| Apparel and accessories are "the silent language"; they are the specific symbols that disseminate information. In ancient China, apparel and accessories are not only simple signs, but also reflections of the wearers’personalities and attainments, and symbolization of their identities and social statues. Novels are the miniature of history that record mankind’s cultural development; they provided for us a wide variety of researching topics. Shui Hu Zhuan, one of the Four Great Classical Novels in China, is one of this kind. The story of Shui Hu, based on the exploits of the outlaw Song Jiang and his 108 companions, is one of the earliest novels written in vernacular Chinese, and is immeasurably well known in China by all walks of life. Its author, Shi Nai’an (some said Shi Nai’an and Luo Guanzhong), presented to us a great many fascinating stories and heroes which will go down in history forever. Shui Hu Zhuan stands out as one of the notable landmarks in the development of Chinese vernacular literature, which brought extraordinary influences on all the aspects of Chinese culture. The apparel and accessories in Shui Hu Zhuan reflect both the social environment and the heroes’characteristics at that time; they are important parts for the vivid portrait of the heroes. Up till now, there are all together four complete English translations of Shui Hu Zhuan. Among all the four English translations, the Dent-Youngs’translation is the latest and the most complete one, consisting of all the contents of the original 120-chapter version of Shui Hu Zhuan. The father and son have made a great contribution to Chinese culture’s "going out". Their translated version is undoubtedly an impressive production in the history of cultural communication between China and the rest of the world.The thesis carries out a comprehensive study on the translation of apparel and accessory terms in Shui Hu Zhuan, including head-wears, clothes, waist decorations and footwear. It discusses in depth all the 144 words and expressions related to apparel and accessories scattered in 88 chapters of the book. Then it analyzes the merits and demerits of the Dent-Youngs’translation on presenting the connotation of the apparel and accessory culture of the original book. At last, it explores the translators’ strategies in translating those culturally pertinent apparel and accessory terms, and the factors affecting their selection of translation strategies. Through the research, the author finds that there are mainly two problems in the Dent-Youngs’ translated version. Firstly, the same term in the book has different translations, which can be called inconsistency; secondly, there exist some mistranslations due to an incorrect understanding of the source culture by the translators. The Dent-Youngs’ translated version is undeniably well written; its language is fluent and witty. The Shui Hu stories are brought to light in a fun and engaging manner. However, when it comes to the translation of cultural contents, the translated version is discounted greatly because of the mistranslations of apparel and accessories. Target language readers who are interested in Chinese culture can not draw more cultural nutrition through the reading. The results show that the Dent-Youngs take the domesticating translation strategy as their priority in their translating of Shui Hu Zhuan. It is also noted that the translators’ translating aims, source language proficiency, recognition of the source cultural elements and the position of different cultures are some of the factors that affect their translation strategy.Through analyzing, the author makes some suggestions as follows. Firstly, it is advised that translators be consistent with the translation of one special term, that is, one term, one translation. This will help the English readers form an image of one special term instead of having all these terms mixed together. Secondly, translators should ferret out the cultural connotation of the cultural content instead of assuming its familiarity on the part of target language readers. When one fails to find a perfect corresponding term, he could try transliteration, and add further annotation to accurately paraphrase the cultural term; translators could also, according to their own understanding, adopt the methods of paraphrase, imitation, or even adaptation. Thirdly, it is suggested that translators preserve those terms with rich cultural connotation; an explanation of those terms will do good to the readers’ grasp of the plot. Fourthly, each language has its own cultural deposits. In most occasions, it is impossible to find a completely equivalent translating word or phrase. The untranslatability of culture leaves the translators no chance but to give up "something" of the original words or phrases and only extract and translate the most important information in the original text. This often requires the translator lay emphasis on the cultural differences between various languages, while taking into consideration the target language readers’abilities of understanding and accepting of foreign cultures. It is notable that translators should not mistranslate the cultural contents; instead, those cultural contents should be translated properly, reasonably and fittingly. Chinese translators and researchers shall take cultural translation seriously. For those terms with typical Chinese characteristics, standardized translations are called for. It will be one small step for translators and researchers, but one giant leap for the transmission of Chinese culture. |
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