A Contrastive Study On Translated Versions Of Xiao Ya Of Shi Jing From The Perspective Of HC And LC Cultures

Shi Jing,the first collection of poems in China,has attracted many readers and scholars at home and abroad and has been translated into many languages.Among various translated versions,The She King,translated by the British Sinologist James Legge,and Book of Poetry,translated by the Chinese translator Xu Yuanchong,are the earliest English complete translations of Shi Jing respectively in Western countries and China.The two highly praised English versions have had a significant impact on the translation of Shi Jing.Much research has been done on the translation strategies or the impact of the translator’s subjectivity.This thesis attempts to explore the differences between the two versions based on Hall’s theory of high and low context cultures(HC and LC cultures).By qualitatively analyzing the two translated versions’ text and footnotes of the 74 poems in Xiao Ya,the thesis presents their differences in terms of contextual dependence,language styles,and thinking patterns with typical examples.This study draws the following three conclusions.Firstly,there are apparent differences between the two versions in translating textual and contextual information.As a member of a HC culture who attaches great importance to the context in communication,Xu tends to read between the lines and understand the poems based on the context.Therefore,compared with Legge’s version,Xu’s translation usually considers more the contextual information of the source text,especially the information related to the writer’s feelings and emotions.In contrast,Legge bears the habit of a LC culture of getting and transmitting information through explicit language.Secondly,the two versions respectively present the language styles of HC and LC cultures.Xu’s translation is often written in the HC cultures’ covert,implicit,indirect,and listeneroriented language style since part of the information remains in the context.In contrast,in Legge’s version,the information is usually encoded overtly and explicitly,and the meaning of poems and the intention of writers are often delivered directly.Guided by the LC culture’s speaker-oriented style,Legge tends to clearly explain the poems through his translation and detailed footnotes to ensure that his readers understand them easily.Thirdly,different thinking patterns — logic patterns,time views,and attitudes towards conflicts — bring about the differences between the two versions.Xu’s translation emphasizes spiral logic and tends to talk about the elements related to the theme without mentioning the theme directly.Besides,Xu’s translation often views time as open and flexible and uses indirect and humble expressions to avoid conflicts.In contrast,Legge’s translation applies linear logic.The connection between the text and the theme is often clearly shown through the translation and annotations.At the same time,since in the LC culture,time is highly organized,and people tend to show a direct and confrontational attitude towards conflicts,Legge’s translation often divides time in a more specific and detailed way and rarely deliberately avoids expressions that may cause conflicts.It is found that the differences between the translated versions of Xiao Ya made by Xu and Legge are indeed partly due to the differences between HC and LC cultures.A better understanding of the translator’s cultural background will be helpful to appreciate different versions better.