A Study Of Bing Xin As A Translator

Bing Xin(1900---1999) was one of the pioneering figures and the last senior writer in the May Fourth New Cultural Movement, and also the first authoress in modern China. In her whole life, she not only made great achievements in novel, prose, poem and children's literature but also made remarkable contributions to the Chinese translation course. She was not only an eminent novelist, proser and children's literary writer, but also a prominent social activist and translator. As a writer, Bing Xin was honored as "one of the 'Gemini' of the authoresses at the primary stage of modern Chinese literary history"(秦牧, 1979). Over the past years, much study has been made on Bing Xin as a writer. However, little study has been made on her as a translator. In fact, Bing Xin not only translated a lot of works which won universal praise, but also presented her unique views on many aspects of translation theories. Her translations not only were of great significance to the cultural exchange between China and the neighboring countries, but also made remarkable contributions to the establishment and consolidation of the international status for new China. Based on a widely collected historical data and an extensive reading of the reference books available, the author of the present paper decides to make a tentative and descriptive study of Bing Xin's translation activities and her translation thoughts, as well as the interaction between translation and her literary creation, aiming to remind people of Bing Xin's achievements in literary translation and her creative contributions to the history of translated literature. And one more purpose of this thesis is to let Bing Xin get the position that she deserves in modern Chinese literary translation history.Extolled as a "thunder of a writer" in the literary world by the May Fourth Movement, Bing Xin had begun her literary creation and translation career since then. In 1920, she participated in the translation and performance of Belgium dramatist Maurice Maeterlinck's(莫里斯·梅德林克) The Blue Bird( 《青鸟》 ). In 1926, she translated and edited the Poems of Lady Li I-an, (a distinguished woman poet of the Song Dynasty) as her M.A. Thesis in Wellesley University in America. In the 1950s and 1960s, she translated many literary works from Asian and African countries which reflected peace and universal love of human. Her translation activities of this kind lasted from 1920s to1980s. According to the statistics made by Chen Jimou^^Filc) who is president of Writers Association in Fujian Province, the number of Bing Xin's literary writings and translated works amounted to 4,000,000 Chinese characters. And she was the first person to translate the famous Lebanese writer Ghibran's The Prophet{ ?5fc￡fl)) ). She was also well-known both for her translation of most Tagore's works of different styles and for her imitation of Tagore. Each time when she finished a translation, she would write her own views on it in the preface or the postscript. She developed Yan Fu's "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance", touched upon the issues of the qualifications of a translator, the purpose of translation, translation criticism and even untranslatability. Some of which had been considered as the commonly accepted views in the translation course, and some could be regarded as her original ideas on translation from a litterateur's point of view.Translation accompanied Bing Xin in her whole life. It can be said that Bing Xin was brought up under translated literature in the twentieth century. Translated literature nourished her literary creation, which, in turn, helped develop her translation style and select translation materials. What is more, as a patriotic social activist, Bing Xin has participated in many social activities which enriched her translation and helped her deeply understand the flavor of the original works. These three aspects intimately interacted with each other and made both her literary writings and translated works treasure in the house of literature.As a descriptive study, the present paper has made it clear with reliable and abundant historical data that Bing Xin is an outstanding translator, whose remarkable contributions to the Chinese translation theory and practice should be given enough attention to and who should be given a position that she deserves in modern Chinese literary translation history.