A Study On Guo Moruo’s Translation

Guo Moruo,a cultural giant in the 20th century,has made leading achievements in numerous fields such as literature,history,archaeology,and the study of ancient Chinese characters.As a great translator,Guo Moruo is well versed in Japanese,German,English,Russian and other languages.He has devoted all his life into creation and translation,and is a master modern as well as ancient learning.His achievements in translation are so remarkable that his entire translation amounts to as many as three million words,covering various fields such as literature,poetry,politics and science.In the academia,many treatises have been written about his translation works,translation styles,and translation thoughts and theories in one aspect or another,yet there is a lack of a comprehensive and systematic research about his whole translation thoughts which include causes for his translation thoughts,classification of his translation works,and his definition and interpretation about translation theory and practice,the relationship between translation and creation,and the influence of his translations on the development.of Chinese literature.In the light of these facts,this dissertation chooses Guo Moruo for a case study on both his translation theory and practice,for the purpose of exploring the causes of Guo’s translation thoughts and their historical and cultural background,showing the practical power of his translation theory on translation practice,which will further prove the high degree of integrity of his translation theory and practice,enabling us to learn much for translation studies and translation practice in our country.Meanwhile,by analyzing his translation works,the author attempts to summarize his translation strategies and methods,which he hopes will be of some help in Chinese literary translation and in further study about problems and issues involved in translations such as translation process,shifting roles of translators,changing identity of translators,subjectivity of translators,and factors influencing translation.This study will render valuable materials to the overall study of Guo Moruo.This dissertation comprises three parts:the preface,five chapters and the conclusion.The preface gives a brief introduction to Guo Moruo ’s life,his translation career,the background and current studies on Guo Moruo ’s translation,as well as the purpose,significance and methods of this research.The first chapter surveys and probes into the influence of the traditional Chinese culture to which Guo Moruo owed a great deal since his early age,of the early 20th century,the turbulent age,on his enlightenment,and that of foreign great writers.It then analyzes the causes for his translation thoughts and concludes that it was this profound historical background and complicated situations that turned Guo into a romantic poet and passionate translator.He developed a keen interest in ancient Chinese poems and laid a solid foundation for the Chinese language and literature,which resulted from the strict supervision and education by his mother and private tutors when he was young.During these turbulent ages,his cynicism,passion but impulsivity and satire about the old society endowed him with a wild enthusiasm and romanticism.All these are manifested in his own creation and translation.The works of great foreign writers such as Whitman,Goethe,and Tagore have exerted great influence on his poem writing,which in turn affects his translation of poems.’In sum,it is the clash and merging of the western and Chinese civilizations,the transmission of traditional culture,acceptance of modern culture and his distinctive personality combined that shape the passionate and romantic styles of Guo Moruo’s creation and translation.The second chapter discusses the relationship between Guo Moro and Creation Society.Creation Society acted as a bridge across Chinese and Western cultures in the literary translation in the 20th century.In selecting the texts for translation,the Society preferred the foreign literary works that could not offer life guidance and solve social problems,but also help foster literary creation and develop literary spirit in China.As far as the literary translation methods are concerned,Creation Society didn’t favor literal translation,but advocated interpreting the original text and its author through inspiration and perception.The translator should creatively represent the sense,form and grace of the original according to his own interpretation and understanding.Creation Society and Literature Research Society had a heated debate on literature and translation via magazines and many other publications.The debate on translation between these two literature societies mainly focuses on two aspects.One is about how to introduce foreign literature through translation.During that period,some proposed to translate works like Faust,The Divine Comedy,Hamlet,"which were produced earlier but have lasting value";while others disagreed on that for it is "uneconomical".The other is about how to deal with errors in translation.Liang Junqing’s criticism on Guo’s translated Die Leiden des jungen Werthers and Hu Shi’s criticizing Yu Dafu’s Diary at the Sun-setting Tower caused reaction of Creation Society led by Guo,which is the beginning of the debate on translation between the two literature societies.Creation Society has greatly influenced Guo Moruo’s creation and translation.Since it’s foundation,Creation Society had established many periodicals,like Quarterly Creation,Weekly Creation,Creation Day,Semimonthly Flood,in the early.years,Monthly Creation,Culture Criticism,Semimonthly Drifting Sand,Monthly Thoughts,Monthly New Thoughts etc.in the later years.These periodicals provide abundant materials and a good platform for his translation so that he could have the opportunities to fully display his talents in translation.The ten years in Creation Society is the prime time in his translation career,during which most of his translated works were published and many translated poems were first published via those periodicals of Creation Society.Meanwhile those publications also provide a good position for Creation Society to debate with Literature Society over translation issues.Guo plays a leading role in the debate with Literature Society over translation criteria and translation criticism,which greatly enriched his translation thoughts and formed his own system of translation theory.Chapter Three mainly deals with Guo’s translational works,including those countries whose works he has translated,kinds of works he has translated and reasons why he has chosen to translate them.First,the author offers a panoramic view of all his translations,including poems,novels,dramas,political economics,philosophy,so as to draw an"outline" of his translation practice.And then the author takes a close-up perspective to some important translated works like Selected German Poems,and Immensee,to shed some light upon the "details" in his translation as well as the interactiory between his literary translation thoughts and his literature theories.Chapter Four is to explore Guo Moruo’s translation theory.Guo Moruo’s ideas about translation,which are scattered in his essays,translator’s remarks,his notes,prefaces and the like,involve many aspects of translation such as its significance,criteria,attitude towards translation and translator’s qualities.Guo Moruo believes through translation we can absorb the fine cultural nutrients from other nations to enrich our own culture.Literary translation can not only plays a very important part in promoting the national development and overcoming the international barriers but also booster the literary creation and pave a new way for the development of national literature.Therefore,Gilo Moruo considers translation to be of great importance in making up for ’our shortcomings or errors by absorbing others’ essence."Graceful translation" falls into the category of translational criteria."Graceful translation" put forward by Guo Moruo marks a transition from modern translational criteria to contemporary translational criteria,which is of great historical and practical significance in China’s poetry translation theories."Gracefulness" means elegance of poems,which often refers to the charm and grace of poetry.The poet should give the poems ethereal beauty,which will offer readers space for their interpretation and appreciation.There is a causal relationship between the poetic imagery in traditional Chinese aesthetics and this gracefulness.In the narrow sense,the gracefulness is similar to phonetic assonance/rhyme.It is the external form of writings.Therefore,Gracefulness is a formal aesthetics,with characteristics of fuzziness and perception in traditional Chinese aesthetics.Guo Moruo favors graceful translation for it can make translation expressive and elegant from the aesthetic perspective,and it can also give formal beauty to translation.In the previous translation theories,few people have formally expounded their ideas about the formal and aesthetic standards of translation.After Guo Moruo’s introduction and explanation,people began to emphasize the form and aesthetics of translation.In this sense,Guo Moruo plays a pivotal role in the theoretical evolution of Chinese translational criteria.The subjectivity of the translator during translational process means that the translator,as the subject of translation,will first respect the original text and then fully take subjective initiative in the translation process to realize the purpose of translation.This subjectivity is basically reflected in his cultural consciousness,humanistic character and aesthetic creativity.The subjective initiative of the translator is not only manifested in the translator’s understanding,interpretation and artistic recreation of the original text,but also shown in his selection of the original text,cultural purpose of translation,translation strategies and expectation of the intended cultural effects of his translation in the preface.In this chapter,the author mainly deals with qualities of the translator,the translator’s subjective initiative,and the transplantation of the translator’s emotions.Guo Moruo holds.that translators should have a high sense of responsibility,be cautious in selecting the original text;at the same time the translator must have a good command of Chinese as well as literature knowledge;the translator’s initiative is mainly reflected in the choice of original works,methods adopted in translating,and translational creativity;transplantation of emotion emphasizes the translator’s transplanting his emotion and having responsive chord with the original author,regarding translation as creation.Chapter Five attempts to explore the relation between creation and translation.In this chapter,the author first discusses Guo’s ideas about translation and creation and gives an in-depth analysis of the cultural and historical backgrounds to his translation and creation.By taking Rubaiyat and Selected Poems by P.B.Shelley for a case study,the author hopes to find out the relationship between Guo’s translation and creation and the influence of his translation styles on Chinese literature.Conclusion summarizes the status and roles of Guo Moruo’s translation theory and practice in modern Chinese literature,and the significance and values of a study on Guo Moruo’s translation.