The Influence of Cultural Factors on the Translator’s Choice of Translation Stra

Abstract. Taking two Chinese versions of the world famous novel Jane Eyre as examples， this essay tries to discuss how the cultural factors influence the translator’s choice of translation strategies. The two Chinese versions adopted here， respectively came into being in 1930s （translated by Li Jiye） and 1980s （translated by Zhu Qingying）. Up till now， Jane Eyre has many Chinese versions， among which Li Jiye’s and Zhu Qingying’s translation are the most famous. The former one is the first complete Chinese version of Jane Eyre， the latter one is very popular for Chinese readers.Culture includes many factors， this essay only take Andre Lefevere’s “three elements” Theory， that is translation is influenced by ideology， poetics and patronage， as its theoretical framework to detect the deep reasons for the two translators’ different choices of translation strategies. Through observing and studying the cultural background in which the two translators respectively lived， the essay wants to discover how these cultural factors， namely poetics， make impacts on the translator’s choice of translation strategies.

Keywords： cultural factor； translation strategy； Jane Eyre

1. Introduction

According to Lefevere， “A poetics， any poetics， is a historical variable： it is not absolute. In a literary system the poetics dominant today is quite different from the poetics dominant at the inception of the system” （Lefevere， 2004b： 35）. “Different poetics dominant at different stages in the evolution of a literary system will judge both writings and rewritings in different， irreconcilable ways” （ibid.： 36）. That is to say， the literary norms of poetics of its own culture deeply influence the translators’ choice of translated texts and the choice of translation strategies.

2. Poetics

As we all know， poetics is not absolute. Nida observed that what was entirely appropriate or effective in one language may turn out to be quite unacceptable or colourless in another （Nida， 1964：169）.

Lefevere holds that ideology is influenced by the environment of literary system， and changes with it. That is to say， the literary norms of poetics of its own culture deeply influence the translators’ choice of translated texts and the choice of translation strategies. In translation， the primary question that the translators have to take into consideration is whether or not the readers will accept the translated texts. From what we elaborate above， it is easy to conclude that rewritings function as importantly as the original texts do in the evolution of the poetics of a literary system. Meanwhile， the translators often exert their translation works to impact the establishment of the poetics of the time as well.

2.1. The Dominant Poetics in the 1930s

Although vernacular movement started since the May Fourth Movement in 1919， it was still far from matured process until the 1930s. The vernacular was still under the influence of classic Chinese， which had prevailed for thousands of years. Li Jiye translated Jane Eyre in the 1930s at which time there was not enough word bank for him to use. Because of the developing situation of vernacular， the language in Li’s translation bears traces of classic colour， though he managed to translate the novel using vernacular. It is evident that under the poetic influence of his time， it is difficult for Li to completely free from the colour of classic Chinese.

Li used many classic words in his translation， we will talk about in the following examples. The soul of classic Chinese is brevity， so the language in Li’s translation is brief. Li managed to express meaning with as few words as possible， influenced by the poetics of the 1930s. Certainly， these words are disused in modern Chinese.

2.2. The Dominant Poetics in the 1980s

It was at the beginning of the 1980s that Zhu Qingying produced her translated version of Jane Eyre. Along with the implementing of the reform and opening policy， China carried through the cultural construction， as well as the economic construction. A new group of readership appeared， who preferred the translated foreign novels. The translators’ aims of that time were by all means to translate excellent works， that is to say， the works which could faithfully reflect the style and features of the source text both in content and in artistic conception. Because only in this way could the target language readers get the same poetic feelings as the source language readers did.

Jane Eyre is popular all over the world. One of the most important reasons for its popularity is its language： elegant， poetic， smooth and enthusiastic. Translators should try their best to make the poetic style of the original text reappear in the translated versions， so that the target language readers could also feel the great fascination of Jane Eyre’s language.

By and large， Zhu Qingying successfully reflected the charming original language in her version. Her words are complete modern Chinese words. Moreover， Zhu’s language is beautiful and she is good at using four-word characters， which makes her translation expressive and impressive.

2.3. Differences in Diction and Sentence Structure

In translation， the primary question that the translators have to take into consideration is whether or not the readers will accept the translated texts. Consequently， the translators must place themselves from the point of view of the dominant poetics of the target literature of the day. Just as Lefevere once had said in his famous book， Translation， Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame， “To make a foreign work of literature acceptable to the receiving culture， translators will often adapt it to the poetics of that receiving culture” （Lefevere， 2004b： 8）.

The soul of classic Chinese is brevity， so it manages to express meaning with as few words as possible. Li was influenced by the poetics of the 1930s， so his language bears trace of the classic colour， and it is impossible for Li to use reduplicate words such as “tòngtòngkuàikuài”， “wūwūyānyān” and “hēnghēngjījī” in Zhu’s version.

Besides reduplicate words， Zhu Qingying is also good at using imitative words. Imitative words can stimulate the readers’ visual and aural imaginations， therefore Zhu’s description is vivid and expressive.

2.4. Differences in Scene Description

The description of natural scenes will function a lot in the development of novel plot， and play important role in the whole story. The scene description in Jane Eyre is so good that the readers will feel as if they were personally on the scene when reading it. Charlotte Bronte’s language is poetic， elegant and concise， which can be vividly reflected in her description of the scene. But the language styles of the two translators， Li and Zhu， are quite at odds with each other due to different embedding times. Therefore there are distinct differences in the two translators’ descriptions of scene. Now let’s see some examples：

zài wǒ shàngmiàn，chūshēngde yuèliàng guàzài shāndǐng shàngkōng，

suīrán gēn yúnduǒ yīyàng cāngbái，dànshì měiyīkè dōu zài biàndé

gèngjiā míngliàng。tā fǔshìzhe gàncǎocūn。gàncǎocūn bànyǎnzài

shùcóngjiān，liáoliáowújǐde yāncōnglǐ tǔchū yī lǚlǚ qīng yān。hái

yǒu yī yīnglǐ lù，kěshì zài wànlàijùjì zhōng，wǒ yǐjīng kěyǐ qīngqīngchǔchǔdì tīngchū wēixìde shēnghuóde wēngwēngshēng le.（Zhu， 106）

‘Above me， the rising moon hung in the sky， though pale as the cloud， it became brighter every moment. It looked down the Hay village. Hay village was half hidden in trees， few chimneys spit out threads of blue smoke. There was still one mile distance， but it’s so quiet that I could hear clearly the buzz of thin life.’

This abstracted example is not only a scene description， but also tells us the background of the first encounter of Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre. Having spent three months in Thornfield as a governess， Jane feels a little boring. It is her first chance to go out to take a breath of fresh country air since she arrives at Thornfield. Therefore， she is pleased by the scene， she is so cheerful that everything in her eyes is beautiful. The source language is romantic， beautiful and elegant.

Reading the original paragraph， the readers will imagine a charming and quiet night： the bright white moon in the sky， a blue smoke rising from the chimney， and the tinkle of wind and the sough of streams. “The rising moon” “sat” “on the hill-top”， “she （refers to the rising moon） looked over Hay”， the writer uses the tact of personification to compare the moon to a woman. And by using some colour words， such as “pale”，“blue”， Bronte presents a graceful night to the readers. In a word， the style of this part is concise and elegant. A good translator should make this style reappear in the translation.

From the above analysis， it could be found that influenced by different dominant poetics （literal translation for Li and free translation for Zhu）， different translators have different translation principles and artistic values. Their styles are different too. By using four-character phrases， reduplicate words， and parallel structure， Zhu’s version is concise， smooth， elegant and poetic and to large extent conveys the artistic conception of the source text. Her version proves the ideal that translation is the reproduction of language art. By using literal translation strategy， Li’s style is simple and classic in word choice， stressing swing and faithful to the source content. His language， maybe not popular among today’s readers， is well accepted by its own readers， and data shows that only in the period from 1945 to April 1954 its printing had amounted to 8，000 copies.

3. Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my deeply respectable supervisor， Professor Yu Jianping， for her guiding me in the world of linguistics， especially in the field of cognitive linguistics and pragmatics.

I must thank the authors of papers and books， greatly or slightly enlightening the paper， which I have read and benefited and quoted from for this paper and whose names and works cannot be listed here but mostly available in the References.

References

[1] Lefevere， A. 1992. Translation/ History/ Culture： A Sourcebook. London： Routledge.

[2] Lefevere， A. 2004a. Translation/ History/ Culture： A Sourcebook. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

[3] Lefevere， A. 2004b. Translation， Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. Li， H. 2005. Methodology of Western Translation Studies： Since the 1970s. Beijing： Peking University Press.

[4]Li， J. 1994. Jane Eyre （In Chinese）. Changsha： Yuelu Press.

[5] Zhu， Q. 2009. Jane Eyre （In Chinese）. Beijing： China Translation & Publishing Corporation.

[6] Nida， E. 1964. Toward A Science of Translating： With Special Reference to Principles and Procedures Involved in Bible Translating. Leiden： E. J. Brill.