"Fidelity, Smoothness, Aesthetic Quality"

Compared with translation studies of other literary genres, those concerning prose translation have been less intensive. There are many reasons. In my opinion, the fundamental reason is that prose is too general a concept, including too many forms of writings. It is as hard to study translation methods of the prose as a whole as to define so vast a territory the prose covers. On the other hand, the prose language is often mistakenly regarded as inferior to that of poetry. Hilaire Belloc advocates that the essence of translating is the resurrection of an alien thing in a native body. He formulated six rules for guiding prose translation. Burton Raffel argues vigorously for strict translations of prose that reveal the inner structures of the original syntax in his book The Art of Translating Prose. Among Chinese scholars in this field, Mr. Liu Shicong, who expounded on the "Artistic flavor" theory and Mr. Gao Jian, who put forward "Language Character Theory" and "The Translatability of Style", stand out for the comprehensiveness and intensiveness of their achievements.As far as I am concerned, it is necessary to integrate the relevant research achievements into the guidance of Mr. Lin Yutang's translation criteria, namely, "fidelity, smoothness, and aesthetic quality". Lin's translation criteria are applicable to any translation of literary nature, and this thesis attempts to highlight the importance of his translation theories in prose translation.This thesis contains six chapters.Chapter 1: introduction.Chapter2: English prose is defined for the purpose of this study and the characteristics are summed up.Chapter 3: The translation criteria of Mr. Lin Yutang's and Mr. Yan Fu's are compared and contrasted in order to find out their links and distinctions.Chapter 4: Lin's definition of the criterion "fidelity" is examined and analyzed. Translation is a compromise and absolute "fidelity" is unattainable.Chapter5: Lin's definition of the criterion "smoothness" is examined and analyzed. His suggestion to follow the psychological process of writing is original and it justifies the use of target language advantages.Chapter: Lin's definition of the criterion "aesthetic quality" is examined and analyzed. The translator is supposed to pay heed to the subtleties and unique appeal of the original and have them transmuted into the target language.In conclusion, Lin Yutang's translation criteria, "Fidelity, Smoothness, and Aesthetic Quality" are ideal guiding principles for prose translation. At the same time, it is necessary to incorporate other research achievements into Lin's translation criteria, which were advocated in the 1930s.