It is taken for granted that one who knows two languages can translate. And many people complain about the high price of commercial translation. In fact, translation is far from the simple conversion of two languages forms. It is a re-creation of the translator under different cultural backgrounds.

Translation is the artistic creation of language. When translating, one might find it hard to translate some words literally. In this case, a translator will try to think of a similar but more fluent and native expression in the target language instead. That’ s the difference between a bilingual person and a translator. Some western scholars also believe that translation is a “artistic adaptation of the original text” . The purpose of translation is to transmit a certain image of social life in the original background to another language. The artistic beauty of source language is pursued in the process and is reproduced in the target language.

There are numerous differences between two languages, such as different attributive or adverbial position and, of course, the cultural differences. Translation is not only a translation of linguistic symbols, but also a cultural exchange. When dealing with texts involving cultural elements, translators believes that any language contains relevant elements of its culture, such as greetings and collocations. Expressions and collocations only exist in a specific cultural environment. At the same time, cultures represented by different languages are so different from each other that the transformation of the language and the creation process vary to a large extent. According to Nida, one of the founders of the modern discipline of Translation Studies, for a successful translator, it is more important to be excel in two cultures than to master two languages, because words in a language only have the right and culturally appropriate items in a particular language and culture.

Translation involves not only language but also cultural issues. Translators need to be proficient in both the culture of foreign countries and that of their own nation. In addition, they have to constantly compare the two cultures because the real equivalence should be the meaning, function, emotion and so on in each culture.

Communication is just one of the functions of language, and the more important function is to exchange ideas. A translator must be a truly literate person who is able to create independently. People commonly say words like “a translator must master two languages” . It is true. But without knowing the culture of language, no one can really master language. 

有人认为只要会两种语言的人都能翻译。本题要求就这一说法表达自己的观点。作者在第一段中明确提出了自己的观点：翻译决不是两种语言的简单转换，而是译者在不同文化背景下的重新创作。第二段对翻译是对语言的艺术性创造这一观点进行了阐述，第三、四段对翻译不仅仅是语言符号的转换，同时是文化的交流这一观点进行了进一步说明。最后一段总结了自己的观点，并指出翻译工作者不仅需要掌握双语，还要是一个真正有文化的人。