Abstract: The relation between culture and translation has remained an everlasting topic in the field of translation study. Cultural differences result in untranslatability, which is unavoidable. Therefore, it is translator's responsibility to make the untranslatability “possible” through his fettered creativity. In many cases, the ideal way is to combine the two methods discussed in this paper, and try to find the “cultural equivalence” between the original and the target languages. This paper analyzes several important differences between the Chinese and western cultures that are closely relevant to untranslatability. By way of exemplification, it tries to demonstrate the significance of cultural equivalence and illustrate the applicability and feasibility of domesticating translation and foreignizing translation in Chinese-English mutual translation.
Key words: untranslatability, cultural equivalence, literal translation, free translation, domesticating translation, foreignizing translation
摘要：在翻译界，文化和翻译的关系问题已成为了永恒的话题。文化差异引起翻译中的不可译，这是无可避免的。因而，通过囿于原文基础之上有限的创造，让不可译变得可能，是译者的职责。大多情况下，理想的办法是将本篇所探讨的两种方法结合，力图在原语言和目标语中寻求一个“文化对等”。本文着重分析几个中西文化差异中和不可译性有着紧密联系的方面，通过例证，试图阐明文化对等的重要性并论证在英汉互译的实践中归化和异化的应用及其可行性。
关键词：不可译性，文化对等，直译，意译，归化，异化
