A brief analysis of translator

徐夢婕+劉陜

Nowadays, with the growing economic globalization, more and more people begin to learn English. Reading masterpieces and the translations of them at the same time is one of the best ways to improve one's English. Thus people pay more attention to the translations of the masterpieces, and more and more scholars initiate to discuss the subject of translator's subjectivity. My paper here will try to take Sun Zhili's version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as a case study to show translator's subjectivity in the literacy translation.

Definitions of Translators Subjectivity

Simply speaking, translator's subjectivity is the essential attribute which the translators embody during the translation progress, that is ,the translators manifest their own trait during translating one kind of language to anther by understanding the source text and then changing it.

Involvement of Subjectivity in Translation

Andrew Chesterman and Emma Wagner says that translation is an activity of decoding and recording. And most people engaged in the translation of English to Chinese or Chinese to English. English language is the typical Hypotactic language and Chinese language is the Paratactic language. They belong to different language system. And translation has never been a pure activity of language. In literary analysis, there are three elements: text, language and environment. Thus, when doing translating, the translators not only have to know how to translate the text from one form of language to another word by word, but also need to analysis the theme, content, language and other aspect of the text with reference to the environment. This requires the translators to make clear of each language's characteristic and play their own potential to show their own subjectivity. And different translator has different preference, habit, style, experience, character, family, social environment and so on, all these composed of translator's subjectivity.

Manifestations of Translators Subjectivity in the Translating Process

With the development of the translator's status, their subjectivity in the translation progress gains more and more attention. Liang Yong and Chen Qi hold that the translators have the dual status as the reader and the translator. And Ren Xiaofei also think so. They all believe that in the progress of literacy translation, the translators should translate the text after he or she has understood it.

Influence of Translator's Subjectivity on Literary Translation — A Case Study of Sun zhili's translation of Pride and Prejudice

Sun Zhili is not only an outstanding translator of English works but also a famous translation theorist. He has translated many English literacy works, including the Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility and so on. And he also has produced many scholarly works to express his views on translation. He believes that, in the progress of translating, the translator should be loyal to the original writer and also the reader. He argues that translators may use the way of alienation when it is possible and the way of naturalization when it is necessary.

endprint

Currently, Sun Zhili's version of Pride and Prejudice is the authority. And his thought on translation of Jane Austen's works makes great influence on the others.

Sun's version of Pride and Prejudice is published in August, 1990 and immediately achieves great success. This version has been published again and again year by year. Everyone who have read the version speaks highly of him and his translations.

The version I've read is the one Sun publishes in 2008.

Translator's subjectivity is shown in the whole translating progress. It is reflected especially in the translator's translation strategies and style. Now, I'll analysis Sun Zhili's translating strategies and styles reflected on the words, sentences and the paragraphs.

1. Sun Zhilis Translating Strategies and Style Reflected on the Words

Here are some examples show Sun Zhili's translating strategies and styles on the words:

Example:......and as to Miss Bennet, he could not conceive an angel more beautiful.

???至于說到貝內(nèi)特小姐,他無法想象還會(huì)有比她更美麗的天使。

Sun translates "angel" as “天使”, he uses the way of alienation, reserving the character of the source text, and let the readers feel the religion's important position in the foreign people's mind.

2. Sun Zhilis Translating Strategies and Style Reflected on the Sentences

Example: she then changed the discourse to one more gratifying to each, and on which there could be no difference of sentiment.

她隨即換了一個(gè)話題,這個(gè)話題不僅兩個(gè)人都喜歡討論,而且也不會(huì)引起意見分歧。

Sun keeps the complex sentence of the original and uses the associative word “不僅???而且???”,this is more formal and the readers can understand the text better.

3. Sun Zhilis Translating Strategies and Style Reflected on the Paragraphs

Example 1: It is a truth universally acknowledge that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

有錢的單身漢總要娶位太太,這是一條舉世公認(rèn)的真理。

It is the beginning of the famous book. it has the meaning of irony. As the translator, he may know the main tone of the beginning before Elizabeth falls in love with Mr. Darcy. Sun Zhili tries his best to express it so that he makes a great beginning of his translation.

Translation is an important medium of cultural communication. Different people in different countries have different living environment and different faith. Therefor, the role of the translators become a hot topic in the field of translation studies.

Translator's subjectivity is the essential attribute which the translators embody during the translation progress, it makes great influence on the translation progress, and can not be ignored. Therefore, we should concern more on it and make further research.

References：

[1]Andrew Chesterman&Emma Wagner. Can Theory Help Translators[M].Beijing Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2006: 13- 40.

[2]Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice[Z].Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2007.

[3]Xie Li. Comparisons between Liang Shiqiu's and Zhu Shenghao's Hamlet from the Perspective of Translator's Subjectivity[J].Hua Zhang, 2009 (18).

[4]Yan Haiying. A Relevance- theoretic Approach to the Active Role of the Translator —— An Analysis of Chinese Translation Excerpts of and Pride and Prejudice[D].Beijing Jiaotong University, 2007.

endprint