| Lao Tzu is one of the great thinkers and philosophers of ancient China,and the founder of the Taoist school.His book Tao Te Ching is a philosophical masterpiece that integrates Lao Tzu's thoughts and opinions.In a short five-thousand words,Lao Tzu profoundly revealed the development of the universe's life and the true meaning of the development and changes of human society.The profound philosophical and ideological cultural connotations contained in this book are reputable among domestic and foreign scholars.Since the first English translation was born in 1868,there are more than 100 kinds of English translations of Tao Te Ching published at home and abroad.It is the most famous cultural works translated into foreign language works in addition to the Bible.Among the hundreds of English translations of Tao Te Ching that are still in existence.This article selects the translations of Arthur Waley and D.C.Lau,and uses the perspective of eco-translatology to study and analyze the process of the two translations.According to the eco-translatology theory proposed by Professor Hu Gengshen of Tsinghua University,eco-translatology is the adaptive selection made by the translator to adapt to the translational eco-environment.As an interdisciplinary research,eco-translatology theory provides a holistic study of translation from the perspective of ecological rationality and ecological ecology.Eco-translatology theory refers to translation methods as “multi-dimensional” transformations,they are relatively focused on the adaptive selection of language dimensions,cultural dimensions and communicative dimensions.The translation of Tao Te Ching has achieved great success in the Western world.Because there are many source texts of Tao Te Ching,its translation is not the same after different choices.D.C.Lau's translation is based on Wang Bi's version.Waley's translation takes the annotations of Tao Te Ching as the main reference.He carefully comparesthe old and new versions,he does not choose an exact version,but cites several source texts for translation.This thesis focuses on two research questions:1.What is the guiding significance of eco-translatology for translation practice?2.How does Arthur Waley and D.C.Lau reflect the gist of three-dimensional transformation theory? What are the differences and similarities between the two versions?Tao Te Ching is a masterpiece that embodies the wisdom of ancient China,translating Tao Te Ching has been deeply debated.At present,the previous research on the English version of Tao Te Ching is not very comprehensive.Previous studies have focused on a single,non-systematic analysis and evaluation of the English translation of Tao Te Ching,rather than from a comprehensive perspective.In recent years,with the development of the theory of eco-translatology,it has provided us with a new perspective in the study of the English translation of Tao Te Ching.In many English translations of Tao Te Ching,this article selects two representative versions of Arthur Waley and D.C.Lau and tries to compare and analyze the translations of the two translators using eco-translatology theory.Analyze how different translators adapt and select different target texts in different dimensions.This article compares and analyzes the diversity of English translation of Tao Te Ching from the perspective of eco-translatology.Using the method of description,this paper proposes to use the multi-perspective advocated by the translation of eco-translatology to explain the considerations on multi-dimensions,such as: linguistic dimensions,cultural dimensions and communicative dimensions in the process of the formation of target translations.It is the adaptation and selection of 19 representative typical examples such as “Tao”,“?(fa)”,“??(tian xia)”and “Nature” in the source language.1.From the perspective of language level,language is the carrier of culture.Successful language use is the basis for successful translation.In the translational eco-environment of two different language systems,the translator must adapt,select,and transform from language level,and convert it into different levels and aspects to make the translation conform to the characteristics and habits of the target language.?From the perspective of lexical level,D.C.Lau's language is relatively more concise and more symmetrical.He mostly chooses neutral words to translate articles and makes the translation closer to the original text.Arthur Waley's translation use metaphorical and other rhetoric devices to replace abstract intentions with specific physical objects and to express the source text more vividly.Therefore,Waley's translation is superior to D.C.Lau's translation in this aspect,which reveals that when translating,translators can transform it into more acceptable content.?From the perspective of syntactical level,there are significant differences between Chinese and English syntax.The linguistic features of Chinese language are slow and long.In the process of translation,D.C.Lau does not pay much attention to the completeness of sentences,but instead translates them in the form of smooth prose.English sentences have strict grammatical principles and logical order.Therefore,Waley followed the syntactic structure in English when translating.It is better to connect the individual sentence with the subject structure.?From the perspective of stylistic level,Tao Te Ching is a philosophical and poetic work.Its writing style is the usage of simple sentences or clauses.Both the two translators translate in a manner similar to the original syntactic structure.In contrast,D.C.Lau's translation is close to the source text in terms of meaning and style.It represents the balance and order of the original text.Waley also followed the original text structure and added many annotations to clarify the thoughts of Lao Tzu.Although the loyalty of authenticity is essential to the original text when translating Chinese classical masterpieces,if the translator pays more attention to the stylistic features of the original text,Western readers will feel the charm of Chinese writing habits more.2.From the perspective of cultural level,on the one hand,language is the carrier of culture.On the other hand,culture is the basis and source of language.Therefore,in the translation process,not only the information of one language but also the background and culture of the source language system to the target language system are transmitted.In other words,translation should be an activity that can both change the language and convey the cultural connotation.?From the perspective of the translation of Tao,there are huge differences between Chinese and Western cultures.In the translation of Tao Te Ching,some contents expressing philosophical and cultural values have become an arduous task for translators.When D.C.Lau transliterates “Tao”,he believes that the mysterious “Tao” could not be completely translates into another language because it includes the entire Chinese philosophy system.Waley unconsciously compares the “Tao” of China with the “Way” in the Bible and believes that “Tao” and “Way” have the same absolute truth.In contrast,Waley's free translation is even more dominant and avoids the mechanical translation of “Tao”.?From the perspective of the translation of numbers,due to different cultural traditions,modes of thinking,and ideologies,it is understandable that Westerners and Orientals also have different understandings of numbers.In ancient China,numbers are often used to refer to specific quantities or referenced concepts.Therefore,if the translator wants to fully grasp the meaning of different numbers,the first thing he has to do is figure out whether these numbers have a specific meaning in Chinese culture.Waley's translation does not understand Lao Tzu's real ideas of the numbers.However,D.C.Lau gets a deeper understanding of Lao Tzu's ideas and translated the figures into concrete images.3.From the perspective of communication level,in addition to making adaptive choices from the linguistic and cultural dimensions,the translator should also consider the communicative function of the original text.Domestication is in order to provide foreign readers with readable target texts,and to replace language and cultural differences in foreign texts with violence.Foreignization is a way of resisting ethnocentrism,cultural narcissism and imperialism.From this we can see that whether the communication function can be achieved depends mainly on translation strategies.Take the translation of the word “??(tian xia)” as an example.Waley chooses the method of domestication translation mostly to translate the “??(tian xia)” into “under heaven”.Such translation is closer to the language in the Bible and will mislead Western readers into thinking that China already believed in Christianity.And D.C.Lau uses the methods of foreignization mostly in translation,he translates “??(tian xia)” into “the empire”.Therefore,D.C.Lau's translation promotes the Western readers' concept of empire and narrowed the gap between the author and the Western reader.The choice between domestication and foreignization translation reflects the translator's intention of translation to a certain degree.This shows that Waley pays more attention to the culture of his country when translating,which will inevitably reduce the influence of spreading foreign cultural values.Through contrastive analysis,it is not difficult to see that the two translate versions of Tao Te Ching both reflect the meaning of eco-translatology in varying degrees.The significance of its research lies in the fact that it provides a multi-dimension way of thinking in translating Chinese classical works.At the same time we can better understand the two English versions. |
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