A Study Of John T.Davenport’s Thick Translation Of The Sakya Gnomic Verses

Currently,with the comprehensive strength of China gradually increasing,the strategy of Chinese culture going-out has been gaining increasing attention by governments and becomes one of core strategies of China’s development.Under this background,it becomes a key question that what kind of culture should be delivered to the world by what kind of efficient way.As the typical representative of Chinese culture,cultural classic intensively reflects our Chinese culture,and becomes the necessary content of Chinese culture going-out.China is an unified multi-ethnic country.Under the pattern of diversity in unity of the Chinese Nation,the cultures of Han and ethnic minorities should be included in the content of Chinese culture going-out.As one of special ethnic culture in snow-covered plateau,Tibetan culture possesses distinct characteristics.The Sakya Gnomic Verses is called “Tibetan Lunyu”and embodies the Tibetan ideology.With high-level research value,The Sakya Gnomic Verses was translated into Mongolian,English,Chinese,Russian,French,Japanese and other languages.Currently,there are five English versions of The Sakya Gnomic Verses,among which the version of John T.Davenport spreads widely for its distinct text features,especially its thick translation feature.This thesis will analyze the thick translation strategy applied in Ordinary Wisdom —Sakya Pandita’s Treasury of Good Advice from the aspects of its form and content.In form,the translators add “Foreword”,“English Translator’s Preface”,“Introduction”,“A Jewel Treasury of Good Advice with Commentary”,“Introductory Verses of Praise”,“The Correspondence of the Title of the Text with Sanskrit”,“Salutation to the Buddha”,“Promise to Compose the Commentary by Explaining the Meaning of the Title”,“The Manner in Which the Text was Composed”,“The Conclusion”,“An Expression of Gratitude to the Author”,“Notes”,“Glossary”,“Subject Indexes” and “Back cover” to make it possible for readers to know the text and Buddhist culture.In content,the translators use rich vocabularies,imperative sentences and commentary to strengthen its didacticism and religious implication.In a word,the translators endeavored to let readers in English-speaking world to know more information about Tibetan culture by using the thick translation strategy.This thesis is aimed at providing some references for cultural classic going-out by analyzing the thick translation strategy applied in Ordinary Wisdom.This thesis can be divided into three chapters.The part of Introduction will present Sakya Kunga Gyalten’s profile,The Sakya Gnomic Verses’ themes and its English versions,research overview on its English translation study and research objectives and significance of this thesis.Besides,this part also introduces thick translation strategy and its main content.Chapter one and chapter two will analyze the thick translation strategy applied in Ordinary Wisdom from the aspects of form and content respectively.Chapter three will analyze the reasons for the translators applying the thick translation strategy from the aspects of cultural factor,identities of translators and readership.At last,this thesis concludes that suitable application of thick translation strategy will help Chinese cultural classic to translate and deliver better in a certain degree.