The Same "Sympathy",the Different "Societies"

The Happy Prince is one of the classic fairy tales produced by the British Aestheticism master Oscar Wilde in the late 19th century,which is exquisite in conception,rich in emotion and absorbing in reading.Since its first translation in 1909,it has been widely welcomed by readers in China.There are many versions of Chinese translation of The Happy Prince,among which the most impressive ones are Zhou Zuoren's and Ba Jin's,because the former is the first Chinese version of this fairy tale while the latter is the most popular one in many vernacular versions.Both Ba Jin and Zhou Zuoren are well-known writers and translators in China,their translations of The Happy Prince,however,differ from each other in many ways,such as in language,writing style and diction.All in all,it can be explained by the translators'different ideology and poetics caused by their different social and cultural background.This article will have a comparative study of Zhou Zuoren and Ba Jin's translations of The Happy Prince from the prospective of Lefevere's rewriting theory.By combining the two translator's main and individual poetics and ideology with the examples from their translations,this article aims to analyze the different choices made by two rewriters from different social backgrounds,with the same sincere compassion for the poor people.The study found that Zhou Zuoren's translation used the classical Chinese(Wen Yanwen),which is elegant yet difficult to understand.Like other classical Chinese writings,it contains many phrases of four words and common symbols.While Ba Jin's translation adopted modern vernacular Chinese,which is very concise and easy to understand.With a large number of children's language,the translation is full of imagination and vivid images,which can draw attention from the children.The reason is that Zhou Zuoren's translation was produced in the late Qing Dynasty at the end of 20th century,when the Chinese nation was confronted with both the external and the internal turmoil.The ambitious patriots tried to evoke the people and save the country through literature,and Zhou Zuoren was one of them.Therefore,the purpose of Zhou Zuoren's translation was not to delight children,but to inspire people to learn,to change,and to revolute;while on the other hand,Ba Jin began to translate this fairy tale since 1942 when he was in a trip to Guangxi.And then,his translation was published in 1948,when Chinese had won the Anti-Japanese War,yet the third civil war launched by Chiang Kai-shek's administration.Therefore,Ba Jin saw the great suffering of the lower-class people and felt deep sympathy for them.Therefore,the purpose of Ba Jin's translation can be divided into two aspects:the first one is to introduce new culture to the society,especially the children's literature,so that the children in China can learn about the Western culture;while the second one is to express his anger towards the dark rule of capitalism and the sympathy and love for the lower-class people.In a word,the different translations of Zhou Zuoren and Ba Jin were influenced by the different ideology and poetics due to the different social and cultural backgrounds.