Dialogue Translation In Dramatic Texts

Drama translation is one of the most important aspects of translation, but few researchers have studied it. Drama is not only a literature genre but also a form of art, so it contains two main features—readability and performability. In drama translation, the standard to evaluate is not fixed because of the duality of drama. Critics and translators in the literature field believe that drama translators should adopt the strategies of literary translation in order to represent the original texts faithfully and completely to the readers. On the contrary, critics in the field of drama performance focus more on the other characteristic of drama, and they believe that drama translation needs to serve the purpose of being performed on the stage. As a result, this thesis adopts a dynamic evaluation standard for emphasizing the two different features of drama during translations. The readable and performable feature is not regarded as oppositeness but as unity. This thesis believes that evaluating a drama translation for the purpose of literary reading needs to obey the rules of literary translation. At the same time, evaluating drama translation for the purpose of stage performance needs to consider the features of drama language and the different cultural meanings during performance.Yang Xianyi retranslated Pygmalion in only five years. The same dialogues are translated differently in the two versions of Pygmalion for the purpose of emphasizing the two different features of drama. The comparison of the two versions has been studied by Wen Jun from the angle of drama text and summarizes some reasons for the retranslation of Pygmalion. His work fills the vacancy of studying Yang’s two version of Pygmalion in the research field of drama translation in China. However, there are still some insufficiencies in his thesis. Firstly, the selection of examples is not typical, almost covering all the characters in the play, so it lacks the power of persuasion. Besides, no specific standard is given in the thesis to compare the two versions. Lastly, the reasons for the retranslation are not analyzed systematically and roundly, for it involves some aspects but not concludes in a logical way. Therefore, these problems will be solved in this thesis.In this thesis, the different translations of dialogues will be compared and analyzed from the angle of text, in order to prove that the first version is translated for emphasizing the readable feature of drama translation and the second version is for emphasizing the performable feature. In the two versions of Pygmalion, the same dialogues in the original text are translated differently. Besides, dialogues play an important role in representing a character in a drama. Therefore, the different translations of the same dialogues in the two versions of Pygmalion will be compared and analyzed from two perspectives:the readable feature in the first version and the performable feature in the second version. In order to represent the readable feature, language in the first version needs to satisfy the characteristics of smoothness and naturalness for literary reading. The strategies of literal translation and the use of annotations are adopted to serve this purpose. At the same time, in order to represent the performable feature, language in the second version needs to satisfy the characteristics of esthetics and ephemerality for the actors and actresses to perform on the stage. Esthetics means that the translator emphasizes the language features of the actability, individuality and orality during drama translation, for the actors and actresses to exhibit a more vivid image of the characters to the audiences. Ephemerality means that translator stresses the language feature of conciseness and reduces the cultural differences during drama translation, confined to the time and space limitation on the stage. It comes to the conclusion that the earlier translation of Pygmalion stresses more on the readable characteristic of drama, for readers to enjoy literature reading; the latter one emphasizes the performable characteristic of drama, for the audiences to watch on the stage. In conclusion, this thesis believes that no single standard can be used to evaluate drama translations without considering which feature it emphasizes, readability or performablity.