A Study Of Yuan Shuipai’s Translation Activities

The studies of translators are one of the most important aspects of establishing theoretical system of Chinese translation studies. And the studies shall include not only the translators’ translation theories but also their translation practices. Any neglect of either of these will lead to one-sidedness of the studies. Therefore, only by focusing on both the translation thoughts and translation practices can we perfect the present theoretical system of Chinese translation studies. Meanwhile, the study of translation theory is helpful for translation practice. Yuan Shuipai, a famous modern Chinese translator, has made certain contribution to the learning of foreign literature and culture since he has translated a large number of English and American poems. At the same time, he also translated an amount of Chinese poems for readers of other countries, which aims at spreading Chinese traditional culture to the rest of the world. In the process of his translation activity, Yuan Shuipai inherited and developed the previous translation theories from great translators such as Yan Fu, Lin Yutang etc. He was one of the translators who integrated their translation theory into practice.In this thesis, the author makes a comparatively comprehensive study of Yuan Shuipai’s translation activities, including his translation practices and translation thoughts. First, the thesis presents Yuan Shuipai’s life experience, his achievements as a poet and those as a translator respectively. The author also describes previous studies on Yuan Shuipai, and then summarizes their main ideas and points out the limitations of their studies. Meanwhile, the author introduces the historical and social context of Yuan’s translation practice and his three translation strategies, literal translation, free translation, literal plus free translation with examples of poems translated by him. What’s more, analyses and summaries are made on the features and value of both Yuan’s translation practice and translation thoughts. Concrete examples are included for the research on Yuan Shuipai as a translator with comprehensive and detailed resources.This study reveals that "faithfulness, expressiveness and beauty" is Yuan Shuipai’s translation thoughts. In this thesis, the author explores the time when his translation thoughts were put forward and the reasons why they were put forward, then proper explanation is offered. And two other thoughts are concluded out of Yuan’s translation practices, namely, political awareness and patriotism in translation, which are fully analyzed with concrete examples in the thesis. Finally, the author also discusses the interaction of Yuan’s poem writing with his poetry translation. The author points out that his inspiration of the composition of Ma Fantuo Folk Songs is from the Scottish ballads that he had translated before. Meanwhile, as a poet, he tends to choose poems as his translation texts.Through this study we can well conclude that the predominant translation strategy employed by Yuan is literal translation, which is integrated with the "faithfulness" in his translation thoughts,"faithfulness, expressiveness and beauty". Meanwhile, we can safely say that Yuan is a worthy translator with concrete materials and has made certain contributions to the cultural exchanges of China and Western countries.The author identifies Yuan’s position in the history of Chinese translation studies. The results of this study will surely help to build a complete theoretical system of Chinese translation studies.