时间：2022-04-10 11:49:18
摘 要：With the booming emphasis of translators’ studies in current translation world, translator’s subjectivity has been focused on gradually by translation scholars at home and abroad and thus becomes one of the hot issues in the field of translation study. Under such a situation, it is necessary to make an in-depth study of this field. Zhang Guruo, an eminent translator, devotes his life to the research and translation of English literature. The characteristic of this translator is that his version is both faithful to the original and genuine and idiomatic in Chinese expression. The paper aims to give a tentative exploration and study on Zhang Guruo’s translation arts from the perspective of the translator’s subjectivity, trying to give a more comprehensive study of this great translator in modern China.
关键词：translator’s subjectivity; Zhang Guruo; Tess of the d’Urbervilles
I Introduction：
Although the subjectivity of the translator has been recognized, the status of the translator has not been enhanced thoroughly. Systematic and profound studies are called for, especially on the perspectives of the translator’s life philosophy, cultural attitudes, self-cultivation. This paper aims at calling for the translation circles’ attention to the translator’s role in translation studies so as to raise his position.
After a brief review of the translator’s subjectivity in the history of translation studies, this paper explores Zhang Guruo’s translation arts from the perspective of the translator’s subjectivity. Both Zhang Guruo’s choice of the author and his understanding of the source text are important manifestations of how a translator displays his initiative and creativity in the translation work.
II A Case Study on Zhang Guruo’s Translation Works—Tess of the d’Urbervilles
1.When the translator and the translator’s subjectivity became an important issue, translation studies have spanned across three stages: the philosophical or traditional, the structuralist and the poststructuralist stage (胡庚申, 2004).
At present the studies on the translator’s subjectivity in China and abroad can be considered two extremes. It is better to combine them so that the studies on this issue can be comparatively comprehensive, and thereby be not only theoretical but also meaningful to the translation practice.
2 This article will analyze the manifestation of translator’s subjectivity reflected in Zhang Guruo’s translation arts from two aspects, his choice of the author and understanding of the source text.
2.1 Zhang Guruo’s Choice of the Author
What makes Zhang Guruo choses the author-Hardy is their similar thirsty for knowledge and similar preference to tragedies.
Both Hardy and Zhang Guruo are thirty for knowledge. Hardy read various Latin and English and also taught himself Greek. Then he became one of the relatively few well-known English writers who did not have a university education. As it is known to all, a competence of at least two languages is a prerequisite for a translator. Zhang Guruo is proficient in both English and Chinese and had a good command of English literature, which gives him much more courage to choose such an abstruse works—Tess of the d'Urbervilles to translate and achieves great success in the end.
Hardy and Zhang Guruo have similar preference to tragedies. Most of Hardy’s novels have unhappy ending, this is a significant characteristic of their form. Artistically, his novels are the creation of a world which is tightly governed and in which human individuality and desire are always in conflict with the indifferent governing power, just as in many Greek tragedies human individuality and desire are in conflict with fate, gods or custom. In such kind of conflict human individuals are inevitably doomed because they have no power to control, rebel or even to predict such an indomitable force. Doubtlessly, Hardy is a true and great tragedian in the history of English fiction, who introduces Greek tragedy into English novel.
In Zhang Guruo’s idea, what Thomas Hardy condemns and criticizes ruthlessly to the reality of British bourgeois society by his famous tragedy work-Tess of the d’Urbervilles just meets the inbuilt needs of Chinese literature for this kind of works. Because translation should be closely related to mutually interacting with socio-culture and social background, that is also one of the factors that influence Zhang’s choice.
To sum up, from the above analysis we can see that Zhang Guruo’s selection of authors and works to be translated is determined by various factors: social backgrounds, cultural statuses, literary interest etc. Actually, most serious and responsible translators attach great importance to the selection of suitable source text. In fact, when the translator begins to select the source text, they do exert their subjectivity to make the best choice in order to ensure the successful outcome of the translation activity.
2.2 Translator’s Understanding of the Source Text
Different readers will have different views on the same book. Translators, as the subject of translation, will have different understanding of the content, style, etc. of the same original work. In a word, different experiences, knowledge, characters, prestructures, living environments, etc. of different translators will affect their understanding of the same source text. Obviously, the subjectivity of the translator plays an active role in the understanding of the source text.
Tess is an example of the destructive effect of society’s pressures and conventions upon the naturally pure and unstained. Perhaps Hardy wants to appeal people’s attention to the nature of capitalistic laws, religion, ethics, and marriage systems. In Zhang Guruo’s idea, Hardy puts his own thoughts into the image of Tess, which makes the image deeper and sharper. With the development of the society, Hardy and his Tess influence more and more people in the world. Both in China and other foreign countries, the readers’ understandings of this novel have also become deeper and deeper.
III Conclusion
The paper tries to make a tentative probe into Zhang Guruo’s arts of translation by a case study on his translation works—Tess in the aspects of his choice of the author and understanding of the source text, which demonstrates that the translator’s subjectivity is fully represented in Zhang Guruo’s translation arts.
References
[1] Nida, Eugene A. Translating Meaning [M]. San Dimas: English Language Institute, 1982.
[2] Toury, G. In Search of a Theory of Translation [M]. Tel Aviv: The Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics, 1980.
[3] Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the d’ Urbervilles[M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press,1994.
[4]胡庚申.从“译者主体”到“译者中心”[J].中国翻译,2004,(3).