摘 要

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Need for the study 2

2. Literature Review 3

2.1 Lin’s writing of the biography 3

2.2 Domestic studies on Lin Yutang and the biography 3

2.3 Culture turn in translation studies 4

2.3.1 Elements of culture turn 5

2.3.2 Intercultural thinking 6

3. Comparative Analysis of Translation Strategies in Two Chinese Versions 7

3.1 Difficulties in translation 7

3.2 Analysis of translation of words and texts in two Chinese versions 7

3.2.1 transliteration 8

3.2.2 free translation 9

3.2.3 literal translation 10

3.2.4 Omission of annotation 11

3.2.5 Changing the perspective 12

3.3 Translation of humor: building a cultural bridge 12

4. Overall Analysis of Two Chinese Versions 15

4.1 Mistranslation in two versions 15

4.2 Evaluation of two versions 16

5. Conclusion 17

References 18

Acknowledgments 19

Abstract

The Gay Genius: The Life and Times of Su Tungpo (hereafter referred to as The Gay Genius), one of Lin Yutang’s masterpieces, depicts the chequered political career of Su Tungpo, a great poet in Northern Song Dynasty. Zhang Zhenyu and Song Biyun, translators in Taiwan who aspire to bring the charm of Lin’s work to Chinese readers, rendered it into Chinese. There have been mixed reviews about the two Chinese translated versions. Since the 1960s, translation studies have gone further with more schools of translation emerging, one of which is cultural translation. In the early 1990s, culture turn defined by Lefere and Bassnett came to be applied to translation practice without formalist translation. This paper lists difficulties in translation and makes a comparative analysis of translation strategies employed in the two Chinese versions of The Gay Genius by enumerating examples of such strategies as transliteration, free translation, literal translation, omission of annotation and changing the perspective. Besides, Lin Yutang is known for his witty writing style, the thesis also elaborates on translation of humor in the two Chinese versions from the cultural perspective. Finally, the thesis spots a handful of mistranslations in the two versions before making an overall evaluation of both versions. From the analysis of above, in Zhang’s version high-flown words abound and he omits redundant cultural information while Song’s version features plain Chinese which is faithful to the original text.

Keywords: The Gay Genius: The Life and Times of Su Tungpo; Translation Strategies; Culture Turn of Translation

中文摘要

《苏东坡传》是林语堂先生的代表作之一，讲述了北宋文豪苏东坡从政的多舛人生。台湾著名翻译家张振玉、宋碧云，试图令中国读者领略林语堂先生英文著作的魅力，遂着手翻译《苏东坡传》。但学界对《苏东坡传》两个中译本褒贬不一。自二十世纪六十年代起，翻译研究领域不断涌入崭新的翻译研究思想和方向，其中之一为文化翻译流派；二十世纪九十年代初，勒弗菲尔和巴斯奈特将“文化转向”应用至翻译实践，摒弃形式主义翻译。本文先指出《苏东坡传》翻译难点，再通过列举两个中译本中音译、意译、直译、省略注释、改变视角等翻译策略的实例，对比两个中译本的翻译策略。此外，鉴于幽默大师林语堂具有诙谐的写作风格，本文还从文化角度分析了幽默词句的翻译策略和效果。最后，笔者仍指出了两个中译本中的误译，并对两个中译本进行整体评价。综上分析，笔者认为张译本强调翻译文采，善用四六格、合理删减冗余文化信息；宋译本尊重原文，语言平实。

关键词：《苏东坡传》；翻译策略；翻译的文化转向

Introduction

Research background

The Gay Genius [1] is a big hit among Western readers and so are its Chinese versions in part because Lin Yutang who is proficient in English creates a vivid image of Su Tungpo, a legendary Chinese poet in the Northern Song Dynasty. In The Gay Genius, Su Tungpo’s childhood, political career and poetry creation are chronicled in English.

Unlike other contemporary writers, Lin Yutang wrote multiple works in English without Chinese scripts to take Chinese culturel global, such as My Country and My People and The Importance of Living. Translators who show interest in Lin’s works then render them into Chinese to get more insights into legendary poets like Su Tungpo and Tao yüen Ming. Given this, such translation of Lin’s English works that tell Chinese stores back into Chinese is different from the common English-Chinese translation.

The 1950s saw Western scholars embark on systematic translation studies but most of them confined their studies to the aspect of language itself. Andre Lefevere and Susan Bassnett went further, arguing that by injecting cultural elements into translation studies, translators should achieve “culture turn”. And frequent international exchanges encourage translators to take into account the society, politics, culture, economy and other factors if they are to overcome the cultural barrier and produce quality, reader-friendly translated works.

1.2 Need for the study

For all the difficulty in dealing with the cultural identity, translators can still strategically use multiple translation skills to achieve equivalence in culture. Therefore, it is imperative that translators should figure out how culture turn in translation by illustrating with examples used such translation strategies as transliteration, free translation, literal translation, omission of annotation and changing the perspective.

Apart from that, writing the Chinese culture or history in English is a kind of translation and when translating it back into Chinese, translators should strive to reconstruct Chinese culture. Given this, Lin’s work written in English entails techniques to ensure that Chinese elements can be restored. Based on cultural translation and Bassnett’s idea of culture turn, this paper intends to explore how two translators render culture-loaded texts in the process of back translation by comparing different Chinese translated versions. In addition, this paper also attempts to provide scholars overseas with an overview of issues concerning intercultural mentality and provide another angle to evaluate translation.

Literature Review

2.1 Lin’s writing of the biography

The Gay Genius, a book packed with rich Chinese culture, is one of the literary works written by acclaimed Chinese scholar, Lin Yutang. Lin embarked on writing the book in 1945 and two years later it was published by an American publishing house. Lin Yutang, a literary master who is proficient in English, serves as a storyteller of the chequered official experience and family life of the legendary poet – Su Tungpo. And prior to the birth of The Gay Genius, The Importance of Living, an acclaimed book written in English, has set him on path to take Chinese culture global. The result has been that Lin’s admiration for Tungpo and passion for introducing Chinese culture propelled him to write something about Tungpo. And Lin’s previous works were wildly popular among those who got interested in ancient China and traditional Chinese culture. Ten-odd years’ efforts to collect materials and writing ultimately paid off. The biography is a hit among Western readers as it helps them to get a glimpse into the life in Northern Song Dynasty when literature and art prospered but political climate was less desirable. And therefore, cultural elements including poems, idioms, politics, customs and food are peppered in the biography, carrying great cultural significance.

2.2 Domestic studies on Lin Yutang and the biography

Historical reasons prevented scholars in the mainland of China from researching into Lin Yutang’s works before the year of 1979. Since China started to open to the outside world, Lin as a literary master has made a comeback among Chinese scholars and a growing number of studies on his works have kept cropping up.(Wang, 2006: 14) [2] Driven by their passion and interest, scholars including Wan Pingjin and Wang Zhaosheng carried out specific, detailed research on everything about Lin from his traits and personalities to his literary style. (Xu, 2017:5) [3] Among those pioneers in research into Lin, Wang goes further, developing his predecessors’ studies and publishing some monographs on Lin: Lin Yutang’s Culture Complex [4], A Biography of Lin Yutang [5].

On top of that, research perspectives on Lin are not confined to his works. Scholars also attempt to interpret his masterpieces from various aspects. Lin Yutang: a Microform of Cultural Transformation [6] by Shi Ping focuses on Lin’s cultural personality by analyzing his passion for liberty, humorous culture and values. Moreover, feminism is emerging as a new angle to study Lin Yutang and his biography like A Humanistic Interpretation of Lin Yutang’s Female Consciousness by Du Ling [7].

Previous research on The Gay Genius mainly takes the form of book reviews. Doctorial and masters’ dissertations and journals concerning translation of the biography abound, most of which revolve around rewriting theory, back translation or translator’s subjectivity.(Wang, 2017: 12) [8]

2.3 Culture turn in translation studies

According to Burke, the term was first created by anthropologists in the circle of Edward Evans-Pritchard, in an effort to show what happens when two cultural meets and each culture tries to understand the intention of the other. [9]

Definitions of cultural translation abound but they have something in common. According to Homi K. Bhabha (1994), cultural translation is a set of discourses that enact hybridity by removing cultural barriers, demonstrating the intermediary roles of (figurative) translators. [10] This definition enjoys popularity by most of scholars. Nida and Taber (1982) hold the view that the content is converted to adapt to the culture of targeted readers, and should not be confines to linguistic translation. [11] Susan Bassnett, a leading figure who has pushed cultural translation studies forward, argues that translation serves as an exchange between two cultures as opposed to an activity between two languages. [12]