A Study of the Key Elements in the Jerome Model and the Horace Model

【Abstract】： The Jerome model and the Horace model have made a great contribution to translation practice and the development of translation theories as well. However， the two models hold different ideas about translation. This paper analyses the key elements of the two translation models and finally comes to the conclusion that different types of texts require different translation strategies and the context， history， culture plays a vital role in a successful translation as well.

【Key words】： the Jerome model， the Horace model

一.The Jerome Model

Firstly， the concept of faithfulness or equivalence—one of the key elements of the Jerome model—acts as the heat of the Jerome model， which can be read as “there is a text， and that text just needs to be transposed into another language， as faithfully as possible”. In other words， the Jerome model attaches great importance to the “stuck to the word” or even the “text” translation， but no attention to the context. Jerome holds that the translation of Bible must be faithful or equivalent in a most strictest way， and the early ideal of that faithfulness or equivalence was the interlinear translation， which could be read as a word-for-word matching of each term between two languages. However， this ideal of such fidelity could never be realized in translation practice when it comes to translations of other texts， due to it ignores many other important elements， which are also plays a vital role in translation.

Secondly， the Jerome model holds that a text should be translated as faithful as possible. Besides， such a faithful and equivalent translation can also be realized by good dictionaries. That is to say， the Jerome model believes that it is quite possible for a translator to achieve the kind of faithfulness or equivalence only with a help of good dictionaries. However， with the development of the society， the Bible can no longer exerts such powerful influence as before， which leaded Jerome to have a brand new thinking about faithfulness and equivalence， and he redefined equivalence at last. The new concept of equivalence holds that the mechanical matching of words in dictionaries are on longer feasible for all kinds of texts， and translators should thus take other elements， such as history and culture， into consideration and choose a kind of faithfulness that will ensure the target readers receive the same reflection as much as possible.

For example， manuals belong to the Jerome model， since it requires exact using process without any mistake. What’s more， it is possible to translate those texts using the “interlinear translation” to some extent.

⑴“生物顆粒燃料熔煉爐使用維護、保養說明書”

Operation and Maintenance Instruction of Bio-mass Pellet Fue

Smelting Furnace

⑵“使用與維護”

Operation and Maintenance

Another example： In The True Story of Ah Q， there is a sentence “Who would tell that close on thirty， when a man should ‘stand firm’， he would loose his head like this over a little nun” （translated by Yang Xianyi amp; Dai Naidie）. In this sentence， the phrase “close on thirty” refers to“而立之年”， which belongs to a typical Chinese culture-loaded word， meaning a person should quite assure his goals in life as well his development direction on the year of thirty. When translated it into English， the translator adopted the Horace model by taking the cultural elements into consideration with the aim to be faithful to their target readers and at last to realize a successful translation. From the translated sentence we can note that under the Horace model， the translator added more necessary information after the phase “close on thirty” rather than a interlinear translation or “stuck to the word” translation under the Jerome model.

二.The Horace Model

Standing as another important translation model， the Horace model， also has a lot to do with the development of translation theories， though it has been overshadowed by the Jerome model for almost fourteen centuries.

Like the Jerome model， the Horace model emphases on faithfulness as well， but with quite different aspects—the latter one believes that translation should by no means faithful to customers—or more specifically， to both source text and target readers. As a result， negotiation between both parties is thus necessary with the aim to be a “fidus interpres”—to be faithful to target readers， and to not to let the negotiations collapse. Therefore， for example， the interpreters who want to negotiate successfully a business transaction may be well advised not to translate “faithfully”， which are heavily against the kind of faithfulness associated with equivalence.

In addition， the cultural background for the Horace model is the dominating role the Latin plays in Horace’s times. Latin is a privileged language at that times， and thus translations into Latin are almost invariably slanted toward Latin. Furthermore， since English has gradually become the privileged languages nowadays， translations today have no doubt slanted to English as well.

However， with the development of society and numerous translation practices， we have gradually realized and recognized that it is impossible to adopt one translation model only， and different types of texts require different translation strategies and the cultural factors do exert great influence to a successful translation. For example， the English phrase “rain cats and dogs” means a heavy downpour or rain heavily in the West and it has nothing to do with the animals “cats” and “dogs” at actually. Under such a situation， it is imperial for translators to attach great importance to cultural difference and thus give an appropriate translation version.

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