ABSTRACT

We are living in an age when different cultures collide and absorb from each other more than any time in history. Celebrity speeches, particularly the speeches in some world-famous universities like Harvard University, are playing more and more important roles in our mental life. Therefore, we need correct translations to show the speakers’ inner world because they can inspire and enlighten people greatly from time to time. However, most studies nowadays focus on the presidential inaugural address and a little attention is paid to the application of Skopos Theory so this research can enrich the advising function of Skopos Theory in the translation of commencement celebrity speech.
This paper chooses different versions of Chinese translations of celebrity commencement speeches in Harvard University and tries to analyze the differences of word usage and syntactic structure as well as the effect on expression of texts and the realization of readers according to the three key principles of Skopos Theory—Skopos Rule, Coherence Rule and Fidelity Rule. In the process of translation, we cannot only confine to faithfulness or only one rule of them. The three rules are all useful and good guidance to translation if we can make the purposes clearly and take all the effective elements into consideration.

Key words: Harvard University  Celebrity commencement speeches  Skopos Theory  Chinese translations

摘  要

我们生活在一个不同文化交融吸收迅猛的年代。名人演讲，尤其是像哈佛大学这类世界知名大学的名人演讲，在我们的精神生活中扮演着越来越重要的角色。因此我们需要有正确的译文来表达演说者的内心世界，从而让读者得到更大的激励和鼓舞。而目前同类研究的对象主要是总统就职演说，采用目的论对翻译活动进行指导也相对较少，所以本文研究可以丰富目的论对毕业典礼名人演讲翻译的指导作用，
本文选择了部分哈佛大学毕业典礼名人演讲不同版本的汉译，根据目的论的三原则——目的原则，连贯原则，忠实原则来分析不同版本译文的用词和句法结构差异，进而对原文表达和读者理解带来的影响。在进行名人演讲翻译过程中，不能仅局限于忠实或是其中的一条原则。在明确翻译目的并对译文和原文差异有了全面的理解之后，三原则都对翻译过程有很好的指导作用。

关键词：哈佛大学 毕业典礼名人演讲  目的论  汉译