John Francis Davis’ S Drama Translation

John Francis Davis is considered the first British sinologist who translated Chinese drama into English,and a pioneer of cultural exchanges between Chinese and British in the 19 th century.However,there is no proper regard paid to him in the Chinese opera field.John Francis Davis and his translations are taken as the subjects of the thesis with historical research methods and comparison methods adopted to collect data of John Francis Davis and to analyze his translation of Laou-seng-urh and Han Koong Tsew.There are four questions discussed in the research,with the first being John Francis Davis’ s biography as a Chinese opera translator,the second being the analysis of the translation,the third being the translator’s cognition on the discrepancies between Chinese opera and western drama,and the fourth being the significance of the research.It is shown that John Francis Davis’ s motivation of translating the Chinese opera lied in understanding of the state of China by translating Laou-seng-urh,testifying the existence of Chinese tragedy by translating Han Koong Tsew,and with the help of this,he could extend his influence in British Sinology.To finish language switch,various strategies were used in his translation,including literal translation,liberal translation,domestication and so on.Meanwhile,he used notes to convey the cultural elements in the dramas,which helped improve the translations.Compared with Joseph de Premare’s French version of Tcho-chi-cou-eulh,John Francis Davis’ s translations are better in many aspects,but his translations are still far from perfect.Deletions could be found in John Francis Davis’ s translations when compared with the original scripts,they are music modes,the names of the tunes,and some verses.Role categories were not represented in his translations,which were replaced by the names or the identities of the dramatic characters,besides,the verses deleted in Han Koong Tsew are more than those of Laou-seng-urh.To facilitate reading,John Francis Davis mixed the prose and verses,translated the originals in the form of a dialogue,making the translations more like western drama scripts,thus causing the lost of the charms of the original verses.The discrepancies between Chinese opera and western drama were also shown in the translator’s Chinese opera translations and studies,including the drama setup,theatrical performance,and tragedies.There is no setup like four acts and one proem in western dramas as is typical of zaju plays,as well as role categories and the blend of prose and verses.The music and dance presented in Chinese opera vary considerably from western drama,and John Francis Davis felt it hard to accept them.The ways,in which the drama conflicts were performed in Chinese tragedies are different from its western counterparts,as well as the tragic roles.Based on his own studies of Chinese opera,John Francis Davis summarized the criteria of discerning the Chinese tragedies.The thesis focuses on the analysis of John Francis Davis’ s translation,aiming to find out what is gained and what is lost in the translation and summarizing the strategies used by the translator,so as to provide some references to today’s Chinese opera translation.