The Difficulties In Academic Translation Of Classics And Their Countermeasures Guided By The Skopos Theory

With China's increasingly close ties with the world,the scope of international exchanges and cooperation covers all fields of social life.Academic exchange is a high-level research activity carried out by researchers of relevant specialties in order to exchange knowledge and experience and find solutions to problems together.In order to make a breakthrough in specific research,researchers must dabble in a wide range of foreign literature.In this process,translation plays an important role.And any translation for academic purpose must involve specific choice of translation strategies and methods,especially classics translation.This thesis aims at countermeasures for the difficulties in classics translation by probing into David Knechtges' translation of Yang Xiong's fu.Therefore,the text for analysis is David Knechtges' translation of Yang Xiong's four magnum opuses: Sweet Springs Fu,Ho-tung Fu,Barricade Hunt Fu,and Chang-yang Fu.Knechtges' translation of the four pieces of Han fu in his doctoral dissertation belongs to the academic translation of classics(ATC).Existing researches show that there are many researchers devoted to classics translation.The previous researches in the field of academic translation are mostly on the translation of academic works,and only six papers are related to the ways of academic translation.Only three scholars are involved in the study of ATC.Their research scope involves the strategies and methods of the ATC gradually,but no scholars have systematically combed the translation difficulties encountered in that process and their corresponding translation strategies and methods.Taking the ATC as the research object,this thesis will answer the following questions: What are the main difficulties for ATC? How can translators overcome these difficulties in their translation choice?Under the guidance of the Skopos theory,to study the appropriate strategies and methods,the first thing is to realize the fact that the purpose of ATC is to serve some researchers of classics in the target language,which fundamentally determines the uniqueness of such translation.The choice of translation strategies and methods should be beneficial to the academic research of target language readers.This thesis mainly uses the case analysis method,extracting a large number of language materials with a great difference between the target text(TT)and the source text(ST).The cases are divided into four categories according to translation difficulties,and 23 representative cases are selected for analysis and descriptive research in this thesis.The analysis reveals that David Knechtges makes particular translation choice for different types of difficulties: for “ words with stylistic features”,Knechtges mainly applies foreignization and the method of “transliteration with nature”,and notes the relevant literature records;for “academic dispute”,Knechtges chooses to list all the opinions from different scholars in the annotations,and gives his own reasonable speculation about different versions via comparison and verification;for “cultural vacancy”,Knechtges uses foreignization strategy and literal translation,as well as annotations to describe specific background information;for “deficiency of target readers' professional knowledge”,he chooses to supplement relevant knowledge in the annotations.And for sentences with extended meaning,Knechtges indicates the implications in the annotations,which is convenient for target readers to consult.Based on Knechtges' translation choice,the thesis can draw a tentative conclusion: In essence,the emphasis of ATC lies in academics.Translators should focus on academic preciseness and accuracy.The leading translation strategy for ATC is foreignization.As an essential way to achieve foreignization,the thick translation is also applicable here.The main ways include using attachment texts,introducing relevant historical background before and after the TT,using annotations to supplement relevant cultural knowledge,indicating research conclusions from different scholars,and giving reasonable inferences.Between readability and academics,translators should choose academics and sacrifice readability to some extent through appropriate translation strategies and methods.