论文总字数：28359字

摘 要

散文,不拘泥于形式，主旨明确,是文学题材的一种，其中，中国现代散文篇幅短小，语言优美，具有审美特点，给读者以美的享受。而翻译这门科学，既具有科学性又具有艺术性，从而决定了翻译美学也可以成为翻译研究的一个角度。由于散文的审美特点，翻译美学应该可以成为散文翻译的一个结合对象。本文主以翻译美学理论为依据，从语音、词汇、句法三方面探讨张培基译作《巷》，分析张译散文运用何种翻译策略与方法来再现汉语散文的美学价值。

关键词：翻译美学；散文翻译；《巷》

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………1
2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………2
3. Theoretical Foundation …………………………... ………………………3

3.1 Essay translation………………………………………………………….3

3.2 Translation aesthetics………………………………………………....... …. 4

1. Translation Strategies and Methods in The Lane……………………5

4.1 Translation strategies and methods on phonetic level………………………6

4.2 Translation strategies and methods on lexical level………………………...7

4.3Translation strategies and methods on syntactic level……………………….9

5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..11

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...13

1. Introduction

Whether in the past or at the present, English and Chinese essay has an age-old history. Especially, since the May 4^th Movement, a large number of modern Chinese essays have been produced like mushrooms after rain, due to the “Vernacular Movement”, which encouraged writers to write articles in vernacular Chinese. As we all known, the development of the essay is extremely fast, however, relatively speaking, the research on the translation of the essay has lagged behind. Due to the characteristics of the essay, “aesthetic quality” is an important issue that translators are most difficult to overcome. At present, although some scholars have carried out certain research on the essay translation, systematical and theoretical researches are still relatively rare, saying nothing of the study on the essay translation from the perspective of translation aesthetics, so did the strategies and methods applied in the essay translation in view of translation aesthetics.

As one form of literature, the essay, whose language has ideographic and aesthetic functions, is very vivid and lively, with the characteristics of “loose form and tight spirit”. As for the requirement of the essay, refined language, meticulous thoughts and clear subject are important. Besides, in the essay, the accuracy, smoothness and enjoyment are also necessary. Because of the high requirement in the process of creating the essay, there exist the higher standards in the translation of the essay, which indicates that translators must keep aesthetics in mind when translating the essay. As an aesthetic practice, the translated essay should convey the beauty of the original in forms such as sound, lexis and syntax.

When it comes to the essay translation in China, Zhang Peiji, who has written the four volumes of Selected Modern Chinese Essays, has made a great contribution to the course of Chinese essays translation. The language of the selected original Chinese essays are elegant and the translated versions are also excellent, so this thesis studies the essay translation from the perspective of translation aesthetics exemplified by The Lane, one essay chose from the Selected Modern Chinese Essays.

In view of the above, in order to improve the translation of essay, systematic and preliminary research from the perspective of translation aesthetics seems necessary. The author sincerely hopes that this paper has some value and has some new understandings of theoretical research in this field.

2. Literature Review

Aesthetics is a discipline that studies the aesthetic relation between people and the world, exploring the nature of art, beauty, and taste, with the creation and appreciation of beauty. Simply speaking, Liu Miqing proposed: “the aesthetics form of translation is the main focal point of the translation aesthetics.” (Liu XXV) At abroad, the aesthetic thought has a long history. The book Aesthetics published by Alexander Gottlieb Baumgart marks the beginning of Western aesthetics. Since then, aesthetics has been used to define this subject as a discipline initially. Joseph Ramsden is the first person to propose the conception of translation aesthetics, he thinks that the beauty of translation should include image, figures of speech, and so on. 　

In China, the traditional aesthetic ideas have been made in some traditional Chinese translation theories. Though the aesthetics existed in the theory of translation, aesthetics and translation have not been put together to discuss, not mention the systematic theory of translation aesthetics. After being influenced by the theory of western aesthetics, some Chinese translators have tried their best to study the translation, and then the term “translation aesthetics” was proposed. On the ground of the traditional aesthetics and traditional Chinese culture, translation aesthetics is one of the important outcomes that can independently present the theory of Chinese translation. During the past years, many scholars have spared no effort to do something on the perfection and growth of Chinese translation aesthetics.

For example, Fu Zhongxuan has early published Practical Translation Aesthetics in 1993 that is the first Chinese independent and complete translation aesthetics works, which marks the establishment of Chinese translation aesthetics. Mao Ronggui has published Translation Aesthetics in 2005, mainly discussing deeply the translation practice and methods from the perspective of aesthetics. Liu Miqing’ book An introduction to Translation and Aesthetics (second Edition) reveals the origin of translation aesthetics, and discusses the aesthetics’ special meaning to Chinese translation field.

Among the studies of translation aesthetics, the main objects are traditional Chinese classics, ancient poetry, drama, or some pragmatic translations, such as Chinese food, the translation of public sign in tourist spots. But, now, the essay translation is being studied from the perspective of translation aesthetics.

According to the characteristics of essay, the essay translation is closely related to aesthetics. The relationship between essay translation and aesthetics is reflected in the theories proposed by some researchers and scholars. Either in foreign or in China, many people who have a keen interest on the translation have exerted themselves to study the translation of modern Chinese essay. For example, Song Jie (2018) has studied the styles of the English translation of Chinese essays during periods of the Republic of China from perspective of translation and aesthetic.

Many academic explorations have formed a new theme for literary appreciation and there are more and more comments on the translation of modern Chinese essay. Nevertheless, in the realm of essay translation, the analysis of translation strategies and methods has not been valued.

3. Theoretical Foundation

Different from drama, novel and poetry, the essay possesses its own characteristics, but the research on the essay translation is rare. Just as Susan Bassnett said, “Although there is a large body of work debating the issues that surround the translation of poetry, far less time has been spent studying the specific problems of translating literary prose” (Bassnett 110).Translation aesthetics is one of the perspectives to study the translation, and it inclines to the artistry of translation. In the next, this paper will provide some brief introductions to the essay translation and translation aesthetics.

3.1 Essay translation

According to Zhou Fangzhu, “the essay translation is the basis of literary translation, playing an essential role in the literary translation” (Zhou 122). Though the essay is featured by the loose form, it is concentrated on the spirit. In other words, the essay is ultimately the beauty of the whole; the characteristics of essay determine that the excellent essay translation should put together with form and spirit. Prose writer’s pen can go where his or her consciousness flows. Prose writing can reveal the style of the writer not only through the diction and rhetorical devices but also through the textual structure. So in translation of prose, writing an “equivalent effect” is expected to achieve. Translating an essay is a systematic project; it entails high craftsmanship and creativity of the translator. (Liu 121)

According to Li Changbao, “as a kind of aesthetic practice, the essay translation should be discussed from the perspective of aesthetics, not only surveying the formal beauty of the original text, but also representing the original text’s content beauty and style beauty ”(Li 100).

According to Yao Li and Zhang Xiaohong, the essay translation has three principles.

The first principle is conveying feelings. The author is mainly intended to express his feelings by creating the essay, so that the feelings are the soul of the essay. In the process of the essay translation, the translator should equivalently translate the feelings of the author. For example, the sentences “多么奇丽的景色！多么奇特的民族！” indicate the author’s amazement and surprise, and the translated sentences are “What a scene of enchanting beauty! What an unusual nation! ”. In the same way, the translator translates the feelings of the author.

The second principle is representing poetic imagery. The author creating the essay is to make the reader enjoy the beauty and ponder the life, thus, the translator should represent the poetic imagery of the original text. For example, the poetic imagery in 《路畔的蔷薇》 is gloomy and forlorn, and in the translated version, Wayside Roses, the translator uses appropriate vocabulary to represent the poetic imagery of gloom.

The third principle is reproducing the style. Different authors have different writing styles, so the translator should translate the right writing style according to that of the original text. For example, the Francis Bacon’s Of Studies is very concise, and the Wang Zuoliang’s translated version is also concise, reproducing the style of the original text.

3.2 Translation aesthetics

Proposed in the 1990s, the theory of translation aesthetics refers to the union between translation and aesthetics. On the ground of Chinese traditional translation theories, it possesses its own distinctive Chinese characteristics. After years of development, the basic framework of Chinese traditional translation aesthetics has been formed, providing a new direction for translation studies. Translation aesthetics reveals the aesthetic origin of translation studies, understands the scientific and artistic nature of translation from the perspective of aesthetics, and uses the basic principles of aesthetics to analyze, interpret and solve aesthetic problems in interlingual transformation. (Fang 296) With strong theoretical and practical significance, translation aesthetics has played a key role of aesthetic sensibility in translation.

As Liu Miqing has pointed out, the aesthetic system consists of two subsystems, the first one is the formal aesthetic system and the second one is the informal system. This paper mainly studies the formal aesthetic system which refers to the characteristics of the language form, such as sound, lexis and syntax. As far as translation is concerned, formal aesthetics is always reflected in the level of sound, words, sentences or paragraphs, which helps to arouse the reader"s direct aesthetic feelings. “The formal aesthetic system works on three planes, the outer plane, the inner plane and the conceptual plane, the first adopting natural sensitivity, the second emotional sensitivity and the final symbolic sensuality.” (Liu 90)

The formal aesthetic system includes three aspects: sound, lexis and syntax.

Sound is one of the basic methods of carrying the aesthetic information-----musicality in language. Music and language are both exposed by sound, when the sound melodious the language is beauty, vice versa.

Lexis is very important method of carrying the aesthetic information in language. Lexis can roundly and effectively reflect the basic features of linguistic symbols: linear, arbitrary, generative, systematic and stable.

Syntax is more complicated form that carrying the aesthetic information in language. The aesthetic information in syntax can be divided into three types: the first one is syntactic deviations, which create aesthetic by using fuzziness of grammar; the second one is enhancing frequency, which create aesthetic by repeating some forms; the third one is the arrangement of pragmatic and functional sentences.

4. Translation Strategies and Methods in The Lane

The modern Chinese essay, The Lane, presents a kind of beauty in little lane, with many four-character words. By the essay, the author of The Lane expressed his enjoyment to the tranquil and carefree in the lane, and his hatred to the chaotic and boisterous in the metropolis.

In the English version, the enjoyment and hatred are translated fully, which represent the beauty of the original text. The following parts are the detailed analysis about the translated text The Lane from three aspects including sound, lexis and syntax, which carry the aesthetic information.

4.1 Translation strategies and methods on phonetic level

In a language, sound can be an important part to convey the aesthetic effect. It contains many factors: rhythm, rhyme, reduplication, onomatopoeia and so on, and it play a significant role in the representation of beauty in sound. In this thesis, reduplication and onomatopoeia are focused on in the representation of the aesthetic.

4.1.1 Reduplication

Reduplication refers to the words consist of the same two characters, which makes people’s eyes and ears all enjoyable, enhancing the charm of essay and reaching the better aesthetic effect.

Original text：

那里常是寂寂的，寂寂的，不论什么时候，你向巷中踅去，都如宁静的黄昏，可以清晰地听到自己的足音。(Zhang 267)

Translated text：

There is nothing but stillness there. At any hour of day, you can even distinctly hear in the dusk-like quiet your own footsteps. (Zhang 271)

In the original text, the author Ke Ling used reduplication “寂寂”，which delights the readers’ ears, to lay stress on the stillness in the lane. In the translated text, there are no equivalent words to translate the reduplication used in the original one, however, the translator chose “nothing but” to highlight the stillness. The free translation used in the translated text makes the expression in the target language more emphatic. Besides, the original one sentence was divided into two sentences, and that is the translation method called division, which makes the translated sentence more apt to the idiomatic expression. Consequently, with the free translation and the division translation, the translated sentence represents the beauty of sound in view of the meaning rather than the form.

4.1.2 Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is a kind of vocabulary that imitates the natural sound, often used in literature. By using the onomatopoeia, literary works become very vivid and pleasant, which presents beauty of nature. Between English and Chinese, there is some corresponding onomatopoeia. But, sometimes, there is no concrete onomatopoeia in the translated text, but the translator could find an appropriate word to replace the onomatopoeia.

Original text：

在那里，你们俩可以随便谈谈，心贴得更近，在街上那种贪婪的睨视，恶意的斜视，巷里是没有的；偶然呀的一声，墙门口显出一个人影，又往往是深居简出的姑娘，看见你们，会娇羞地返身回避了。(Zhang 268)

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