The Translation Of Revolutionary Songs Into Conflicts

The translation of revolutionary songs is of great importance to the twentieth century China, socially and historically. Alongside with the changes of social conflicts in China since the beginning of20th century, it has functioned as means of mobilization, propaganda and ideological education, contributing a lot to the development of China’s revolution as well as society. In the context of translation and conflict, thus, problems pertaining to the translation, dissemination and reception of foreign revolutionary songs deserve factual and descriptive studies carefully.However, studies of song translation, both at home and abroad, are mainly focused on folk songs and popular songs. These studies are inclined to be text-oriented in an attempt to solve the compatibility of the translated lyrics and the pre-existing music. Consequently, the translation of revolutionary songs and its relation to various conflicts become an area where the academic circle seldom pays attention to.How, thereafter, to grasp the realistic meaning of translating revolutionary songs to the modern and contemporary society, in particular the Chinese society? In accordance with the theories of song translation and revolutionary songs, the translation of revolutionary songs unavoidably pertains to the holistic effect of internal factors like singability, sense, naturalness, rhyme and rhythm on the one hand, and to the restrict of external factors like history-embededness, political-orientedness, mobilization, reality-constructability and restricted-subjectivity on the other. Therefore, the study of translating revolutionary songs is not supposed to be confined to the textual criticism of the translated texts of lyrics, nor to be satisfied with the simple descriptions of the socio-cultural backgrounds of translating a song. Emphasis on the study in this field should be put to the historical description of the social changes and disputes that were triggered by the differences of translated versions. This is to be followed by an examination of the relations between the translated songs and the corresponding social events. Hence, it would also be helpful to see the complex relationships between song translators, translation critics and other subjects of translation in the process of translating and studying revolutionary songs. By doing this, the general public can have a better understanding of the translation of revolutionary songs and its characteristics.In terms of this, this present thesis will conduct a historical analysis of the process of translating and reception of the Chinese versions of "The Internationale" in the context of political conflicts in20th century China, so as to sort out the conflicts that were seen in its translation and dissemination and to investigate their complex relationships with the social revolution and changes in China since the early20th century.According to the above train of thoughts, this present thesis, apart from the introduction in Chapter one and the Conclusion in chapter six, is composed of four chapters, of which Chapter two reviews the relevant literature. It examines the relationship between song translation and the cognition and translation of revolutionary songs. And then it goes on to provide a brief introduction to "The Internationale" and the Chinese versions of it; and Chapter Three examines the three regularly disputed areas in the study of "The Internationale"-commemorative studies, bibliographical studies and translation critics-where controversies and deficiencies exist for the restriction of cognitive and political factors; and Chapter four studies in detail the part which political conflict played in the reception of the translated versions of "The Internationale" in twentieth-century China. It is found that with the evolvement of the political situations in China, the reception of its Chinese versions could be divided into three periods, featuring mobilization, worship and rational criticism respectively; and Chapter five dismantles the conflicts that were and are confronted in translating and studying the Chinese versions of "The Internationale" ontologically, social-politically and subjectively, covering the contact and collision in languages, cultures and traditions of music between French, Russian and Chinese, conflicts in translating the conjunction of music and poetry, the relation and rift between art and propaganda in particular times of China’s history, the intertwinement of memory with the present reality for the survival of revolutionary songs, tension between translators and critics of the Chinese versions and the troubled identities of translators.The original achievements of the present thesis are as follows:First, a new perspective, namely, the perspective of conflict, has been adopted to investigate the realistic meaning of translating revolutionary songs to society; Second, a concrete exploration has been made to spot the conflicts that has been highlighted in the translation and study of "The Internationale", which moves a little bit further beyond the text-oriented paradigm and provides new interpretations of the translation and study of the song in the contemporary Chinese cultural context; Third, a further exploration has been conducted to examine the embarrassments that are likely to be confronted in the interaction between translating revolutionary songs and politics and ideology; Fourth, a conception has been worked out from the perspective of conflict for the study of the translation of revolutionary songs.