A Study On Translator’s Subjectivity In English Version Of Xin Qiji’s Ci-poetry From The Perspective Of George Steiner’s Fourfold Translation Motion

As the bridge connecting different languages, translation is necessary andessential to communication process. However, in traditional views, translation wasregarded as parasitical art and translators were called tongue men, matchmakers orservants. Though they were operators of translation, translators did not receive thedue attention. In the middle of the1970s,“cultural turn” appeared in the translationresearch circle. More and more researchers began to focus on social and culturalaspects of translation. Translators’ role caused much more attention than before.Hermeneutic translation theory accentuates the translator’s understanding of thesource text and the cultural and mental differences between source language andtarget language. George Steiner holds that understanding equals translation andtranslation is a process of understanding and interpreting. In his book After Babel:Aspects of Language and Translation, Steiner divides translation process into foursteps which is fourfold translation motion, namely trust, aggression, incorporationand compensation.Xin Qiji was an outstanding poet of Song Dynasty who wrote a lot of excellentlyrics. The style of his works changes from bold and unstrained to graceful andrestrained. Many of his works have been introduced into the other countries by a lotof translators and are warmly welcomed. One of these translators, Xu Yuanchong, isan excellent translator in China who is very good at verse-translation. He hastranslated many ancient Chinese lyrics into English and French and is regarded as themost outstanding contemporary verse translator.Believing that the fourfold translation motion highlights the translator’ssubjectivity, the author of the thesis will take Xu Yuanchong’s English version of XinQiji’s Ci-poetry for example to prove the viewpoint. In addition, the author willanalyze how Xu Yuanchong gives his subjectivity into full play when translating theCi-poetry. Firstly, Xu Yuanchong’s trust of the source text derives from his evaluationof the source text, the former experience of his own and the other precedents, his competence in language and culture and his expectation of translation. In the secondstep, Xu Yuanchong conducts aggression based on his cultural consciousness and histextual interpretation. The third step “incorporation” is conducted both in terms of theform and the meaning of the source text. In the last step, Xu Yuanchong regains thebalance between source text and the translated version by adopting such methods asadding words, making annotations and paraphrasing allusions.The thesis is composed of five chapters.Chapter one is an introduction to the research. Such aspects will be included asthe research background, research questions, research purposes and significance,methodology the thesis will use and the structure of the thesis.Chapter two is literature review about the studies on translations of Xin Qiji’sCi-poetry, hermeneutic translation theories and translator’s subjectivity.Chapter three is theoretical framework. In this chapter, the thesis presents theorigination and development of hermeneutics and hermeneutic translation theories.George Steiner’s fourfold motion will be explained particularly. Then the author ofthe thesis will analyze the support of the fourfold motion to translator’s subjectivity.Chapter four is put much emphasis. It will make a detailed case study on thereflection of Xu Yuanchong’s subjectivity in his translating process through closereading of his English version of Xin Qiji’s Ci-poetry under the guidance of Steiner’sfourfold motion.The last chapter is a conclusion of the major findings to the research questions.From the above analysis, the author of the thesis makes a conclusion that XuYuanchong reflects his subjectivity in every step of the fourfold translation motion.