摘 要

作为中国古典文化最珍贵的遗产之一，宋词在体现中国传统文化方面发挥着重要作用，其中苏轼的词是中国历史上最具代表性和经典性的作品之一。苏轼是宋代最杰出的文人之一，他的诗、词、赋和诗歌都享有很高的声誉。目前关于苏轼词的英文翻译很丰富，但对于与翻译相关的研究却比较匮乏。

本文主要探讨苏轼的豪放词代表作《念奴娇—赤壁怀古》，分析许渊冲和杨宪益两位译者分别采取的不同翻译策略。本研究采用对比的研究方法，从韵律、文体风格和文化意象三方面对比两个不同的翻译版本，尝试探究两位译者的翻译策略，进一步认识他们对翻译本质和文学翻译活动的理解。

  全文共分为五章。第一章简要介绍研究背景、研究目的、研究方法以及论文结构；第二章: 文献综述；第三章从韵律，文体风格和文化意象三方面对比两个不同的翻译版本；第四章讨论不同译者所采取的翻译策略；第五章，结论，包括研究发现、研究不足、以及未来可研究的方向。

关键词：苏轼词；对比研究；翻译策略

Abstract

Ci, one of the most precious heritage of Chinese classical culture, plays a vital effect in reflecting Chinese traditional culture. Among copious Chinese ci, Su Shi's ci is one of the most representative and classic work throughout the Chinese history. Su Shi is one of the most outstanding Chinese literati in Song Dynasty. He enjoys a high reputation for his prose, ci, fu and poetry. The English translations of Su Shi's ci are copious but the research related to this areas are few.

This paper mainly focuses on Su Shi's "Nian Nu Jiao-Memories of The Past at Red Cliff" which is one of his representative works featured by unconstrained words to analyze translation strategies adopted respectively by two translators, namely Xu Yuanchong and Yang Xianyi. With the purpose of analyzing translation strategies, the paper compares two translation versions word by word, phrase by phrase, line by line. Apart from, the paper sheds light upon their understanding about the nature of translation and task of literary translation.

The whole thesis can be divided into five chapters. The first chapter briefly introduces research background, purpose and methodology as well as thesis structure. The second chapter exhibits a literature review of the whole thesis. The third chapter makes a contrastive study on the two English versions by metric system, stylistic features and cultural images. The fourth chapter discusses the translation strategies of domestication and foreignization in different translation versions. The fifth chapter is a conclusion of the major findings of the thesis, pointing out limitations of the study and offering further expectation for future studies.

Key Words: Su Shi's ci; contrastive study; translation strategies

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Research purpose and Research Methodology 2

1.3 Thesis Structure 2

2. Literature Review 3

2.1 Review of the English Translations of Su Sh's ci 3

2.2 Previous Studies on the English Translations of Su Shi's ci 4

3. A contrastive Study on the Two English Versions 5

3.1 Metric System 5

3.2 Stylistic Features 6

3.3 Cultural Images 10

4. A discussion of translation strategies in different translation versions 11

4.1 Domestication 11

4.2 Foreignization 12

5. Conclusion 13

5.1 Major Findings 13

5.2 Limitations and Future study 14

Reference 15

Appendix 16

Acknowledgements 18

A Contrastive Study of Translation Strategies of Su Shi's Ci—A Case Study of ''Nian Nu Jiao-Memories Of The Past At Red Cliff''

1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background

With the frequent development of international cultural exchanges and cultural diversity, the translation of ci has become an essential way to transmit Chinese traditional culture to the world. As one of the most precious heritages of Chinese classical culture, ci plays an essential role in reflecting Chinese traditional culture. Among the rich Chinese ci, Su Shi's ci is a typical case.

Su Shi, a versatile literary giant in the field of Chinese literature, is called Dongpo as literary name. As a multifaceted genius, Su Shi is not only a topping poet and prose writer, but also an eminent calligrapher writer and painter. However, it is his achievements in the ci that have earned him numerous reputations and admirations. With a sincere and unaffected style, Su Shi not only released strict restrictions, but also changed the theme of the ci to give it a new scope by using creative language and wonderful thinking. Su Shi boldly proposed an unconstrained style. In addition, his ci is full of historical stories which have rich cultural connotations and enlighten the life of people. Undoubtedly, Su Shi's works are important carriers for spreading unique Chinese culture. Therefore, many translators and scholars from home and abroad are committed to translating his works into English.

The spread of Su Shi's English translation not only enables more and more people to learn Chinese traditional culture, but also can obtain rich wisdom and connotation. However, compared with the abundant translations of Su Shi's ci, the systematic study of translation is far from enough. Among them, few studies are about translation strategies of Su Shi's ci, and that's the reason why the author chooses this topic for the present study. In this paper, in comparison with two English versions of Su Shi's ci, it is expected to draw more enlightening conclusions.

1.2 Research Purpose and Research Methodology

Su Shi's ci is an outstanding representative of Chinese classical culture. The English translation of Su Shi's ci speeds up the transmission of the charm of Chinese classical poetry among the western world and attach importance to Chinese traditional culture. Su Shi's ci has a wide range of subjects, and abounds in beautiful images. These characteristics of Su Shi's ci determine that translators should not only be fully familiar with the content and emotions of the ci, but also make specific adjustments and choices in order to be in line with the communication and cultural dimensions of the source text. Only in those ways, can the translation version convey the original language's characteristics and styles faithfully, allowing the target language reader to experience a unique form and connotation of the ci. Through the different translations, connotations, ideologies, expressions of different translators in ci translation and the impacts that the different translation strategies brought on the dissemination of translation works. This paper chooses "Nian Nu Jiao-Memories of the past at red cliff" as the research subject, and compares two English versions translated by Xu Yuanchong and Yang Xianyi respectively.

The research methodologies mainly included of the present study are mainly literature reading, case analysis, and contrastive studies. The author will base the contrastive analysis of two different translations by examining the whole ci closely.

1.3 Thesis Structure

The whole thesis can be divided into five chapters. The first chapter covers a brief introduction to research background, research purpose and research methodology as well as thesis structure. The second chapter exhibits a literature review for the present study, which includes the English translations and previous studies of Su Shi's ci both at home and abroad. The third chapter is the main body of the research. With careful reading of the two translation versions, the thesis makes a contrastive study on the two English versions in terms of metric system, stylistic features and cultural images. The fourth chapter discusses the translation strategies of domestication and foreignization in different translation versions. The fifth chapter is the conclusion of the thesis.

2 Literature Review

The Chinese nation has a long history and splendid culture. It is a common aspiration of scholars at home and abroad to translate Chinese classics. It can introduce the outstanding cultural achievements of the nation into Western countries. So far, Chinese scholars and foreign scholars have carried out a large number of translations of Su Shi's ci, which promoted the development and international communication of Su Shi's ci.

2.1 Review of the English Translations of Su Shi's Ci