A Study Of Guo Moruo As A Translator

This thesis is a study of Guo Moruo as a translator, including his translation theory and practice as well as the influence of his translation on himself as a writer.Guo Moruo was a versatile writer in modern China. He was not only a famous poet, novelist, dramatist, historiographer, but also a distinguished translator who enjoys a high status in the history of translation.Most of Guo Moruo's translation works were published during decades from 1919 to 1949. His translated works, especially books like The Sorrows of Young Werther and Faust, had tremendous influence on the people of his time. It was a pity that he stopped translating after 1949 for some reasons.I have developed an interest in Guo Moruo studies because it "is still a relatively 'new' field (translation my own)"(黄侯兴, 1987: 2). Moreover, most of the relevant papers published so far are on his poetry, drama or literary theory. There is little research on his translation.This paper consists of four chapters plus the introduction and conclusion. Chapter One gives a brief description of the development of Guo Moruo studies, with a focus on the representative scholars of every period and their works on Guo.Chapter Two is a discussion of Guo Moruo's translation ideas and theory. This chapter contains five sections with an all-round description of Guo Moruo's requirements of translators and his preference for free translation.Chapter Three is about Guo Moruo's translation activities. His early translation works were the literary works of his favorite artists while his later ones were those dedicated to the dissemination of Marxism and Communism, the majority of which reflected the sufferings of the common people. This chapter classifies the translation works of Guo Moruo and analyzes the magnum opus of each period, as well as their influence on his literary thoughts, political ideology and literary creation.Chapter Four is a comparison between Guo Moruo and Lu Xun as translators with an analysis of their differences in translation theory and practice. As the two translators took opposite views on such points, their arguments, especially those on translation methods, contributed a lot to the development of modern Chinese translation theory.Finally, this thesis offers a tentative appraisal of the influence and status of Guo Moruo's translation on modern Chinese literature.