A Tentative Analysis Of Lin Yutang's Translation Thoughts

Lin Yutang was a well-known writer and translator both in China and abroad. In addition to a series of works written in English, the achievements he gained in translation should not be ignored. Compared with other contemporary Chinese translators, Lin Yutang attached distinctive features to his translation. Due to his unusual early life experience and educational background, Lin Yutang was greatly influenced both by the Western cultures and by the traditional Chinese culture. Both his emphasis on the translation standards of"faithfulness, fluency, and beauty", the principle of"Spiritual Resemblance"and his alternative employment of domestication and foreignization translation strategies make his translation practice perfectly actualized which reflects his views of theories and standards of translation.The translator's subjectivity refers to the subjective initiative reflected in the translation activity by the translator on the condition that he must respect the translation object in order to realize the translation purpose. The basic characteristics of the translator's subjectivity are his self-conscious culture awareness, his humanistic character, cultural creativity and aesthetic creativity. By taking Lin Yutang's translation of Fu Sheng Liu Ji (Six Chapters of Floating Life) as a case study, the author tries to correct the false opinions held since long time ago on translators. At the same time, the author combines theories of translator's subjectivity and many examples to explore the manifestations and applications of the translator's subjectivity in Lin's translation. The translator's subjectivity also influences the translation strategies. Lin selects those works of classical Chinese literature which best represent Chinese culture to translate, such as Fu Sheng Liu Ji (Six Chapters of Floating Life), and adopts both domestication and foreignization strategies skillfully in his translation to reach the goal of introducing Chinese culture to the West. The author hopes that the studies on Lin Yutang's translation can attract more attention to his achievements in translation.The whole thesis consists of four chapters. The first chapter introduces and comments on Fu Sheng Liu Ji, the original Chinese version, Shen Fu, the original author and Lin Yutang, the translator. Besides, it also offers the significance, relevant studies and limitations of the study on Lin's translation of Fu Sheng Liu Ji (Six Chapters of Floating Life). Then the next chapter briefly introduces Lin Yutang's translation theory and indicates the corresponding applications in his Translation of Fu Sheng Liu Ji (Six Chapters of Floating Life). The third chapter analyzes the difference of translators'status in traditional and contemporary translation theories and defines the subjectivity of a translator. Taking Lin's translation of Fu Sheng Liu Ji (Six Chapters of Floating Life) as a case study, this chapter expounds manifestations of translator's subjectivity in the choice of source text, translation process, translation purpose and attitude. Chapter four includes the definition and effects of domestication and foreignization, while doing the research mainly on their manifestations in Lin's translation of Fu Sheng Liu Ji (Six Chapters of Floating Life) from the cultural and linguistic perspectives. In the latter part of this chapter, the author makes comparative studies between Lin Yutang's version and Black's version mainly from the aspects of foreignization and domestication.