The Influence Of Geographical Factors On Translating Folk Songs Of Northern Shaanxi

Folk songs as a special translation subject rise like a new star in the field oftranslation study. The folk song of northern Shaanxi, a brilliant treasure of Chineseculture, is the unique combination of regional geographical environment and nationalculture.Many predecessors in translation study have made great efforts to make folksongs well accepted as one of the singing languages in the world. Many great workson northern Shaanxi folk songs came out, among which Voice From The Northwest isthe most noteworthy. It is a translation collection of northern Shaanxi folk songs byProfessor Wang Hongyin from Nankai University who had devoted nine-year energyand effort to it. This book is considered the pioneer of translating and spreading folksongs of northern Shaanxi to the outside world.Translation geography, as a new interdisciplinary field of learning, studiestranslation by combining translation with natural geography and human geography. Inhis book Translation Geography Professor Xu Jianzhong put forward his innovativetranslation theory which combines translation with geography. Professor Xu’s theorycovers two aspects: translation and physical geography, translation and humangeography. His translation and human geography is also subdivided into translationand cultural geography, translation and ethnic geography, translation and religiousgeography, and so on. Professor Xu argues that different geographical environmentslead to different languages and cultures. Therefore, while doing translation, theinteractive relationship between translation and geographical environment should betaken into account and geographical environment should be integrated into translationprocess.This thesis makes an analysis of the influences of the geographical factors ontranslating folk songs of northern Shaanxi in reference to Voice From The Northwestand translation geography. At the beginning of the thesis, the author makes anintroduction of her theoretical framework translation geography, and then thecharacteristics and classifications of northern Shaanxi folk songs are illustrated. Afterthat, the author discusses in great detail the influences of geographical factors on folksongs translation in Voice From The Northwest. Finally, the author makes aconclusion that some strategies should be taken to retain the local color and culturalconnotation of northern Shaanxi folk songs. Of course, the author also points out thelimitations of her study and makes some suggestions for further study in translatingfolk songs of northern Shaanxi.