On Goldblatt’s Translation Of Sheng Si Pi Lao From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

Mo Yan, as one of the most excellent Chinese contemporary writers, deserves to win the Nobel Prize in literature. It is a good example to prove that the Chinese literature has gone out to the world, in the process of which the translator—Howard Goldblatt plays a vital part. All the English versions of Mo Yan’s works are translated by him and he has also translated over fifty novels of more than thirty Chinese writers. Howard Goldblatt has made great contributions to pushing forward the spreading of Chinese literature and he is called the "midwife" of contemporary Chinese literature. Sheng Si Pi Lao, one of Mo Yan’s representative works, is the one that has won the most international prize among all his works and it is spoken highly by Western literary criticism; the English version of this novel deserves more attention. The studies of Mo Yan’s works and their English versions and studies of Howard Goldblatt and his translations are increasing with the first Nobel Prize awarded. However, there is seldom a study of English translation—Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out based on Nida’s translation theory—functional equivalence.The thesis aims to explore to what extent and in which aspects the functional equivalence is achieved in the English translated text of Sheng Si Pi Lao as well as the translation strategies employed by the translator. Focusing on the target readers’ acceptation and response, the analysis of the English translated version is conducted from the perspective of linguistics, style and culture under the guidance of functional equivalence to seek the reasons for which the English translated novel gets success during its spreading abroad. This research is expected to enrich the studies of the English versions of Mo Yan’s works and to provide related references; additionally by this research the author expects her capability of translation theory and practice and the ability of appreciating a translation can be improved. The whole thesis consists of five chapters. Through the analysis in detail, the following conclusions are drawn. Linguistically, the meanings are conveyed faithfully and the translation also adheres to the principle that the meaning is prior to the form. Stylistically, the translation maintains the original features as much as possible in an acceptable way. Culturally, the translator succeeds in adjusting strategies in different cases to keep and transmit the original culture to achieve the functional equivalence. However, the colloquialisms and dialectal expressions in the original novel are strongly local-featured that it is naturally hard to reach the functional equivalence, for the local flavor is inevitably missing in the translation.