).
[many],or English chopsuey
cases, whetherthereis a change ofmeaningor not-and usually there
is-no translationis involved.In translationborrowing,on the other
hand, one translatesthe constituentparts of foreignwords and makes
up new combinations,thus formingneologisms. For example, the
is Fernsprecher,
tele-translatedas fern-and
Germannoun fortelephone

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YUEN REN CHAO

-phonefreelytranslatedas -sprecher.On the other hand, in the verb

thereis directborrowingfromthe Greek (except forthe
telephonieren,
addition of the German verbal suffix).Another example is German
Einfluss,fromLatin in + fluens.Sometimes,especially in translation
borrowingsof phrases instead of compound words, the borrowings
maybe so naturalizedthatmostusers are hardlyaware of theirforeign
origin. Examples are: "That goes withoutsaying" < Ca va sans dire,
or the colloquial "How goes it?" < Wie geht's?"Long time no see,"
however,is not a translationborrowing,since Hao jeou bujiann le (AT
tt FAT), if translation-borrowed,
would come out as "Good long
not met."
Much more trickyare what I call skewed translationborrowings.
By a skewed translationborrowingI mean one in which you translate
a foreignword with meanings A, B, C, D, etc. with a certain native
word for meaning A and then, instead of choosing other suitable
words forthe othermeaningsB, C, D, etc.,just go on using the same
native word forA mechanicallywheneveryou see the foreignword.
The resultamounts to an importationof foreignmeaningswhich the
native word never had before. Present-dayChinese is full of such
skewed translationborrowings,such as:
weimiaw(at;)
chyangdiaw(OI3)
chingsuann(X-)
liisheangde(t"J)

Old meaning
Added meaning
"delicate (of things)'" "delicate (of
situations)"
"stress (in pronuncia- "to emphasize"
tions)"
"liquidate (accounts)" "liquidate (persons)"
"ideal (adj. of idea)" "ideal (perfect)"

Such borrowingsalways take timebeforetheyare quite naturalized

and are mostly limited to journalistic language or discourse in a
journalistic style.Some of the new ones appearing in headlines, especially in overseas Chinese newspapers,are hardlyintelligiblewithout
reading on in the textor retranslatingtheminto the source language.
For example, one headline says that the crime rate in San Francisco
had a shihjiuhshinqde(SftOi")
decrease last month.8It made no
sense to me until I realized thatshihjiuhshinqde
did not mean "theatrical," but "dramatic": therewas a dramaticdecrease in crime rate.
8 TheChinese
World,
San Francisco,
February
14, 1968.

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FIDELITY

IN TRANSLATION

119

Anothernews item,about a manifestoconcerningthe hydrogenbomb

signed by BertrandRussell, AlbertEinstein, and others,said in Chinese: "Ever since the tests at Bikini, lianghao de dangjyu (AXIT;
ri) -excellent administrators-unanimously have pointed out the
danger that a war of hydrogenbombs can destroythe whole of mankind."9 I had to read the column twicebeforeI realized thatwhat they
called lianghao de dangjyu was a skewed translationborrowingof
e'good authorities,"good authoritieshave pointed out etc. To be sure,
this sort of lazy man's translationis constantlybeing committedby
studentsin foreignlanguage classrooms.But when a new meaningbecomes established,even thoughthroughforeigninfluence,it becomes
part of the language-shall I say lingo?-whether you like it or not.
for"on good authority"is
But I am sure thatexcellentadministrators
still unintelligibleat the present stage.
To continue with the considerationof dimensions of fidelity,another dimension in which a translatormay fall into the trap of what
may be called false fidelityis the presence of obligatorycategoriesin
languages. A noun in English has to be either singular or plural, a
verb eitherpresentor past. A friendin German has to be eithermale
or female.A cousin in Chinese has to be not only eithermale or female but also eitheron the father'sside or on themother'sside, either
older or youngerthan oneself.What a translatorhas to do is ofcourse
to omit the obligatorydistinctions,whetherlexical or grammatical,if
theyare not obligatoryin the translatinglanguage and iftheyare not
relevantin the context.For instance,Chinese beau (a) is an adjective
surnamesand mey(X) is a femalerelativeof
forrelativesof different
the same generationyoungerthan oneself.10But if the obligatorydistinctionsdo not matterin a certain context, then the combination
beaumeycan verywell be undertranslatedsimplyas "cousin," otherwise one would have to say thingslike: "Good morning,my femalecousin-on-mother's-or-paternal-aunt's-side-younger-than-myself!"
Again, in Chinese, as in Russian, to be marriedis one word formen
wordforwomen(iah X, 3amyaceM).
(cheu-, ameHaT)and a different
Once, when I was interpretinga lectureby Dora Black in Peking,she
said somethingabout unmarriedmen and unmarriedwomen, and I
9 The ChineseWorld,San Francisco,July 11, 1955.
10For detailson these terms,see Y. R. Chao, "Chinese Terms ofAddress," Language
32(1956) .1.217-241.

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YUEN REN CHAO

got the words cheuand jiah mixed up and came out with meiyeou
jiah

denanren
genmeiyeou
cheudeneuren
M
407 tt*J).
(9 t UIflJ
at this,andwhenthe
Of coursetheaudienceroaredwithlaughter
speaker
waspuzzledandaskedmewhattheywerelaughing
about,all
toher,"It'll taketoolong
I coulddo at themoment
wastowhisper
now,I'll havetoexplainit toyouafterwards."
andobviouscasesof
It is easyenoughtotakecareofsuchstriking
butit is theless obviouscasesthataremore
obligatory
categories,
Take theinnocenttricky
and moreeasilymisleadthetranslator.
sentence:"He puton hishatandwenton his
lookingor sounding
or a Chinese
way."In ninecasesout often,a French,a German,
it "faithfully"
student
ofEnglishwouldtranslate
withthepronoun
themesifhe weretostartcomposing
"his"in bothplaces,whereas
hewouldprobably
sageinhisownlanguage,
sayinChinese,
justsay:
Ta daylemawtz
tzooule
({IT4iFTT).11
is written
and
ofobligatory
Ofcourseifovertranslation
categories
as a
getsreadon a largescale,it can establish
a newusage,at first
thenas an acceptednewstyle.Thus,starting
withan
neologism,
oftheusesoftenseinEnglish,
a Chinesetransimperfect
knowledge
thesuffix
latoraddsmechanically
le whenever
he seesa verbin the
inhisowntalkandwriting
hedoesnotusethe
pastform,
eventhough
suffix
le in manyinstances
ofreference
to thepast.Again,he usesa
preposition
bey(R) for"by"whenever
he seesa passivevoicein the
ofthefactthatChinese
English
verb,unaware
verbshavenovoiceand
thedirection
ofactionofa verbworkseitherway,depending
upon
context,
andalsoforgetting
thatthepreposition
beyforpassiveaction
is usedonlybefore
verbswithunfavorable
meanings.
However,
once
thissortoftranslatese
is written
often
enough,
itgetstobe written
in
evenwhenno translation
originals,
is involved.
Whenthishappens,
it constitutes
whatin linguistics
is knownas structural
borrowing,
thatis,instead
ofborrowing
specific
wordsorphrases
discussed
above,
oneborrows
functional
(Tempty")
wordsora wholetypeofstructure.
So nowadays,
onesuffers
notonlyscolding
andbeating
butalsobeing
praisedorrewarded.
Besidesthetranslation
or omission
ofobligatory
categories,
there
11 In my translationof ThroughtheLooking-Glass,in which the Red Queen objected
to Alice's sayingthatshe had lost her way because all thewaysbelonged to the queen, I
had of course to render"her" literallyin order to make the point.

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FIDELITY

IN TRANSLATION

121

is also the natural tendency, unless one is on guard against it, to

translatenoun fornoun, verbforverb,or in the case ofphrases, nominal fornominal expressions,verbal forverbal expressions,etc. Other
thingsbeing equal, this will of course be a contributingfactortoward
fidelity.But since other thingsare never equal, theymust all be considered and given no more than proper weight. For example, quelle
merveille!is a nominal expression,but to renderit as "ewhatmarvel!"
would be too strong,nor is it comparable in the dimension of frequency ofoccurrence.Instead, "how marvelous!" would have a higher
degree of overall fidelity,even though it is an adjectival and not a
nominal expression.Likewise, the adjectival phrase jen taoyann(4311I
Mk)is bettertranslatedby the nominalphrase "what a nuisance" than
the adjectival phrase "how annoying." So is jen haowal (RXAib,),
an adjectival phrase, better translatedby the nominal phrase "what
fun,"whereasthecorrespondingadjectivalphrase "how funny"would
be entirelywrong. In Luen daw nii le (iJO T) "It's your turn
now," luen is a verb and "turn" a noun. In Nah sh shyunhwande (M
"It's a vicious circle," shyunuwande is an adjective and
;ffig")
e'circle" a noun, with "vicious" understood in the Chinese. A translator would be stronglytemptedto translatekeeren(HfA), which has
a nominalroot,as "personable," which,however,is not as accurate as
"Clovable,"with a verbal root.
Sometimes, especially in cliches and proverbs, the most faithful
structure.In Wooterng(*
translationwill be of an entirelydifferent
J;) woois subject,but in "It hurts" the "me (understood)" is object.
Chiiyeoutsyylii ( 1t3M) is a whole sentencein wenyan,but used in
speech as an adjective and should be translatedas "ridiculous." "I
wish" followedby a contrary-to-fact
clause could be equated to Woo
yuannyih... , as in Wooyuannyihnii byenemmyanqllong (P 4tB
V11

)LM*JL)

"I wishyouwerenotquiteso deaf,"buta closertrans-

lation is . . . (nah) dwo hao (. . . [9] $X), preceded optionally by

Huu toursherwoei(AftM)
wooyuannyih.
lit. "Tiger's head, snake's
tail" is a phrase of two nominal expressions; its equivalent "anticlimax" is one noun. Jiin-shanqtian hua (XIi4)
and "carrying
coals to Newcastle" are fairlyclose in structure,but its counterpartin
Chinese sheue-liisonq tann (M?2),
a verbal phrase, has its best
equivalent in "A friendin need is a friendindeed," which is a full
sentence.

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122

YUEN REN CHAO

Sometimes,not only the formclasses do not need to correspond,

categoriesoflinguisticelementsmay turn
but even radicallydifferent
out to be the best translationalequivalent. There is a very common
grammaticalformin Chinese consistingofa predicate,whichmaybe a
verb or an adjective, followedby the verb "to be" sh(yh) (k), then
followedby a repetitionof the same predicate,as in hao sh hao (OAf
"
X). One can analyze this as (as forbeing) good, (it) is good." But
this is reallyexplainingthe Chinese to a studentof the language and
not actuallytranslatingit. How thenwould you translatesentencesof
this type? Well, you translatethis Chinese formulaof words into an
intonationin English. The English intonationwhich fitsthis Chinese
formulabest is what Harold E. Palmer'2 calls "the swan," so-called
because its time-pitchgraph makes a double turn like the neck of a
swan. The plain statementHao means "It's good": but in the form
Hao sh hao it means "It's good ,-, (but)." It is ofcourse also possible
to render this formulaby such phrases as "to be sure," or the more
colloquial "all right,"as in "(It's good) all right-'i" (witha low rising
intonation),but the swan intonationis about as faithfula translation
of the Chinese formulaas any translationby the use of words. In extreme cases, language is even translatedby non-language, such as
gesture,as mentionedabove.
Similarto theproblemofobligatorycategories,thereis theproblem
of translatingthe endless varietiesin differentcultures of the subcategoriesof thingsand qualities, units of measure,moneyand coinage, names of colors, and the very names of numbers themselves.
English has no juotz (AT3) "table" - "desk"; no shia (M) "shrimp"
- e'prawn" - "lobster"; no che (*), since "vehicle" would be out of
stylein mostcontexts;no ta (41I),thoughcurrentWesternizedwriting
t; thereis not even ren (A), and "man" often
differentiates
{&: Wi3:
has to serve as "woman." When you call a woman huay-ren(VWA)
you can neither call her "bad woman," nor "bad man," and "bad
person" would again be out of style,and you may have to settle for
"bad girl." There are fourequally commonauxiliaryverbsin Chinese:

equiva, #), withoverlapping

and huey(28, -IfJ
neng,keen,keeyii,
I,

lences with English "can" and "may," with keen equatable to the
awkwardand thereforeless frequentlyused "be willingto." There is
12 For furtherdetails,see CYYY (Ts'ai Yiuan-p'ei Commemorative
Volume) 1933, p.
148. An example ofYiddish intonationas a grammaticalformis foundin Catford,p. 54.

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FIDELITY

IN TRANSLATION

123

only one word "hot" forboth tanq (X) fortemperatureand lah (4)
forthe taste. Among Chinese dialects, the sentence in Mandarin: Jeh
tang taytyan,keeshbu gowshian (5'tks;,
7%F Jft.) "This soup
is too sweet,but not tastyenough" would be difficultto translateinto
Cantonese withoutsome circumlocution,as both tyanand shian would
be called dhim (a) in Cantonese. In names of colors there is no
Tbrown" in Chinese and thereis no ching (W) in English. Many languages have no word fora length comparable to a yard,and the conception of teen-age would not be translatableunless the language
happens to have a common featurefromthirteento nineteen. It is
easy enough to translatesuch items, even with a high degree of accuracy, if it is a matterof givingthe mathematical,physical, or economic equivalents.But since such expressionsare oftenused forother
than theirpurelyquantitativeimport,fidelityin the otherdimensions
such as function,idiom, frequency,etc. will have greaterweight.For
instance,fora language withno word fordozen, "a couple of dozen"
will appear betteras "a couple of tens" than as "about twenty-four."
Incidentally,such linguisticand cultural differencessometimeseven
affectwhollynon-linguisticmatters.Thus, it is not only oftendifficult
to translate"quarter" into a language that has a dollar-likeunit but
divides it into fivetwenty-cent
pieces, but the existenceof the quarter
(or 20-cent piece, as the case may be) actually affectsthe prices of
things that can be convenientlysold over the counter-and in slot
machines!-so that the dimensionof frequencywill be affectedin the
translationof such items.Nobody would have said pas un sou if there
had not been such a coin as the sou. Nobody would have said meiyeou
ig benqtz(!1+) if therehad not been such a coin as the square-holed
'tcash."
Style is another dimension in which too much discrepancy will
obviouslyaffectthe fidelityof translation.One mayjazz up serious literatureinto modern slang, but thatwould be parody and not translation. Today's stylein one language can ofcourse be best translatedin
today's stylein another,especiallyif the subject is one which is being
talkedabout today. If it is a textofa past age, the translationleads to
problems. I have already mentioned the problemsinvolved in translating the Bible, and whole treatiseshave been writtenabout them.
For example, that very readable book, Trials of the Translator by
Ronald Knox (New York, 1949), is mainlyconcernedwithsuch prob-

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124

YUEN REN CHAO

lems. As forthe age of thelanguages involved,thereis no necessity,or

even special virtue,in matchingperiod with period. Must one, for
example, translate The Divine Comedyin the language of The Canterbury Tales? If such a translationalready exists in its own right,well
and good, but there is no special virtue as to fidelityin matching
periods as such. Moreover,what if the text to be translated,say the
Chinese classics, was writtenlong before the age of the translating
language, say beforetheformationofwhatmightbe called the English
language? The wise course in such a case, and this is the course that
has been commonlyadopted by most translatorsof the older texts,is
to write in as timelessa style as possible. This practice, to be sure,
may involve a loss of color and life,but it will at least be free from
suggestingthe wrongcolor. It is true thatin the long run what seems
timelessto the translatorof one age will eventuallybe dated and that
is why there had to be retranslationsof importantworks,as people
have done with the Bible and as John Ciardi has been doing with his
"Englishment" of theParadiso.i3The importantthingabout handling
the older textsis that one should at least avoid the use of local color
and narrowlydated expressions.For nothinggets as easily offcolor as
thatwhich is fullof local color and nothingso quickly out of date as
that which is rightup to date.
An extremelyimportantbut oftenneglected dimensionoffidelityis
whatmightbe called the sound effectsof the language. I referto such
and, in the case ofverse,meter,rhyme,
elementsas length,symmetry,
and otherprosodic elements.Now, since the semanticrange ofwords
and the obligatorycategories of two languages never coincide, if all
that is in the original has to be accounted for, the translationwill
necessarilybe longer; but in tryingto include everythingand not to
lose anythingin the original,the translatorwill unavoidablyadd extraneouselementsbecause ofoverlappingcategoriesin the translating
language. In practice, therefore,a translatorwill have to make a compromisebetween the sins of omission and the sins of commissionand
tryto take into account all the dimensions of fidelity,including that
of aimingat comparabilityin length.Take the French expression for
talkingnonsense etpatati etpatata. If you translateit as "gibberish,"
it will sound ratherweakish; "yak yak" is better,since it has a more
similarpattern,and "yaketyyakety"will be even closer to the sound
13 To

be published, according to a letterfromMr. Ciardi, in 1968 or 1969.

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FIDELITY

IN TRANSLATION

125

effectsof the French etpatati etpatata. Translating Woodeshinputelas "My heart palpitates"
putelde tiaw (
seems to givea prettyclose sound effect,but "My heartgoes thumpety
thump" has the advantage of comparabilityin length and style. To
quote fromJohn Ciardi:14
Everywordhas a certainmuscularity.
That is to say,it involvescertain
is likelyto linger
speechmuscles.Certainlyanymanwhois word-sensitive
overthedifference
betweenthelong-drawn
Italiancarinaand thecommon,
thoughimprecise,Americanusage "cute" whenapplied to an attractive
child.The physicalgesturesthetwowordsinviteare at leastas different
as
the Italianchild's goodbyewave ("Fa CUaO,
carina") withthepalm of the
hand up, and theAmericanchild's ("Wave bye-bye")withthebackofthe
hand up.
Even streetnames have to be translatedwith due regard to comparabilityin length.One writer,in makingfunof the streetname "Avenue
of the Americas," says: "Yes, this is the Street-of-the-Great-LeapForward-of-our-glorious
-People's -Commune-System-over-the-Capibut everybodyhere still calls it Sixth
talist-Butchers-of-the-West,
Avenue." To keep on the same theme,it is reportedthat the streetin
Peking on which the Russian embassyis situated has been renamed
"Anti-RevisionistAvenue": nine syllables. But in an actual photograph of the new streetsign thatI saw in TheNew YorkTimes,it says:
BUE)G59only threesyllables.Proverbsand commonsayingsare often
equatable between one language and another,preferablywith similar
rhythmiceffects.For example, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap" goes
quite well into Chinese as Jonqgua der gua, jonq dow der dow (MAIt
*h11D, * i? ), which says somethinglike "Plant melons (and you)
get melons; plant beans (and you) get beans."
In translatingsongs to be sung to the same melody,the requirement
of sound effectsis of course even more strict.Take, for example, the
firsttwo lines of Schubert's Erlkonig:
Wer
"Who

rei so spat durch

tet
Nacht
rides +there so late through night

-Es -ist
+der Va - ter mit
`e-A +lov - ing fa - ther with

sei - nem
his +young

-und
+so

Kind.
child."

14 SaturdayReview,October 7, 1961.

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-Wind?
+wild?"

YUEN REN CHAO

126

Here the words marked+ and - are those which have been added or
omitted,respectively,forreasons ofrhymeand rhythm.(Note also the
bad stresspatternin "his young.")
The preceding is still a fairlyclose translation. In the HaidenRoslein, however, the demands of rhymeand rhythmare so strong
thatthereis even no point in countingthe pluses and minuses,as can
be seen in the opening lines:
Sah
"Once

ein Knab'
a boy

ein
a

Ros - lein steh'n,

wild - rose spied,"

Ros - lein auf der Hai

the hedge-row grow "In
so jung
War
"Fresh in all

den,
ing,"

und mor - gen schon,

her youthful pride,"

er schnell, es nah zu seh'n,

Lief
"When her beau - ties he de-scried,"
Sah's
"eJoy

mit
vie - len Freu his heart was glow in

den.
ing."'15

At the otherextreme,as examples ofsacrificeofsound forthe sense

is the usual typeof translationof classical Chinese verse,such as that
of the Bookof Odesby JamesLegge or T'ang poems by ArthurWaley,
in which the number of syllables is three or four times that of the
original.While themessage and imageryis usually verywell conveyed
in such translations,theygive the feeling,to us who wereraised in the
concise and rhythmicswing of the shorterlines, of big mouthfulsof
dough, if indeed not quite weyru jyau lah (WM09d).
The morerhythmicalis, however,not necessarilythemore concise.
Take the no spittingnotice on trainsof the Shanghai-NankingRailway. The Chinese says:
Swei chuh tuu-tarn,
Tzueyweieh-shyi.
Jih ree renyann,
15

RAMAU
JRitiii;I
X VAJ

"Everywherespit,
Most bad habit.
It is loathsome

Schirmer'sLibraryed., Vol. 343, Eng. tr. Th. Baker, 1895, 1923, pp. 214, 228.

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Yow ay weysheng.
Chejannyuehtair,
You shiu chingjye.

127

IN TRANSLATION

FIDELITY

3IWA*I,
$X Jqfl
1

And bad forhealth.

Stations,platforms,
Must keep clean, neat.

Taangyeouweifann, #11342;09Ifyouviolate,
We willrebuke."
Miannchyh
mohguay. MIRA
thanliteral.Buttheactual
aboveis morerhythmic
The translation
signin Englishsaysin onesentence:
IN

THE

AND

HEALTH

PUBLIC

TO

REQUESTED
SPITTING
WITHIN

OF

INTEREST

IN
THE

CLEANLINESS
PASSENGERS

REFRAIN

THE

TRAINS

STATION'S

ARE

FROM
OR
PREMISES

whichwas runby
To be sure,in theearlydaysof thatrailroad,
ofthecivilized
therewerein theChinesenoticeovertones
foreigners,
thoseuncouthcountry
peoplehowto beinstructing
management
to
ofequalstalking
wasin a language
have,whiletheEnglishversion
in
in noticesis verycommon
forms
equals.Buttheuse ofrhythmic
Chinesein anycase.
between
it is a matter
oftranslation
Englishand
When,however,
books,I didnot
modern
as I didfortheLewisCarroll
spokenChinese,
statesof
havethehandicapofhavingto workwithsuchdisparate
sacofsoundeffects
waseasierwithout
andtherendering
languages,
the
In Through
as muchfidelity
in theotherdimensions.
rificing
I wasablenotonlytomakepointforpoint
especially,
Looking-Glass"6
thesamemeterand
in theplayon wordsbutalso keeppractically
stanza
thefirst
in all theverses.Take,forinstance,
patterns
rhyming
inJabberwocky:
toves
andtheslithy
'Twasbrillig,
Did gyreandgimble
in thewabe.
Allmimsy
weretheborogoves
Andthemomerathsoutgrabe.
itis:
In Mandarin
16 Under the title of TzoouDaw Jinqtz
Lii (*JAJ -Tf), it will formVolume II
San Francisco,1968),
ofReadingsin SayableChinese(AsianLanguagePublications,
lines can be foundon p. 32, lines1-4 (first
wherea betterversionof thefollowing
stanza).

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YUEN REN CHAO

128

/~i~X4~AU01

7k

While this sounds almost like the English-if Jabberwockycan be

called English-all the sounds in it are neverthelesswithinthe phonemic inventoryof the initials,finals,and tones of Mandarin. When
spelt in the National Romanization,it even looks like the English in
places:
Yeou 'tian beirlii,nehshie hwojihjide toutz
Tzay weybialjiinj gorngjiinj berl.
Hao nansell a, nehshie borogoutz,
Hair yeou miade rhatz owdegerl.
And later on, when Humpty Dumpty explains the etymologyof the
difficult
words, it will of course have to come out rightin the translation. For example, ""inthe wabe" is translatedas tzayweybial,since
just as "wabe" comes from"way before," "way behind," and "way
beyond," so does weybialcome fromjeybial, neybial,and waybial,that
is, "this side," "that side," and "outside."
In connectionwith the libertytakenwith the original textfor reasons of rhythm,length,etc. is it legitimateto add what was not in the
original beyond just some necessary fillings?For example, to quote
from ThroughtheLooking-Glassagain, when the Lion asks whether
Alice is animal or vegetableor mineral: donqwuh,jyrwuh,kuanqwuh
(&*, 4?tM, Ii&*) and the Unicorn says she is a monster, the only
natural translationfor the word is guaywuh (*J), which, though
Again, when thepenultimatestanza
quite literal,is an overtranslation.
in the epilogue:
In a Wonderland theylie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summersdie:
is translatedas:

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FIDELITY

129

IN TRANSLATION

Beenlai dou sh menqlii you,

Menqlii kaishin menqlii chour,
Menqlii sueyyuehmenqlii liou:

f
VA

J) 1;1:

lines 2 and 3 in the English say the same thing,while line 2 in the
translationwhich, though it is in the mood of the poem, has been
added rathergratuitously.Perhaps thisovertranslationcould compensate a little for the sin of omission in failingto translatethe initial
lettersin each line of the poem to spell out the name ALICELIDDELL.
Finally,a dimensionoffidelityofpracticalimportwhichhas already
been touched upon brieflyis the situation of use of the originallanguage and thatof the translatinglanguage, and thisofteninvolvesthe
interchangeof language and non-language. In translatingplays from
English into Chinese, I have oftenmet with cases where dialogue has
to be translatedas stage directionand vice versa. There is a Chinese
characterI ! which in certain contextseveryreader will pronounce
as [fiai].Now this involves the use of the "voiced h," a non-existing
sound in thenormallist ofMandarinphonemesand is thereforeon the
borderlineof language and non-language. To put it in English, the
usual practiceis ofcourse simplyto writetheword sigh,whichis then
translatingquasi-language and not ordinary language. One would
then be givinga stage directionin place of givinga translationof the
dialogue. Sometimes, during the act of translatinglive speech, the
situationitselfchanges beforethe translationis finished.Then what
should the translatordo? If he finishesthe translation,he will be
translatinga truesentenceinto a false sentence. If not, what? Here is
what a resourcefulairlinepilot did in announcingan emergencylanding, presumablyon a transatlanticflight.He startswith French:
Attention,mesdameset messieurs.C'est votrecommandant.Attachez
d'urgence.
pour un atterrissage
vos ceinturesde securiteet preparez-vous
Achtung,meineDamen und Herren,hier sprichtihr Flugzeugfiihrer.
und bereitenSie sich aufeiner
Sie ihrenSicherheitsgiurtel
Bitte,befestigen
Notlandungvor.
is A-OK.17
forgetit. Everything
Ladies and gentlemen,
Now is this a translation?And if so, what is the cdegreeof fidelity?
In all the preceding discussions about dimensionsof fidelity,treating themas iftheywere measurable,independentvariables,it mustbe
17 From a

cartoon in Punch, October 19, 1966, p. 577.

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130

YUEN REN CHAO

admittedthattheyare reallyneithermeasurablenor completelyindependent. We are farfromreachinga workablequantitativedefinition

of any of the dimensions,not to speak of formulatinga mathematical
functionwith a view to maximize its value.'8 The present state of
affairsis still what in some of the formaldisciplines is known as the
pre-systematicstage, which is just another way of saying that the
ideas are still half-baked.We are still not much beyond the stage, as
statedbyJ. P. Postgatemorethanfifty
yearsago: "By generalconsent,
though not by universal practice, the prime merit of a translation
proper is Faithfulness,and he is the best translatorwhose work is
nearest to his original."19But since nearnessis a matterof degree,we
are back to the problem of measurementof fidelity-back where we
started.One usefultestis to retranslatethe translationinto the original language and see if one can finda betterfittingequivalentin the
original language. If one can, then the translationis not faithful
enough,as MarkTwain has well demonstrated.This is to be sure only
a testingprocedure and the problem of multidimensionalityis still
withus. But so faras thatis concerned,in what fieldofinquiryis one
not troubledwith the problem of multidimensionality?

18 A beginningin the quantitativestudy of quality is found in John B. Carroll's "An

Experimentin Evaluating the Quality of Translations," Mechanical Translation and
ComputationalLinguistics9.3; 4.55-66 (1966).
19J. P. Postgate, Translationand Translations(London, 1922), p. 3.

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