Faithfulness And Innovation-A Tentative Study On The Transaltion Of The Implicative Style In The Scholars

The Scholars,one of the best ancient Chinese classical satirical works,is of high academic value with Chinese literary kernel and Chinese culture embedded in it.Implicative style(chunqiubifa), successfully used in The Scholars,mainly means to state in a veiled way by using a few words but with profound connotation and adopt simple but subtle words to indicate the narrator's value judgment.It not only makes a great contribution to the excellence of the novel but also plays an important role in Chinese literature and social life.Without an adequate understanding of implicative style,one can't understand many Chinese literary works as well as many Chinese cultural and social phenomena. Hence,it is of great necessity and significance to attach importance to the translation of implicative style in the study on the translation of The Scholars.The implicative style in The Scholars is mainly represented by three points,i.e."implicit writing","deliberately writing in brief" and "evaluation implied within one word".Translation criterion has,at all times,been a focus of discussion among translators and scholars.However,no matter what kind of viewpoints they hold,faithfulness is of indispensable necessity of discussion."From historical aspect,the basic problem focused on by translators exists in all ages.For instance,faithfulness of translation,put forth with the development of translation,can't be avoided by anyone." (许钧1998:2)Traditional criterion of faithfulness is mainly source oriented emphasizing the ideal "equivalence" to the source text.However, with the development of translation,kinds of translation theories emerge. Therefore,the criterion of faithfulness has been evolving from the absolute source oriented criterion of faithfulness to the target oriented criterion,which shows a ceaseless alternation and implement of the criterion of faithfulness.As a part of translation,literary translation plays an important role in a country's literary and cultural communication. Moreover,literary translation is born with the unique trait i.e.individual's creativity;therefore,it all the more needs to be granted with effective criterion of faithfulness."'Remain essentially the same despite all apparent changes;be uniform but not hidebound;be flexible but not disorderly.' This is the dialectics of translation."(张泽乾1998:467) Hence,the criterion of faithfulness in literary translation shouldn't be an absolute or unitary one but a dynamic and binary one considering not only the equivalence to the source text in form and content but also other factors such as the purpose of translation,the target language reader,the target language culture,etc.Moreover,heterogeneity leads to the impossibility of complete faithfulness in literary translation. Heterogeneity and innovation shall be mentioned in the same breath in literary translation.Therefore,while trying to achieve faithfulness in literary translation,translators,meanwhile,need to have an innovation mind and adopt proper innovation methods so as to do excellent translation.This thesis presents a tentative study on the translation of The Scholars from a new perspective—implicative style,under the guidance of the binary principle of faithfulness and innovation.This thesis provides a general retrospect of the translation criterion of faithfulness,states the faithfulness and innovation in literary translation,analyzes the translation of the implicative style in The Scholars and attaches much importance to the expounding of the importance and feasibility of applying the principle of faithfulness and innovation to the translation of the implicative style in The Scholars.