On Xue Fan's Theory And Practice Concerning English-Chinese Song Translation

Xue Fan, a Chinese scholar who has made outstanding contributions in both the theory and practice of song translation, is one of the pioneers in the field of translating foreign songs since the founding of People's Republic of China. He has devoted himself to the spread and translation of foreign songs and has produced a great number of song translations. His translations of foreign songs not only demonstrate the coherence between the translated lyrics and the original melody, making the aesthetic feelings of the original songs available for Chinese audience, but also prolong the artistic life of a large number of foreign songs.Although Xue Fan has made a great deal of contributions to the communication and development of music and culture between China and many other countries, his song translation career has not become the center of attention. In his book Exploration and Practice in Translation of Songs, which was published by Hubei Education Press in 2002, Xue Fan pointed out that 'song translation' has never been admitted as an individual discipline because 'For a long period of time, the people in this field used to work by themselves in an unsystematic and sporadic way.'(薛范2002:5) And song translation is in serious need of fresh blood. What's more, few scholars have placed emphasis on the study of Xue Fan's theory and practice of English-Chinese song translation; thus this thesis attempts to make some researches into this aspect.At the beginning of the thesis a brief review of Xue Fan, his major contributions and influences in translation of songs and the previous studies of Xue Fan are demonstrated. Then the thesis focuses on the study of Xue Fan's English-Chinese song translation from the perspectives of theory and practice. First, on the basis of several translation theories such as Eugene A. Nida's 'dynamic equivalence', Qian Zhongshu's 'Hua (transmigration)' and Fu Lei's 'spiritual resemblance', the thesis concludes with Xue Fan's three major translation theories of translating English songs, and discusses their influences for the development of song translation. In terms of Xue Fan's practice of English-Chinese song translation, the thesis explores Xue Fan's artistic features of translating English songs through the analysis of some examples from the aspects of governing original meaning and creating new words, adopting rhymes and rhythms in English-Chinese song translation. The purpose of this thesis is, through the analysis and discussion of Xue Fan's translation theory and practice concerning English-Chinese song translation, to confirm Xue Fan's leading position in the song translation field and provide a basis for further study and research on Xue Fan and his English-Chinese song translation.