尤金·A·奈达（Eugene A. Nida， 1914年11月11日-2011年8月25日），美国现代著名的语言学家和翻译理论家，组织和指导过几个大型的《圣经》翻译和修订项目，包括二十世纪七十年代出版的《圣经：现代英语译本》（Today's English Version）。奈达有关翻译的著述颇丰，代表作有《翻译科学探索》（Toward a Science of Translating,1964），《翻译理论与实践》（The Theory and Practice of Translation,1969）,《译意》（Translating Meaning,1982）和《语言、文化与翻译》（Language,Culture and Translating,1991）等，其中Translating Meaning 是他1982年在广州外国语学院所作的系列讲座整理而成，而Language,Culture and Translating则包含了他1989年春在上海外国语大学以及同年在莫斯科的莫里斯·多列士语言及翻译学院（Maurice Thorez Institute of Languages and Translating）所作的系列讲座。下文选自Translating Meaning，作者详细地评论了《桃花源记》前半篇的一种英语译文，随后给出了自己的译文。奈达以该例说明翻译过程之一步———“传入”（transfer）———之不易。奈达把翻译过程分为四步：分析（analysis），传入（transfer），重组（restructruring）和验证（testing）。分析是对原文词汇、语法及修辞意义的研究；传入就是从译出语转入译入语，是用译入语思考、转换；重组是在传译的基础上根据译入语的表达习惯以及意向读者的阅读倾向对文字进行加工处理；而验证可采取书面完形填空、口头完形填空、读者高声朗读、读者默读后讲解所读内容等方法，看译文是否做到了动态对等（dynamic equivalence）或功能对等（functional equivalence）。翻译过程虽然分为这四步，但并不是说译者每个词每个句子都要按部就班的分析、传入、重组，很多时候我们有现成的对等词对等语可用。经验丰富的译者往往不需要考虑翻译的方法，一切都是不知不觉地进行的。
朱自清曾把翻译定义为“‘译’是拿外国文翻译成本国文。”参考：国内名家谈翻译（戳我查看）如果译入语就是自己的母语，译者对词语的本意及联想意义、文体色彩、句型和语境的关系的把握，一般说来要比译入语为外语的要好。但为了语言文化的交流，英语虽是外语，我们有时也不揣冒昧跃跃欲试将汉语译成英语。要想做得好一些，我们就得不断提高自己的英语语言文化修养。在下面选段中，奈达以native speaker的身份，评说《桃花源记》之英译，值得英语学习者认真研读体会。
Some of the problems of transfer may be illustrated by the translation into English of two paragraphs in the Chinese story of The Peach Blossom Source:

原文：
桃花源诗并记
陶渊明
晋太元中，武陵人捕鱼为业，缘溪行，忘路之远近。忽逢桃花林，夹岸数百步，中无杂树，芳草鲜美，落英缤纷；渔人甚异之。复前行，欲穷其林。林尽水源，便得一山。山有小口，仿佛若有光；便舍船从口入。初极狭，才通人；复行数十步，豁然开朗。土地平旷，屋舍俨然，有良田、美池、桑竹之属；阡陌交通，鸡犬相闻。其中往来种作，男女衣著，悉如外人；黄发垂髫，并怡然自乐。……
原译：
During the Tai-Yuan period of the Chin Dynasty, a fisherman from Wuling, forgetting how far he had advanced in following a creek, suddenly came to a forest of peach blossoms. For several hundred paces there was no other kind of trees on either bank of the creek. The delightful-smelling grass was beautiful and fresh, and the falling blossoms were scattered in confusion. The fisherman was seized with wonder. He went on further, intending to go through the wood, but where the wood ended at the source of the creek he found a hill with a small opening somewhat lighted.
Then the fisherman left his boat and walked through the mouth of the opening. It was rather narrow at first, barely enough for the passage of one person; but after a few more score steps it widens into an open track. A wide plain was brought into view, dotted with houses in distinct order and full of good fields, beautiful ponds, mulberry, and bamboo. It was checkered with highways and paths between the fields; cock-crow and dog-bark in one village were heard in another. The people plying to and fro and working on the farm were all men and women, dressed like the outsiders. Both the grey-haired people and the children with hanging-hair tresses all appeared happy and well-contented.

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