Performability And Its Translation In Qu Yuan

As an old artist form, drama has been an indispensable part in literature and art in the world from an early time. Also the history of drama translation is very long. However, when other kinds of translation studies are developing fast and well, studies on drama translation become the complex and neglected area in translation studies. The reason for this phenomenon is the duality of dramatic texts. In other words, when translating dramatic texts, the translator should not only translate them from the source language to the target language, but also consider other elements beyond language. With the development of drama semiotics, knowledge of particularities of dramatic texts has grown. The notion of "performability" comes into people’s eyes. Drama semiologists think that dramatic texts are just parts of drama and they are greatly constrained by performances. Only through performances on the stage can drama be fully presented.Susan Bassnett, a well-known English translation theorist, first introduces "performability" into translation studies. In her opinion, different from other literary translation, drama translation needs the translator not only to translate languages between written texts, but also consider potential "dynamic performability". However, after 1985, her opinion changed. She turned from putting it forward to querying it, then to opposing it. Contrary to Bassnett, Pavis always insists that drama translation is interlingual translation which transcends dramatic texts. True translation should be made on the level of performances on the stage. Therefore, this paper illustrates that performability is one factor which can’t be ignored in drama translation through the literature review and points that Ying Ruocheng’s theories on aspects of performability are the most comprehensive ones, including other people’s opinions, which can well illustrate the translation of performability in drama.According to his career as an actor and his practices in drama translation, Ying Ruocheng puts forward his own theories and strategies and summarizes that drama translation pursuits the direct effect of the stage. This paper takes Ying Ruocheng’s theories on performability as the basis and studies performability and its translation in Qu Yuan from different aspects, that is, speakability, actability, acceptability and individuality. During the process of studying, speakability, actability, acceptability and individuality are operated in a further way:speakability can be operated on levels of words, sentences and rhythm; actability on levels of physical activities and mental activities; acceptability on levels of domestication of culture-bound expressions and brevity; individuality on a integrated level, since one’s character depends on many terms, such as education background, social status and so on. The results show that while translating Qu Yuan, the Yangs translate performability in the original well.