On Jiao Juyin's Translation Theory And His Novel Translation

The translator is a vital factor in the translation process. The translator's motives, strategies, behaviors and abilities exert a huge impact on the target text. As a subject with independent thinking, cultural standpoint and values, a translator will integrate his or her subjectivity into the process of selecting an original text, formulating a translation strategy, addressing difficulties and achieving targets. A translator as an individual is sometimes a decisive factor in the translation process and the end product. As a group, translators play an important role in the historical process of the evolution of human cultures by introducing the source language cultures and enriching the target language cultures. Centered upon translators, this paper discusses their behaviors such as the selection of original texts, translation strategies and methods and the treatment of the text. Jiao Juyin, a dramatist, has been widely acknowledged as one of the most talented artists. More than a playwright, Jiao Juyin was an excellent translator who had extensive experience in translation and had formulated insightful translation theories. His concepts of “overall literal translation” and “second-time creation” on novel translation significantly promoted the development of the translation industry in new China.Additionally, Jiao Juyin was the first among Chinese translators to have developed the theoretical system of translation criticism. His translation theory should not be ignored in the history of Chinese traditional translation theory. He translated 68 works with a word count of over 2.5 million, introducing numerous masterpieces of Russian, French, British, American, Japanese and Italian dramas. His translation and introduction of these dramatists have been highly acknowledged by readers. He translated large volume of works in various genres. His translation enjoys enduring popularity among readers and has been reprinted time and again. However, I have found that among all his works, his translation of Edgar Allan Poe's novels is the only one that has not been well accepted by readers. As one of the earliest translators who introduced Poe's works, Jiao Juyin has been outshined by his successors. His translation of Poe's novels is not as generally appreciated as his other translations by the target audience or Chinese literary critics. The differences in the evaluation of his translation is highly unusual and worth investigating. Therefore, I have studied and analyzedhis case and found that the reason lies in different strategies adopted by Jiao Juyin when he was translating two different genres: drama and novel.When translating novels, Jiao Juyin developedhis theory of “overall literal translation” and “second-time creation” which are more profound and dialectical compared with the school of “literal translation” in the same period. However, these theories did not lead to satisfactory results. Basing my analysis on the subjectivity of the translator, I study his theory of “overall literal translation” and his practice of the “second-time creation” principle. The features of his translation have been analyzed. This paper compares Jiao Juyin's translation with the versions by the later translator Cao Minglun and explores the factors that result in the differences between their acceptance. It is expected that this study might shed new light on the relationship between translation theory and translation practice.