A Study Of“Translationese”in Bing Xin'S Translation Of The Prophet

Khalil Gibran(1883-1931)was a famous poet,prose writer and painter.He was a pioneer of modern Arabic literature.The Prophet is a jewel of modern Arabic literature and it was regarded as Gibran's most representative work.Gibran regards this book as “the second birth of his life” for it well expresses his “only wish to strive for freedom in front of the sun.” In addition to the deep philosophical insight,the original work is full of imagination and clarity.The prophet had been translated into 56 languages since its first publication in 1923.Bing Xin firstly translated it into Chinese in 1931,and her version has certain reference value.Compared with the versions of Qian Mansu and Huang Shaozheng,which are widely circulated in the later generations,the expression in Bing Xin's translation seems to be somewhat “outdated” and may not be dominant in competition.However,Bing Xin's translation is still popular among a large number of contemporary readers,which may result from the “translationese” in her version.“Translationese” generally refers to those translations whose grammars are generally conform to the target language but with individual expressions not correspond to the idioms of target language under the interference of source language.To put it simply,in English-Chinese translation,it refers to the phenomenon of “Europeanization” in translation.Throughout Bing Xin's translation of The Prophet,in addition to her elegant and beautiful literary language,the phenomenon of “translationese” is also everywhere,producing the unique translation style of Bing Xin' version.In this thesis,the author tries to do descriptive research for the “translationese” in Bing Xin's translation of The Prophet from the perspective of Polysystem Theory proposed by an Israel scholar Itamar Even-Zohar.By analyzing the position of translated literature during Bing Xin's time and its influence on Bing Xin's translation activities,the historical background and significance of the “translationese” can be illustrated.This thesis is divided into six parts: the first chapter describes the introduction of the thesis,including the research background,research methodology,purpose and significance of the study,structure of the thesis.The second chapter reviews the former studies of the translation of The Prophet,“translationese” and its relationship with translation style.Chapter three is theoretical framework,presenting the key concepts of Polysystem Theory and then revealing the relations between “translationese” and Polysystem Theory.Chapter four analyzes the linguistic features of the “translationese” in Bing Xin's translation of The Prophet in detail both from word collocation and logical processing,illustrating the effect of “translationese” in her version and its influence on her translation style.Besides,feedback of readers is also collected,reflecting their acceptance of “translationese” in Bing Xin's version from the other side.Based on chapter four,chapter five focuses on the position of translated literature during Bing Xin's time and its influence on Bing Xin's translation activities from the perspective of Polysystem Theory,explaining how the “translationese” and Bing Xin's translation style forms,clarifying the contemporary significance of her “translationese”.The last chapter serves as the conclusion of the paper,the limitations of the study are also listed and the author puts forward hopes for further studies.Though this thesis,readers can find that the position of translated literature influences the choice of Bing Xin's translation strategy.Bing Xin tends to adopt foreignization and follow the original structure.And in turn Bing Xin's choice of translation strategy has caused the emergence of the “translationese” and has an impact on her translation style.Firstly,the “translationese” in The Prophet are mainly reflected in two aspects: word collocation and logical processing,and it reproduces the style of the original text in general.Although some expression forms of the “translationese” are not appropriate,Bing Xin's profound literature attainment and her soft and elegant literary language make them easier to be accepted by readers,and her translation style is close to the original style.Secondly,The phenomenon of the “translationese” in Bing Xin's language is a common feature of the times.It is the choice of the times,which is helpful to better reproduce the original aesthetic meaning and theme meaning.Her “translationese” is in line with the trend of literary translation at that time,satisfying the aesthetic needs and reading experience of contemporary readers.Lastly,to comprehend the polysystem background of Bing Xin's “translationese” contributes to view the existence of her “translationese” objectively,and helps readers to have a better understanding of Bing Xin's translation style of The Prophet.