翻译读书笔记

Impression after reading of Lin Yutang’s English Version of Six Chapters

of a Floating Life

Lin Yutang was one of the few outstanding Chinese scholars who could write their great works both in Chinese and English. Lin’s translation of Shen Fu’s Six Chapters of a Floating Life is regarded as one of his most distinguished and classic translation works．Lin chose it to translate because it is a story that should be told to the world；on the one hand，to propagate Yun，the name of dramatis personae in the book，and on the other, because in this simple story of two guileless creatures in their search for beauty, living a life of poverty and privation，decidedly outwitted by life and their cleverer fellowmen，yet determined to snatch every moment of happiness and always fearful of the jealousy of the gods，he seemed to see the essence of Chinese way of life as really lived by two persons who happened to be husband and wife. Lin Yutang himself declared in the postscript to it in 1939 that his English version had been warmly appreciated by English reader.

Domestication and foreignization are methods adopted by a translator to deal with the two basic problems in translation: linguistic incompatibility and cultural differences．At the macro level，translation strategies are determined by translation purpose, historical context, the expectations of readership，type of the source text and other factors．Lin Yutang’s translation theory is closely connected with his life philosophy and translation purpose．Lin selects those works of Chinese classical literature which best represent Chinese culture to translate and he adopts both domestication and foreignization skillfully to introduce Chinese culture to the West．Domestication and foreignization are both indispensable and supplementary to each other in the process of translation．When a translator introduces Chinese culture to English readers，he must first take the translated version’s readability into consideration．The version should conform to the target language norms as much as possible．Since the acceptability is the primary concern, translators have to think twice in the choice of a source text and the specific translation strategy．If the literary works of a comparatively weak culture are to be accepted by a stronger culture, they should not be

in radical contradiction with the target norms，and should fulfill target readers’expectations of the source culture，and meet the psychological needs of the target society.

Lin regards translation as an art．He holds that a successful translation can Only be achieved with individual artistic ability and sufficient practice．A successful translator should meet the following requirements

(1)The translator should have a thorough understanding of the language and contents of the source text；

(2)The translator should have a good command of the Chinese language and can

write in Chinese with ease；

(3)The translator should have enough training on translation and at the same time hold proper opinions on the criteria and strategies of translation.

Lin Yutang has set a very good example of using domestication and foreignization skillfully；however, his translation of Six Chapters of a Floating Life is not completely flawless．In terms of cultural translation，occasional over-domestication fails to transfer the actual cultural information to western readers．Lin Yutang’s translation can be justified in the 1930s，when most foreigners were still ignorant of the Chinese culture and had some distorted images about China．So he attaches greater importance to domestication，so that his translation might be more readable to western readers．However, with more cultural exchanges between China and the West and when western people have amuch deeper understanding about China, foreignization in Chinese-English translation is acquiring an increasingly great importance．With the aim of shedding light on how to translate Chinese classics and culture, I prefer like to talk about the translation strategies that Lin Yutang adopts to translate Six Chapters of a Floating Life. This autobiographical story is written in simple，popularized classical Chinese with vivid description of the author‘s wedded bliss，the little pleasure,sorrow and the joys of travel．It is of high literary value and COV erS abroad range of social life and folk customs．Through the detailed analysis of the translated version，in terms of sentence structure and linguistic features，priority should be given to domesticating strategy；when dealing with literary style，foreignization is not only