A Comparative Study Of The Two English Versions Of Lun Yu By James Legge And Ku Hungming

Foreignization and domestication are two translation strategies often being argued in dealing with cultural differences. The former advocates that linguistic and cultural feature of the original should be retained into the target language as much as possible, and the latter maintains that the target feature should take the place of that of the original in order to bring a transparent or fluent version without any linguistic and cultural barriers to the target reader. There is a sharp debate in the translator's circle to argue which one is available. Both foreignization school and domestication school provide sufficient evidence to support their views. But anything in the world is impossible to be absolutely correct or incorrect. How should we consider them?In fact, foreignization and domestication have been discussed for a long time especially in literary translation. But this thesis chooses a significant approach to discuss them. The approach is the two English versions of Lun Yu, commonly known in the West The Analects of Confucius, which is one of the most outstanding Confucian works. Lun Yu has numerous versions. It has been over 300 years since Lun Yu's first translated work was produced. There are still continuous versions keeping out. This thesis attempts to discuss foreignization and domestication on the basis of a comparative study of the English versions of Lun Yu translated by James Legge and Ku Hungming.Why does this thesis choose the English versions translated by James Legge and Ku Hungming from a number of English versions? What attracts the author of this thesis? What is their relationship with foreignization and domestication? It is just the key of the present thesis. It is necessary to introduce two English versions' features. James Legge is probably the most important and influential sinologist of classical Confucian literature in the 19th century. His version of Lun Yu is entitledthe Confucian Analects, included in The Chinese Classics which has been regarded as the most authoritative English translation. The most obvious feature of Legge's version is the fidelity to the original, which is clear in his preface. Ku Hungming is a very influential and distinctive literary character in the history of Chinese culture. And his version is entirely different from Legge's because of strong Western style, which tries to cater to the Western reader in order to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text for TL readers. Thus it can be seen that Legge and Ku Hungming took entirely different way to translate Lun Yu, which attracts the author of this thesis. After a comparative study of the two English versions, it is clear that Legge's version comforms mainly to foreignization and Ku's version tends mainly to domestication. Therefore, their versions provide us with a very good angle or method to analyze foreignization and domestication.We know, both versions enjoy high reputation-Legge's version has been long held up as the authoritative one and Ku's version has been very popular in the West, which also proves that both strategies are available. However, it does not mean that both versions are perfect. Over-foreignization in Legge' version leads to some word-for-word translations even some false translations, as well as makes the version less elegant. And over-domestication in Ku's version results in cultural loss of the original even changes the contents of some parts of Lun Yu. Thus it can be seen that both foreignization and domestication have advantages as well as disadvantages. Since it is so, it is unnecessary to argue which one is better or worse. They should co-exist. We should consider them from dialectical views. Too much preference or prejudice to either of them is not scientific attitude. A number of successful versions also prove the rationality of their co-existence. Some common points in both versions still support it. In fact, it is impossible to follow one and entirely exclude the other in one version. There is no existence for the success of any version which takes foreignization or domestica...