The Foreignization And Domestication Of Translation Of Children's Literature

Literature translation has always been a hot topic in the research field. But translation of children's literature, is almost ignored in the world, especially in China.Many people are of the opinion that translation of children's literature is an easy work, and simple words and short sentences could well express the meaning of foreign children works. Actually, the difficulty of translation of children's literature is the same as that of translation of adults'literature. In the process of translating children's literature, translators should consider many factors, such as the definition of children readers, the characteristics of children's literature, and translating methods, and so on. Doing the work of translating children's literature has significant meanings. Besides cultural exchange and broadening children's horizon, one important purpose is to make little reader understand the connotations of the work and experience the charm of foreign literature. In order to solve the cultural problems and benefit children, the world-wide linguistics and translators proposed some translation strategies.One of the most typical representatives of translating strategies is domestication and foreignization. The concept of domestication and foreignization was put forward firstly by a Germanic translator Schleiermacher. He said that"either the translator leaves the author in peace as much as possible, and moves the reader toward him; or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author toward him"(Shulte & Biguznet, 1992:6). Children don't have enough life experience, knowledge and culture, if the translation is full of abstract words and complex content that is beyond children's understanding, it is impossible for children to be interested in the translation. So the primary aim of translation of children's literature is to make children understand the works easily, and the second aim is to let children learn something from the translation. Using domestication strategy could make the translation to be understood easily, and applying foreignization strategy could help children know some foreign things.This thesis will compare the two Chinese translating versions of The Happy Prince and Other Tales, one is translated by Ba Jin, and the other is translated by Su Fuzhong & Zhang Min,to discuss how to apply these two translation strategies in translation of children's literature.