| The classics of Chinese drama,one of the significant carriers of the literary and cultural values of Chinese traditional theatre,have always occupied an important position in the history of cross-cultural communication between China and the Western world.Mudan Ting(The Peony Pavilion)is a well-known Chinese classic legend play which was written by Tang Xianzu in Ming dynasty.It is regarded as the one of the gem in the history of Chinese classic dramas with beautiful and poetic language,touching tune,complicated plots,magnificent structure and vivid characterization.Its meaningful themes of aspiring for freedom,happiness,liberation of personality against feudal ethical code,has successfully moved thousands of readers at home and abroad.There are 55 scenes in The Peony Pavilion with 54 ending poems.Ji Tang poetry is recreated to form a connecting link between the preceding and the following.Nowadays,there are more than 20 editions of The Peony Pavilion’s translation.Cyril Birch and Wang Rongpei’s translation belongs to different culture system with distinctive translation features.This study is to compare two translations and discuss which one is better under Hu’s Translation as Adaptation and Selection theory.This study adopts a descriptive study and a comparative study to analyze ending poetry in Cyril Birch and Wang Rongpei’s English translation.Data is collected from 54 ending poems in two translation versions.This study makes a comparative study into the renditions in terms of linguistic dimension,cultural dimension,and communicative dimension,and to analyze the degree of holistic adaptation and selection of two versions.The holistic degree of two versions is judged by three reference values which are multidimensional transformation,reader’s feedback and translator’s quality are discussed.Major findings are: Wang’s translation is better than Birch’s in linguistic dimension with the beauty of sound and form.He adapts to the source text with rhythm and makes his selection to translate into rhymes in target language,while Birch has translated poems word by word without any connection in linguistic form.In cultural dimension,Birch is sincere to diffuse Chinese culture by translating every word in source text,though he misinterprets some words and its meaning.In communicative dimension,macroscopically,two translations have disseminated Chinese culture to western countries;microscopically,the function of ending poetry is to summarize the storyline and indicate the plot in next scene.The translation of ending poetry can’t be separated from the whole text.Birch’s translation of ending poetry focuses more on word meaning but not the consistency of lines,thus,his translation is not as good as Wang’s translation in micro level.Wang and Birch both have great ability in Chinese and English.They are highly educated in their countries and have make unceasing progression in their field.Wang and Birch’s translation share similarities that the translators are all supported by their countries and the translators are highly educated.Although they adopt different translation strategies in translating TPP,their works are of great importance to cultural dissemination.All in all,two translators both have achieved success in TPP translation.The translational purpose leads to different discussion.Based on reader’s experience,Wang’s version has higher degree of holistic adaptation and selection with the beauty of sound and form.From the view of culture dissemination,though there are mistakes in Birch’s translation,it has a tremendous influence in English speaking countries.Meanwhile,it helps people to learn Chinese culture and Chinese drama.This thesis tries to prove the significance of Approach as Adaptation and Selection in translating drama or poetry in classic Chinese literature;and the feasibility of three-dimensional transformations in translation activities and evaluations;moreover,the position of this theory is further confirmed. |
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