A Study Of The English Translation Of Chen’ai Luo Ding From The Perspective Of Eco-translatology

The so-called Tibetan encyclopedia is the renowned literary work Chen’ai Luo Ding which was written by the famous Tibetan writer Alai. Since published in 1998, it has won numerous praises both in China and abroad, especially the Mao Dun Literature Award - the China highest literary Prize in 2002.In the book, it tells a story about the development and the death of the native chieftain system from the perspective of the Tibetan Maichi Chieftain’s young master--- a legendary wise man, Aku Tonpa. Alai used different literary skills to give a description of the complex contradictions and struggles within the Tibetan chieftain families, among different chieftains and between the chieftain and the central government. This novel reveals the heavy and miserable life of Tibetan people over hundreds of years under the chieftains’ oppression and the irresistible fate of chieftain system in the restructuring historical period just as a predestination. What attracts the readers most is that the writer employed distinctive techniques to carry out twists and turns. The novel displays a strong feature of Tibetan folk customs, which has made a great hit with the domestic and overseas readers. The compact plot structure of this novel made the Fifth Mao Dun Literature Committee members regard Aku Tonpa as the model for the narrator in Red Poppies, which gives this novel a traditional and cultural significance. The slight magic color in the novel strengthens its flexibility of artistic expression. The delicate language, which is filled with charm and rich in poetic and polished words stands for the author’s prominent artistic intelligence. This novel has a great literary value, which has been translated into many different language versions, and obviously, enjoyed a great honor at home and abroad. The English translated version of Chen’ai Luo Ding was jointly completed by the outstanding American translator Howard Goldblatt and his wife Sylvia, and in 2002 was published in the America by the Boston textbook Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company. The English version Red Poppies has been spread quite popular among English speaking readers overseas, and was selected as the best seller of Los Angeles Times at that year.Well, unfortunately, for some uncertain reasons, the English translation Red Poppies still has not been distributed in China. Although lots of western newspapers and magazines made comments and praised the success of the translated version, nevertheless, up to now, it is a pity that the translated version Red Poppies has received very few successful researches from the angle of translation studies. In addition, most of them are based on the traditional theories, such as discourse analysis and Jef. Verschueren’s Pragmatic Adaptation Theory, which are limited aspects. While, by comparing the original and the English translated versions, it is easy to find that the translated version is quite different from the original one in linguistic, culture and communicate and other dimensions. So we can see that Goldblatt provides a distinguished perspective in the field. In the process of the translation, including the title of the novel Goldblatt made many adaptive selections with the original version in three different dimensions. Therefore, this paper will make a tentative study on the success of Goldblatt’s Red Poppies from a grand new perspective--eco-translatology. This paper provides an innovative rather than conversional translating research method. As to eco-translatology, it is a new translation theory which started in 2001. Untill to 2004, Hu Gengshen, the remarkable professor in Qinghua University published a significant paper called Translation as Adaption and Selection. Ultimately, in 2008, eco-translatology, a new perspective of study in translatology, developed in an all-around way.This paper comprises five chapters(without introduction and conclusion). The first chapter--text introduction is a brief introduction about the original Chen’ai Luo Ding and translated version Red Poppies, and make some comparisons. The second chapter — theory introduction is the theoretical framework, which describes eco- translatology in terms of its background, origin and development, basic terms and main concepts. Chapter Three, Chapter Four and Chapter Five are the main body which offer an in-depth analysis of Goldblatt’s Red Poppies from the perspective of eco-translatology. The analysis includes Goldblatt’s adaptation to the translational eco-environment, and the adaptive selection in linguistic, culture and communication from three different dimensions in translation actives. Moreover, on the basis of the translating examples, there is a detailed analysis about the evaluation of Goldblatt’s translated version. It draws the conclusions that translation Red Poppies is translator-centered, Which means the translator has the dominating position and in the other hand, the success of Goldblatt’s red Poppies is determined by his adaptation to the translational eco-environment. His Red Poppies is the optimal translation.