On The Translator’s Subjectivity In Zhang Zhenyu’s Translation Of A Leaf In The Storm

For a long time, the role and the position of the translator sank into oblivion and got scarce attention. Traditional translation studies used to give much emphasis on the author and the source text. Besides, traditional scholars agreed that the translated text should be equivalent to the original text both in form and content, and the translator should be subordinate to the author. After the “Cultural Turn” in 1970 s, a lot of translation theories and research methods come into being,which greatly elevates the position of the translator. Since then, the translator’s subjectivity has been a heated topic among scholars. The translator’s subjectivity can be either studied based on different theories, or approached as an independent research perspective.Lin Yutang’s English work A Leaf in the Storm wins a great success both at home and abroad and arouses people’s wide attention. Through this work, Lin exhibits a real China to the westerners. This work is back-translated into Chinese by a well-known Chinese translator Zhang Zhenyu. Most of the former studies on this work are conducted from the perspective of literal criticism. However, little research is done on its Chinese translation. On the basis of the comparative study of A Leaf in the Storm and its Chinese version, this thesis aims to elaborate on the manifestation of the translator’s subjectivity in the whole translating activity.From the perspective of subjective initiative, this thesis mainly analyzes the manifestation of the translator’s subjectivity in terms of the selection of the source text, translation methods, translation of culture and wide use of the four-character phrases, in the hope of revealing the importance of the translator’s subjectivity in translation; from the perspective of passivity, this thesis tries to prove that the manifestation of the translator’s subjectivity is constrained by internal and external factors on the basis of Zhang’s objective understanding of the Buddhism philosophy and some unintentional mistranslations.The major findings in this thesis reveal that the Chinese version of A Leaf in the Storm is the result of the combination of Zhang Zhenyu’s subjective initiative and passivity. On one hand, he exerts his initiative in the selection of the sourcetext, the choice of the translation methods, the translation of culture and the wide use of the four-character phrases in order that the Chinese version can cater to Chinese readers’ reading habit and expectation; on the other hand, restricted by internal and external factors, Zhang Zhenyu manifests his passivity from two aspects including Zhang’s objective understanding of the Buddhism philosophy in the novel and some unintentional mistranslations in the Chinese version. With the purpose of the reservation of cultural elements in the original text, Zhang has to understand the Buddhism philosophy objectively. Influenced by the physical and mental condition of the translator at that time, a small quantity of mistranslations occur as an inevitable result of passivity.