Cultural Difference And Translation

Being an existing phenomenon, cultural difference is a rather complicatedproblem with rich contents. It is the existence of cultural difference that embodies themultiplicity of language as well as constitutes an obstacle to translation. To translateeffectively between two languages, a translator must not only be well acquainted withthe two language systems, but also deeply comprehend the cultural differencesbetween the two nations. So it is quite necessary to pay much attention to the existingcultural difference and apply different translation methods during translating toeffectively convey the flavor of source language. This paper consists of six chapters.The first chapter is the introduction. It briefly introduces the relationship betweencultural difference and translation, and concludes that it is the existence of culturaldifference that constitutes an obstacle to translation, so special attention should bepaid to the cultural difference to effectively convey the information of the sourcelanguage with the lest loss of the color of source language. The second chapterdiscusses the concept and the features of cultural difference as the background fordealing with the problems in cultural difference. The third chapter proposes that thecolor of source language should be retained and conveyed as much as possiblealthough the cultural difference constitutes the obstruction to the translation. Theeffective rendering should not be made to cater for the taste of target language readerat the price of losing the flavor of source language. As the polestars for the translationwork, the theory and principles of translation are introduced in chapter four. Theequivalent effect translation theory is cited to guide the discussion of the problem ofcultural difference. Four strategies that are mainly used in solving the problems incultural difference are introduced in this chapter. The fifth chapter discusses the waysto solve the problems in cultural difference. In the case of full equivalence, the literaltranslation is the simplest and most effective way while in the case of partialequivalent and non-equivalent, the strategies must be used. The last chaptersuniniarizes the whole paper and illustrates the importance of fully understanding thecultural difference for a true translator.