A Study On Ecological Approach To The Translation Of Culture-Loaded Words

Eco-translatology originating in China in 2001 has greatly broadened the horizon of interdisciplinary research in translation studies and established a Chinese-featured ecological approach to translation studies.Founded on ecological rationality,eco-translatoloty highlights translator's flexible selection and adaptation to bilingual translational eco-environment.During the process of text transplant,under the framework of multi-dimensional transformation,the translator actively and creatively reconstructs ecological balance through cultural transplant and ecological compensation so as to maximally improve the TT degree of holistic selection and adaptation.Integrating the feature of comprehensiveness,inclusiveness,systematicity,interdisciplinarity and timeliness into one part,eco-translatology has extraordinarily instructed translation studies with powerful explanation and enriched the academic system of translation studies.Within the rationale of eco-translatology,adopted the methodology of qualitative descriptions and quantitative analysis,112 culture-loaded words are particularly selected as the research sample,based on which,a critical evaluation and analysis are implemented to expound cultural representation and cultural distortion in Goldblatt's translation.Firstly,combined with Nida's classification of culture,all culture-loaded words(almost 280)in the novel are sorted out and categorized into five groups including linguistic,ecology,society,religion and material.Then based on the previous data collection,three issues are investigated from the aspect of eco-translatology including:(1)How does Goldblatt flexibly select and adapt to different internal and external translational eco-environment?(2)In the phase of text transplant and ecological compensation,what is the inclination of Goldblatt's translation strategy when different types of words are translated? What translation style does it specifically reflect and what is the corresponding eco-translational rationale?(3)Based on the principle of“three-dimensional transformation”,what are the merits and drawbacks of Goldblatt's rendition and what is the hidden reason?The research has revealed the following three findings:(1)Goldblatt has indeed implemented selection and adaptation to internal and external translational eco-environment of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out from different perspectives and dimensions,which especially manifests “reader-orientation” and “text-selection” but his selection and adaptation isn't comprehensive and complete.However,due to the heterogeneity of bilingual translational eco-environment and individual translation style,Goldblatt fails to implement a thorough and comprehensive transformation in linguistic,cultural and communicative angle.(2)In the phase of text transplant and ecological compensation,Goldblatt manifests contradictory translation style by alternatively combining domestication and foreignization.The statistic reveals that domestication and foreignization respectively occupy half part,among which,free translation and literal translation take the upper hand.Specifically,regarding those unfamiliar terms,domestication occupies the upper hand among which deletion,substitution and free translation are utilized for culture adaptation in spite of sacrificing linguistic beauty;While concerning those common words which contribute little significance to the theme of whole story,literal translation is highly employed for the sake of reserving aestheticbeauty and local flavor of ST.Besides,transliteration,addition,transliteration plus interpretation and lessened translation are frequently used to reconstruct the balance of translational eco-environment.Essentially,it is exactly the diversification,dynamic and complication of translational eco-environment that contribute to Goldblatt's contradictory translation style.(3)Observed from “three-dimensional transformation”,the merits of Goldblatt's translation lie in brevity,readability,fluency and authenticity as well as the communicative transformation.While the defection is his utilization of literal translation has indeed caused cultural distortion and misinterpretation in terms of communicative function although it reappears unique local taste of ST in linguistic form and increases vague beauty of TT.In eco-translatology,translation is a cooperatively symbiotic and dynamically interactive process,in which all elements are closely related.Confronted with various factors in eco-environment,the translator is required to weigh the significance of different texts in the whole work historically and specifically and correspondingly adjust translation strategy to maximally improve the holistic adaptation and selection of TT.Admittedly,although Goldblatt's translation isn't perfect due to the impassable bilingual discrepancy,his profound consciousness of eco-translatology,flexible translation style and superb skills will shed lights on the translation of Chinese literature and promote Chinese culture going-abroad.