A Critical Study Of Russian Translations Of Xi Jinping's Compilations: The Perspective Of Intertextuality

This paper critically analyzes the stylistic features of Russian translation of Xi Jinping's compilations from the perspectives of stylistics,translators,readers and informatics and it also studies the translation methods of intertextual phenomena and the representation of values of intertextual phenomenon in Russian versions,as well as the noise that affects the effective communication of the original text,aiming at strengthening our understanding of the translation of CPC literature.Before translating any work we need to understand its style,which relates to the purpose of translation,strategies and methods.The genre of compilation has existed since ancient times in China and foreign countries,especially in today's China,compilations of National leaders are very popular,according to the stylistic classification they belong to political discourse,which requires the translator to stick to the original meaning and not to arbitrarily add or delete anything during translation.At the same time,the country's leader's speeches have their unique style and linguistic characteristics,and translators need to communicate the “expressive” elements to the target language readers.This paper tries to critically analyze Russian versions from the perspective of stylistics,and analysis shows that Russian translations have retained the stylistic effect of the original text in the aspects of discourse features and rhetoric.Xi Jinping in his speech likes to quote ancient prose and poetry,idioms,allusions,and proverbs.This typical phenomenon of intertextuality abounds in Xi Jinping's compilations.Due to differences in such aspects as cognition and culture,how will the intertextual relations be reflected in the translation,and at the same time how to guarantee the readability of the translation and the target language readers' acceptability--are difficult problems for translators.That's the reason why so far very few people have been involved in translating intertextuality in works featuring a political style,such as Chinese leaders' political speeches.This paper takes 3 of Xi Jinping's Compilations--Xi Jinping: The Chinese Dream of The Great Rejuvenation of The Chinese Nation;Xi Jinping: How to Deepen Reform Comprehensively;Xi Jinping: The Governance of China as materials for study,and conducts translation criticism of the Russian translation methods of typical intertextual genres,such as prose and poems,allusions and proverbs,and of its expressional gimmicks,which includes quote,mosaic,flat,parody,and analyzes translator's motivations,tension,and the advantages and disadvantages of each translation method.Considering the purpose of communicating to an international audience,i.e.considering the reader's reading response while keeping Chinese culture,translators use specific methods to translate the phenomenon of intertextuality: due to the arcane language form of ancient prose and poetries,translators mainly adopt the interpretation method;because of the highly concentrated language form of idioms and allusions,translators mostly use free translation method;Proverbs are the summary of people's life experience,and express the general meaning of life,vivid and easy to understand,translators adopt literal translation method.In order to give full consideration to the reader's reading experience,translators seek similar expressions in target languageas much as possible,that is modeling translation.Reference expressions almost all have been embodied in the translations;mosaic expressions mainly depend on the embedded content;to the technique of expression by well-known figures,historical phenomenon,translators mainly adopt the method of transliteration;Parody expressions are more vivid,and translators mainly use literal translation method.So far,the Russian translation methods of intertextuality in Xi Jinping's compilations mainly include: interpretation translation,literal translation,free translation,modeling translation and transliteration.Considering the differences between the two kinds of language system and culture,for some of the phenomenon of intertextuality,additional translation and lessened translation have been properly used.The translation strategy of domestication,such as interpretation and paraphrasing,may lose the original form of language,but it is a necessary choice in terms of achieving the purpose of communicating to an international audience.Xi Jinping has attached great importance to the traditional culture and the traditional value system since the Eighteenth National Congress of The Communist Party of China,and he has repeatedly mentioned the core values and cultural self-confidence.Ancient prose and poems,idioms and allusions,proverbs as thought quintessence of the Chinese nation,contain traditional values of the Chinese nation,which have been established for thousands of years.The fact that Xi Jinping cited these typical genres of intertextuality on many occasions shows the spirit of Chinese government and people and boosts the cultural confidence of the Chinese nation.Therefore,it is imperative to combine the research of intertextuality and research of values in it.We showed the literal translations of typical intertextual genres to the target language readers,the purpose of which is to make the target language readers feel the values contained in them.Results of the questionnaire show that for most of the Russian translations over half of the target language readers understand the basic connotation,which indicates that the reader's expectations are generally in line with the translator's expectations,the purpose of foreign-oriented publicity generally has been reached,and the translation methods adopted by the translators generally are successful.According to some understanding problems,which are shown in the questionnaire,this paper tries to use the classic mode of information theory to analyze noise influencing the effective spread of Xi Jinping's compilations.Analysis shows that circulation situation,stylistic factors,language and culture differences cause the loss of the original text in the process of information communication.We need to take some measures to minimize the degree of noise interference.Translation methods of intertextual phenomenon in national leaders' compilations and an integrated study intertextuality and values have important practical value and broad prospects,so they are worthy of further studying.This paper is a preliminary exploration,its research scope needs to be widened in the future mainly in 3 directions: the first is to from the perspective of stylistic analysis of National leaders' compilations;the second is to explore other foreign language translation methods on intertextual phenomenon;the third is to expand the scope of the target language readers so as to fully investigate the effect of translations,then timely adjust the translation methods.