Los Angeles, California - Millions of people in the West
today utilize traditional Chinese medicine, including acupuncture, herbs,
massage and nutritional therapies. Yet only a few U.S. schools that teach
Chinese medicine require Chinese-language training and only a handful of
Chinese medical texts have so far been translated into English.
Given the complexity of the language and concepts in these
texts, there is a need for accurate, high-quality translations, say researchers
at UCLA’s Center for East–West Medicine. To that end, the center has published
a document that includes a detailed discussion of the issues involved in
Chinese medical translation, which is designed to help students, educators,
practitioners, researchers, publishers and translators evaluate and digest
Chinese medical texts with greater sensitivity and comprehension.
"This publication aims to raise awareness among the
many stakeholders involved with the translation of Chinese medicine," said
principal investigator and study author Dr. Ka-Kit Hui, founder and director of
the UCLA center.
The 15-page document, "Considerations in the
Translation of Chinese Medicine," was developed and written by a UCLA team
that included a doctor, an anthropologist, a China scholar and a translator. It
appears in the current online issue of the Journal of Integrative Medicine.
Authors Sonya Pritzker, a licensed Chinese medicine
practitioner and anthropologist, and Hanmo Zhang, a China scholar, hope the
publication will promote communication in the field and play a role in the
development of thorough, accurate translations.
The document highlights several important topics in the
translation of Chinese medical texts, including the history of Chinese medical
translations, which individuals make ideal translators, and other
translation-specific issues, such as the delicate balance of focusing
translations on the source-document language while considering the language it
will be translated into.
It also addresses issues of technical terminology,
period-specific language and style, and historical and cultural perspective.
For example, depending on historical circumstances and language use, some
translations may be geared toward a Western scientific audience or,
alternately, it may take a more natural and spiritual tone. The authors note
that it is sometimes helpful to include dual translations, such as
"windfire eye/acute conjunctivitis," in order to facilitate a link
between traditional Chinese medical terms and biomedical diagnoses.
The final section of the document calls for further
discussion and action, specifically in the development of international
collaborative efforts geared toward the creation of more rigorous guidelines
for the translation of Chinese medicine texts.
"Considerations in the Translation of Chinese
Medicine," was inspired by the late renowned translator and scholar
Michael Heim, a professor in the UCLA departments of comparative literature and
Slavic studies. A master of 12 languages, he is best known for his translation
into English of Czech author Milan Kundera’s "The Unbearable Lightness of
Being." The new UCLA document is dedicated to him.
The document, the authors say, was influenced in large part
by the American Council of Learned Societies’ "Guidelines for the
Translation of Social Science Texts," which are intended to promote
communications in the social sciences across language boundaries. It was also
influenced by Pritzker’s longstanding anthropological study of translation in
Chinese medicine, which is detailed in her new book, "Living Translation:
Language and the Search for Resonance in U.S. Chinese Medicine," recently
published by Berghahn Books.
Funded by a UCLA Transdisciplinary Seed Grant, the document
is available for free in both English and Chinese (PDF format) on the UCLA Center for
East–West Medicine website.
No comments:
Post a Comment