A Tentative Study Of Two Translated English Versions Of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

Translating is a purposeful activity. Therefore, the top-ranking principle determining any translation process is the purpose (skopos) of the overall translational action. Accordingly,"adequacy"which refers to the qualities of a target text with regard to translation brief, is taken as the criterion of translation. This is what Skopostheorie states. As a break with the traditional idea of equivalence and an important complement to translation theories, Skopostheorie thus opens up a new perspective for the translation practice and study. However, although this theory was proposed in 1980s, it was not introduced to Chinese translators until recently, and few translations have been discussed within the framework of Skopostheorie.This paper aims to make a tentative assessment of two translated versions of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang as well as Lyell from the perspective of three basic principles within the framework of Skopos theory which includes the Skopos rule, the fidelity rule and the coherence rule. Through the analysis on the part of the author, a conclusion is finally reached: The Yangs'translation conforms to the Skopostheorie in most cases and fulfils the translators'aim to provide the foreign readers with access to Chinese culture to a degree. But it should be noticed that one of the language features of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan is the combined use of classical Chinese language and colloquial Chinese language. In this sense, the Yangs don't manage to represent the unique form of classical Chinese language of the original text in their translation work, thus failing to fulfill the fidelity rule fully. Furthermore, since the classical Chinese language constitutes an important part of the brilliant Chinese culture, the Yangs'intention to introduce Chinese culture to the foreign readers is also influenced; however, Lyell's translation achieves fair adequacy when valued from the Skopos theory,for his translation not only successfully transfers his understandings about the original work to his target readers, but also represents fidelity rule and coherence rule fully.