Translation Of Allusions In Fu Sheng Liu Ji From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

Fu Sheng Liu Ji was an autobiographical novel written by Shen Fu, in which theauthor described every aspect of his own personal life, including his love and marriage,his hard family life, fun in his leisure, his travels and so on. By his clear and conciselanguage in this book, Shen Fu vividly reconstructed the values, personality andaesthetic taste of Chinese scholars who lived more than200years ago. Therefore, itcan be viewed as a perfect classical novel of traditional Chinese culture. The languageof Fu Sheng Liu Ji was characterized by choosing the exact word in a very tersewriting. In particular, rich use of the allusion played an indispensable role inmanifesting its language arts.Allusions are concise and comprehensive. As a reflection of nation’s history andcollective results of nation’s wisdom, the application of allusions can improve thereading effect of the writings. Allusions make the work informative and enrich thework by interesting association. However, due to the differences between Eastern andWestern culture, the cultural connotation of allusions is difficult to transfer. Therefore,translators should face the difficulties that how they can better convey the impliedmeaning and special local characteristics of allusions.Functional equivalence theory is a periodical result in Eugene Nida’s translationstudies, which is quite powerful in guiding literary translation. The core of the theoryis that: the closest natural equivalent translation is the one that the receptors should getthe same effect as the original readers do. This thesis attends to make a comparativestudy on allusion translation in Fu Sheng Liu Ji in Lin Yutang’s version with those inLeonard Pratt and Chiang Su-hui’s version under Nida’s Functional Equivalence, andfocuses on the effect exerting on receptors in translating Chinese allusion to English intwo different social and cultural contexts. By giving detailed analysis and comments ofallusion translation in two versions, the thesis aims at proposing recommendations onthe strategy of cultural translation and providing specific translation methods of allusions. It is designed to provide a new thought of the strategy of allusion translationand better promote English translation of Chinese masterpieces in order to facilitatecultural exchanges between China and the world. It is hoped that the thesis may causedeep thinking of allusion translation and explore a more vivid and appropriatetranslation.