On The Role Of The Translator

In recent years, with appearance of new methods and theories of translation study, the role of the translator has been one of the hottest topics in translation field. Researches on the role of the translator have been carried out as times require. The translator, omnipresent in the whole translating process, plays an indispensable and irreplaceable role in translation. Due to creativity of the translator many source language texts have been endowed with new artistic and aesthetic values. However, the translator, restricted by various factors, also poses obstacles to translation.Based on the viewpoint that translator plays the essential role in translation, this thesis intends to make a systematic study on the role of the translator during the translating activities and process, which is approached mainly from Heidegger's perspective of language.There are six chapters in this thesis.Chapter one is the introduction, which briefly studies the humble role of the translator in traditional translation views. Through the study on the role of the translator in traditional translation views, the author indicates that the important role of the translator cannot be underestimated in translation. While, the role of the translator, complicated in various layers, can be studied from different angles. This thesis studies the role of the translator from Heidegger's perspective of language.Chapter two is literature review, which briefly focuses on some scholars'researches on the role of the translator from different aspects, on Heidegger's language ideas, artistic ideas and translation ideas, and then mainly discusses Cristina Lafont and Wittgenstein's ideas about Heidegger's perspective of language.Chapter three presents a systematic study on Heidegger's language ideas based on Cristina Lafont and Wittgenstein's researches, as well as integration of Heidegger's language ideas and translation ideas. It points out that human is a linguistic being and understanding of language is the understanding of human being."Language is the house of being"(Heidegger, 1998: 217), while the translator, who translates the source language text into the target language text, shares a close relationship with the source language text and the target language text. During the translating process, the translator plays an indispensable role in translation.Chapter four illustrates the contributions of Heidegger's language ideas to the indispensable role of the translator. In translating process, as a message sender, the translator gets the message and listens attentively to the message, and then walks from the message, brings and preserves it. Listening attentively is the means of dialogue with the poet, while bringing and preservation is the means of dialogue with the other people. Therefore, interpretation lies in a historical dialogue. In the dialogue with the author and the reader, the translator plays an indispensable bi-role in translation; his aesthetic abilities also influence the performance of the translator.Chapter five presents the contributions of Heidegger's language ideas to the limiting factors of translator's role. Although some scholars have defined the limiting factors of the translator's behavior as patronage, poetics, language, ideology and so on, the author of this dissertation defines the limiting factors according to Heidegger's language ideas, that is, the factor of language and culture, the factor of context, and the factor of the target readership.The last chapter is the conclusion of the whole thesis. This part firstly reviews the important points, that is, Heidegger's language ideas and translation ideas are integrated with each other, both of which reflect the important role of the translator. And then it indicates that this thesis is an effort to make new approach to translation studies, namely study the role of the translator based on Heidegger's language ideas, which is different from traditional study.