On C-E Translation Of The Chinese Folk Wisecracks In Chin Ping Mei From The Perspective Of Equivalence Theory

Chinese folk wisecracks are the quintessence of the Chinese language and also the accumulation of the Chinese culture. Being short and pithy, vivid and vigorous, they are widely used not only in the spoken language but also in the huge masses of ancient Chinese classical books. The great novel of Chin Ping Mei contains a large number of Chinese folk wisecracks featured by its lively and colorful language. To get knowledge of these Chinese folk wisecracks is of significant help for us to comprehend the characters'personalities in this work and the living conditions at that time as well as the translation of the novel as a whole. The advantages of the Chinese folk wisecracks in some sense are very difficult to tackle in the C-E translation. In the translation of the Chinese folk wisecracks, a translator should not only consider the transfer of the language but also take the transmission of the cultural information and images.As far as the translation of Chinese folk wisecracks concerned, we can draw lessons from Nida's equivalence theory in the translation practice. This theory advocates functional equivalence which with the target language readers as its core believes that translation is to attain the goal of "the closest natural equivalence"; the readers of a translated text should be able to understand and appreciate it in essentially the same manner as the original readers did. In actuality, it is to achieve two equivalent effects. In addition, the theory holds the view that the expressing ways should conform to the norms of the target language and even the cultural terms should be embedded to the norms of the target language culture. Therefore, a successful translation should adopt the domesticating strategy to make the translated message intelligible and natural to the target language receptors. The application of the strategy of domestication can make acceptable to the target language readers the Chinese folk wisecracks containing rich cultural information and life-like images and produces equivalent effect of associative meanings and arouses associations in the target language readers'mind as the same as in the source language readers. On top of that, it can also make both sides communicate and understand in order to clearly convey the messages. The purpose of translation is first to translate meaning. Because of the diversified ways of expression of different languages, the language forms must be altered so that communication can break the cultural barriers and goes smoothly. Obviously, this theory offers valuable methods to the translation studies on heavy culture-loaded Chinese folk wisecracks.This thesis randomly selects 20 Chinese folk wisecracks from Chin Ping Mei to analyze and the results show that more than half of them are translated domestically which indicates that the translator Clement Egerton mainly adopts the strategy of domestication in translation. From the perspective of Nida's equivalence theory, this thesis demonstrates that the domesticated versions achieve an equivalent effect of conveying the meanings, images and cultural messages. Besides, the insufficiencies of foreignization in the C-E translation of the Chinese folk wisecracks in Chin Ping Mei are also discussed.