1、天道酬勤父爱尺度(翻译)第二十届韩素音青年翻译奖赛参赛译文中译英父爱的尺度郑庆祝The Yardstick of Fathers Love (excerpt)In 1924, U.S. President John Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) proposed the Fathers Day a nation-wide festival so as to “establish more intimate relations between fathers and their children and to impress upon fathers the full
2、measure of their obligations. In 1972, President Richard Nixon (1913-1994) officially signed the bill to designate the Fathers Day a festival, which later spread around the world gradually. Today, Chinese townsfolk, who always value parenthood education and emphasize fathers cultivation responsibili
3、ty, accept the foreign festival imperceptibly.The Chinese style of nuclear family nursing with only a single child is quite similar as that of running a company of unlimited liability; the parents have to assume unlimited responsibility for the future fate of their children. As the saying says, “If
4、the children are not well-bred, it is the fathers fault. The childrens wisdom and stupidity, gain and loss, and merits and faults are related to education from the father. The father shall not only bear the joint responsibility for raising the children and for their moral education, but also be inve
5、stigated the “leaders responsibilityby the society and other family members. Benefit of successful education to a single child cannot be anticipated, but the opportunity cost for failure of the education is one hundred percent. Therefore, the father is the good examplethe “yardstickof the children,
6、which is quite hard to grasp.Father is also called “Jia Yan, which is used to refer to ones own father modestly. The role of fathers love already has its accurate, specific and rational definition from the prospective of Chinese traditional culture, ethical code and custom. “A father should be respe
7、ctable and a mother should be intimatemeans that a father must retain the duly reverence and keep self-esteem so that he can win respect from his family members, and then maintain the dignity to be the primary responsibility bearer for conducting family education. “If the king is not honest, his min
8、isters will go to other countries; if a father is not honest, his children will run away from home, viz. the father should set himself a good example to his children; otherwise, he can neither hold together or cultivate his children, nor fulfill the disciplining responsibility of a father, and may e
9、ven bring about falling out with his children. A father should be strict, stern and serious, and a mother should be kind, thus, to be strict, stern and serious are necessary characters a father should possess. But some fathers misinterpret “strict, stern and serious as educating children with sticks
10、, or by beating and scolding. I get some inspiration from Dhyana that the purpose of beating and scolding is for spurring, reminding, giving advice and revealing, and the goal is to facilitate understanding and gain wisdom, while not to squelch, let alone to show the patriarchal power and prestige.
11、Therefore, a competent father values more knowledge than his temper, and cherishes more wisdom than his superiority; he is the first teacher and spiritual guide of his children.Parents without exception expect their children to become talents, and save no efforts to help their children in this regar
12、d. Influenced by the family, indeed, many children succeed their parentscareers, adding glory to their ancestors and bringing benefits to their offspring, and turning themselves into the same kind of persons as their parents or the persons expected by their parents. But there are still a large numbe
13、r of people do not realize their parents dream or do not reach their parents expectation, and some of them even fall just the opposite side of their parentsexpectation. As the saying goes, “Like father, like sona child will follow his/her fathers suit; “The son of a warrior knows weapons early. But
14、also as the saying runs, “Good parents do not always have good children.After all, home education also faces the problem of taking different education measures towards different children, and giving children the freedom of choosing their own career paths, so that they can do a better job by themselv
15、es according to their own interests, hobbies and strong points. Like all flowers are not in one garland, every person has his/her own dreams and ambitions. Thus we cannot force others to do things according to our own will, and so do parents to their children.Western countries emphasize affection, c
16、are and encouragement in education, and traditional Chinese education philosophy puts strictness on face, while burying deep love in heart. The Chinese-style “Jia Yanis an external manifestation between the father and the childrenlove and affection are its central character, and care is its real intention. As an oldChinese saying goes, “If a father is not affectionate, his son will not be filial. The father is not kind and responsible, so h
