Multidimensional Comments On The Chinese Version Of Lolita

This paper comments on the Chinese version of the novel Lolita from different angles: psychological, sociolinguistical, stylistical and cultural perspectives separately. Psychologically, by the examining of Freud's psychoanalysis, we can see the characteristics for psychic activities are transience, intermittence and unintelligibility; however, a large quantity of established formulaic Chinese words do not comply with such features because it is too easy to figure out their meanings, damaging the aesthetic taste which the author Nabokov has created by means of myriads of formal, learned seldom used words in the source text. Sociolinguisticalry, the translation is not completely perfect because the Chinese words chosen by the translator do not bear the trace of profession, age, social status, education, regional features etc. in the Chinese text. Stylistically, parts of the features are successfully transferred into Chinese; while some parts are not. For example, the rhetorical devices such as assonance, alliteration, etc. which are typical of the English language. Culturally speaking, it is a great success for the translator because translating the work of a polylingual author Nabokov with multinational living backgrounds is a strenuous labor. By the application of kinds of translation strategies: alienization or domestication, transliteration, literal or free translation, omission or amplification, giving footnotes, etc. the translator YUXiaodan has succeeded in working as a cultural ambassadorAccording to the Skopos theory, the writer of this paper makes an analysis of this novel, presenting its advantages and disadvantages. Skopos theory is the most important theory in the functionalist approach, established by Hans J Vermeer and Katherina Reiss, German theorists in translation in the 1980's. The Skopos theory takes the aim as the guiding principle, examining translation in the frame of action theory and crosscultural communication, making a new way for the translation domain. Any action has its own Skopos. The aim of translating determines the corresponding strategies and methods. This is the foremost one-skopos rule, which holds that the Skopos of a particular translating task determines which method should be taken, literal, free translation or combined. Two principles about Skopos theory areintratextual coherence and intertextual coherence. The intratextual coherence rule demands that translation should conform to the principles of the target language, making it intelligible to the target language readers, meaningful in the target language culture and the communicative situation where translation is used The intertextual coherence refers to the fidelity rule, demanding translation which corresponds to the original, although not exactly in content. The extent and form of the fidelity of the Skopos theory are determined by the aim of translation and the understanding of the translator to the original (Nord, 1997: 32-33). The author of the novel and the translator of the novel live in different times with different background, thus their aims in writing and translating are surely different. Nevertheless the translator tried her best to project herself into the mind and spirit of the author with the intention of bringing the content of the novel into full play. The difference of aim between the writing of the author and the translating of the translator and the extent of the understanding to the original determine the partial success of the translation.The Chinese version is excellent in the reproduction of beautiful scenes from the English text. Many improper translations have been picked out for discussion.