Abstract:Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) journal has a vital role in disseminating TCM's cutting-edge information and research results, as well as in introducing TCM culture and promoting TCM to the world. Therefore, ensuring high-quality translation of the TCM journals is the premise to fulfill the goal. The title is an essential part of every article. A well-translated title can attract readers and add a finishing touch to an article. This paper briefly expounds on several common problems in translating the title of TCM papers with some case studies as examples, so as to provide some references for the standardization of TCM translation.
Keyword:traditional Chinese medicine(TCM); journal; translation;
中醫學的傳承和發展延續了千年,醫古籍著作更是浩如煙海。期刊編輯過程中,也常常涉及中醫古籍書名的情況。目前,對于中醫古籍書名的英譯,尚未達成標準。一些傳承度較高的著作,如《黃帝內經》《傷寒論》等,已經形成了較為固定的譯法(分別譯為Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor,Treatise on Febrile Diseases)。其他諸如《醫學衷中參西錄》《溫病條辨》等著作,均沒有較為統一的英譯形式;跇祟}簡明、避免歧義的原則,筆者日常工作通常首選拼音的英譯形式,可避免對書名采用意譯而使標題過長,不能突出重點的問題。如《<針灸捷徑>治療中風病的針灸處方思路探析》中的《針灸捷徑》可譯為Zhenjiu Jiejing[16]。其次,有些古籍名的意譯形式簡單明了,能夠傳達其書的基本含義,在翻譯中也可采用,如《臨證指南醫案》可譯為Medical Records for Clinical Guidance[17]。
中醫藥期刊是服務于中醫藥研究的,《遼寧中醫雜志》收錄的論文包括臨床觀察、名醫經驗、理論探討、實驗研究、研究進展等內容。根據文章類型,標題的常見形式如《活血潛陽祛痰方治療腹型肥胖高血壓患者的臨床療效觀察》[2021(4)]、《黃芪提取物體外抗HSV-1機制研究》[2021(4)]、《基于數據挖掘穴位埋線治療癲癇病選穴規律分析》[2021(4)]等?梢钥闯,標題的結尾經常出現“觀察、研究、分析”等詞匯。這些表達通?煞謩e譯為“observation、study、analysis”等。如《活血潛陽祛痰方治療腹型肥胖高血壓患者的臨床療效觀察》譯為Observation on Clinical Effect of Huoxue Qianyang Qutan Decoction in Treatment of Abdominal Obesity Patients with Hypertension,《基于數據挖掘穴位埋線治療癲癇病選穴規律分析》譯為Analysis of Acupoint Selection for Thread Embedding Treating Epilepsy Based on Data Mining Technology。這種翻譯形式雖然與中文標題是完全對應的,但不夠簡潔。外文文獻中,題目中也鮮有使用諸如study等詞的情況,以PubMed數據庫為例,筆者隨機以“diabetes treatment”為關鍵詞進行檢索,得到466 589條文獻,統計排名前50的文獻發現,標題中均未使用“study”等類似詞匯,如Pathophysiology, Diagnosis and Management of Nephrogenic Diabetes[18]。因此,筆者認為,在能夠省略“研究,分析”的翻譯時,應該省譯,使標題簡潔,重點突出,如上文中的Observation on Clinical Effect of Huoxue Qianyang Qutan Decoction in Treatment of Abdominal Obesity Patients with Hypertension可簡化為Clinical Effect of Huoxue Qianyang Qutan Decoction in Treatment of Abdominal Obesity Patients with Hypertension;而標題Analysis of Acupoint Selection for Thread Embedding Treating Epilepsy Based on Data Mining Technology可簡化為Acupoint Selection for Thread Embedding Treating Epilepsy Based on Data Mining Technology。省略了observation、analysis兩詞后,研究重點得到了凸顯,起到了畫龍點睛的作用。