简析金陵十二钗判词翻译中的归化与异化毕业论文
2022-06-28 23:30:24
论文总字数:36783字
摘 要
红楼梦是中国文学四大名著之一。作为一部百科全书式的巨著,它描绘了18世纪中国的各个方面,比如政治、文化、建筑、饮食、医药和习俗等等。其中,诗词曲赋是不可获缺的一部分。在这些诗词曲赋中,金陵判词由于暗示了小说主要女性人物的未来命运以及推动全本小说情节发展而成为研究中最值得关注的部分。
本文将集中研究金陵判词英译的归化与异化。杨宪益版本和霍克斯版本的英译对比研究包括三个方面:人物名称的归化异化,文化表达的归化异化和修辞应用的归化异化。关于人物名称,杨译全使用异化,霍译4个归化,11个异化。关于文化表达,杨译中的宗教,社会地位,节日和死亡委婉语翻译以异化为主,霍译以归化为主。这种现象也体现在典故,双关和析字法的应用上。
在杨宪益版本和霍克斯版本的对比研究中发现,归划和异化策略的使用并不是完全对立的。尽管杨宪益版本以异化为主,但也或多或少使用了归化策略。同样地,霍克斯版本虽然以归化为主,异化策略仍然在译文中有所体现。前人研究成果忽视了金陵判词中归化异化的应用,这篇文章弥补了这一部分空白,并总结了金陵判词中归化异化的运用。
关键词:《红楼梦》 归化和异化 判词翻译 杨宪益夫妇版本
霍克斯版本
1.Introduction
1.1 The significance of this topic
Hong Loumeng is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. The novel is well acknowledged for its huge scope, strict structure, detailed and complicated plot as well as the vivid description of characters and is generally considered as the pinnacle of classical Chinese novels. As an encyclopedic masterpiece, the novel describes many aspects of the 18th century China, such as politics, culture, architecture, diet, medicine, customs and so on. Among these, the novel is especially remarkable for its poetry. There are 240 poems in Hong Loumeng, which contribute to an indispensable part of this novel and play an important role in unfolding its plot and frame. Among those poems, Jinling Penci are remarkable for its leading role in predicting the destiny of the main female characters and implying the plots development of the whole novel. In addition, the implicit beauty of its literary linguistics and the rhetoric adoption in Jinling Penci also contribute to its indispensable status. Studies on Jinling Penci are always the hot research subject. Books, Periodicals and master’s dissertations related to Jinling Penci’s translation are countless. Some studies may introduce domestication and foreignization theories in translating poems of Hong Loumeng. Other studies may compare Yangs’ version with Hawkes’ version so as to discover which one of the two theories is better in translating application. The complete study on domestication and foreignization in concluding remarks translation of twelve Jinling beauties has not come out. This essay will make up for the lack of this field.
1.2 The structure of this essay
The essay will focus on the domestication and foreignization in English translations of Jinling Panci. Firstly, the significance and purpose of this essay will be discussed. Secondly, the domestication and foreignization theory will be introduced. Thirdly, a comparative study of the translation of Jinling Panci in Yangs’ version and Hawkes’ version will be presented in details to introduce the differences and their merits and demerits. Some references will also be cited at the end of this paper to support my points of view. The comparative study of Jinling Panci will be in three parts as follows. The first part is study on the names of characters in translation which presents the translation skills of names. The second part is the cultural expressions translation which will discuss Chinese cultural phenomenons like religion, social status, festival and euphemism of death. The third part is the rhetoric applications where rhetorics like allusions, puns and Xizi Fa will be analyzed to discover traits of the foreignization and domestication methods based on Yangs’ version and Hawkes’ version.
2. Literature review
2.1 Definition of domestication and foreignization
Domestication and foreignization are two translation strategies, which consider the degree to which the translators make a text conform to the target culture. Domestication is the target culture-oriented strategy in which the text has been translated into some familiar ones in order to be easy for the foreign readers. Foreignization is the source culture-oriented strategy in which the text has been kept its foreign flavor by deliberately breaking the conventions of the target culture.
There are some common points between domestication amp; doreignization and literal amp; free translation. In fact, domestication and foreignization evolve from literal and free translation, but they are different from literal and free translation. Literal and free translation focus on how to deal with the form and meaning in the linguistic structural forms of the original text. But domestication and foreidnization breakthrough the restriction of language and consider aspects as language, culture and so on.
2.2 Domestication and foreignization in home and abroad
Domestication and foreignization are two translation strategies which have been shown on two levels of linguistic forms and cultural contents. Domestication and foreignization bring a new level to translation in culture, poetics and politics. Debates on domestication and foreignization have been long-term existing in history. In western countries, it can be traced back to word-for-word translation and sense-for-sense translation raised by Cicero, Horace, St.Jerome and etc in ancient Rome (Kasparek, The Translator's Endless Toil, 1983, p. 84.). Eugene Nida is the representative of domestication theory. He advocates the translation theory of Dynamic Equivalence, also known as Functional Equivalence, such as semantic equivalence, linguistic equivalence, stylistic equivalence and so on. According to Nida’s The Theory and Practice of Translation, dynamic equivalence is “quality of a translation in which the message of the original text has been transported into the receptor language that the response of the receptor is essentially like that of the original receptors”(1965). It suggests that the target readers in target language are as equivalent as the original readers in original language in reception of the text. And it is not just the simple correspondence in literal meaning. Lawrence Venuti defines domestication in his translation studies book The Translator’s Invisibility that domestication means translator conforms to the target culture when translating the original text. It appeals to the various needs of the target language. In contrast, foreignization sticks to retaining the linguistic and cultural difference to maintain the original meaning when translating the original text. As the spokesman for foreignization theory, Venuti strongly advocates foreignization theory in translation field. In 1930s China, debates on domestication and foreignization happened among Lu Xun, Di Qiubai, Zhao Jingsheng, Lin Yutang,etc. They regarded the two theories as separate one. Once one theory had been supported, the other on would be under tense criticism. Later to 1980s, domestication theory took the leading role in translation field such as “faithfulness, smoothness and beauty” of Lin Yutang, “transmigration” principle of Qian Zhongshu and “three beauties” principle of Xu Yuanchong. In 1987, Liu Kaiying wrote about a paper named Domestication—The Wrong Road to Translation in which he criticized the abuse of domestication theory and declared his favor for foreignization theory. In recent years, foreignization theory seems to the leading one in translation field. Sun Zhili, one of the representatives of foreignization, predicted that China’s cultural translation would turn domestication to foreignization in 21st century.
2.3 Studies on Jinling Panci in recent years.
Studies on Jinling Penci are always the hot issue. According to CNKI. Website, periodicals and master’s dissertations related to Jinling Penci’s translation in recent years are as follows. Master’s dissertations are that “A Comparative study of the Four English Translations of the Verdict Poems in Hong Loumeng: with Reference to the Appraisal Theory” by Li Ting, written in 2011 applied qualitative and quantitative methods to study Jinling Panci in Hawkes’, Joly’s, Yangs’ and Bonsall’s version in terms of attitude, engagement and graduation resources. “A Contrastive Study on the Translation of the Pan Ci in Two English Versions of Hong Loumeng” by Wang Yijie, written in 2011, analyzed the differences of Panci translation between Yangs’ version and Hawkes’ version based on conceptual blending theory. Ma Xiaohong (2011) published “Limitation of Translation in Verdicts in A Dream of Red mansions” in Journal of University of Shanghai for Science and Technology Vol.3 No.1. Wang Jiayu (2011) analyzed the Jinling Panci’s allusion from a Gestalt view in Journal of Hubei University of Economic (Humanities and Social Science) Vol.8 No.10. Du Juan’s “A Research on the Character Image Reproduction in the English Version of ‘Jinling Panci’ from Gestalt Theory” (2012) compared the reproduced images and the original image in Yangs’ version and Hawkes’ version of Jinling Panci from the perspective of Gestalt view. “A Comparative Study of the Translation of Jinling Prophecies in Three English Version of Hong Loumeng—From the Perspective Plural Complementary Translation Standard” written by Ma Jing in 2012, took the perspective plural complementary translation standard as the framework to analyze translation of rhyme, rhythm, puns, rebus, antithesis, ellipsis and etc in Yangs’ version, Hawkes’ version and Bonsall’s version from phonetic,semantic and syntactic levels. Su Yanfei (2012) discussed the problems in translating Jinling Panci’s allusion from a intertextuality view in Journal of Liaoning Education Institute Vol.29 No.4. Wang Yaqing’s “The Translation of ‘Jinling Panci’ in Hong Loumeng: A Study from the Perspective of Xu Yuanchong’s ‘Three Beauty’ Theory” (2013) analyzed the strategy of translation about beauty in form, sound and sense of Jinling Panci. Zhang Shuang (2013) analyzed Panci translation between Yangs’ version and Hawkes’ version from the perspective of Nida’s functional equivalence theory in Youth Literator No.11. Chen Wenrong (2013) wrote about a periodical studying the application of rhetoric on Jinling Panci of Hong Loumeng in The World and Chongqing Vol.29 No.9. Jiang Jun (2013) published “Study on English Versions of Jinling Panci from a Intertextuality view” in Writer Magazine No.9. Hu Keli (2013) published “ A Study on English Translation of Judgments in Hong Loumeng Viewed from Cultural Translation” in Journal of Xinyang Normal University Vol.32 No.2 to introduce the different strategies in Yangs’ version and Hawkes’ version. These studies are some more or less related to comparative studies of Jinling Panci based on Yangs’ version and Hawkes’ version. But few of them concretely mentioned the domestication and foreignization theory. So, my thesis is to complete this section.
3. A comparative study on Jinling Panci
Translating Chinese classic poems into English is always challenging jobs for translators. The different translators’ styles also makes the poem translation differently. Whether “A transparent, fluent style is adopted in order to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text for target language readers” or “A target text is produced which deliberately breaks target conventions by retaining something of the foreignness of the original” (Shuttleworth amp; Cowie, 1997, P. 59) has been adopted, one thing can be proved that poetry translation should consider both literary meanings and cultural features. The version of David Hawkes and John Minford’s is often regarded as Hawkes’ version in which domestication has been widely used in the translation. While Yang Xianyi and Gladys Ying’s version is considered to be the Yangs’ version in which foreignization is the typical theory in translation. The study of this thesis is based on the two versions.
3.1 Domestication and foreignization study on characters’ names
The characters’ names in Hong Loumeng mostly come from Chinese literary allusions and classical poetry which, to some degree, reflect the characters’ personalities, statuses and fates. It is hard to express the cultural meanings in translation.
The characters in Panci are shown as Qingwen(晴雯), Xiren(袭人), Xiangling(香菱), Lin Daiyu(林黛玉), Xue Baochai(薛宝钗), Jia Yuanchun(贾元春), Jia Tanchun(贾探春), Shi Xiangyun(史湘云), Miaoyu(妙玉), Jia Yingchun(贾迎春), Jia Xichun(贾惜春), Wang Xifeng(王熙凤), Jia Qiaojie(贾巧姐), Li Wan(李纨), Qin Keqing(秦可卿). The table below shows the results of application to domestication and foreignization.
Table 3.1 sum up of the application in characters’ names
domestication | foreignization | |
Yangs’ version | 0 | 15 |
Hawkes’ version | 4 ( Skybright, Aroma, Caltrop, Adamantina ) | 11 ( mostly belong to upper class) |
Yangs’ version mostly adopts the foreignization method in which the characters’ names are translated into Chinese phonetic alphabets. Besides the Chinese phonetic, some brief explanatory notes also help to express the names’ cultural meanings. Such as Xiren (noting as Literally “assails men”), Li Wan (noting as “Plain Silk”), Xifeng (noting as “Splendid Phoenix”), etc. The foreignization method is faithful to original version which provides readers with a way to know the original culture. But the Chinese phonetic alphabets only function as an identity for the characters. The literary meanings have been lost so that the target readers could not get the equal cultural meanings.
Hawkes’ version takes the needs of target readers into consideration in which both foreignization and domestication methods are adopted in translation of names. The foreignization method has been applied to the main register of twelve beauties like Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, Jia Yuanchun, Jia Tanchun, Jia Yingchun, Jia Xichun,etc. Differing from Yangs’ version, Hawkes’ version lacks the explanatory notes to explain tne names’ hidden meanings. The domestication method is applied to the slaves’ names like Caltrop which is more acceptable and readable for it is obvious to recognize the figure of Xiangling or Skybright which works in concert with “sky” and “brightness”, for which the target readers could easily image the figure of Qingwen. The name of Aroma is skillfully linked with the sentence “Of sweetest flower the rich perfume?” so that readers is easy to explore the person who has the sweet smell.
3.2 Domestication and foreignization study on cultural expressions
In Jingling Panci, there are some typical Chinese cultural phenomenons which contain religion, social status, festival and euphemism of death, etc. The table reflects informations of domestication and foreignization translation applied to show to readers.
Table 3.2 sum up of the application in cultural expressions
domestication | foreignization | |||
Yangs’ version | religion | √ | × | |
social status | √ ( actor) | √ (Granny Liu, Master ) | ||
festival | √ | × | ||
euphemism of death | 夭寿 | × | √ | |
香魂 | × | √ | ||
大梦归 | √ | × | ||
赴黄粱 | √ | × | ||
Hawkes’ version | religion | √ | × | |
social status | √ (a country wife, Lord, player ) | √ (Master) | ||
festival | √ | × | ||
euphemism of death | 夭寿 | √ | × | |
香魂 | √ | × | ||
大梦归 | √ | × | ||
赴黄粱 | √ | × |
3.2.1 Cultural expression in religion
In ancient China, Buddhism is the mainstream religion which is different from the religions in western worlds where Christianism is the leading one. In Xichun’s Panci, “缁衣”, “青灯” and “古佛” are special Chinese characters to remind people of the Buddhism. “缁衣” means the dark clothes for monks or nuns. Here is a metaphor to implicate Xichun’s situation of being a nun in the shrine. To most westerners who are Christians, dark clothes does not in particular refer to a nun or a monk’s clothes. So Yang and Hawkes separately add “Buddhist” and “nun” to explain it. Traditionally, the fact that a girl of wealthy noble house becomes a nun is woeful which totally differs from some perspectives in western worlds.
3.2.2 Cultural expression in social status
In Jingling Panci, three social statuses have been obviously shown on classification of the Jingling beauties. The second register of twelve beauties are slaves like Qingwen(晴雯) and Xiren(袭人). The first register of twelve beauties is between slaves and masters like Xiangling(香菱). The main register of twelve beauties are masters like Wang Xifeng, etc. Beside these, in Qiaojie’s Panci, “刘氏” is an ordinary people whose status is lower than some slaves like Xiren.Yang directly points out the character “Granny Liu” while Hawkes replaces it into “a country wife” which is more euphemistic to let readers guess the character and excellently shows the character’s status. In Qingwen’s and Xiren’s Panci, “公子” refers to Baoyu who belongs to the upper class. “Master” in Yangs’ and Hawkes’ version is the application of foreignization method. While in Hawkes’ version of Qingwen’s Panci, “公子” has also been domesticated to “lord” in order to serve for the English readers.The word “优伶” in Xiren’s Panci reflects another social status. In Yangs’ and Hawkes’ version, “优伶” has been domesticated into “actor” and “player” which to some degree has similar meanings to describe the position of Xiren’s future husband.
3.2.3 Cultural expression in festival
In Tanchun’s Panci, “清明” in the sentence “清明涕送江边望” refers to the traditional Chinese Festival---Qingming Festival or Tomb-sweeping Day. The Qingming Festival is a day for the living to mourn the dead or visit graves or burial grounds of the ancestors. “the Clear and Bright Day” in Yangs’ version does not express the sorrowful atmosphere, but Yang explains it in the footnote. “spring” in Hawkes’ version also can not remind readers of the special Chinese Festival.
3.2.4 Cultural expression in euphemism of death
Jingling Panci predict the miserable fates of Jingling beauties. Their final destinies are all very pitiful so that the euphemism of death is necessary to convey such sad facts. Qingwen’s “夭寿” has been directly translated into “early death” in Yangs’ version. While in Hawkes’ version, the domesticated “in the end” ignores the death but seems euphemistic. Xiangling’s “香魂返故乡” means Xiangling’ death. “Her sweet soul will be dispatched toits final rest.” (A Dream of Red Mansions, 2010, volume I, p. 74) points out her “香魂”. “Your soul must fly home to its own country.” (The Story of the Stone, 1973, p. 88) ignores the “香”. The two versions domesticate Xiangling’s death both in euphemistic ways. Yuanchun’s “大梦归” is another example of euphemism of death. Yingchun’s “赴黄粱” is also indicating the brief and illusory life which conceals the information of Yingchun’s death. Yang and Hawkes do not directly point out Yingchun’s death. Yangs’ version uses “rude awakening” to show the sad ending so as to let English readers aware of the misfortune. Hawkes’ version tells readers the heartbreak instead of death.
3.3 Domestication and foreignization study in rhetoric applications
The application of rhetorics in Jingling Panci include antithesis, pun, aullsion, metaphor, euphemism, etc. It is very challenging for translators to keep the original beauty when translating the Panci. This thesis will put emphasis on the following four rhetorics during which Yangs’ version and Hawkes’ version also will be analyzed.
3.3.l Allusions
According to Wikipedia, allusion is a figure of speech, in which one refers covertly or indirectly to an object or circumstance that has occurred or existed in an external context. Here it means tales or sentences quoting from the ancient books in poetry. Allusions in Jingling Panci are as follows.
“可叹停机德,堪怜咏絮才” of the first Panci in the main register of twelve beauties describes Daiyu and Baochai. “停机德” comes from a Chinese classic Book of the Later Han (《后汉书》) which praises the feudal female morality. “咏絮才” comes from New saying of the world (《世说新语》) which shows the female outstanding literary talents. “wifely virtue” in Yangs’ version and “female virtue” in Hawkes’ version avoid the allusion of “停机德” and only domesticate the original meaning. In Yangs’ version, “咏絮才” has been foreignizated into “Her wit to sing of willow”, but the allusion may confuse the foreign readers. While Hawkes domesticates the original message to show Lin’s talents only by “a wit” in order to facilitate the English readers.
In Yuanchun’ Panci, “榴花” hints a allusion about giving birth to a baby which further predicts Yuanchun’s tragedy in the fierce court fight for that she can only survive by her son. “pomegranates” in Yangs’ version and “pomegranate-time” in Hawkes’ version adopt the foreignization method. But it may confuse the English readers for they don not know the Chinese literary allusion. In Tanchun’ Panci, “湘江” and “楚云” not only refer to the name of Xiangyun(湘云) but also refer to two allusions which express Xiangyun’s short matrimonial life. Yang and Hawkes ignore the allusions in the translation. Though Hawkes uses “Xiang” to remind readers the character, the “clouds” has nothing to do with “yun” in the pronunciation. Yang tries to keep the text foreignized, but the untranslatability between Chinese and English makes it in vain. In Yingchun’s Panci, “中山狼” comes from an old Chinese allegory which satirizes those who trade integrity for profits. Both Yang and Hawkes highlight the vicious, ruthless image of wolf (狼). Yang weakens the culture of the allegory while Hawkes uses “wolf in the old fable” to remind readers of its significance. The word “saviour” , to some degree, caters to English readers. “赴黄粱” is another allusion indicating the brief and illusory life which conceals the information of Yingchun’s death. Yang and Hawkes do not directly point out Yingchun’s death. Yang uses “rude awakening” to show the sad ending so as to let English readers aware of the misfortune. Hawkes domesticates it into a sentence only to tell the heartbreak instead of death.
By analyzing the allusions, it is easy to find that Yangs’ version mainly adopts foreignization method and Hawkes’ version adopts the two method. But for some cultural reasons, it comes out the untranslatability of text like “赴黄粱”.
3.3.2 Puns
According to Collins Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary, a pun is a clever and amusing use of a word or phrase with two meanings, or of words with the same sound but different meanings. For example, in the sentence “玉带林中挂,金钗雪里埋”, “玉带林” can be reversed to lindaiyu(林带玉) which equals to the pronunciation of Lin Daiyu (林黛玉). “雪” is homophonic to 薛. 薛 and “金钗” insinuate the name of Xue Baochai (薛宝钗). Yangs’ version “Buried in snow the broken golden hairpin. And hanging in the wood the belt of jade.” (A Dream of Red Mansions, 2010, volume I, p. 74) and Hawkes’ version “The jade belt in the greenwood hangs, The gold pin is buried beneath the snow.” (The Story of the Stone, 1973, p. 88) adopt domestication method to literally translate the sentence which loses the function of puns.
In Liwan’s Panci, “桃李春风结子完” implies that Li Wan’s short married life just like the blossoms of peach and plum quickly withers and falls after bearing fruits. “李” is a homograph that refers to plum and the surname Li. 完 and 纨 share the same Chinese Pinyin so that Li Wan’s name is formed in this sentence. The application of foreignization method in Yangs’ and Hawkes’ versions just shows the process of blossoms and bearing fruits. It is hard for English readers to notify the figure. In the sentence “到头谁似一盆兰”, “兰” is a pun which means orchid as well as Li Wan’s son Jia Lan. “her Orchid” in Hawkes’ version is better than “the orchid” in Yangs’ version to show the double meanings which domestication and foreignization theories are well shown to make readers more clear about the potential meaning.
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