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

【Abstract】：There are two very important Models in the West—The Jerome Model and The Horace Model in the translation field. The Jerome model and the Horace model have different emphases on “faithfulness” and “equivalence” and follow different approaches to different translation practices. It seems that the Jerome model attaches more important to the word-for-word equivalence to the translation while the Horace model gives more emphasis on the “negotiation” between the source text and the target language. While， whose model is more applicable in translation？ In the paper， we will solve this problem through elaborating three models one by one and analysis translation texts.

【Key words】： the Jerome model， the Horace model， faithfulness and equivalence

The Jerome Model

Jerome is one of the four major religious authorities. He has own idea about how to translate the “Bible”. “Equivalence” is the core of his translation mode. He thought that when translating the religious texts， such as the “Bible”， we should keep its sanctity. It means that it must be translated with the utmost fidelity， and the early ideal of that fidelity was the interlinear translation， in which one word would match another， indeed， in which the translated word would be written under the word it was supposed to translate. Even if the interlinear ideal could not be maintained in practice， short of producing a text syntactically so skewed as to become unintelligible， it did remain the ideal for Biblical translation. Faithfulness to the source text is the most important require in the Jerome model. Any extra words are forbidden. In order to realize faithfulness in its own way， the Jerome model follows the above interlinear translation criterion and regards it as the ideal model in translation.

“In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth. And the Earth was without form， and void. And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said， let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light， that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day. And the darkness he called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”（《Bible》）

The interlinear translation：開始上帝創造了天和地。地沒有形狀，虛無的。黑暗在深淵上面。上帝的精神移動在水面上。上帝說，讓有光。有光。上帝看見了光，它是好的，上帝分開了光和暗。上帝成為白天。黑暗，他叫做夜。晚上和早晨是第一天。

Translated by Robert Morrison：太初，上帝創造天地。地市空虛混沌。淵面黑暗。上帝的靈運行在水面上。上帝說，當有光。就有了光。上帝看光是好的。上帝就將光暗分開了。上帝稱光為晝。稱暗為夜。有早有晚，就是一日。

We can see the interlinear translation does not live up to the expectation of Jerome to reserve the religious sanctity. It stays on the linguistic level only. Instead， Chinese readers think it too casual. So it is impossible to be absolutely equivalent to the original texts.

He held that it was different to translate the literature from the religious texts. He advocated to using an easy-to-understand translation style to convey the original meaning.

1.The Horace Model

The Horace model （65-8 BC） was before the Jerome model. He is a typical representative of the free translation， and put forward the \"fidus interpres\". This \"faithfulness\" is not to the text， but to the \"customers\". Because Horace’s most translation was dramas for business， so he called the readers as \"customers\". A “fidus” translator is one who can be trusted， who gets the job done on time and to the satisfaction of both parties. Horace states that the faithful translator is a trusted entity， undertaking the role of the mediator to facilitate the communication between two languages and the readers of these languages. Horace argues the different texts must be translated in different ways with different translation strategies to suit its purposes， facing with a variety of texts. The more important idea in Horace’s model is frame of the text， namely a grid of text. This frame refers to the collection of methods employed by each culture. The method is the way to which objects are referred. Cultures basically adopt identical frames. Translation heightens the level of our perspective on the world we live in by shielding light on the process of the formation of literature in an era where various sorts of manipulation is on the rise.

“春眠不覺曉，處處聞啼鳥。夜來風雨聲，花落知多少？” （《春曉》）

“Late？ This spring morning as I awake I know， all around me the birds are crying， crying. The storm last night， I sensed its fury. How many， I wonder， are fallen， poor dear flowers？”（Translated by Weng Xianliang）

Weng Xianliang successfully conveyed the poetic minds of the original poem. On the choice of the literal translation and the free translation， he chose the latter to express the artistic conception. This point fits the Horace model which advocates the free translation.

He ever said： “the translators， who are loyal to the original texts， would not translate by rigorously word for word.” This sentence is often quoted to criticize literal translation and rigorously word for word translation. While， cannot the literal translation be applied to the literary translation？ The answer is negative.

Conclusion

The two major models， from the “faithfulness” to \"customers\" of Horace， the Jerome's equivalence， were moving forward and constantly improving. They are not perfect when applied into translation， but one flaw cannot obscure the splendor of the jade. There two models， in the development of translation process， play their own necessary and crucial roles. Each has its own special features， functions， advantages and disadvantages， promoting the history of translation. They have interacted and supplementary， and served as the power of translation field for many years. We can learn from others' strong points to offset one's weakness in order to achieve the desired effect of the translation.

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