On The Display Of Translator's Subjectivity

Translation is a kind of complex and dynamic intercultural communication. As a go-between of the communication, the translator occupies a crucial role in the translation process. Every human being has his or her own subjectivity, and there is no exception for the translator. The translator's subjectivity is always displayed from the choice of the source text to the produce of the target text. Therefore, the translator has a decisive influence on translation in a certain sense. It is a pity that the influence of translator's subjective factors in translation has long been ignored. The translation scholars mostly focus their attention on the influences of the translator's language competence and translation techniques on translation, and they seldom touch upon the influences of the translator's subjective factors and historicity on the process of translation, the target text and the target culture.In recent years, the complex role that the translator plays in the whole process of translation has aroused increasing attention among translation theorists. The subjectivity of the translator, one branch of translation studies, has become a necessary and important research subject. Among the achievements made in this research subject, there are still controversies and misunderstandings on such issues as why and how the translator has to display his or her subjectivity, the various forms of it and its impact upon translation. Against this background, this thesis, in an attempt to carry out the study of translator's subjectivity, discusses how the translator displays his or her subjectivity from three perspectives through a comparative study of the translations of classical Chinese poetry by Xu Yuanchong and Ezra Pound.The thesis consists of five parts including the introduction and conclusion. The first chapter defines the connotations of"translator's subjectivity"and reviews the studies on translator's subjectivity in traditional translation theories in both China and the West. The second chapter discusses the display of translator's subjectivity from three perspectives with references from the ideological factor in the Rewriting Theory, the Skopos Theory and the Theory of Intersubjectivity. The author advocates that the translator's subjectivity must be displayed in translation process, but there will be differences between one and another because of his or her different ideology, translation purpose and intersubjective relationships with the source text author and the target text reader. The third chapter comparatively analyzes how Xu Yuanchong and Pound respectively display their subjectivity in the translation of classical Chinese poetry. The author points out that"the Theory of Three Beauties"and"the Rivalry Theory"of Xu and"the energy of language"and Imagism translation poetics of Pound are all concrete manifestations of translator's subjectivity. Xu thinks that the cultural communication all over the world should be on an equal basis under the circumstances of globalization and it is the Chinese translators'responsibility to help the westerners know more about China and the Chinese culture. So, he chooses to translate the gem of Chinese culture—classical poems. Being different from Xu, Pound selected classical Chinese poetry as his translation subject because he found in them, in one way or another, support to his Imagist principles, and with that, he hoped to innovate the Victorian literature. The purpose of Xu's translation is to reproduce the"three beauties"of classical poetry and help the western readers enjoy it, whereas, Pound aims at presenting image, so they use different translation strategies and they both translate creatively. Xu advocates that a translator should take the advantages of the target language on the basis of fidelity. He never ignores the"dialogue"with the source text author and attaches great importance to the response of the target text reader. Pound thinks that the source text author is"a dead voice"and the most important function of translation is to"make it new", which results in the omission of many cultural connotations in his translation.Out of the same source text, Xu's version is greatly different from Pound's, but both of their translations are successful in different era. Thus it can be seen that translation is not merely a transition of two languages, but a kind of intercultural communication. In a word, a translation is the outcome of the display of translator's subjectivity on the basis of the source text. As the subject of translation, the translator, under the guidance of translation requirements, will and should decide what to translate and how to translate in order to achieve his or her intended translation purpose.