On Liu Zhongde's Translation From The Perspective Of Stylistic Equivalence

The reproduction of the original style is one of the most subtle and complicated questions in literary translation. Reproducing the original style is an important task of a translator. An ideal translation should not only faithfully convey the meaning of the original text but also achieve the goal of stylistic equivalence. However, how to reproduce the original style is an issue which has long brought about controversy in the translation circle both in China and abroad. About style translation one of the views holds that style is translatable and can be conveyed by the most suitable literary language, nevertheless, there are many scholars who view style as untranslatable. Owing to the divergent languages of different nations and the discrepancy of living background and culture between each other, the style translation will inevitably meet difficulties, for sometimes it cannot be fully translated or even completely impossible to transmit.According to the famous contemporary translator Nida's functional equivalent theory, translating was not to get something completely identical, but to reproduce"the closest natural equivalent to the source-language message"in the receptor language. He views that equivalence is first in the term of meaning and secondly in style. Nida thinks that conveying the spirit and style of the original text is one of the standards of inspecting the translation quality. As for style translation, in Liu Zhongde's new xin-da-qie (faithfulness, expressiveness and closeness) translation principle, Liu especially emphasizes"qie", which means to be as close to the original style as possible. Liu holds that style is not only translatable but to some extent can achieve the degree of equivalence. Liu's translation theory is closely related with his translation practice. By analyzing the conveyance of the original style as well as research of the translation study achievement both in China and abroad, the author of this thesis comes to the definite result.The term"equivalence"in Nida's theory is used in a relative sense, i.e. the closest possible approximation to the source-language message. Style translation cannot achieve absolute equivalence, what we can do is to shorten the distance between the style of the translated work and the original. To some extent, stylistic equivalence is accomplishable; however, one hundred percent equivalence is somewhat impossible. In the present academia, translation theories and translation criteria from various genres come forth and contend with each other, a further research and studies in stylistic equivalence is of substantial meaning in both theory and practice.