只有音译才能为目标语言的读者保留丰富的内容，防止误解（Yong Huang）【龙_Loong

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只有音译才能为目标语言的读者保留丰富的内容，防止误解

原标题："Dragon" for "龙": a mistranslation?
（译龙为 dragon 是错误的？）

Yong Huang，2015年2月

According to Wikipedia, "there are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern mythologies, and the Chinese dragon, with counterparts in Japan (namely the Japanese dragon), Korea and other East Asian countries." The two traditions are drastically different in spiritual and cultural significance.

　　（根据维基百科，“龙有两种不同的文化传统：欧洲龙，源于欧洲民间传统，最终与希腊和中东神话有关；另一种是中国龙，在日本、韩国和其他东亚国家都有对应的龙，日本的龙被称为日本龙。”这两种传统在精神和文化意义上有着巨大的不同。）

As somebody on the Internet said, "in contrast to the royal majestic imagery of Chinese 龙 (lóng), the western dragons are often depicted as menacing and devilish troglodytes". Indeed, the Chinese dragon is often depicted as an auspicious animal, capable of bringing in luck and fortune.

　　（正如网上有人所说，“龙（lóng）代表皇家威严的形象，对比之下，西方的龙经常被描绘成威胁和魔鬼般的老顽固”。事实上，中国龙经常被描绘成一种吉祥的动物，能够带来好运和财富。）

Young couples try to have their baby in a year of the dragon, unless the time is too inconvenient. This is so even for a baby girl, if you still believe a fierce dragon can only be associated with a highly agile and muscular Kungfu fighter.

　　（年轻夫妇会尽量在龙年生孩子，除非时间太不方便。即使是一个女婴，也是如此，如果你仍然相信凶猛的龙只能与高度敏捷和肌肉发达的功夫战士联系在一起的话。）

In view of these two complete independent traditions, it's unfortunate that the Chinese character 龙 was used as the translation for "dragon" or its earlier counterpart in the European tradition. Who initiated this translation and when, we don't know. Possibly by an early western missionary to China.

　　（鉴于这两个完全独立的传统，汉字“龙”在欧洲传统中被用作 dragon 或其早期对应物的中文译文。我们不知道是谁在什么时候开始这样翻译的。可能是到中国来的早期西方传教士。）

In his call to "为龙正名" (To rectify the name "Lóng"), Prof. Huang Ji of East China Normal University believes "将‘Dragon’错误翻译成中文词语‘龙’……是从翻译《圣经》开始的。黄佶推断，当时的翻译者可能只考虑到了‘Dragon’和‘龙’在外形的相似之处，而没有考虑到中国文化中代表吉祥喜庆的‘龙’和基督教文化中代表邪恶、诱惑的恶兽‘Dragon’之间的重大区别。" (The incorrect translation of "Dragon" to the Chinese "龙" ... started with the translation of the Bible. Huang Ji suspected that the translator at the time probably only considered the similarity in appearance between "Dragon" and "龙", and not the significant difference between the "龙" that represents good omen and happiness in Chinese culture and the "Dragon" in Christian culture, a vicious beast that represents wickedness and enticement.)

　　（在他的“为龙正名”建议中，华东师范大学教师黄佶认为：“将‘Dragon’错误地翻译成中文词语‘龙’……是从翻译《圣经》开始的。黄佶推断，当时的翻译者可能只考虑到了‘Dragon’和‘龙’在外形的相似之处，而没有考虑到中国文化中代表吉祥喜庆的‘龙’和基督教文化中代表邪恶、诱惑的恶兽‘Dragon’之间的重大区别。”）

He suggested we simply transliterate "龙" to "Loong" (not the pinyin "Long", in order to, I suppose, avoid collision with the common English word "long" and to accommodate existing Latinization of the name of early Chinese emigrants, mostly from the Cantonese-speaking regions, to English-speaking countries).

　　（他建议我们直接音译龙为“Loong”（而不是拼音“Long”，我想是为了避免与常见的英语单词“Long”发生冲突，并适应早期中国移民名字的拉丁化。他们主要来自粤语地区，前往英语国家）。

I think that's the ultimate goal, because in any translation, a word encapsulating much cultural information will be distorted in the word-to-word mapping. Only a transliteration, not translation in its true sense, can preserve the rich content and prevent misconception for the readers of the target language or even the later generations of the source language. The goal is for the future, because not many people and governments are of this opinion or care about the implied semantic difference at this time.

　　（我认为这是最终的目标，因为在任何翻译中，一个包含了大量文化信息的单词在单词到单词的映射中都会被扭曲。只有音译，而不是真正意义上的翻译，才能为目标语言的读者甚至源语言的后代保留丰富的内容，防止误解。目标是为了未来，因为目前没有多少人和管理者持这种观点或关心隐含的语义差异。）

　　（文章来源：http://yong321.freeshell.org）

（百度翻译，黄佶调整配图，
2023年8月31日）