Abstract: “Fidelity” is a oneway approach to the source text and its meaning. It shows much more respect for translation in its static way but ignores translation as a social activity and its appeal. The tradition demanding for “fidelity”, there are still lots of translations off the source text to meet the needs of the society. This is the reality and is beyond the cover of “fidelity”. The law of translating is to keep balance between “truthseeking” and “utilityattaining” according to the Translator Behavior Criticism. The theory is not only able to offer a relatively concrete description for the translation practices in history, but also a reasonable prescription for the present and future translating.

Key words: the law of translating, fidelity, truthseeking, utilityattaining, balance

摘要： “忠实”是单维面向原文及其意义，顾及的是静态的翻译，忽略了翻译作为一种社会活动的客观表现及其诉求。尽管传统主流要求“忠实”，但偏离原文而迎合读者等社会需求的做法大量存在，这是客观现实和“忠实”难以包容之处。根据译者行为批评的原理，翻译之道是在“求真”和“务实”间的平衡，这一理论认识能够对传统的翻译实践进行比较客观合理的描写，也能够对当下和未来的翻译实践以合理的规约。

关键词: 翻译之道, 忠实, 求真, 务实, 平衡