| Hermeneutics is a discipline of studies on interpretations and explanations and during its development course it continuously has indissoluble ties with translation. Both the literary translations and non-literary translations are inseparable from the understanding and explanation of the original. The nature of translation contributes to the close relationship between hermeneutics theories and translation studies. Gadamer is a representative of contemporary western hermeneutics, who proposed the well-known philosophical hermeneutics that disordered the theory of traditional hermeneutics, broke the fetters of scientism, crushed the illusion of pursuing pure objectivism, and eventually highlighted the subject’s initiatives. He put forward some philosophical hermeneutic ideas, such as prejudice, fusion of horizons and the impossibility of the recreation of the original meaning.The Analects, as the volume of the words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples, had significant impact on the psychological quality and ethical behaviors of Han nationality because of its extensive content and it is a classic of Confucian school. For a long time, The Analects has been favored by the majority of scholars and become the subject of many research scholars and experts. On one hand, The Analects is short and concise in form and rich in content and involves a large number of fields, including politics, philosophy, literature and other aspects, therefore, The Analects is a treasure which needs to be studied and researched by the scholars at home and abroad; on the other hand, due to the decisive role in the cultural exchange between China and western, the research of The Analects is of high value.The Analects has been translated into many languages and widely circulated around the world. Translation is closely related to the interpretation of the original text by the translator, so it is a two-way process involving the understanding and expression of the translator. In this process, understanding is the acceptance of the original text and the translator’s explanation is the interpretation of the original text. Gadamer, the representative of hermeneutics proposed the concept of "prejudice" and "fusion of horizons", and noted that any subjective interpretation is based on the prejudice of the translator and that completely objective interpretation is impossible. By selecting the two versions translated by Ku Hongming and James Legge, a comparison study and the reasons of different interpretation on the same work have been discussed. Based on the principles of Gadamer’s hermeneutics, prejudice, fusion of horizons and the impossibility of the recreation of the original meaning, this thesis compared and analyzed the two English versions of The Analects. The full text is divided into six chapters:Chapter One is the part of Introduction, in which the author briefly introduces the research background, research purpose and significance as well as the structure of the thesis.Chapter Two reviewed the studies on the comparison of the translations of The Analects abroad and at home.Chapter Three introduces the theoretical background of this thesis, which includes a detailed introduction of Gadamer’s hermeneutic theories, such as prejudice, fusions of horizons and the impossibility of the recreation of the original meaning.This chapter begins with the elaboration of the Hans-Geord Gadamer’s hermeneutics. According to Gadamer, it is impossible to make a purely objective interpretation to eliminate misunderstanding. Accordingly, misunderstanding is perennial. Gadamer fully affirms the significance of prejudice, which he thinks constitutes the historical interpretation. Both the interpreter and the interpreted own their respective horizons. It is required of translators to try to approach the initial horizons of the author to make a fusion of horizons. Fusion of horizons is based on historical differentiation. It has revealed why cultural filtering exists and why it unavoidable.Chapter Four makes a brief introduction of source text, The Analects and the two translators, Ku Hongming and James Legge, and the background information of the reasons the two translators chose to translate The Analects.Chapter Five is the most important part of this thesis, which includes the comparison and analysis of the two English versions of the translation of The Analects from the perspective of Gadamer’s hermeneutic theory. What’s more, some examples have been chosen to support the analysis.The last chapter is the conclusion part which involves the findings of the thesis, limitations of the research and some suggestions are offered for further study on the classic works, especially the Chinese classics. From the comparison between two different translations, we can observe that the interpretation of a certain text is multifarious. Different time, place and perspectives produce various misunderstanding and prejudice. A translation is only a product of the prejudice of its own age. A good translation must be an accepted prejudice of its age. Hermeneutics can effectively interpret and explain some translation phenomena influenced and determined by social, historical and cultural context, particularly suitable for the studies of different translations produced many years ago or under different social, historical and cultural conditions. It sheds a new light on translation criticism, making it more polysystemic and lenient. Due to some defects and uncovered issues in this paper, we expect more discussions and explorations in this area so as to promote the development of translated classics.Major findings are concluded in our study. Firstly, prejudice plays an important role in the process of translating. Without prejudice, there will be no understanding. Therefore, prejudice is the prerequisite of understanding. One version of translation is prejudice created by the times. A good version of translation should represent the prejudice of this time. This finding provides a new vision for the research of translation.Secondly, we find that fusion of horizons in form and content help translators give a new structure or meaning to the readers. Fusion of horizons between the translator’s and the original author’s is the result of times. The meaning of translation lies in that the opinions of the translators are involved in it rather than reconstructing the original meaning.Thirdly, as for Chinese classics, they are in a long history. The translators can not go back to that time, so they can not completely understand the product in that time. Based on the time they are in, it is meaningful for the translators to interpret the original text. However, it is meaningless and impossible to automatically repeat the original meaning. |
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