The Translator's Roles: Specifics In The English Translations Of Mao Zedong Poems

Translation is a complex communicative activity as old as the tower of Babel. The translator, as a decisive factor, plays an indispensable and irreplaceable role in the activity. He/she conducts the code switching between two different languages and reproduces the content and spirit of the source text into the target one.However, in traditional translation theories, the translator's status has not been fully recognized. Many scholars hold that a good translator should be completely passive and neutral like a faithful servant. The translator has to be close either to the original writer or to the reader of the target text. As a result, either side, or even worse, both sides, is dissatisfied with the translator and the translator's works. This puts the translator in dilemma.This thesis aims at studying the roles of the translator. Since 1970s, more and more scholars and researchers have noticed the subjectivity of the translator in translation. And in 1990s, translation studies began to shift to the cultural turn, which demands more of the translator. On the basis of those researches, the thesis brings forward that the translator plays multiple roles in the process of translation. Firstly, the translator should conduct a careful study of the original as a special reader. Secondly, he/she should make a choice of proper translation strategies as a decision-maker. Thirdly, he/she should express and reproduce in target language as a writer. In cultural turn, the translator becomes a mediator not only between two different languages but also two different cultures. So, the thesis holds that the translator plays another role, that is, a cultural mediator. He/she should possess cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity to deal with different cultural elements. According to the DMIS put forward by David Katan, a translator need pass through several stages in the growth from translator to cultural mediator. In other words, a cultural mediator is an advanced translator.This thesis applies Mao Zedong poetry as corpus to analyze the translator's rolesas a reader, a decision-maker and as a writer in the process of translation, and as a cultural mediator in cultural turn. Poetry is the most difficult genre to translate. Through studying and analyzing the procedures of translation and cultural factors of Mao's poetry, the thesis can more clearly and forcefully demonstrate the translator's roles. Translator studies has become the focus of contemporary translation studies.