A Study On The Translator’s Subjectivity In The Translations Of The Art Of War From George Steiner’s Hermeneutic Theory

In the translation theory development in the history, although the translator is the center of the translation activity and the main body, they are marginalized for a long time. The "cultural turn" which was put forward by western translation study in the1970’s, drives the development on the target language and culture so that the translators’subjectivity in the translation study is highlighted gradually and becomes the focus of translation study. Based on the four steps of translation theory put forward by George Steiner as the theoretical guidance, the thesis adopts the two translation versions of The Art of War written by Samuel Griffith and Lin Wusun as the case study object making attempt to put the concept of translator’s subjectivity into the George Steiner’s four concrete steps of "trust","aggression","appropriation" and "compensation". This research aims to analyze how the influence that the translator’s subjectivity exerts on the translation versions thereby to affirm the important role of translator’s subjectivity in the translation process.On the basis of the analysis of the translator’s subjectivity in the translations of The Art of War, the author believes that the successful translation of The Art of War requires high quality of the translator. Firstly, the translator should hold a correct and positive motivation before translating The Art of War; secondly, he should have a solid language foundation of both Chinese and English and an intimate knowledge of both Chinese and Western cultures, as well as a perfect mastery of translation skills; thirdly, he has to do a profound study on the SunTzu’s thoughts and get a full understanding of military concepts. Moreover, the author proposes a suggestion for the translations of The Art of War. Due to the specific features of translating this Chinese classic, the translator can borrow an idea from the Chinese scholars’ model of annotating The Art of War, in order to reproduce the original appearance of The Art of War as well as convey military thoughts. It is hoped that this study could broaden the perspectives of the research on the translations of The Art of War, and provide profitable enlightenment for the translations of Chinese classics at the same time. The combination with the George Steiner’s four translation theory steps and translator’s subjectivity to study the translation and the translator will continue to be the subject of translation research.