Milky Way: A Cultural Loaded Phrase All the Time?

jinjin1996

In 1931, Zhao Jingsheng translated the phrase “Milky Way” into “牛奶路” in a report, which, followed by Lu Xun’s accusation, began a long controversial, the dust of which has not been settled even today.

In a recent lecture Professor Xie Tianzhen has apparently showed his sympathy for Zhao Jinsheng. He argues that “Milky Way” is a culture-loaded phrase, or, in his words, carries a cultural image since it is associated with the milk of Hera, the wife of Zeus in the Greek Mythology, and that if the phrase is translated as “银河” (Silver River) or “天河” (Sky River), then the cultural implication of Greek origin would be falsely turned into a Chinese one, something more or less connected with the story of Cowherd and Weaving girl. As a result, he says, a Russian child had become a Chinese boy in the reader’s mind.

This logic sounds quite convincing, but its weaknesses are also obvious. For one thing, Lu Xun charged not at the result of Zhao Jingsheng’s translation, but his process of or attitude towards translation. Lu Xun once commented, in line with his peculiar humor, that “牛奶路” (Cows’ Milk Way) should have been “神奶路” (Goddess’s Milk Way), but considering the truth that the white people call all kinds of milk as “milk” and the fact that we Chinese know full well the characters on the can of milk, it is only too natural for us to make mistakes when doing translation sometimes. Lu Xun did not mention anything about what should be the best Chinese counterpart of “Milky Way”, nor did he say that he believed “银河” or “天河” was the most appropriate Chinese version of the phrase.

But even if Lu Xun did favor “银河” or “天河” for “Milky Way”, Professor Xie might still have missed the point in his defense by offering the notion of “cultural image”. Of course, Milky Way may produce some reminiscence of the Greek Mythology in the mind of Westerners, but “牛奶路” can hardly do so in that of Chinese. Indeed, without any annotations or explanations, the chances are that these three characters tend to bring Chinese readers who may not be so familiar with Western Culture from Heaven down to earth, even to a poor street in a remote town, and perhaps further to the sight of a horde of cows walking leisurely on a rude road. If this is the case, “银河” or “天河” seems to be a better choice since either of them, at least under normal conditions, can arouse the same profound, indefinable, and mysterious feelings in Chinese just as “Milky Way” or whatever names may do in those who live in the rest of the world.

This judgment carries along a concept frequently discussed in modern linguistics, that is, “context”. Context plays a key role in human communications. We can readily think of a context in which “银河” or “天河” or “Milky Way” has little or no cultural connotations at all. For example, what can we say about the sentence “Milky Way contains the solar system, visible as a broad band of faint light in the night sky”? Is “牛奶路” 包括太阳系的星系，在夜空中呈现为发淡光的宽带comfortably acceptable in the target language?

In sum, culture loaded words or words with culture images can only be understood as those linguistic items that are able to achieve specific communicative values related to a specific culture in a specific context, and the final word as to whether “Milky Way” is to be translated into “银河” or “天河” or “牛奶路” can only be made by the context too, linguistic and situational alike.

申明：本文并非严格意义的论文，说是杂谈或随想还差不多，关健在于论证是否严密，尚请方家指点