De l’indétermination de la traduction – le cas de la traduction du mot « honneur » en chinois

Abstract

Translation is a subject that can never be spoken of sufficiently, especially at a time when exchanges and conflicts between cultures are intensifying with globalization. Starting from the possibility (or the impossibility) of translation, this article does not reflect upon the old question of the opposition between the fidelity and freedom of the translator, or the theories of foreignization and domestication, but rather focuses on the role of the translator in the relations of otherness. In the face of indetermination, we seek, through the example of the translation of a word ‘honor’, full of historical and cultural connotations in the French language, to prove that grasping meaning is fundamental in order to produce a good translation. In order for that, the translator should be a linguist to grasp meaning and significance in the vast semantic fields, then be a scientist who knows how to reappropriate the conceptual tools proposed by other social sciences. These two roles guarantee the understanding and the demonstration of the otherness, which can only come from a systematic structuring of the culture of departure.