Manifestation Of Translator’s Subjectivity In Translation

The traditional translation theory regards the author as the center role of translation, putting the translator at the marginal position. With the cultural turn, the role of the translator has been recognized and translator’s subjectivity has become one of the hot issues ever since. Pulse condition is one of important terms in traditional Chinese medicine and there are contents on pulse in Huang Di Nei Jing. The translation of pulse condition deserves research from abroad and China. So far there is still no stardardization of translation on it. This paper will take examples in six chapters mainly focused on pulse condition in Huang Di Nei Jing, from two English versions, Li Zhaoguo’s version and Maoshing Ni’s version, as the objects of the study to manifest translator’s subjectivity so as to enrich researches on translator’s subjectivity and translation of Huang Di Nei Jing.This thesis first introduces the background and significance of the research. And then it gives a review of the development of translator’s subjectivity and analyzes the translator’s subjectivity from hermeneutics approach and the cultural approach. These two theories lead to the analytical framework of translator’s subjectivity and the discussion on factors influencing it. Based on the wordlist statistic by Wordsmith Tool, this thesis gets an overall comparison of the two versions and then analyzes manifestation of translator’s subjectivity on translation of pulse condition from aspects like interpretation, translation of rhetoric, sentence structure and translation strategy. Discussion on intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing translator’s subjectivity in translation will be presented by case study.The research of this thesis shows that Li Zhaoguo’s version, as a book in the series of Libraries of Chinese Classics, is mainly influenced by patronage and translation purpose. Maoshing Ni’s version is mainly for the westerners, so it often makes some adjustment so as to make the translation more acceptable for the English readers. This thesis shows the manifestation of the translator’s subjectivity on translation of pulse condition. This thesis tries to promote diversified criterion for translation on traditional Chinese medicine. However, the function of the subjectivity cannot be exaggerated. The translator should act at best discretion when he or she gives play to the translator’s subjectivity under based on the source text.