摘 要

本文主要从比喻表达角度对比分析《水浒传》两个不同的英译版，译者分别是赛珍珠和沙博里。作为小说《水浒传》中最显著的语言特征之一，比喻表达非常值得关注，两位译者采取了不同的处理方法。本文意在阐明二者翻译比喻修辞的不同之处，探索他们在修辞形式与意义方面所做出的不同选择。通过选择有代表性的部分详细对比之后，本文发现，两位译者分别采取了不同的翻译策略，体现出了直译和意译、异化和归化之分，由此可以分析推断出两位译者对于翻译本质的理解与认识也是不尽相同的。

关键词：《水浒传》；比喻表达；对比研究；翻译策略

Abstract

This paper mainly focuses on a contrastive study of two different English versions of Shui Hu from the aspect of metaphorical expressions. And their translators are Pearl S. Buck and S. Shapiro respectively. Metaphorical expression, one of the most distinguished linguistic features in the novel Shui Hu, is worthy of attention. And the two translators exerted different coping methods towards it. The paper is meant to shed light on the difference of translation metaphors, and to see their choices over metaphorical form and meaning. And through a selective but representative detailed comparison of the two different English versions, this paper finds that the two translators exerted different translating methods, namely literal translation and liberal translation, foreignization and domestication. Thus it can come to the conclusion that the two translators hold different understandings towards the essence of translation.

Keywords: Shui Hu; metaphorical expressions; contrastive study; translation strategy

Contents

A contrastive study of translating metaphors in All men are brothers 1

1 Introduction 1

1.1 The novel Shui Hu 1

1.2 English translators of Shui Hu 2

1.3 The significance of studying All men are brothers 3

2 Literature Review 5

2.1 Previous study of All men are brothers 5

2.2 Metaphorical study in All men are brothers 6

3 Translation and Illustration of Metaphors in All men are brothers 7

4 A Discussion of Linguistic Features and Translation Strategies 13

4.1 linguistic features in different translation versions 13

4.1.1 All men are brothers by Buck 13

4.1.2 Outlaws of the Marsh by Shapiro 13

4.2 A discussion of translation strategies employed by Buck and Shapiro 14

5 Conclusion 16

5.1 Major findings 16

5.2 Limitations and further study 17

References 18

Acknowledgement 19

A Contrastive Study of Translating Metaphors in All men are brothers

1 Introduction

1.1 The novel Shui Hu

As one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literary history, Shui Hu was written in an excellent literary language, the refined vernacular, in the fourteenth century. At that time, it was a prevailing language with the features of emotive but informal. Shi Nai’an, the writer of it, is a novelist who lived in the late Yuan Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty. The stories happened in the Song and Yuan Dynasty are the main source materials of Shui Hu. Ranging from 70 to 124 chapters, Shui Hu has emerged with a lot of editions since its first publication.

The linguistic character of this novel is that the different characters have different languages which are very suitable to them. And the character’s languages are considerably conducive to shaping the distinctive portrayal and personality of the characters.

Having attracted Chinese people for hundreds of years, Shui Hu has been adapted into picture books, television series and operas.

Shui Hu has not only exerted a profound impact on Chinese society but also captured a lot of concentration and affections from oversea readers and scholars since it was created. As a consequence, it has been translated into many foreign languages including English, French, Russian, Germany, Japanese and so on and become a popular novel which is paid much attention to people from all over the world. As the culture exchanges between China and Western countries become more and more frequent and deeper, the research is not only confined to the original work but also unfolded on its translation work, which plays an overwhelming role on spreading Chinese classical literature to English-speaking countries.

1.2 English translators of Shui Hu

So far there are totally four English translation versions, two of which are with greater popularity and influence. They are All men are brothers of seventy chapters translated by American female writer Pearl S. Buck, and Outlaws of the Marsh of one hundred chapters by American scholar S. Shapiro.

Pearl Sydenstricker Buck is an American writer famous for her novels based on the life in China and in 1938 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Born in West Virginia, USA, in 1892, however, she passed her earlier life in China and received her primary education in Shanghai. Her parents were missionaries in China. In 1910, the year when she was eighteen years old , she returned American in order t o receive higher education. In 1914, she was graduated from Randolph Macon Woman’s College, Virginia. After graduation, she came back to China and became a teacher in Nanking University later. In 1934, she left China and went back to the United States and lived there from then on. In 1973, she died in Danby, Vermont.

It was in 1923 when her novels and articles related to her life in China were published in U.S. magazines for the first time. The Good Earth, written in 1931, won her an enormous number of audience and great reputation. It depicts the struggling life in a sympathetic tone of a Chinese farmer and her wife in traditional society striving for equal accessibility to land and social status. This novel won her the Pulitzer Prize in1932 and was later translated in a large range. The seventy-chapter version of All men are brothers was published in 1933.

Sidney Shapiro was born in New York, USA, in 1915. He graduated from St. John’s University major in Law and he became a lawyer later. During the Second World War, he was recruited into the army. Owing to the need of the current political situation that a group of soldiers ought to learn the world languages, he was sent to learn Chinese and Chinese history. After his left the army, he studied Chinese and Chinese culture with his retirement allowance in Columbia University and later Yale University. He came to China in April 1947 and in 1948 he married the Chinese writer Fengzi (Phoenix). From 1952 on, he worked as an English-language expert at the Chinese magazine Chinese Literature and later at China Pictorial. Later, Shapiro stepped into a new area by accident, that is, translation. He acquired Chinese nationality in 1963. Since his first publication of translation work in 1956, he had never stopped translating Chinese famous works into English for several decades. His translation work Outlaws of the Marsh, a version of one hundred chapters, was published in 1980. It is a combination of the seventy and one hundred chapters editions of Shui Hu. The seventy-chapter edition serves as the translating material for the first seventy chapters in his translation. In addition, he has written several books. Though his translation works, he spread the image of China and made a huge contribution to showing the true look of China.

As is mentioned above, the text of both the two English versions is based on the seventy-chapter edition, which is also the basis of the comparison of the two English versions.

1.3 The significance of studying All men are brothers

All men are brothers has exerted a great impact on Chinese history and it is of great historical significance. The significance of this research is shown in aesthetics and practice respectively:

In terms of aesthetic significance, it can help us to better appreciate this prominent masterpiece and even other Chinese ancient novels, fully understand