The Research On Lu Xun's Thought Of Translation

From the perspective of translation as Adaptation and Selection, translation is a translator's adaptation and selection activity in a translational eco-environment. Such an eco-environment includes the worlds of the source text and the source/target languages, the linguistic, communicative, cultural and social aspects of translating, as well as the author, the client, and the readers. In the process of translating, the translator's adaptation is selective and the selection is also adaptive. The translator must adapt to the translational eco-environment in order to be able to select the specific target text. This thesis has a systematic research of Lu Xun's translation thought from the perspective of translation as Adaptation and Selection.With the development of capitalism and the colonial expansion, the peripheral countries of Western Europe had become colonies. The oppression and exploitation caused the rebellion of these countries. After the two Opium Wars, China also became a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country. Since then, China's progressive intellectuals engaged into searching for the road of saving China by learning from the West to move China to modernization. Lu Xun selected to translate the literary works of the small East-European countries and Russia to awaken Chinese rebellious spirit to change the old country. Because he had found the great 19th century Russian literature was full of democratic and humanistic spirit and that the works of the small nations in Eastern Europe reflected the national awakening against the oppression of their stronger neighbors. Lu Xun's expected readers were the poor, the oppressed, the weak, and the mass. The humanistic concern to small people in his translations makes the value of his translations ever-last.Lu Xun correctly judged his translational eco-environment. He therefore put"faithfuness"first and advocated"foreignization"or"literal translation"by inheriting and absorbing Chinese and foreign traditional translation theories so that new spirit would be introduced and the modernization of Chinese language would be enforced. He firmly opposed deletions, additions and inventions to the original works in literary translation. However, he was not against free translation. Lu Xun put forward principles of dialectical translation criticism and"retranslation"and"multi-translation"to improve translation quality. Lu Xun definitely expressed the function of readers in literary translation and first advocated equal importance of translation and literary creation in China.Lu Xun's thought of translation is not only the correct guide for people who learn to translate, but also the solid cornerstone for China's modern construction of translation theories.