For 5000 years of Chinese history, there are countless brilliant ancient literary works like The Book of Songs。 It is necessary for us to read and translate them if we want to spread the wonderful Eastern culture to the whole world。 Comparing and judging different translations is sure to be an integral part of it。
Xu Yuanchong is a Chinese translation master while Waley is a Western famous academic who dedicates to translating Chinese classics into English。 Both of them are considered as accomplished translators but they live in different social and ecological environment。 That is why Xu knows about Chinese traditional customs and culture better。 So this song is more understandable for him but restrictive for Arthur Waley。 Meanwhile, they have their own translation style and characteristic for various reasons。 After comparing their versions of Guan Ju, the obvious differences between them would be discovered 。
Such comparison would be helpful for us to understand the work Guan Ju itself and Chinese traditional culture, especially of Zhou Dynasty。 Moreover, when we read other literature works translated by Xu Yuanchong and Arthur Waley, it would be easier for us to grasp their main translation styles。 Besides these sides, the translation theory ——faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance, can also be used to analyze other English versions。 This classical perspective would never be dropped。 The last but not least, the translation theories and approaches that they apply to their works would benefit us a lot when we try to do our own translation job。
2。Yan Fu's Translation Theory—— Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance 来自优O尔P论R文T网WWw.YoueRw.com 加QQ7520`18766
Yan Fu is a renowned translator of our country。 The translation theory——faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance, proposed by him, is the most acceptable principle in our translation and practice area。 He stated in the preface to his translation of Evolution and Ethics that “there are three difficulties in translation: faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance”。 The “three character guide” is regarded as a plumb-line of long standing to measure the professional level of translating。 He did not set them as general standards for translation and did not say that they were independent of each other。 However, since the publication of that work, the phrase “faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance” has been attributed to Yan Fu as a standard for any good translation and has become a cliche in Chinese academic circles, giving rise to numerous debates and theses。 Some scholars argue that this dictum actually derived from Scottish theoretician of translation, Alexander Fraser Tytler。 Though Yan Fu’s classical prose did its best to meet the standards of “faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance”,there were those who criticized his works for not being accessible to the younger generations。 In particular, a famous liberal from the May Fourth Movement Cai Yuanpei in an article written in 1924 said “Yan Fu’s translations seem to be old-fashioned and his literary style is difficult to comprehend, but the standard with which he selected books and the way he translated them are very admirable even today”。 Other critiques of his work arose as Chinese scholars became more aware of Western learning。
In a word, according to Yan Fu, good translation is one that is true to the original in spirit, accessible to the target reader in meaning, and attractive to the target reader in style。 Yan Fu’s theory of translation is based on his experience with translating works of social sciences from English into Chinese。
2。1 What is faithfulness?
Yan Fu’s “Xin, faithfulness ” means the full and complete conveying or transmission of the original content or thought。 Distortion or random addition and deletion of any kind is not permitted。 It also means faithfulness to the source style。 That is, the translator should not harm or change the style of the source text; neither should he substitute his own style for the style of the source text。 从信达雅角度比较《诗经·关雎》的两种英译(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_200486.html