Manipulation Of Multi-Dimensional Subjectivity Over Translation

If translation is as long as language itself, it is not an exaggeration that a pursuit of equivalence in translation is as long as translation itself, which is the same with the quarrel between translatability and untranslatability. Traditional translation theories find it hard to step beyond the established boundaries of translation studies.The 1960s, however, witnessed the collapse of the fortress where such dichotomies as equivalence or non-equivalence, translatability or untranslatability had dwelled in. The "cultural turn" of translation studies has ushered in a new age. People began to doubt the reasonability of a purely objective and prescriptive approach to translation; a subjective and descriptive way of research finally sank in. Not satisfied with the cramped space in the fortress any more, people began to give more consideration to such larger scenes as the differences between two cultures, two political systems, two civilizations etc..Deconstructionism opens such a window for us to catch a sight of the wider world of translation. Standing at the following two advantageous positions-- one being an ecological approach to translation, which regards translation as "the translator's adaptation and selection", the other being the politics of translation, we finally find ourselves less confused in an increasingly multi-world of translation. By renouncing those traditional dichotomies, we suddenly find we can face differences with grace.Derrida, the master of deconstruction, steps to the fore by sneering at the existence of absolute meaning and shattering the tale of structure. Derrida has provided the world with a wholly new pattern of thought, and many "alternative" theories follow suit. The Chinese scholar Hu Gengshen(胡庚申) proposes the ecological model, believing translation is under the influence of the worlds of the source/target languages, comprising the linguistic, communicative, cultural and social aspects of translating, as well as the author, the client, and the readers. Taking these factors into consideration, the translator makes choices accordingly, thus conforming to the Darwinist principle of "the survival of the fittest." A political consideration of translation is also a new attempt. By rejecting the notion that translation is only a kind of activity on the linguistic level, this perspective is more willing to examine translation from a political standpoint, emphasizing the interplay of such factors as ideology, poetics and patronage. Four English versions of the Chinese philosophical text Zhongyong have been put on the table to bear evidence of our hypothesis: a translation, rather than a mere handmaid of the original, is a product under the manipulation of multi-dimensional subjectivity.