Study On The Translator’s Style From The Perspective Of Translation Norms

Han-shan is a mystic secluded poet in Mid-Tang Dynasty of ancient China. During his lifetime, Han-shan composed more than 300 poems. It is the unique poetic style, strong atmosphere of daily life and the philosophy of living that cause the wide spread of Han-shan poetry in Asia, Europe and America, which helps to realize the canonization of Han-shan in the foreign literature field.As the initiative English translation of Han-shan poetry, Arthur Waley’s 27 Poems by Han-shan has opened the gate of Han-shan translation and Han-shan research, and also established the classic status of the western translation studies. Based on the mindful interpretation of the life experience of Han-shan and the poetry itself, Waley inserts his own style in his translation and as well as some unique creation. Reveiwing the studies of Arthur Waley’s Han-shan translation, they mainly cast eyes over the background of Han-shan, Han-shan’s religious thoughts in his poems, reorgnaizing the different translations, the status of the translator, the intention of translation, etc.; and researchers tend to draw more attention to the version of Gary Snyder and Burton Watson. So under the instruction of Andrew Chesterman’s theory of Translation Norms, this thesis analyzes the translator’s style of Waley in his Han-shan poems from three aspects of the literary style, the translating strategies and the translator’s creativity, aiming to find the relationship between the translator’s style and the translation norms, and digging out the reasons for Waley’s translation style.The thesis is developed in the following six parts. The introduction briefs the significance, research method and layout of this thesis and the literature review of the studies of Waley’s translation at home and abroad as well. Chapter one introduces the theory framework of this thesis and the historic research into Chesterman’s translation norms. Chapter two, three and four provide a detailed research into Waley’s translation style in the view of translation norms theory. From Chesterman’s norms including expectancy norms process norms, social norms, ethical norms,etc., this part discusses the literary style, the translating strategies and the translator’s creativity of Waley’s translation on the basis of a good study of the poems and the translator. For the literary style, Waley shows his precise and formal attitude in his academic translation and prose translation of Han-shan poetry. For the translating strategies, Waley’s persistence of literal transaltion and foreignization reflects his high respect for the Chinese culture expressed in the original Han-shan poetry. For his translating creation of sprung rhythm and free verse, it is the result of Waley’s full understanding of the differences between the two languages, the two cultures and the two poetics. The last is the conclusion. In this part, a reflection on the thesis is made to point at the significance of the thesis. Different translations by different translators could never show the same literary style. That’s decided by different translation norms which are observed by different translators. A correct evaluation of the translators’ style is not only a respect for the translator but also a good understanding of the translation art.