文学翻译是促进 中西方文化交流的手段之一，对文化的传播具有极大的意义。同声传译员采取怎样的 策略来翻译文学对于人们接收和理解外来文化以及新事物具有不可低估的影响。在文学翻译中,幽默的翻泽历来是个难点。在翻译幽默时，把握好 文化视角可以促进文化交流。
【例1】Traveler:Pardon me, but with what material do you stuff the beds in your Establishments? Landlord:Why ,with the best straw to be found in the whole country! Traveler:That's interesting.I now know from where the straw came that broke the camel's back;
【译文】旅行者：请问你这店里的床垫是用什么东西做的?
房东：哈，那是用全国最好的草做的。
旅行者:真有意思，我现在明白把胳驼的腰压断的那根草是从哪儿来的。
【分析】:在翻译这类幽默时，译者有时侯很难在目的语文化中找到相同或相似的文化背景来与之相匹配。一些译者曾试图从目的语中找到类似的典故，但由于文化的差异，尽管译者为此冥思苦想却收益甚少。对于这段幽默的翻译，译者采取了加注的策略，轻而易举地解决了这一难题，为目的语读者提供了理解源语文化的背景。
【例2】谁知道父亲快信来痛骂一顿:“吾不惜重金，命汝千里负笈， 汝埋头攻之不暇，而有余闲照镜耶?汝非妇人女子，何须置镜?惟梨园子弟，身为丈夫而对镜顾影，为世所贱。吾不图汝甫离膝下，已濡染恶习，可叹可恨！”
【译文】He was quite unprepared for the express letter which came from his father. It gave him a severe scolding: "I didn’一begrudge the expense of sending you hundreds of miles away to study. If you devoted yourself to your studies as you should, would you still have the leisure to look in a mirror? You are not .woman，一。 what need do you have of a mirror? That sort of thing is for actors only.^real man who gazes at himself in the mirror will only be scorned勿society. Never had I thought once you parted from me that you would pick up such base habits. Most deplorable and disgusting!"
【分析】从文化的视角来看，最好的做法也许是将译文尽量地向古英语靠拢。此处的译文虽然没有这样译，但一些词汇如 begrudge, deplorable等的使用使得信中文字和其他部分产生 了鲜明的对比，而使此信件部分的话语显得更加正式。
