A Study Of Lin Yutang’s Translation Thoughts

Lin Yutang (1895-1976), an accomplished translator, writer and linguist, served as a cultural interpreter throughout his lifetime with his translation and writing about China. With his double cultural identity, he developed profound insight into bi-culture and translation expertise, and applied them to his translation practice. A growing number of studies on Lin Yutang in the literary field have been conducted in recent years, consistent with the various achievements he had made in Chinese translation and literary realm. On such a basis, new studies about Lin Yutang’s translation thoughts are expected to allow us to attain an overall understanding of his translation thoughts and significance in Chinese literary and translation field.In this paper, the author probes into Lin Yutang’s translation works in different periods based on explanatory analysis on a large amount of materials and attempts to elaborates systematically his translation thoughts and their application in his translation practice. Lin Yutang abandoned the pure linguistic research on the text itself, asserted his own three translation criteria and highlighted the importance of appropriate incorporation of these criteria. His translation thoughts broke the traditional translation theory, providing a brand-new perspective for future translation workers for reference.This paper at the outset examines Lin Yutang’s translation career and translation techniques adopted in Lin’s translation works from the cultural perspective. With the analysis of translation techniques, the author concludes with the way how to deal with cultural-loaded information and translation strategies:foreignization and domestication. Then, the author explores Lin Yutang’s translation thoughts reflected in his abundant translation activities and covering such a wide range as of his view on translation, translation criteria and requirements for translators in a systematic way. Lin Yutang has been dedicated to dissemination of cultural-specific information and the essence of Chinese culture to the world as well as opening national mind. He proposed the criteria of "fidelity" "smoothness" and "beauty" for a qualified translator that all were fully demonstrated in his translation activities. Lin Yutang asserted three requirements that a competent translator should meet: thorough understanding of the source text; good command of the target text; adequate training in translation and holding appropriate views on translation standards and techniques. All those points that constitute Lin Yutang’s translation thoughts are of great utility to account for the reason that Lin Yutang’s translation works gained considerable popularity among the target readership. As a master of both Chinese and English, he is proficient in dealing with cultural differences and has applied his wonderful translation expertise to his translation, making undeniable contributions to the traditional translation field in China and the cultural communication between China and the west.