片断： Inmyopinion,bothschoolshavetheirstrongpointsandweak pointssofarasliterarytranslationisconcerned.Nowthereisaten- dencytocombinetheirtheoriesintoacomprehensiveone.Asamatter offact,literarytranslationhasadoublenature.That'stosay,onthe onehand,itisasciencewithitsownlawsandmethodsandonthe other,itisanart.Nowlet'shaveafurtherdiscussionofitsdouble natureinthefollowing: TranslationIsaScience Wesaythattranslationisascience,becauseithasitsownlaws andmethods.TakethetranslationbetweenEnglishandChinesefor example.Ifwewanttotranslatewell,wemustbeentirelyfamiliar withthecontentoftheoriginalandalltheknowledgeitconcerns.In addition,weshouldhaveacomparativelycomprehensiveandthorough studyofEnglishandChinesesothatwemaydoourworkwithhigh proficiency. ChineseandEnglishhavetheirrespectivecharacteristics.True, theyhavesimilarities,forexample,thewordorderofthesubjectand itspredicate,ofthetransitiveverbanditsobjectandofthepreposition andtheobjectitgoverns;andatthesametime,theyhaveremarkable differences;forinstance,theformerhasnoarticlesbutthelatterhas thedefinite"the"andtheindefinite"a"and"an".Althoughthetwo languageshavetheirrespectivecharacteristicswhicharenotquite alike,stillwecandothetranslationbetweenthem.Itisbecauselan- guageisthedirectrealityofthoughtandthebasiclawofreality-- thought--languagewhichreflectstheobjectiveexistenceisincom- montobothEnglishandChinese,thusmakingitpossibletoexpress thesameideasandfeelingsindifferenttanguages.Andquantitiesof translatedworkshavelongprovedthepossibilityoftranslation. Andatthesametime,wemustadmitthatthelanguagesinwhich variouspeoplesthinkandexpresstheirthoughtsarequitedifferentin characteristicsandusage.Thisistheproblemthattroublesthetransla- tors,includingtheveteranones.Nosmattererscansolvesuchadiffi- cultproblem.Ifonewantstobeaqualifiedtranslator,oneshould,irst ofall,haveapenetratingstudyandcarefulcomparisonofthesimilari- tiesanddifferencesbetweenthesetwolanguagessothatonemayfind thecorrespondinglawsandmethodsinthetranslationbetweenthem, dotranslationeffectivelyandensurethequalityoftranslation. Correspondinglawsdocxistintranslation.Takethefollowing sentenceasanexample: Thehorseisausefulanimal. 后记： 读《文学翻译十讲》竟，赋六绝句 洪荒造塔语言殊，从此人间要象胥。 达志通情非末技，壮夫何用笑区区。 越裳献雉三重译，越女抒怀易楚词； 姬旦、鄂君俱未泯，舌人名姓有谁知！ 白马驮经事本虚，世高首译费工夫。 千年佛典如烟海，不复旁行贝叶书。 理论原从实践来，道安究隐亦奇才。 寸心得失明如镜，《辨正》偏求八备材。 译事三难忆又陵，行文尔雅实难凭。 先生独出惊人论，改“切”功存一字称。 入深出浅善经营，字吐玑珠照眼明。 《十讲》杀青知有日，行看纸贵洛阳城。 马祖毅 1990年于求得一斋