摘 要

由于翻译研究的深入，世界各国的文学已经摆脱了封闭的状态，大大促进了各国文化之间的交流。在中国文学类翻译中，戏剧，小说，诗词翻译研究较为丰富。而对于散文，尤其是抒情散文的译本和研究较少。仅有的散文翻译分析文献也主要侧重于研究翻译美学。本文以《英译中国现代散文选》为例，摒弃了单方面翻译研究，深入分析了翻译的其他多方面要求，例如分析不同的翻译方法适合不同意境的散文翻译，以及作者的情感倾注，重点分析了英译散文的翻译方法和作者情感的结合过程，作者情感分析即作者在时代环境之下和个人经历的过程中所获得的感受与情感的宣泄。此外，本文还分析了《英译中国现代散文选》中文章的美学特点，以求探究出让中国现代散文与其英译版本具有美学一致性的方法。要成就完美的翻译成果，以上各方面因素缺一不可。

关键词：抒情散文翻译；翻译方法；作者情感；《英译中国现代散文选》

Abstract

Owing to the promotion of translation study, many kinds of literature in the world have come out，which contributes to the communication of literature between different countries. Among Chinese literature genres, the studying on drama, novel and poetry is in a large amount. Nonetheless, studies and translation versions on essays, especially lyrical essays are rare. The only exist essay translating analysis highlights aesthetics. This paper takes “Selected Modern Chinese Essays” as the example, and analyze other kinds of elements in translation, such as translation techniques, the authors’ emotions, which means the feeling of self experience under the time background, and the combination of translation techniques and authors’ emotions. Besides, some aesthetic analysis of this book is included, to figure out the method to make the essays and their English versions aesthetically consistent. To get perfect translation, respects mentioned above are indispensible.

Key Words: translation of lyrical essays；translation techniques；authors’ emotions; Selected Modern Chinese Essays

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Research Purpose 1

1.3 Layout of the Paper 1

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Chinese Lyrical Tradition and Its Impact on Modern Essays 3

2.2 Introduction to Selected Modern Chinese Essays 3

2.3 Aesthetic Characteristics of Selected Modern Chinese Essays 3

3 Analysis on Personal Emotion and Style 5

3.1 Personal Experiences and Emotions 5

3.2 Personal Styles 5

4 Combination of Emotions and Translation Techniques 6

4.1 Techniques to Reproduce Strong Emotion in Turbulent Times 6

4.2 Techniques to Reproduce Peaceful and Positive Mind on Life 8

4.3 Techniques to Reproduce Merciful Feeling about the Universe 10

5 Conclusion 13

References 14

Acknowledgments 15

A Translation Study of Selected Modern Chinese Essays

1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background

The Chinese modern essay is a new kind of literature, which came out after the May 4^th movement(苗志竹，2013). It is not only a kind of aesthetic literature, but also the signal of transition from classical literature to modern one. Compared with novels and poems, the translation on essays lacks integrity and systematicness(王德威,2010). From the references online, most of those papers which study essay translation only analyze a single aspect. More importantly, those references only concentrate on aesthetics of essays, which include quality, rhythm, reception and so on, highlighting the beauty of sentences too excessively while ignoring the translation accuracy and the self emotion of those authors(刘云，2015). According to such a condition, this paper mainly discusses the elements which have been overlooked.

1.2 Research Purpose

As is mentioned above, Chinese essay is an important literature genre which deserves comprehensive study. According to the relevant data, the proportion of essays translation in total literature translation is only 12%. Considering the current condition of the lack of essay translation compared with novels and poems, and of the simplicity on analysis aspects, this paper emphasizes the integrity of translation study. This paper mainly analyzes the translation of Chinese modern essays, aiming to help to change the disparity between Chinese essays and other kinds of literature.

1.3 Layout of the Paper

This paper aims to analyze the integral elements in English translation. To begin with, the Chinese lyrical tradition and its impact on modern essays is discussed, which

analyzes the features of long history of Chinese traditional literature and the impacts from the writing features on modern essay. Secondly, the example reference “Selected Modern Chinese Essays” is concisely introduced. Thirdly, the paper analyzes the personal writing styles and the typical emotions of the book. Finally, the paper discusses the combination of authors’ emotion and translation skills, and the emotions are divided into three types, which accords with types mentioned in the third part.

2 Literature Review

2.1 Chinese Lyrical Tradition and Its Impact on Modern Essays

Before discussing the case reference, the study on Chinese lyrical literature tradition aught to be done. In ancient literature, poem is the most common type of writing. And in poems, words usually serve as the structure, and emotion serves as the point or the theme(王德威, 2010). “ Chu Ci” and “Shi Jing” combine the two elements- sometimes the words are fantastic, and at times emotion expression makes the whole literature work gorgeous(王德威, 2010). From then on, the main type of Chinese literature has been devised, and many literature works later have been following this way. Therefore, Chinese literature dooms to be based on lyrical element. And a large number of ancient literature critiques and analysis on aesthetics are about lyrical poems. They highlight the pouring of true feelings of poets and self-confession. Although Chinese literature critiques are not confined to one type now, they are mainly based on lyrical type(冯志强, 2009).

2.2 Introduction to Selected Modern Chinese Essays

Selected Modern Chinese Essays is used as the example of the study on essay translation. The book involves 32 modern authors, such as Lu Xun, Zhu Ziqing and so on. The the types of writing in the book are various, such as speech, narration and argument. Thereby, in the following discussion, study on different kinds of lyrical essays is involved. Also, there is a reflection of the emotions of those authors and the skills which are applied on the English translation versions.

2.3 Aesthetic Characteristics of Selected Modern Chinese Essays

Aesthetic characteristics of Chinese lyrical literature deserve attention. There are tree noticeable points - strong subjection, free space time and poetic style(刘云，2015). Strong subjection is the main feature of modern Chinese essay, especially for young writers in the early period of the May 4^th Movement. They were eager to express their heartfelt. Because writers were always hard to control their feeling, they cannot build up an logical plot. They chose to follow the content of the works and to put many descriptions on personal moral psychological activity. In this way, they could freely shift space time to release deep feelings liberally. Lyrical writers are usually poets, and they use poetic prospect and poeric rhythm to create their works(钱歌川，1981). Lu Xun and Yu Dafu were poets at first. Moreover, writers like Shen Congwen made his essays poetic in style. He felt painful about misunderstanding about western Xiang in Hu Nan province. To manifest the residents’ pursuit for good life, he used poetic expression to create essays about this place, such as Bian Cheng and View Under the Moonlight. The views and the persons in his essays are as pretty as poems.

3 Analysis on Personal Emotion and Style

3.1 Personal Experiences and Emotions

Material decides consciousness. In this way, authors’ emotion and writing styles are connected with their experiences(吴剑波，2012). Taking four most famous writers as example, Lu Xun, Li Dazhao Ba Jin and Bing Xin. Lu Xun experienced the time when China became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. And between 1894 and 1895, Japan incited the First Sino-Japanese War. His mainly presented the painful feelings of homeland and of sternly cool and unmoved ordinary people; Li Dazhao contributed to Marxism spread, and he searched for the method to make China escape from the dark time. In his essay, he always presents his positive attitude on Chinese future; Ba Jin is the most influential writer after May 4^th Movement. He spent a lone time in French learning writing, and was engaged in anti-feudal activities. Because he experienced several historical periods, he showed different kinds of emotions in his work. Bing Xin, however, always loved to mortify the darkness in her essays. Although she also experienced the huge ruin of China, she still believed in love and mercifulness.

3.2 Personal Styles

Authors’ personal writing styles follow the regularity mentioned above. As for Lu Xun, under the turbulent times, he just had the weapon- pen to write satire articles to indicate the dark society and coolness of people. In this way, his essays is in many types, such as narration and fable. And he usually used metaphor to criticize the objects, which turns out to be vivid. The writing style of Li Dazhao is usually grand and solemn. He used grand style to express his concerning and confidence on revolution. Ba Jin is a romantic writer, and he usually built up ideal and perfect hero his his works in early times, later his style turned objective, chasing the consistence of literature works and real life. The last author discussed is Bing Xin, and she was merciful and kind, always believing in love. Most of her masterpieces apply metaphor and analogy. The aesthetic characteristics of her works is rich in emotion release. She thought the literature she wanted is authentic. She held the view that writing should follow the free and fashionable thinking. Therefore, most of her works are based on imagination.

4 Combination of Emotions and Translation Techniques

The main translation techniques used in essays are literal translation, free translation and addition translation. Translated versions of different essays can include the same translation techniques, however, the emotion expressions can turn out to be totally different.

4.1 Techniques to Reproduce Strong Emotion in Turbulent Times

Literal translation and free translation are widely used when expressing strong emotion in turbulent times. Those two totally opposite translation techniques are both suitable under such circumstance.

The fable “The Crab” written by Lu Xun is a typical instance, which tells an old crab is going to moult, but it fears that another crab around will eat it. The whole article is constructed by a long conversation, which is rare among literature works. The heroes of the essay are two crabs, and the plot is just about a psychological process of one crab. The essay was done during August 1919, when May 4^th Movement happened. It was the period when old thinking was gradually replaced by the new one. It was also the time when new stuff was quite dangerous and was easily eaten by old mode. The author assimilated the old crab to old thinking, and assimilated the young crab as new thinking, expressing sarcasm on the fatuous people who toughly held dated thinking. Literal translation is effective to sarcasm articles translation. There are some examples.

1. “老螃蟹觉着不安了”.

“an old crab grew restless”(张培基，1998，p.8) ;

2. “他要被其他螃蟹吃去”

“he might be eaten up by other crabs”(张培基，1998，p.8) ;