A Case Study On Mistranslation Of Lionel Giles' The Art Of War

This thesis is based on the cultural translation theory of Susan Bassnett and probes into the misunderstanding and mistranslation in Lionel Giles'The Art of War from a cultural perspective. It not only analyzes the translation methods but also tries to explain the cultural reasons lurking behind.As far as the thesis is concerned, the author divides translation into three categories, viz. the literal, free and zero translation, thinking that translation is more than the mere exchange of words, but also a process that always has its preconditions of cultural background, and all strategies and skills are conditioned by social and cultural factors. By comparison between the original and target contexts, especially the criticism of the misunderstandings and mistranslations in Giles'version, we can see that it is hard to convey the original content as well as style to translate word for word or to deviate from the original. Comparatively speaking, literal or even zero translation is more powerful than free translation in embodying and exporting the source culture, although the former may not be as smooth as the latter.As for the translation method in his version of The Art of War, Lionel Giles employs both literal translation and free translation in the translating process; however, it is literal translation that he mainly adopts in his translation. In combination of Susan Bassnett's cultural translation theory and the case study on the mistranslation of his version The Art of War, Giles'misunderstanding and mistranslation of the original text, on the one hand, are at least partly due to the differences and gaps between Chinese and Western cultures. On the other hand, the introduction of Chinese culture into the West was at an early and elementary stage, and so priority was given to the integrity of military thoughts and strategies rather than the literature completeness or accuracy in Giles'The Art of War, and hence the word-for-word or literal translation method mainly adopted in his version. Many of Giles'misunderstanding and mistranslation of the original text originate from the method of literal translation.Translation is an effective way of communication between source and target languages; furthermore, it's an important way of cultural exchange. So in order to promote exchanges among cultures, literal translation, zero translation and some other translation methods which can transmit the source culture characteristics better should be applied to a maximal extent. Within the limitation of translatability, the initiative of the translator may be brought to full play.