Translation Of Chinese Couplets From The Perspective Of Translators' Subjectivity

For a long period in history, translation approach is prescriptive and source-text oriented. The translators' subjectivity is neglected. The "cultural turn" in translation studies in the west after the 1970s had brought new dimensions and approaches. The uprising of the descriptive translation approach shows that the translator plays an important role in the process of translation. It is philosophical hermeneutics that provides theoretical basis for the study of the translators' subjectivity. And the translators'cultural and historical tradition affects his/her conscious and unconscious shifts and improvement of the original to fulfill the cross-culture communication of translation.Duilian is called yinglian formally. A Chinese Couplet consists of two lines in which the first and the second line are literally called the upper line and the lower line. There are strict rules on the Chinese Couplet, such as the same number of characters and the same syntactic structures etc. Boasting a long history, the Chinese Couplet not only stands an important place in the treasure house of Chinese literature and art, but is of special significance to the world literature and art. We can find that Chinese Couplets are also available in many Chinese literary works, such as the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West and A Dream of Red Mansions. They can also be found in many tourist spots in China. With the development of opening-up and the prosperity of tourism, translators shoulder a more demanding task. How to translate good Couplets to meet the needs of cross-cultural communication is the problem worthy of study and discussion.This article tries to talk about Chinese Couplets translation from the perspective of translators' subjectivity, and provides specific methods of the C-E translation of Chinese Couplets. It consists of six chapters with a brief introduction as its beginning. With the development of sociology, psychology, anthropology and other related disciplines, a number of people come to realize that translators'acts are conditioned by many factors. Translators'subjectivity in the process of translation is paid much more concern than before.It is undeniable that the translator, the theme of translation practice, determines the various elements of target text to some extent. It is the factors of the translators' personalized understanding of the source text, such as his/her individual conception of a good translation and the subsequent translating strategies,his/her target reader, his/her purpose of translating a text, his/her background,his/her ideology,his/her aesthetical attitude and his preference for certain words and expressions in the target language etc.,that result in different translations of the same source text. Although it is an important part of the treasure house of Chinese literature and art, the C-E translation of Chinese Couplets was paid much less attention, compared with that of classical traditional Chinese works of literature and religion. The C-E translation of Chinese Couplets appeals for a systematic theoretical research. Chinese Couplets enjoy the characteristics of being short and pithy, catchy, easy to express, with concise text, a few words and strong performance, showing both spirit and form, easy communication and a sense of artistic beauty and owning certain aesthetic qualities. This thesis talks about the C-E translation of the Chinese Couplets in relation to translator's subjectivity, including the C-E translation of some of the couplets in Hong Lou Meng and the Chinese landscape couplets. Concerning the aesthetic requirement and the major principle of it, there are some major principles for the translation of Chinese Couplets, such as emphasis on functional correspondence, the priority of aesthetic context over formal equivalence and the priority of spiritual comprehension over syntactic manifestation. This thesis puts forward certain approaches to the C-E translation of Chinese Couplets. All in all, the study on the subjectivity of the translator is in accordance with the recent trend in translation studies. The translators'historical existence influences his understanding of the original and thus develops his/her cultural consciousness. In the C-E translation practice, different strategies and methods can be integrated so long as the purpose of the C-E translation of Chinese Couplets can be achieved.