A Comparative Study On Metaphor Translation In Two English Versions Of Fu Sheng Liu Ji:from The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

The thesis, following Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory, conducts a comparative study on metaphor translation of two English versions of Fu Sheng Liu Ji from the perspective of linguistic and communicative contexts. The analysis reveals that Adaptation Theory has a strong explanatory power on metaphor translation. In both Sanders’and Lin’s versions, adaptation has been made-to distinct temporal dimensions, but Sanders’ version is much different from Lin’s in that the former gives much priority to the source language context, both linguistic and communicative, and mainly adopts method of literal translation in order to fully spread traditional Chinese culture. As a result, target readers find his English version quite hard to understand. In contrast, Lin Yutang’s version employs diverse methods and makes adaptation to both source language and target language contexts. This way of translation not only successfully transmits the writer’s emotion and retains the original writing style, but also ensures his translation’s readability and acceptability. However, Lin’s version is lacking in the uniqueness of some Chinese cultural elements. Taking their strengths as well as weaknesses into account, we can jump to the conclusion that Lin’s version is better than Sanders’since Lin Yutang makes appropriate and flexible adaptation to both original and target languages, which helps his version easily accepted by target readers. In short, translators should make adaptation to both original and target languages so as to stay faithful to the original text and make their translations comprehensible and acceptable to target readers.