A Study Of Translation Characteristics Of Zhang Guruo

Zhang Guruo, an eminent translator, devotes himself his life to the research and translation of English literature. With the use of idiomatic Chinese language, he evolves a style of his own. His translated works involve novels, poems, dramas, and so on. His translation of Hardy's works achieves remarkable success and is appraised as an "expert on Hardy". The characteristic of this translator, in all his translations, is that he is both faithful to the original and uses genuine and idiomatic Chinese, a feat very difficult to accomplish because there is such a distance between the two languages. Of particular interest to the Chinese readers are his translations of The Return of the Native, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Jude the Obscure, Tom Jones and David Copperfield etc. With the booming emphasis of translators' studies in current translation world, it is necessary to reassess Zhang's achievement in this field. By using Even-Zohar's Polysystem theory, this paper, with special attention to his Tess translation, aims at studying the translation characteristics including his practices and theories against the context of the society and culture, as well as the significance of his translation on Chinese literature and translation.This paper contains four .chapters. The first chapter is mainly about the introduction of Polysystem theory and the relationship between this theory and Zhang's translation study. Traditionally, critics pay more attention to special skills, or translation standards. In this way, translation studies are confined to a narrow level of language. Even-Zohar's Polysystem theory, developed in the 1970s, sees translated literature as part of the cultural, literary and historical system of the target language. Thus, the choice of translating materials, the methods of the translator employed, and the influence of translated works are all correlated to the socio-cultural background of the target language. The translation of Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Zhang Guruo is also not randomly. In 1930s, the introduction of western realism literature began to be booming in Chinese translation world. Zhang's translation of Hardy's works meets the needs of Chinese literature and the turbulent society. Of course, thepopularity of his version is closely connected with Zhang's superb technique of translation.Chapter Two mainly describes Zhang's views on translation. Zhang Guruo lists few systematic theories on translation; however, he has unique insight into translation. From four aspects his views will be illustrated: on faithfulness; on idiomaticness; on notes; on readers. Zhang puts forward two aspects of faithfulness: one is the content like the matter and substance and another is the form like the words and expression. Perfect translation, which is surely hard to attain is the acquisition of four equivalents of the content, the form, the usage and the idiomaticness. Idiomaticness, didao in Chinese, is one of the outstanding characteristics of Zhang's translation theories. He has been in pursuit of this criterion for all his life. In addition, from the perspective of translation, he advances translating idiomatic originals into idiomatic Chinese. From the perspective of humanity, he advocates the translator must be a genuine person first in order to do the genuine translation. Notes are important parts of Zhang Guruo's translation works. His views on annotation are classified into several points as follows: Notes should be done before translation and used to resolve those unsettled or puzzling problems; Notation is also research work; As to readers' attitudes toward notes, views vary dramatically. The more important is that what Zhang Guruo pursues goes beyond being faithful to the text. He takes much more consideration on TL readers. The ultimate aim of "faithfulness", "idiomaticness" and "notation" all serve the target readers.Chapter Three analyzes the particular characteristics of Tess translated by Zhang Guruo compared with the edition by Wu Di. This paper first indicates the local flavor in the original text. Both Zhang Guruo and Wu Di try to transmit this flavor with the use of Shandong dialects. By comparison, the author points out the superiority of Zhang's technique over Wu's as well as the necessity of Shandong dialects used by Zhang Guruo. As to the use of four-character phrases, the criterion varies among different schools. The author in this paper suggests that the standard of "degree" of four-character phrases using is whether TL can transmit roughly the spirit of the SL.The last part in chapter three is the classification and function of notes in translated Tess. The ways of annotation provided by Sun Yingchun is borrowed and further analyses with example on six types in terms of contents are given in this paper. Their great functions of helping readers to understand the novel; to introduce western culture to the Chinese people; to provide deep studies of the author also should not be denied.Chapter Four is about the profound influence of Zhang Guruo's translation on the development of Chinese culture and translated literature. Since the socio-cultural background conditions individual's translation and the individual's translation must influence the home literature and culture in turn. After a macroanalysis, guided by Polysystem theory, about the influence of translation on the correlated factors, this chapter probes into the effect of the translator Zhang Guruo as well as his skilled translation.