A Happy Marriage Of Music And Translation

As different forms of art that influence each other constantly, music and translation haveall along drawn attention from scholars of various fields, and a great many researches havebeen done on such subjects as translation of lyrics, translation of music literature,development of music translation theory, musicality of poetry, etc.. However, probably due tothe restriction of the genre and plot of the literary works, few researches have focused theirattention on the musicality of literary translations.In the1920s, Zhao Yuanren, a well-known Chinese linguist, musician and translator,translated the also well-known children’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland intoChinese. It has been so well-received among the children that it has become one of the mostpopular classic children’s translated works in China. So far numerous researches have beendone on it, but on the other hand, little attention has been paid to Zhao’s wonderful fusion ofhis musical thoughts and musical composition techniques into his translation of that novelwhich is filled with beautiful musicality.This thesis explores, on the basis of an analysis and generalization of Zhao’s musicalthoughts, the musicality in his Chinese translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland andthe influences of his musical thoughts on his own translation. The author finds that Zhao’stranslated work is indeed a happy marriage of music and translation, his musical thoughts canbe fully discerned in his translation, and he even uses such techniques as “composingaccording to the tone level system of Chinese characters” to translate the “untranslatable”elements in the novel. After a comparison between the translation and its original text interms of melody, wording and sentimental expression, the author finds that Zhao’s translationhas at least the following features: first, Zhao paid great attention to the accuracy of thewording for his translation to be faithful to the original; second, he managed the speed andpitch well, and the rhythm to the point, which helps the reader feel vividly the ups and downsas the story develops; and third, the sentiment expressed through the perfect match of melodyand wording is intricately right on the beat, which corresponds to that of the original andgrips readers to the heart. Translation as it is, the novel reads like a complete piece ofbeautiful music.The study of Zhao Yuanren’s musical thoughts on his translation does offer a newperspective in analyzing the translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and tries to focusmore on the interrelationship between music and translation and inspire later translators topay more attention to the readability and musicality of their translation as well as beingfaithful to the original texts. Translation is absolutely not a sole action of word conversion. Asan art, it is closely interrelated with other art forms which the translators may well utilize intheir translation practice. It is Zhao’s aptly utilizing his great attainments in music to his translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that makes his translated novel full ofharmonious musicality. This is, indeed, an excellent work accomplished by a happy marriageof music and translation.