A Comparative Study Of Translation Strategy On Chinese Common Sayings In Two English Versions Of Shui Hu Zhuan

As one of the most famous classic masterpieces in ancient China, Shui Hu Zhuanplays an important role in the history of Chinese literature due to its dense Chineseancient culture and profound ideology. And scholars in translation field also attachimportance to Shui Hu Zhuan because it has many translation versions, such asAmerican scholar pearl·s version in1933, All Men are Brothers, and English scholarJackson·s version in1937, Water Margin, and Shapiro·s version in1980, Outlaws ofthe Marshes, and English scholar Dent Yang·s version, The Marshes of Mount Liangwhich was published by Chinese University of Hong Kong during1994and2002.And Pearl·s and Shapiro·s versions are more popular. With the constant improvementof China·s comprehensive national strength and international influence, the outsidewant to know more about China. Although there are many translation versions of ShuiHu Zhuan, they can not meet the readers· needs now. Therefore the retranslation ofclassical works should be paid more attention to.In China, every one knows Shui Hu Zhuan, and it is also popular abroad.Therefore, it is significant to spread our Chinese culture by translating thismasterpiece into other languages. Meanwhile, the cultural elements in Shui Hu Zhuanbring translators a great challenge. And the translation of Chinese common sayings ismore difficult for translators. Since ancient times, keeping source language culture orgetting target language culture is the focus of scholars dispute, i.e. foreignization anddomestication. Pearl·s and Shapiro·s versions are more popular among the Englishversions. Pearl·s version is more popular overseas, but it is criticized for heroverforeignizationμ at home. And Shapiro·s version is highly praised for itssmoothness and ease. This thesis aims to study the translation strategies used inPearl·s and Shapiro·s versions by contrasting the translation of Chinese commonsayings in the two versions. There are five sorts of common sayings in Shui Hu Zhuan —daily life, social life, spiritual life, universe and others. Due to the limitations oflength and author·s ability, we just study the daily life, social life and spiritual life inthis thesis, forty-five common sayings in the first seventy chapters are selected to beanalyzed. And qualitative and quantitative methods are used to find what translationstrategies Pearl and Shapiro used in their versions and what factors affect the selectionof translation strategy, and what the effect the translation strategies have made. Andthe research data shows that domestication strategy takes one quarter in Pearl·sversion and half in Shapiro·s version, and foreignization strategy takes three quartersin Pearl·s version and half in Shapiro·s. This means that they all used the twostrategies in their versions. The two strategies are not in the opposition to each other.In fact, they are complementary. The translation version that keeps the features ofculture of source language and can be read smoothly is the best version. Therefore,the foreignization strategy is used primarily and domestication strategy is usedcomplementarily.This thesis is composed of five parts. The first part is the introduction, chapterone, which contains the research background, the significance of research and theoutline of this thesis. The second part is chapter two. Chapter two is literature review,introducing briefly the research of the Chinese common sayings and Shui Hu Zhuanat home and abroad. The third part is chapter three. In this chapter, the research dataand methodology are presented. And the theory of Lawrence Venuti·s foreignizationand domestication is introduced in this chapter. The fourth part is chapter four.Chapter four is the main body of this thesis. The translation of common sayings in thetwo versions is contrasted in this part, and the translation strategies used in the twoversions are analyzed by contrasting the translation of common sayings. The last partis chapter five, the conclusion part, which is composed of summary, limitations of thisthesis, implications and suggestions for further research.