| Over the last decade, cultural exchange between Mainland China and Taiwan hasbecome ever more frequent and diverse. To promote cross-strait communication intranslation studies, two Chinese versions of Pearl S. Buck’s Nobel Prize winning workThe Good Earth—one from Mainland China and the other from Taiwan—are takenfor a comparative study. After a preliminary investigation, Tytler’s three principles oftranslation are chosen as standards of comparison. To ensure that Tytler’s principlesare interpreted correctly, each principle is divided into several sub-principles. Some ofthe sub-principles come from Tytler’s treatise itself, but the others are proposed by theauthor within the framework but with due consideration to the characteristics of theEnglish and Chinese languages. The methods of comparison, analysis and statisticsare adopted to give a comprehensive and objective evaluation of the translations.There are six chapters in the study. Chapter1gives a brief introduction to Pearl S.Buck and her work The Good Earth, as well as the two Chinese translations used inthe study. Chapter2reviews the studies previously done on the translation of TheGood Earth, and introduces Tytler’s three principles of translation and rootlesscultural back-translation. Body of the study, including Chapters3,4and5, comparesthe two versions against Tytler’s three principles one by one. In Chapter6theconclusion, an evaluation is given on the quality of the two versions, and strategies forrootless cultural back-translation and theoretical innovation are also proposed.The two Chinese translations used in this study are the1988version by MainlandChina-based Lijiang Publishing House and the1981version by Taiwan-based VistaPublishing Company. By comparison, it is found that: The Lijiang version is morecomplete, accurate, idiomatic and fluent, and the original easy-to-read style is wellpreserved, but its poor translation of ambiguous details and use of scholarly dictionlower its quality; the Vista version includes large-scale and irrational retrenchment,which greatly affects the transcript of original ideas. Also, the translation is lessaccurate and natural, but it is more concise and better at handling ambiguity and complicated English sentences. Thus, the Lijiang version is generally better in qualitythan the Vista version. Besides giving an evaluation of the translations, this study isinnovative in the following aspects:First, the notion of rootless cultural back-translation is proposed. In the study, itis pointed out that the translation of The Good Earth is a special type of translation.The original text is an English fiction based on Chinese culture, so its translationmeans a return to the Chinese language and Chinese culture. What is more, when theoriginal author was writing in English, she had no original Chinese text. The aim oftranslation is to rebuild the original Chinese text. Based on previous studies, theauthor defines this type of translation as rootless cultural back-translation.Second, translation strategies in line with Tytler’s three principles are proposedfor rootless cultural back-translation. The first strategy is decontextualization. Chinesereaders know Chinese culture far better than Western readers, so the extra contextualinformation should be deleted in translation. The second strategy is streamliningpronouns. Pronouns are far more frequently used in English than in Chinese, so theirnumber in Chinese translations should be reduced to adapt to the Chinese grammar.The third strategy is more use of four-character Chinese idioms. Using four-characterChinese idioms can make the translation more idiomatic and fluent, only if theoriginal idea is not betrayed.Third, new English-Chinese translation elements are introduced to Tytler’s threeprinciples. Meanwhile, it is proposed that Tytler’s third principle should go before thesecond one in rootless cultural back translation, and the reasons for it are provided. Inthis sense, this study enriches and updates Tytler’s three principles. |
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