Translation Strategies of Culture—loaded Words in Rickshaw Boy From the Perspective of Polysystem

【Abstract】Poly-system theory is an important branch of the translation research school， it opens up a new way， which emphasizes the translation of in the multicultural context. This paper analyzes the linguistic culture-loaded words in Rickshaw Boy to get the translation strategies from the perspective of poly-system.

【Key words】translation strategy； culture-loaded words； Rickshaw Boy； poly-system

【作者簡介】周瑩娜，女，河南蘭考人，西安外國語大學(xué)英文學(xué)院，西安外國語大學(xué)研究生，2016級翻譯學(xué)專業(yè)。

1. Introduction

PS theory， advanced in the 1970s by Itamar Even-Zohar， is a cultural theory. In this present study， the English translated text of Rickshaw Boy is chosen. It’s great theoretical and practical significance which makes it worthwhile to perform.

2. The main contents of the poly-system theory

According to Even-Zohar， translated literature usually occupies a periphery position within the literary PS， but it can at times assume a central one. Even-Zohar outlines three major circumstances when translated literature would maintain a primary position：

（1）when a literature is “young”， or in the process of being established； （2）when a literature is “peripheral” or “weak” or “both”； （3）when a literature is experiencing a “crisis” or turning point.

3. The Translation of the culture-loaded words

Some American linguists use “vocabulary bank” or “semantic words” for the culture-loaded words. Nida divided them into five types： ecological culture， linguistic culture， religious culture， material culture and Social culture.

Since 1980， the study of culture-loaded words has aroused the much attention. To understand the culture of a nation， we must study their language. For example， the literal meaning of “blue room” is the room with the color of blue， while， in fact it refers to reception room which the president of the White House met with friends. So if you do not understand the cultural connotations of these words， you can not correctly grasp their true meanings.

4. Translation Strategies of Culture-loaded Words in Rickshaw Boy From the Perspective of Polysystem

Schleiermacher gave the lecture “On the Different Methods of Translating”， he remarked “In my opinion， there are only two paths to open the true translator. Either the translator leaves the writer alone as much as possible and moves the reader toward the writer， or he leaves the reader alone as much as possible and moves the writer toward the reader”.

（1）Literal Translation. Literal translation is the most common translation method. It strives to reproduce as much as possible both the content and the style of the source text， particularly the figure of speech，image and national flavor.

（2）Free Translation. Due to linguistic and cultural differences， a translator has to give up the literal meaning of the source text in order to make the target text match the source text in terms of content or function， that’s free translation.

（3）Transliteration.Transliteration uses words’ pronunciations to translate such words as names， culture-loaded words of a country or a nation into another language. When huge differences and semantic gap exist between the source language and the target language， the translators can not conduct the translation from the form or semantic meaning.

（4）Omission. An apparently untranslatable rhetorical figure can be rendered by another device serving the same purpose， and even the omission of an untranslatable element becomes justifiable when the function is guaranteed by other means.

祥子的臉紅得像生小孩時送人的雞蛋。Xiangzi blushed， turning as red as a dyed egg. In Chinese， the parents of a new-born child will distribute dyed red eggs to friends， relatives and neighbors for celebration. But in western culture， painted eggs are used to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus in Easter Festival. In order to avoid confusing and distracting the readers， Howard Goldblatt chooses to omit this part of cultural information.

（5）Amplification. Hoping to preserve those cultural elements， a translator will sometimes add additional explanation or annotations to the literally translated text， that’s the method of amplification.

5. Conclusion

Culture-based Words play a very important role in literery translation. Taking Luotuo Xiangzi as the model， this paper studies the translation strategies of the culture-loaded words from the perspectives of PS theory： Literal Translation， Free Translation， Transliteration， Omission， Amplification and so on. Only if we know and master the translation strategies of the culture-loaded words， can we express the connotation and soul of a cultural specific literary in order to get a better cross-cultural communication.