Factors Influencing The Choice Between Foreignization And Domestication

This dissertation is written to analyze the factors influencing translators'choice of translation strategies in translating the first stanza of'auguries of innocence'by William Blake.William Blake is one of the most renowned figures in the history of British literature. His works are famous for the unique style of mysticism, religiousness, rebelliousness and romanticism. And abundant amount of studies have been done to parse into the literary value of his works in both China and abroad. As one of his most well-known poems in China, the first chapter of'auguries of innocence'has attracted a lot of Chinese scholars'attention. Since the first translation of these four lines was produced in 1949 by Zhou Zuoren, twelve Chinese translations have been produced by now. Despite the large quantity of translations, no other study has ever been done on these translations except a paper written by Professor Cai Xinle, which aims to discuss the twilight of translation.As a matter of fact, those translations are worthy of in-depth study. After comparing and contrasting these twelve translations, the author of this dissertation finds that there are two translation strategies adopted by the translators, which are domestication and foreignization. It is true that unaccountable discussions have been done on these two strategies from the prospective of the feasibility of these two translation strategies, which means which strategies a translator should adopt. However, few studies have been done to parse into the reasons behind the choice of translators. This dissertation studies these strategies from a different perspective. By analyzing three translation samples, five influencing factors are concluded, which include cultural status of translated literature in target culture, cultural and historical background of a translator, purpose of translation, readership and ideology.