A Study Of Wang Zuoliang's Views On Translation

This thesis studies Wang Zuoliang'views on translation. Wang Zuoliang is a famous figure in foreign languages circle in China. He has made great contribution to foreign literature research. He has achieved outstanding accomplishment in translation theories and translation practices. His translations include poems, essays, novels and drama. His translation and study of Robert Burns are regarded as first-rate level at home. His views on translation are rich and profound, covering culture and stylistics etc. His views on translation deserve our thorough study. In the first part of the thesis, the author presents an overview of studies on Wang Zuoliang's translation ideas and points out the shortcomings of the present studies. In the second part, the author introduces Wang's life and his translation achievements. Wang started translation practice in his early years. He has translated Thunderstorm into English. In 1950s', he participated in the translation of Selected Works of Mao Zedong. Most of Wang's papers on translation are collected in Translation: Experiments and Reflections and A Sense of Beginning: Studies in Literature and Translation. In the third part, the author mainly describes Wang Zuoliang's views on translation. From the perspective of the construction of national culture, Wang evaluates the role of translation, thinking that the whole world would become shabbier without the splendid translations of literary works from all nationalities. He thinks that works is completed by readers and the factor of target text readers should be taken into account. When commenting on Yan Fu's translation, he thinks that Yan Fu's purpose is to attract the attention of scholar-bureaucrats at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of 20th. So Yan Fu used various means to touch the readers. As a result, Yan Fu successfully translated Huxley's Evolution and Ethics. Wang is an active participator in translation studies from cultural perspective. In 1984 and 1985, Wang Zuoliang published Cultural Comparison in Translation and Translation and Cultural Prosperity to discuss the relation between culture and translation. He emphasizes that a translator should be aware of cultural differences, for what a translator deals with is separate word while the translator is actually faced with two different cultures. We should probe further into the cultural significance of translation and the historical role of translation or further combine translation with comparative culture, a new subject. Wang's study of the relation between culture and translation is almost at the same time when cultural turn took place in western translation studies. So his views are far-sighted. And his research on cultural studies in translation has produced profound and far-reaching impact. Besides, Wang combines the study of stylistics with translation studies and paves the way for today's study of the combination of stylistics and translation studies. In 1970s and 1980s, many new fruits of research of other relevant subjects were introduced into Chinese translation studies and many new theories were introduced into translation theories. Wang is one of the forerunners who made trials. In 1979, he published Sense, Style, Translation, using the knowledge of stylistics to solve some problems in translation. His works on this aspect are Papers on English Stylistics and An Introduction to English Stylistics. He discusses the concepts of variety and deviation etc. and Wang has the view that translation is closely related with stylistics. The style of the two languages cannot be neglected in good translation. On verse translation, Wang Zuoliang viewes verse translation from the perspective of poetic art and language. When the language is active, it is beneficial to translation. At the same time, he thinks that verse should be translated into verse. The form should be kept by all means while the artistic concept and the images and metaphors are equally important. When necessary, alternative methods should be adopted to keep the whole effect of the poem. He affirms that only poets are qualified to render verse well. On the other hand, verse translation is helpful to verse creation. In the fourth part of the thesis, the author uses Wang Zuoliang's translations of Thunderstorm and A Red, Red Rose to further analyze Wang's views on translation. His views on translation come from practice and can serve as a guidance in translation. From his translation, we can get a deeper understanding of his views on translation. In the fifth part, the author mentions one point open to question. Wang's viewpoint "only poets are qualified to render verse well"is questionable. Poets do have some advantages in verse translation. But the first stage of verse translation depends mainly on the level of foreign language and if a poet cannot distinguish the boundary of verse translation and verse creation, he is prone to turn translation into verse creation.