Fluency And Prominence-A Study Of Strategies Of Translating Chinese Classics

Fundamentally, translating Chinese classics is a part of cultural diplomacy; therefore, it is necessary for us to take the initiatives to study strategies of translating Chinese classics. There is no doubt that appropriate strategies will bring translation to success.Speaking of strategies of translating Chinese classics, people have different voices on whether foreignization or domestication should be adopted in cultural translation. It is quite natural that people argue about the strategies because translating Chinese classics is a special part of cultural translation. However, particularities of translating Chinese classics and respective demerits of foreignization or domestication have set people thinking a lot. Consequently, many scholars have turned to a wider sphere of vision to reconsider this issue.In this thesis, the author, in the light of cultural diplomacy, intends to make a tentative attempt to find the most effective method to translate Chinese classics into English by theoretical comparison and practical description.Cultural diplomacy is the diplomatic activity that the independent and sovereign states perform to achieve certain goals by means of culture. Cultural diplomacy is a kind of international activity, the aim of which is to achieve international friendship by peaceful and affable persuasion through humanistic care and emotional investment, and to exert enduring and far-reaching influence on foreign public and governmental officials so as to gain sympathy, understanding and support from foreign countries. This asks us to respect and face national, linguistic and cultural differences, and pay close attention to the skills and manners of persuasion, in order to attract the foreign public and let them easily understand what we are thinking. It is wise to publicize the cultural truth peacefully and softly. Our cultural diplomacy should be neither haughty nor humble. All of these make up the spirit of cultural diplomacy.Enlightened by the spirit of cultural diplomacy, the author first puts forth three equalities, namely, national equality, linguistic equality and cultural equality, and then, traces the two translation methods by Friedrich Schleiermacher, finding out that the real stress of Friedrich Schleiermacher is the signified rather than the signifier, emphasizing the importance of getting the essence of a source language, and visualizing images in source-language texts.Next, the author analyzes Venuti's foreignization theory on translation and points out Venuti's valuable ideas. (a) A translation should be the site where a different culture comes into being, and where a reader can get a glimpse of a cultural other; (b) Translation helps to form the identity of a culture; (c) Both the author and the translator should enjoy equal status. Yet, we can not overlook the flaws of his theory: presupposition of inequality and resistance to syntactical fluency.To seam the holes of foreignization theory on translation, the author of this thesis puts forward and describes the strategy of fluency and prominence, as well as verifies its theoretical rationality and practical feasibility.Fluency and Prominence as a translation strategy requires that translated versions are syntactically fluent (practice witnesses that some terms which are new and exotic to English readers will not reduce syntactical fluency of the target-language text. And it is not impossible to produce fluent sentences in line with English grammar), and at the same time, the individuality of Chinese culture, the intention, the style and the life reality in the source-language text are prominent. Works of different styles ask for different aspects of prominence. Different aspects of prominence in translation are respectively prominence of the intention in ideological works, prominence of the poetic form and imagery in poetry, prominence of the reality of life in novels (and dramas), and prominence of distinctive cultural images and writing manners of them all. In other words, translators have to elucidate the deep meaning of ideological works; they should convey the similarity in form (the beauty of music, the number of lines and the feature of sound structures) and imagery correspondence. In addition, translators should have a clear picture of culture-bounded words and rhetorical devices in the source-language texts. But in essence, the quality (fluency and prominence) of translation depends on translator's bilingual level. All of these are elaborately exemplified in Chapter Four.In translating Chinese classics, fluency means respecting target-language readers and other cultures; while prominence is to safeguard national self-respect of Chinese people and culture. Fluency advises translators to write or to speak in agreement with the syntactic rules of the target language, showing good consideration and high respects for the target-language readers and their cultures; prominence helps them highlight the special cultural images in the source-language text, thinking highly of the source-language authors and their cultures. The essential task of translation is to have source-language authors and the target-language readers meet at a middle point. The relation between"I"and"thou", not"I"and"others", should be the dominant relation between the source-language author, translator, and the target-language reader, and that between the source-language culture and the target-language culture.Possibly, the formulation of fluency and prominence would lessen the troubles given by domestication/foreignization, as the formulation of Fluency and Prominence is on the principle that all nations, their languages and their cultures are on an equal footing. The sense of equality will lead cultural diplomacy to success.This thesis consists of five parts. In Chapter One, the author, first of all, makes a list of different views on different the definition of Chinese classics, and briefly introduces the practice of translating Chinese classics and relative strategies, and then puts forward"fluency and prominence". In Chapter Two, the author stresses the significance for Chinese people to take the initiatives in translating Chinese classics. Chapter Three elaborates on"fluency and prominence"in theory and in practice, and Chapter Four gives more samples to illustrate the contextual application of"fluency and prominence", aiming to display that different styles require different prominence on the basis of fluency in syntax. Chapter Five summarizes the essence of the domestication/foreignization and displays the merits of the strategy of fluency and prominence. The strategy is neither haughty nor humble.