Re-Evaluation of Lin Shu (the Chinese Translator) - National ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

162 Re-Evaluation of Lin Shu (the Chinese Translator):A Systemic Approach to Literary TranslationChinese populace to save and strengthen the nation. On the contrary,Chinese dramas could not fulfill this duty owing to its slow rhythmand stylized form of artistic performance. Furthermore, theprevalence of fiction made fiction writers and translators get paidwhile drama producers could not benefit financially. Lin Shu, as afamous fiction translator, could get the highest pay among fictionproducers. So Lin Shu would rather change the style of the original.Poetics and Lin Shu’s TranslationsPoetics is concerned with linguistic and literary levels in agiven culture. To better deal with the relationship between poeticsand Lin Shu’s translations, this part investigates the influence ofpoetics first on language system, then on narration modes and finallyon literary style.A. Language System and Translation Strategies Adopted by LinShuTranslation first involves the transformation between twolanguages. Translated works convey the content of the originalthrough the medium of target language. How a translatorsuccessfully transforms the original in the target language iscertainly related to the language environment of his time. At thesame time, characteristics and limitations of the target languagesurely dictate a translator’s choice for certain strategies.Classical Chinese had long been the dominant languagestyle in Chinese language system. Fiction translators at the turn ofthe twentieth century including Lin Shu and Liang Qichao producedtheir versions in classical Chinese in that classical Chinese couldenhance the status of fiction that had been despised by most literatifor several centuries. At that time, no one, especially a political
Xu Jianzhong 163figure or a literary celebrity, would like to read a translated version ifit was translated in vernacular Chinese (Hu Shi, 2004: 139).It’s interesting that classical Chinese was, at first, used tospread the new ideas from the West; these ideas then hastened thedecline of classical Chinese and the adoption of vernacular Chinese.Most translators at the turn of the twentieth century employed “sensetranslation” due to the discrepancies between classical Chinese andvernacular Chinese. Lin Shu used a kind of language combiningclassical Chinese and vernacular Chinese (Xi Yongji, 2000: 342).Lin Shu realized that Western fictions could not be translated unlessregulations of classical Chinese were slackened. For the sake oftranslation, Lin Shu used some spoken vernacular Chinese in hisversions. Lin Shu usually employed addition, deletion, substitutionand extraction at the cost of faithfulness to the original in order tomake convenience for Chinese readers.In Lin Shu’s time, classical Chinese still maintained thedominant position in Chinese literary system. Thus there wereobvious marks of classical Chinese in his translated works. Whenlexical blanks occurred in Lin Shu’s translating practice, Lin Shuused loanwords besides deletion. Lin Shu also adoptedtransliteration to make his translated works have a foreign taste. Hedirectly transliterated those words which had been familiar toChinese. Sometimes he added notes to those words that were notfamiliar to Chinese after he transliterated them.B. Narrative Traditions and Lin Shu’s TranslationBesides language system, fiction translation is also subjectto literary traditions in a target culture. Traditional Chinese narrativetechniques have impact on Lin Shu’s translation. This part willinvestigate this kind of influence from three aspects, namely,narrative point of view, narrative time, and narrative structure.
Page 1 and 2: Re-Evaluationof LinShu(the ChineseT
Page 3 and 4: Xu Jianzhong 151Obviously, more ext
Page 5 and 6: Xu Jianzhong 153The Era Background
Page 7 and 8: Xu Jianzhong 155ideas of that socie
Page 9 and 10: Xu Jianzhong 157manipulated the ori
Page 11 and 12: Xu Jianzhong 159China. Another unde
Page 13: Xu Jianzhong 161At the turn of the
Page 17 and 18: Xu Jianzhong 165assumed the central
Page 19 and 20: Xu Jianzhong 167Translation: A crit

Re-Evaluation of Lin Shu (the Chinese Translator) - National ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?