A Hermeneutic Approach To The Style Of The Two Chinese Versions Of Animal Farm

Animal Farm is one of the most famous works by British writer George Orwell.Under George Steiner's hermeneutic motion theory,this study starts with the four steps of translation(trust,aggression,import,compensation),and compares Fu Weici's translation and Rong Rude's translation in terms of vocabulary,sentence,context and rhetoric.This paper attempts to resolve the following two research questions: 1.Are there stylistic differences between the two translations? If there is a difference,how does the difference manifest? 2.Are there "unbalances" in style between the two translations compared to the original? How should we avoid this "unbalance" in the four steps of translation?The research finds that from the perspective of vocabulary,sentence,context and rhetoric,both of Fu's translation and Rong's translation shows the "trust" to the original text.However,there are some differences in the other three steps.In comparison,Fu's translation has less aggression,import and compensation for the original text.This is reflected in the fact that Fu's translation pays more attention to the original expression.The vocabulary uses more direct translation without modification;the sentence follows the original word order;the expression of the original text was restored in the body;the rhetoric of the original text was omitted although it can be translated.Rong's translation has more aggression,import,compensation for the original text.In terms of vocabulary,it adds notes in the original text that are not easily understood by the target reader.It adds more components to the sentence.In terms of context,it adds some oral or formal expressions according to the context.In terms of rhetoric,it makes some images that do not exist in Chinese culture into images that are easier to understand.In terms of style comparison,the degree of aggression,import,compensation makes Rong's translation more rich in language,more flexible in syntax,clearer in expression,and easier to be understood by the target readers.The research finds that there are "unbalances" with the original text in both translations.This kind of "unbalance" is manifested in the fact that both translations are inconsistent with the original form when they are translated,and there are places where they are mistranslated or missed.This paper points out that using the four steps of the hermeneutic motion theory can avoid missing or wrong information in the translation.It is expected that this study will not only broaden the perspective of the Chinese translation of Animal Farm,but also provide effective reference for relevant research.