On Translator's Subjectivity In Anthony C.Yu's Translation Of The Journey To The West In Light Of Hermeneutics

As one of Chinese four greatest master pieces,The Journey to the West is famous worldwide as the representative Chinese classical novel rich in traditional Chinese culture.It has been unearthed and translated into different languages by more and more researchers with increasingly frequent cross-cultural communication worldwide.As a Chinese-American literary and religious professor,Anthony C.Yu's fulllength English version sets up a great example for the translation of The Journey to the West with widespread praise.The novel depicts a syncretic world of Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism with rich religious thoughts.The interpretation of the religious culture is crucial in understanding the whole work.Hermeneutics is a philosophy involving understanding and interpretation and it is naturally related with translation.George Steiner,one of the representatives of hermeneutics,has put forward the fourfold hermeneutic motion as “trust”,“aggression”,“incorporation” and “restitution”.Thus the whole translation process is detailed from the standpoint of the translator,which provides a valuable angle for guiding translation practice.Through analyzing the preface,annotations,and review articles by Anthony C.Yu,with translation instances of Taoist terms in Yu's The Journey to the West as research corpus by dividing them into Taoist terms about doctrines,theurgies,self-cultivation,immortals,rituals,body parts and places,the examples of each category of Taoist terms and their corresponding translations are analyzed in terms of Yu's translation methods and strategies from the perspective of Hermeneutic Motion theory.In this way,this study tries to explore how the translator's subjectivity is embodied in the moves of “trust”,“aggression”,“incorporation” and “restitution”.It comes to the conclusion that the translator,being active in the translation process as an interpreter gives almost full play to his subjectivity.In the stage of “trust”,Anthony C.Yu's subjectivity is embodied by selecting the source text based on the value of the source text,his translation motivation,linguistic and cultural abilities;in the stage of “aggression”,it is embodied by invading the original text for extraction influenced by his own cognitive mode in terms of the overall religious context and Taoist presence.In the stage of “incorporation”,it is embodied by expressing what he gets from the source text using the target language to form the target text with specific translation strategies and methods;In the stage of “restitution”,it is embodied by restoring the balance between the source text and the target one with appropriate compensatory measures such as endnotes,intratextual explanation,preface and introduction.In this way,the original style and features of the source text can be reproduced in the translation to promote Chinese classics and Chinese culture.This study on translator's subjectivity reflected in the translation of The Journey to the West will provide a new perspective for exploring the value of Chinese classical literature.Moreover,the translation strategies and methods adopted by Anthony C.Yu in translating The Journey to the West may inspire other translators in Chinese classics translation practice.