A Study On Howard Goldblatt’s Two English Translations Of Hulanhe Zhuan From The Perspective Of Translation Aesthetics

Hulanhe Zhuan is Xiao Hong’s masterpiece.She depicted the local customs of her hometown,Hulan County,and recounts her childhood memories.The first complete English translation of the novel was completed by American sinologist,Howard Goldblatt and it was published in 1988.After more than two decades,a revised edition was published in 2002.At present,most studies on the English translation of Hulanhe Zhuan focus on one of the two translations and comparative studies on the two translations are rare and not in-depth enough.Therefore,the author decides to conduct my research of the two English versions in order to explore the differences between them.Based on Liu Miqing’s Translation Aesthetics,this paper first compares and analyzes the reproduction effect of the two versions from the perspective of the translation aesthetic object.The analysis is divided into two parts: formal system and non-formal system.Formal system includes sound level,character level,lexicon level and sentence and paragraph level.Non-formal system includes emotion and aspiration.Next,the subjective initiative of translation aesthetic subject is used as a perspective to explain the reasons behind the different reproduction effects of formal system and non-formal system in the two versions.This study found out that the 1988 translation has the following characteristics in its reproduction of the aesthetic information of the original work: first,the rhythm,rhyme and onomatopoeia of the original text are not adequately reproduced;second,the choice of words is not accurate and some of the rhetorical techniques are not restored in the translation.Thus,the atmosphere,dynamic effects and humor of the original work are not fully reproduced;third,the unique language style of the original work,which is narrated from children’s perspective,is not restored in the translation,but is translated from the objective perspective of adults;fourth,the understanding of the original text is not thorough enough,resulting in the inaccurate translation of the characters’ tone and traits.In contrast,the 2002 version is better than the 1988 version in reproducing the aesthetic message of the original work.Firstly,the rhythm,rhyme and onomatopoeia of the original text are accurately translated,reproducing the emotions of the characters and the dynamic effects of the original work;secondly,the choice of words is accurate and the translation is more faithful to the original work.The dynamic effects,atmosphere and character features of the original work are reproduced in the translation;thirdly,the style of the original work is accurately reproduced.Children’s language of the original work is reproduced in the same style in the translation;finally,the main ideas of the original work are conveyed,reproducing Xiao Hong’s criticism of ignorance,feudalism,superstition and ruthlessness.After the comparative analysis of the effects of the two translations,the author analyzes the causes of the different effects through the subjective initiative of the translation aesthetic subject.The dimensions for analysis include aesthetic feeling,knowledge,capability and aspiration.First of all,the effect of reproducing aesthetic information that involves auditory and visual perception in the original work is mainly related to the aesthetic feeling of the aesthetic subject,which is related to the translator’s mastery of Chinese language and his view of translation.Goldblatt has expressed his dissatisfaction with the 1988 edition.In comparison,the better reproduction of aesthetic effect in the 2002 version reflects his improvement in aesthetic appreciation and maturity of his translation concept.In his later phase of translation,Goldblatt attached the conveyance of the rhythm,meaning and style of the original.Secondly,the different effects of the two English versions in the reproduction of aesthetic information at the level of lexicon and sentence reflect the improvement of the bilingual ability of the Goldblatt and the change of his translation concept.Finally,the different reproduction effects are also attributed to Goldblatt’s love for Chinese literature and translation and his rigorous approach to translation.