A Study On The Translation Of The Culture-specific Items In Wang Anyi's Chang Hen Ge From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

The translation of Chinese literary works can introduce Chinese culture to foreign readers and arouse their interest in Chinese literature.But the cultural elements in Chinese literature are often a hard nut in translation,which often affect target readers' comprehension and the readability of the translated works.Translators have been working on the problem of mediating between readability and cultural preservation.Chang Hen Ge is the representative work of Wang Anyi.Its English translation,The Song of Everlasting Sorrow,was translated by Michael Berry and Susan Chan Egan.The translation enjoyed the honorable nomination for “Lois Roth Award for a Translation of a Literary Work” by Modern Language Association of America,which proves the success of the translation.Chang Hen Ge depicts in detail the protagonist's daily life and embodies many cultural elements in the work.The novel employs many culture-specific items(CSIs)related to social activities,beliefs,interpersonal relations,artistic forms,houses or architecture,and food or drink,etc.In addition,the novel also employs many figurative expressions containing four or more characters,idioms,and slang,etc.to describe in a deep and vivid way the characters and their social and cultural life.The thesis employs qualitative and quantitative approaches to study the translation of the CSIs in Chang Hen Ge.The thesis attempts an analysis of the translation strategies and translation methods used by the translators,as well as the general tendencies;the thesis intends to find whether the translation of the CSIs has realized optimal relevance and how the optimal relevance is achieved;the thesis also aims to study how the translators mediate between readability and cultural flavor to achieve optimal relevance.The thesis classifies the CSIs into five categories according to Nida's classification of culture: ecological CSIs,material CSIs,social CSIs,religious CSIs and linguistic CSIs,and analyzes the translation strategies and methods for the CSIs under the guidance of Relevance Theory.Relevance Theory focuses on communication and cognition.The relevance-theoretic approach to translation regards translation as a dual ostensive-inferential communication involving the source language(SL)writer,the translator,and the target language(TL)readers.The translator strives for optimal relevance in translation as a mediator.It is revealed that the general tendency for translation strategies is that,in the continuum of direct and indirect translation,indirect translation is used most,while direct translation and between-direct-and-indirect translation take up much smaller percentages.The general tendency for translation methods is that paraphrase accounts for the largest percentage,followed by literal translation and literal translation plus addition,other methods accounting for very small percentages.Generally,the translation of the CSIs achieves optimal relevance with different effects on the preservation of cultural flavor.The translators choose translation strategies and methods flexibly according to the specific contents and contexts of the CSIs to achieve optimal relevance.Cultural flavor is preserved on the premise of readability as much as possible.As for translation strategies,in general,indirect translation achieves optimal relevance with cultural flavor often omitted for the obtaining of readability,while variation translation is only of relevance to the original,and in some cases of paraphrase the translators complement relevant cultural background information to promote understanding.In direct translation,optimal relevance is achieved with cultural flavor preserved.Between-direct-and-indirect translation ensures contextual effects while reducing processing effort,thus achieving optimal relevance while maintaining cultural flavor.As for translation methods,paraphrase,idiomatic translation and variation translation tend to ensure readability;transliteration and literal translation tend to maintain cultural flavor;zero translation plus addition,transliteration plus addition and literal translation plus addition try to balance readability and cultural flavor in rendering the CSIs.Among the general tendency,some data is worth special attention.Direct translation is not applied to the translation of material CSIs related to houses or architecture and linguistic CSIs of slang;paraphrase is employed in the translation of nearly all the social CSIs of appellation;the percentages of direct translation for material CSIs related to food or drink,social CSIs related to historical figures and literary characters,and linguistic CSIs of idioms are obviously higher than the average.