On Translational Eco-environment

Translational eco-environment is an essential concept in eco-translatology. Eco-translatology has already developed into a comparatively mature stage and has been widely employed in such translation fields as literary translation, public signs translation and interpretation. However, no consensus has been reached in terms of the definition of translational eco-environment. Different scholars hold different opinions on the definition of translational eco-environment and the factors it should include. Therefore, it is practical to study the term translational eco-environment because it will help readers have a deep understanding about its concept on the one hand and help facilitate the further development of eco-translatology on the other.There are too many factors translational eco-environment includes. This paper takes the novel The Grass is Singing as illustration and with the focus on poetics and ideology. The Grass is Singing is a well-known novel written by the British writer Doris Lessing, a Nobel Prize winner. The moment the novel was published in London in1950, it caused a great sensation all over the world. There are two Chinese versions: one, published in Xinwenyi Publishing House in1956, was translated by Wang Keyi and the other in Yilin Publishing House in1999by Wang Lei.Translation as adaptation and selection is the key theory of eco-translatology. This paper tries to find and analyze the differences between the two Chinese versions of The Grass is Singing by employing translation as adaptation and selection, attempting to find the causes leading to these differences. Firstly, the paper makes a review over the studies of translational eco-environment, introduces the novel The Grass is Singing and its two Chinese versions and explains the feasibility to employ this theory to explore translational eco-environment. Then, the paper elaborates the theory of eco-translatology and introduces some important terms in details in this theory. And the following part is the main point of this paper. The theory of translation as adaptation and selection is to be employed to explore the differences between the two Chinese versions and the causes leading the differences is to be analyzed. The author explores the differences mainly from linguistic dimension, cultural dimension and communicative dimension. The reason why there are differences between the two versions is that the two translators are influenced by different translational eco-environments, including the factors of poetics and ideology. By comparing and analyzing the translational eco-environment of the two versions, the author finds that in Wang Keyi’s translational eco-environment, political ideology plays a dominant role. However, in Wang Lei’s translational eco-environment, more emphasis was laid on literaturiness than on political ideology. The author claims that a translated text is formed under the comprehensive impacts of the interaction of the different factors within the translational eco-environment. The two Chinese versions of The Grass is Singing is the result of the two translator’s respective selection and adaptation to their own translational eco-environment. The author claims that no one can live in a vacuum. Under no circumstances can authors, translators or readers get rid of the influence from the specific eco-environment in which they live. This is because the influence is invisible and out of control. A translator, deeply influenced by some factors, may run to an extreme during his translation. As a consequence, the translated text may deviate from the source text. Therefore, a translator must be alert to the influence of translational eco-environment and make the right selection to make sure the translated text is faithful to the source text to the maximal extent.Due to the limitation of ability and space, the writer just analyzes the causes from the perspective of poetics and ideology. In fact, the factors discussed in this paper are far from all the factors in translational eco-environment. But the author hopes this research will help to further the studies in terms of translational eco-environment.