On Characteristics Of Local Culture In Tian Han's Translations

Tian Han had made considerably outstanding contributions to the development of Chinese drama. However, compared with the enormous popularity that he had received in his creations, his three translations, Salome, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet are rarely taken into consideration by current translating researchers and contemporary readers. Actually, as a master of drama and poem, Tian Han's translations have unveiled distinguished characteristics of his time and his individuality. In his translations, the language, bursting with features of Chinese traditional culture and Xiangchu Culture, not merely reproduces the vividness of the original, but also unfolds the charm, gracefulness and rhythm of Chinese dramatic language. This delicate selection of words and expressions benefits target readers with access to lucid, graceful and natural works which are in conformity with Chinese culture.In Tian Han's translations, the traits of Chinese traditional culture and Xiangchu culture can be found here and there. Because of the profound impact of Chinese classical culture, his translations unfold enormous traditional traces, such as etiquette, customs, myth, religion, and so on. In addition, influenced by the new emergence of Vernacular Chinese, his works show a graphic picture of the translator's great efforts paid to push forward the new language. More impressively, the words, expressions and sentence structures of Classical Chinese and Hunan Dialect coexist in Tian Han's translations, but his skilful mixture does not pose much obstacle to reader's comprehension. Furthermore, for the purpose of presenting the expressiveness of dramatic language, Tian Han employs a surprising variety of figural skills, such as pun, simile, metaphor, parallelism, etc. Some of these devices are replanted from the original, while some complemented by the translator himself in order to comply with the Chinese rhythm. The reasonable and deft integration of all these cultural and linguistic techniques offer a great research value to his translations.Therefore, the research on Tian Han's translation is absolutely significant both theoretically and practically to the translation of dramas, even to the translation of other literatures. It practically demonstrates that though a translator cannot go beyond the limitation of his cultural and linguistic backgrounds, he can produce an excellent translation of both faithfulness to the original and interest to the target readers, if only he, just like Tian Han, has a deep understanding of the original, good literary accomplishment and skilled use of his mother tongue.