On Translation Of The Chinese Common Sayings In Two English Versions Of Shui Hu Chuan From The Perspective Of Domestication And Foreignization

With the development of globalization, the communication among different peoples is becoming more and more frequent. Culture, as the product of human activity, is the main content communicated by people. However, the reality is that culture becomes the great barrier to people’s communication because of the cultural differences. How to get rid of the barrier is the necessary task we must fulfill in order to further improve intercultural communication.From ancient times until now, translation is the main means for people from different cultural backgrounds to realize communication. There are two trends in the translation:one is to get close to the target language culture; the other is to keep the source language culture. These two trends have been the focus debated among the translators. They are named domestication and foreignization from the perspective of translating strategies. The debate on domestication and foreignization never stops since the appearance of translation theory. At the beginning, the debate focused on linguistic level, that is, the debate between "literal translation" and "free translation". And the contemporary debate focuses on the cultural level. In the past, scholars always took a binary opposition towards them, for one strategy, while against the other. However, with the development of the debate, some scholars began to look at the relationship between them dialectically. To further make clear the relationship between them, this thesis makes its discussion through description and explanation.As one of the four classics, Shui Hu Chuan is publicly regarded as a master piece with great achievement in the Chinese language. The common sayings addressed in the novel are not only revealed with great quantity, but also with vivid features and strong life, many of which are currently still popular in our daily language nowadays. There are several English versions of Shui Hu Chuan, among which Pearl S. Buck’s and Sidney Shapiro’s version are highly praised. Although Pearl’s version is very popular overseas, it is criticized by many scholars at home for her "over-foreignizing" translation. On the contrary, Shapiro’s version is praised because of its smoothness and ease. The purpose of this thesis is to supply some proofs for the debate concerning the relationship between them, implementing a descriptive research for the translation analysis of the common sayings in these two versions, thus treating and analyzing them more objectively.This research collects475common sayings in the first70chapters of Shui Hu Chuan, and then divides research data into four categories according to the cultural factors they contain, i.e. the common sayings concerning the daily life, the common sayings concerning the social life, the common sayings concerning the spiritual life and the common sayings concerning the universe. Finally, the paper will analyze eighty-five representative examples. The research attempts to unveil what strategy has been employed by Pearl S. Buck and Sidney Shapiro; and what methods have been used to fulfill this strategy; also, what effects the English versions have made. The research statistics show that DT strategy in Pearl’s version takes25%although her version is criticized for her over-domestication. And although Shapiro’s version is highly praised for its smoothness and ease, it doesn’t mean DT takes a dominant position in his version. On the contrary to this, the statistics show that FT strategy in his version takes59%, over the percentage of DT strategy (41%). From this, we can conclude that both Pearl and Shapiro pay more attention to the bending of the Chinese culture and the target culture in the cultural communication. FT strategy is a very useful strategy to fulfill the transmission of the cultural factors containing in the Chinese common sayings.This research also probes the reasons why these two strategies can coexist through descriptive and explanatory methods by analyzing the exact examples in the versions. The thesis discusses the advantages and disadvantages of domestication and foreignization respectively. Through the descriptive analysis, the research reveals that they are complementary. Although a pair of contradictions is evident, they have a different focus and therefore cannot be placed in a completely opposite position. It is unwise to emphasize one strategy. On the contrary, the best way is to make a combination of foreignization and domestication, making full use of the advantages, and avoiding the disadvantages, so as to realize the translation aim, and make better effect and fully realize cultural communication.However, in the actual translation practice, the two strategies cannot be used equally in one version. The translator will prefer one of them, which shows that there is, or are some factors determining the translator’s choice. Therefore, this paper also analyzes the three main factors that influence the translator’s choice of the strategy:the text type, the intention of the translator and the horizon of the reader’s expectation. By analyzing them, the paper draws the conclusion that the translator himself is not "invisible" although there are many factors influencing the translator’s choice. The translators have their own thoughts, and they hold some purpose when they are doing the translation. Therefore, the intention of the translator is the main determining factor. This is determined by the quotations from the translator’s own note.All in all, we cannot abandon either domestication or foreignization. It is an acceptable strategy only if they can fulfill the translator’s intention, satisfy the readers’expectation, and realize the cultural communication. At the same time, it has been pointed out that we still need to keep our own unique cultural features and transmit them to other countries when we realize the cultural communication thus taking into a account that globalization is getting wider and wider. By doing so, we can guarantee the coexistence and improve the development of different cultures, but not to carry out single-culture policy in the world. Therefore, for the translators who shoulder the great duty of realizing cultural communication, they should pay more attention to foreignization, and at the same time, take full use of the complementary effect of domestication.This thesis is composed of six chapters Chapter One is the introduction. Chapter Two summarizes the research of domestication, foreignization, and the Chinese common sayings at home and abroad. Chapter Three provides the research data and the research methodology. Chapter Four makes a thorough study on the translation of the common sayings in the two English versions of Shui Hu Chuan. Chapter Five analyzes the choice of the translation strategy, the reasons and factors determining the choice of the strategy through exact statistics. And Chapter Six is the conclusion.