（外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文）林语堂翻译思想浅析——其英译《浮生六记》中目的论的体现.pdf

摘摘 要要 林语堂是中国近代著名的文学家和翻译家。林语堂创作生涯的大部分时间都行走在东西方文化之间，对中西方文化之间的交流尤其是在把中国文化介绍给西方世界方面作出了突出贡献，写作了一系列让西方人慨叹的英文著作，并以其深厚的英汉双语、双文化功底在翻译领域取得巨大成就。与同时代的其他中国翻译家相比，林语堂的翻译自有其鲜明的特点。林语堂深受西方文化的浸染和中国传统文化的熏陶，形成了独特的人生哲学和文化观。他强调“忠实、通顺、美”的标准,“传神”的原则，在翻译中交替使用归化和异化、语义翻译和交际翻译等翻译策略，使得体现其翻译标准和原则的翻译实践得以实现。 在其翻译理论的指导下，林语堂翻译了不少中国经典作品，其中浮生六记是他最见功力的译作。林语堂翻译浮生六记的目的是为了娱乐和取悦于译语读者，迎合他们的阅读口味，向西方人介绍中国文化。他在英译本中同时采用了归化加异化，语义翻译加交际翻译，直译加意译等多种变通的方法，使译文通俗易懂，深受广大读者的喜爱。 本文以功能翻译理论的目的论为基础，研究了林语堂翻译的浮生六记 ，并探讨了林语堂的翻译理论，旨在说明译者林语堂对翻译方法的选择取决于他的翻译目的：娱乐读者、迎合读者的阅读口味，并且向西方人介绍中国文化。 关键词：林语堂， 浮生六记 ，目的论，归化-异化，语义翻译-交际翻译 abstract a tentative analysis of lin yutangs translation thoughts -the skopostheorie reflected in his translation of six chapters of a floating life by liang wenhui lin yutang spent most of his life in bridging of both oriental and western cultures. he made great contribution in promoting the understanding between china and the west, especially in introducing chinese culture to the world. in addition to a series of works written in english, the achievements he gained in translation should not be ignored. his bilingual and bicultural ability of both chinese and english made him attain great achievement in translation. compared with other contemporary chinese translators, lin yutang attached distinctive features to his translation. both his emphasis on the translation standards of “faithfulness, fluency, and beauty”, the principle of “spiritual resemblance” and his alternative employment of domestication vs. foreignization translation，semantic translation vs. communicative translation strategies, which reflects his views of theories and standards of translation, make his translation practice perfectly realized. under the guidance of his translation concepts, he translated a lot of ancient chinese literary works. shen fus fu sheng liu ji （ 浮生六记 ）(six chapters of a floating life) being one of them, is generally regarded as his most notable work. lins translation purposes of the six chapters of a floating life are to entertain and please the target readers as well as to meet their reading taste and introduce chinese culture to the west. in order to meet his translation purposes, he adopted literal translation plus free translation, domestication plus foreignization, semantic translation plus communicative translation methodologies in his english version. based on skopostheorie, this thesis attempts to make a tentative study of lin yutangs translation of six chapters of a floating life. its to prove that lins choice of the translation methods is to suit his translation purposes: to entertain and please the target readers and meet their reading taste and to introduce chinese culture to the west. meanwhile, the author of this thesis analyzes lins translation theory, and combines the studies of his translation concepts with his translation practice. key words: lin yutang, six chapters of a floating life, skopostheorie, domestication vs. foreignization, semantic vs. communicative translation. 1 chapter one introduction 1.1 studies on lins translation of six chapters of a floating life since entering into the new century, more and more people are studying lin yutangs translation theory and his translation practice. with “six chapters of a floating life” (here after scfl) （浮生六记, fu sheng liu j i in chinese spelling) and “translation” as the key words, the author of the thesis found that there are about fifty research achievements on lins translation of scfl . bian lijuan（边莉娟）explores, in her article on lin yutangs translation thoughts in the translation of fslj , that lins translation thoughts reflected in scfl from three aspects: the nature of translation, requirements for the translator and translation criteria.（边莉娟 2007:117）. hu xingwen（胡兴文）and shi zhikangs（史志康）s a tentative analysis of lin yutangs translation thoughts and his translation of six chapters of a floating life first offers a critical comment on lin yutangs translation thoughts revealed in the essay on translation, and then analyzes how he has successfully applied them to his translation of scfl (胡兴文&史志康2006: 40). through the analysis of lins skillfulness in diction and idiomatic expressions, wang haixia concluded that lins usage of simple but proper words and idiomatic expressions endows his translation with naturalness and fluency (王海霞:2003). after an interpretation of translation inter-subjectivity and the case study of lin yutang and his translation scfl, ding yan(丁艳)(2007) explores that the success of scfl results from the fact that the translator has successfully balanced the inter-subjectivity between the author and the reader. on the linguistic and cultural level, liu chang made a comparison of the translation strategies of the two english versions of scfl translated by lin yutang and shirley m. black respectively. she concluded that domestication and foreignization are justified for their existence and are 2 supplementary to each other(刘嫦:2003). after the deep analysis of the customs translation, aesthetic conceptions translation, and morality translation in lin yutangs scfl, xue lian (薛莲) and xia beijie (夏蓓洁) (2007: 81) explore that lin yutang s translation is a practical intercultural communication fruit based on the distinctive cultural values and translation theories of himself, and it appears earlier than the theories on intercultural communication. his version, therefore, deserves to be called an intercultural communication product. zhong huilian dealt with domestication and foreignization adopted by lin in his scfl from the perspective of skopostheorie, concluded that lins translation methods not only suit the expression of the english language but also retain chinese cultural traits ( 钟 惠 连 :2004). taking the translation of the culture-loaded words in scfl as an example, li mei(李梅)(2005: 128) reaches the conclusion that the choice of translation strategies is deeply influenced by the language function and the text type, thus domestication and foreignization are not antithetical but supplementary to each other. and in her ma thesis, li holds, after the analysis of examples from scfl, that the purpose of translation is the prime principle which determines the dominant domestication method of culture-specific concepts, and that the relevant factors like text types, the translators attitude towards translation and target readership also condition the choice of translation strategy. therefore, both domestication and foreignization are valuable and applicable in specific situations. du yaxin analyzed lins english version from the perspective of the alikeness in form, image and spirit. he argued that lins translation reproduced the style of the original text(杜亚鑫:2004). according to xie ailing(谢爱玲) (2007: 83), a co-existence of foreignization and domestication is the typical characteristic of lin yutangs translation strategies in scfl, which shows lin yutangs sophisticated ways of translation. at the same time, xie reveals the motivation of lins choice of translation strategies and concludes that a scientific and marvelous strategy for culture translation is to move both the author and the reader towards each other, i.e., a co-existence of foreignization and domestication, aiming at the complementarities and communication of two different cultures. from the cultural descriptive angle, ge xiaoqin and ji zhengming 3 made a research on lins scfl. they argued that the translators life philosophy determines his choice among source language texts and his strategies, e.g., domestication and foreignization, semantic translation and communicative translation strategies in translation ( 葛校琴, 季正明: 2001 ). after analyzing the recreation of the beauty in material culture, social culture and mental culture of scfl, liu yinglian and ming fang pointed out that lins translation reproduced the beauty of the source text in target text (刘英莲,明方:2004). jia dandan(贾丹丹)(2005), in her ma thesis, evaluates the effect of the english version scfl produced by lin yutang from three aspects: the language use, the thematic concern and the treatment of culture-loaded elements. zhai hongmei and zhang derang applied translator-centered translation theory to find reasons for lin yutang to translate scfl from chinese to english. through the analysis, they identified the important subjective role played by the translator in choice of source text( 翟红梅, 张德让: 2005 ). wu lihui ( 吴丽辉 ) (2007: ii ) makes a context-oriented comparative study on two english versions of scfl translated by lin yutang and shirley m. black respectively, showing that, though the translators are from different cultural backgrounds and adopt different strategies in dealing with the same source language text, they can both achieve cross-language and cross-cultural communication with different target language texts. 1.2 objectives of the research from the previous literature, we can find that chinese scholars have done much about the research of lin yutangs translation of scfl, especially on his translation strategies and methods in his translation works, and a large number of the researches are about the appreciation and evaluation of lins translation. however, in these researches, there still exist some limitations. on one hand, when dealing with lins translation methods, most researches just made a one-sided approach and failed to explore comprehensively. on the other hand, some researches didnt make clear what lins translation purposes are. in order to avoid the previous researchers limitations, the present author of this 4 thesis tries to make a deep and thorough investigation into lin yutangs translation theories in his translation of scfl. through an objective and impartial examination on his translation theory and practice, this thesis, i hope, can serve as an objective evaluation of lin yutang as a successful translator and culture communicator, and at the same time, let people have a clearer understanding of some translation strategies like domestication vs. foreignization, semantic vs. communicative translation, literal vs. free translation, and so on. it is also hoped that lins fruitful translation career with its experiments in theories and practice can serve as a good example for other chinese translators to translate classical chinese works into english. 1.3 research methodology 1.3.1 data analysis through the analysis of the previous researches on lins works, the thesis tries to make a thorough investigation into lins translation theories in his scfl, explores lins translation theory and strategies, and provides a better understanding of lin as a translator and a cultural communicator. plenty of sample sentences will be collected as data from lins translation version of scfl for detailed analysis. 1.3.2 comparative analysis comparative analysis will be a major methodology of this study. through comparative analysis on lins translation theory and practice, this thesis tries to offer a clearer understanding of some modern concepts like domestication vs. foreignization, semantic vs. communicative translation and literal vs. free translation. 1.4 the structure of the thesis the thesis consists of five chapters and a conclusion. the first chapter, introduction part introduces the researches done by other scholars concerning lins translation of scfl and points out the objectives of the research and the two main research methodologies. chapter two is the literature review about shen fu and his scfl, lin yutang and his translation theories, the factors influencing lins selection of 5 text for translation. chapter three deals with the skopostheorie and lins translation purposes of scfl. this part tells the definition of skopostheorie and the representatives of skopostheorie, and also analyzes its three rules and two main characteristics. chapter four is the combination of foreignization and domestication in scfl, which states the definition of domestication and foreignization and makes an analysis on the related former studies and then shows the application of the two translation strategies in lins translation of scfl. chapter five analyzes semantic translation and communication translation in scfl, and also analyzes other methods used by lin yutang in his translation in order to fulfill his purposes. sufficient examples are quoted from his translation. in the concluding chapter, the thesis makes a review of the whole thesis, and figures out the significance and limitations of the research, and provides some suggestions for further studies of lins translation. 6 chapter two literature review 2.1 shen fu and scfl 2.1.1 shen fu, the author of scfl in the qing dynasty, shen fu was a famous writer, painter and scholar. however, he was not famous at all when he was alive and he wrote only one book ,that is scfl, during his lifetime. this book was not published until his death. so in the history of chinese literature, there is little information about shen fu, and he was not much talked about. no one even knows the exact date of his death. but after his death, to be exact, after the publication of his scfl, he became very famous. since lin yutang translated his autobiographic novel scfl, which clearly showed his life experience and his great literary achievement, into english, he has been remembered as a scholar and writer both at home and abroad. according to his own testimony, he was born in 1763 in soochow, a region of china famous for the beauty of its women and the genius of its artists. as a result, shen fu was sensitive, romantic and impractical. besides he was a lover of beauty and happiness, of flowers and wine, of the wonders of nature and the company of good friends. his wife chen yun, as a poet, was also a literate individual. charming, talented, too independent of mind to fit easily into the household of her young husbands family, she inevitably aroused the suspicion and antagonism of mean souls. 2.1.2 scfl and its status shen fu wrote scfl in around 1858. scfl was an autobiographical masters thesis novel, which recorded both the happiness he and his wife had enjoyed and the sadness they had suffered. the book derives its title from a poem of li bai, “our floating life is like a dream; how often can one enjoy oneself?” ( lin yutang, 1999 ) the book consisted of six chapters: wedding bliss, the little pleasure of life, sorrow, 7 the joys of travel, experience and the way of life. unfortunately, the last two chapters were lost during the spreading of this book. this book was famous for its beautiful language, deep emotion, and the easy and unrestrained life style shen fu and his wife held. for “hsingling culture” (性灵 in chinese, meaning spiritual culture), writing was the expression of the authors own nature or character, and it should show the vital spirit of the author. the novel scfl just expressed shen fus nature and character, and at the same time showed his vital spirit. a romantic and passionate lover of beauty and art, shen fu had suffered many misfortunes when he wrote this autobiography. though still in his forties, he endured almost all the agonies in life, loss of his three deeply loved relatives in life, wife, son and father, and failure in career. there are two important reasons for shen fus writing of the book. one is to remember his beloved wife, the other is to express his observation on the joys and sorrows in life and aspiration for beauty, freedom and true love. shen fus romantic life with his lovely and artistic wife chen yun moved the readers deeply, and the tragedy result broke many peoples hearts. the artistic loving couple just wanted to live a simple and leisurely life. but sometimes their thoughts were in conflict with the feudal society. so they suffered many hardships. their true spirit, lofty sentiment and sad ending have touched many hearts. in the feudal society, they were considered to be failures by people, but the couple in love did enjoy their love and happiness. their true love, their leisurely life and enchanting gaiety in bearing sorrow move the modern readers deeply. after it was discovered in the 19th century due to its unique charm in literature, the book has attracted a great attention in the literature world, and arose many scholars interest. the beginning of the book is the wedded love of the young couple and gives a vivid description of personal romance and domestic harmony, so it is said to be a big step to the traditional chinese autobiographical writings. lin yutang speaks very highly of the two characters and says that in the two ordinary chinese couples “lived the spirit of truth and beauty and the genius for resignation and contentment so characteristic of chinese culture”. he claims that yun is “one of the loveliest women in chinese literature” (lin yutang, 1999). with its delicate and expressive style, yu 8 pingbo compares it to a pure crystal, clear and delicate, with no trace. (俞平伯,1992) though scfl is not as famous as cao xueqins the story of the stone (or a dream in red mansion) and it also does not win a great fame as the latter does, the plots that shen fu depicts do touch the readers hearts and make them shed their tears. because it does have the main features of a novel, such as: fictive chapter scenes, plots, etc., it can not even be called a pure novel. however, who can deny that it is a beautiful novel. in the novel, shen fu integrates his leisurely free mood into the beautiful scenes of mountains and rivers, so it also reads like a beautiful travel log. his unique worldview, life attitude, personality and aesthetic tastes are spread out from the words applied to recording and evaluating the colorful scenes. his story makes one think of the question of what is happiness, gives one such a sense that it is the mystery of happiness which transcends all bodily and actual hardship. in the author opinion, such kind of happiness is similar to that of an innocent man condemned to a life-long sentence with the consciousness of having done no wrong, viz. the happiness that is so subtly depicted for us in tolstoys resurrection in which the spirit conquers the bo