论文总字数：41449字

摘 要

经过多年的改革开放，中国的综合国力得到了提升，现在正需要向外界输出文化软实力。在此过程中，文化的对外译介起到很大的作用。在外宣翻译中，文学翻译是难度较大的一种，文化负载词更是文学翻译中一个重要研究课题。文化负载词是承载了一个民族从生态到思想习惯方方面面特点的词汇或短语 由于相隔遥远的两个国家在文化传统与语言上都存在极大的差异，这使得许多翻译者感到困难重重。

哈金是一位蜚声国际的美籍华裔作家，他讲述新中国初期生活的作品《等待》曾获美国国家图书奖和福克纳文学奖，这样的成绩在亚洲作家中也极为罕见。本文从哈金的《等待》入手，以文化负载词为切入点，分析以英语进行二语写作的华裔作家成功打入美国主流文学的原因，以期对中国文学翻译提供借鉴和启示。

关键词：哈金；等待；奈达；文化负载词；二语创作

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments i

Abstract ii

Table of Contents iv

List of Tables v

Chapter I Introduction 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Purpose of the study 1

1.3 Layout of the thesis 2

Chapter II Literature Review 2

2.1 EFL writing and translation 2

2.1.1 Differences 2

2.1.2 Similarities 3

2.1.3 Advantages compared with translation 4

2.2 Recent Research Status of Culture-loaded Terms 5

2.2.1 Definition 5

2.2.2 Classification of culture-loaded terms 5

2.2.3 Studies on the translations of culture-loaded terms at home and abroad 6

2.3 Introduction of Ha Jin's Waiting 7

2.3.1 Waiting 7

2.3.2 Writer 7

2.3.3 Studies on Waiting 8

Chapter III Approaches to Culture-loaded Terms in Waiting 9

3.1 Translation of culture-loaded terms 9

3.1.1 Material culture-loaded terms 9

3.1.2 Ecological culture-loaded terms 9

3.1.3 Social Culture-loaded Terms 10

3.1.4 Religious Culture-loaded Terms 13

3.1.5 Linguistic culture-loaded terms 14

3.2 A quantitative study of culture-loaded words and their translation strategies 15

3.3 Major findings 16

Chapter IV Conclusion 17

References 19

List of Tables

Table 1: A Quantitative Study of Chinese Culture-loaded Terms in the First Eleven Chapters of Waiting………………………………………...……..……...…15

Table 2: The use of translation methods……………………………………...………16

Chapter I Introduction

1.1 Research background

It is acknowledged that there is a solid and sound bond between language and culture. Language is the carrier of culture while it is a component of culture; language is the document of culture while it also creates culture. Nonetheless, culture and language are seen as an influential part of soft power of today’s nations (Chen Meihua, Chen Xiangyu, 2013: 6). With the further opening up and reforming and the economic cooperation booming, the work of literary translation confronts even multiplied needs and severer challenges.

There is a very close connection between translation activity and EFL writing. A Mexican Poet Octavio Paz defines translation as a process parallel to creative writing (Chen Yang, 2012). Yu Guangzhong (1999) also believes that the mental process of translation, especially the translation of literary works such as poetry, is quite similar to that of writing, or creation. As writing has much less restrictions compared with translation activity, we can call EFL writing a kind of “liberal translation” or “self-translation” (Chen Yang, 2012).

EFL writing is a kind of writing activity. Compared with the traditional writing mode—writing with mother tongue, EFL writing can be very challenging as it requires the writer to grasp the cultures of both languages. This challenge will be even severer if the writer wants to describe something which only belongs to his nation in his second language. That is when the unconscious translation enters.

1.2 Purpose of the study

Literary works in EFL writing as well as translation aims at imparting the aesthetic values of the writer and the original text, together with imparting a great deal of other connotations. By the same token, the skills and experience of an EFL writer could have enlightenment to translation. This thesis discusses the translation of culture-loaded terms as it is a kind of expression in which a variety of connotations in relation with culture are condensed so as to give suggestions to literary translation showing how successful novels break the existed limitation and taboos to impart exotic culture to target readers from a distinct country.

1.3 Layout of the thesis

In the chapter one, the author gives a briefly introduces literary translation and EFL writing which is writing in a second language, and gives several authorized definition and comment on EFL writing. The purpose of this thesis is to study and conclude the recipe of success on Ha Jin’s Waiting and raise some helpful suggestions to literary translation. In chapter two, the author further explains the differences and similarities between EFL writing and translation, together with the advantages of it outshining traditional translation ideas. The introductions of culture-loaded terms, Ha Jin, and Waiting are also included in this chapter. In the third chapter, there is an analysis on several examples of culture-loaded terms in Ha Jin’s Waiting. This analysis is initiated according to five cultural branches brought up by Eugene A. Nida. In addition, readers can find a quantitative study on the surveyed terms in this novel after this analysis. Eventually, the author will conclude the reasons for Waiting’s success from the perspective of EFL writing and translation and give suggestions to contemporary literary translation.

Chapter II Literature Review

2.1 EFL writing and translation

2.1.1 Differences

ESL writing is different from translation in several aspects. First, there is no original text. As a translator, the initial step of a translating process is analyzing the original text. If there is no original text, then there is nothing can be called target language (because it is something that appears only in pair with original text) or translation. Because we cannot find the original text in writing with a second language, it is understandable that the normal difficulties in translation-- remaining the style, remaining the emotion, for example-- cannot be found in this process.

2.1.2 Similarities

However, there is similarity between writing with a second language and translating. The first reason is that both the translator and the writer need to be competent enough to command both the original and the target language. Take Ha Jin. Born and bred in the mainland of China, he has a comprehensive understanding of the time-honored and profound Chinese history and culture. Meanwhile, thirty years of Chinese-speaking experience has also made him an excellent user of this language. What's more, 30 years' living in China and 4 year's study as an English major made him very sensitive to the difference between Chinese and the American cultures and languages. That sensitiveness is very similar or almost identical to that of a translator, let alone his grasp of the American culture after spending so many years working in the US. Nida once said, being bilingual is not enough to be a good translator, one needs to be bicultural (Nida, 2004: 134).

The second similarity is in coping with culture loaded terms. There is an evident gap between English and Chinese, and this gap extends from peoples’ thinking patterns to the geographic environment. Here is a comparison between Ha Jin and Howard Goldblatt.

Ha Jin is an EFL writer, while Howard Goldblatt is a successful and controversial C/E translator whose translation has high level of freedom (Zhen Yongkang, 152). Their jobs differs, but when it comes to words and terms containing Chinese characteristic, Ha Jin would naturally begin to ponder what expressions in English can successfully unfold the literal meaning and extend readers’ meaning of them, which is an almost identical progress to what Howard Goldblatt does in translation. As an influential translator, Goldblatt received a great number of criticism. Some blame him for violating the principle of faithfulness by using too much freedom (Liang Jing, 68). By the same token, Ha Jin received similar comments from Chinese critics. Eugene Nida once said, “If a translator really understands the meaning of the text and has adequate competence in the target language, translating appears to be an almost automatic process” (Nida, 2004: 147). There are enough evidence to prove that exotic culture can be excellently accepted by target readers through EFL writing and creative translation when the translator has high level of freedom. As they share this character, Ha Jin’s translation of Chinese culture-loaded terms can be illuminating to translators, which is what this thesis endeavors to prove.

2.1.3 Advantages compared with translation

What’s worth mentioning is that comparing to translating, EFL writing has significant advantages, the first of which is the unity of style. The unity of style is a crucial respect for a process of translating. Normally, translators will come across this obstacle in translation, but this obstacle doesn’t seem to exist for a writer. Because he is so intimate with his ideas and thoughts and emotions that he can achieve unity in all of these aspects, and can easily place or render the explanation of certain word into the text while making it look like an integrated one. That explains the necessity and charm of the unity of expression, as it gives readers the utmost enjoyment of reading.

Another advantage of writing in a second language is that writer can be disentangled from the unseen boundaries, meaning the fixed translating methods and old taboos, and thus can get fully focused on completing the text. In another word, it is some kind of “hybrid vigor”, according to Ziman Han(2002: 2). As a result, the "translating methods" he/she uses will be compound and melded. It may not be allowed in the translation of some official documents, but luckily literary translation is an exception. Literary translation is comparatively more open to creative translating methods, like the translating methods of Howard Goldblatt, since the purpose of literature is to provoke the various kinds of imagination and understanding of certain themes. The effect of it is positive: Translators can always find translations of culture-loaded words in works of second language writing. Some of those expressions can become a theoretical breakthrough or a cutting-edge experiment for them, and that will benefit them in many ways.

2.2 Recent Research Status of Culture-loaded Terms

2.2.1 Definition

Hu Wenzhong (1999: 64) thinks that “culturally-loaded lexemes loaded with specific national cultural information and indicate deep national culture. They are the direct or indirect reflection of national culture at the structure of lexemes.” Sun Zhili (2003: 127) holds that “there are many words in both English and Chinese which have rich cultural connotations, especially those idioms, adapts, slang and dialects. These words are called culture-specific terms or culture-loaded words.” Language is the reflection of its culture. Subsequently, culture-loaded terms are the representatives of the relation between language and culture. In a language, there must be a great number of expressions containing the characteristics of its culture, which includes this nation’s custom, biological environment, tradition, moral values, thinking patterns, aesthetic values, etc. As acknowledged, the differences between cultures and languages sometimes exceed expectation.

2.2.2 Classification of culture-loaded terms

Eugene A. Nida divides culture into five categories of ecology, material culture, social culture, religious culture, and linguistic culture. Nida is a prestigious translator, and his theory on translation is influential in China. Naturally, Chinese translators and translation researchers seeking to develop a way to render culture-loaded terms base their new theory on the basis of Nida’s theory of culture classification (Nida, 1993).

1. The ecological culture-loaded terms, such as “all at sea” and “sail before the wind” are terms concerning biology, geology and climate etc.
2. Material terms are materials carrying culture and tradition, like the Great Wall, jiaozi, and tofu.
3. When colours are attached psychological meanings and different greetings are used in different cultures, these names of colours and greeting become social culture-loaded terms.
4. Temple, Zen (禅), monk in are religious culture-loaded terms.
5. Slangs and idioms are linguistic culture-loaded terms.

2.2.3 Studies on the translations of culture-loaded terms at home and abroad

Once people believe satisfying translation of culture-loaded terms cannot be achieved, yet a growing number of researches and translating reports infer that it is not something impossible. In the past several decades, when traditional translation theories--like that of Lu Xun and Yan Fu-- still run the rule, people hold that translation must be achieved on the basis of high loyalty to the original text. But today, when theories of translation become even more various, boundaries and taboos in translation have been frequently broken by translators, and people are getting increasingly confident towards the possibility of translation even in translating culture-loaded words.

Some insist that the translation of culture-loaded terms should meet the requirement of cultural communication, which means using as much foreignization as possible, i.e., translating Chinese culture-loaded terms into “Chinese English”. Wang Yangquan (2003) argues in his paper when translating “福娃”. Others think that translating culture-loaded terms needs a degree of concession and preserve only part of the cultural connotation inside them. Meng Xiangchun (2011) is a supporter of this opinion, he suggests adjusting the strategies and methods of translation according to the purpose, context, etc.

Many researchers choose to study the translation of culture-loaded terms under the guidance of Newmark’s translation and Nida’s functional equivalence theory (Fang Jiaojiao amp; Wu Tingting, 2014). With the development completion of western translation studies and theories, Chinese translation researchers now have a variety of perspectives as their study bases. Beside Newmark’s and Nida’s theory, there are schema theory, biological translation, skopostheorie, etc. schema theory depicts the thinking pattern and modes of behavior of people, eco-translatology is primarily about the improving the ecological translation environment and the use of the appropriate translation strategies of Chinese culture-loaded expressions, while skopos theorie insists to view texts only from target’s angle and to treat the translation equal to writing.

2.3 Introduction of Ha Jin's Waiting

2.3.1 Waiting

Waiting, a love story happened in 1960's China, is a prominent English novel written by Ha Jin, an American Chinese writer. This book is a winner of American National Book Award and Faulkner National Book Award. In Waiting, Lin Kong is a doctor who serves in army in the northeastern China. He has a lover called Manna, a nurse in his hospital, and wants to divorce his illiterate wife, Shuyu. In this novel, Ha Jin gives a panoramic view over the army life and country life of China during and after the Cultural Revolution, and uses a great deal of words and terms which convey typical Chinese cultural characteristic, Chinese mindset and thinking pattern.

2.3.2 Writer

Ha Jin's a born-and-bred Chinese who has many year's living experience in northeastern China and who once served in Chinese army. That explains why Waiting has so many typical northeastern customs such as sleeping in brick beds. Owing to his Chinese background, he insists on introducing the Chinese culture, customs, mindset and environment to English readers in an oriental way. With relatively objective describing tone and simple and clear English, Ha Jin achieves the goal of introducing Chinese culture to western readers. Such a unique literary invention certainly will draw translator’s attention, making them wonder through what methods, under what strategies has him wrote this great novel.

The book’s winning the American National Book Award and Faulkner National Book Award is, undoubtedly, very surprising as the winners of these two prestigious prizes are mostly writers from western cultural background. That leads to a natural conclusion that Ha Jin has a capacity to write the very Chinese matters in a way his target writers can and are happy to accept, which makes him and his works, especially Waiting, very valuable to Chinese-English translation study. If a Chinese were to read the English version, he/she will be surprised at the “abnormal” English Ha Jin uses (Chen Yang, 2012: 2).

2.3.3 Studies on Waiting

However, in China, Waiting, together with other books written by Ha Jin, draws little attention of critics. Some if critics and writers think that Ha Jin’s writing belong to neither Chinese literature nor American literature, and they are not even the regular American Chinese literature, which is very awkward for a literature work. More specifically, it describes a China which is absolutely not “Chinese”; rather, it is closer to a China from others’ perspective. Since its theme is not so much Chinese, nor is its description, Waiting receives a great deal of criticism from a majority Chinese researchers.

Compared with its status in Chinese literature, it has a great reputation and influence overseas. Besides winning the two awards, Waiting has been translated into different languages and got published in 25 countries. It almost instantly became a bestseller in New York Times (Zhang Yan, 2010). English readers are appealed by his simple wording, fluency and the exotic culture in it. Western researchers regard Ha Jin as a special American Chinese writer for his writing describes totally things happened in China, but not what happened among Chinese in America.

Chapter III Approaches to Culture-loaded Terms in Waiting

3.1 Translation of culture-loaded terms

In this Chapter, the author will analyze the culture loaded terms in Waiting using the cultural classification raised by Eugene A. Nida.

3.1.1 Material culture-loaded terms

Material culture-loaded terms reflect the material culture of humanity in a certain place.

Here is an example of culture-loaded term in the prologue:

On the mat-covered brick bed were two folded quilts and three dark pillows like huge loaves of bread. (p7)

"炕" is a traditional form of bed common in northern China. It has many differences with those in the south. First, it is made of bricks; second, it is an amenity for northern people to get heat especially in winter. "Brick bed"--the writer translates "炕" into it is to reveal the distinctiveness of this special form of bed and impart the cultural connotation of it. In Waiting, the normal way of translation Ha Jin uses when he translates material culture-loaded terms is liberal translation, or translating by the terms’ meaning. Luckily, unlike ancient novels, Waiting does not include so many culture-loaded food names, all because it describes a story during Culture Revolution, when traditional treasures and historic relics are regarded as something terrible to society. When material culture-loaded terms appear in this book, liberal translation from the functional angle is enough to translate it.

3.1.2 Ecological culture-loaded terms

Ecological culture loaded words consists of a great deal of matters relating to the local climate, natural environment and geographical features of a place.

Every summer Lin Kong returns to Goose village to divorce his wife, Shuyu. Together they had appeared at the courthouse in Wujia Town many times, but she had always changed her mind at the last moment when the judge asked if she would accept a divorce. (p3)

In this example, it is plain to see that Here Ha Jin uses different translating methods on “鹅庄” and “吴家镇”. From the text, it is easy to understand that Goose village is where Shuyu, Lin Kong’s countryside wife lives. In the prologue Ha Jin uses several paragraphs to indicate the poor and natural life there. By the same token, when he translates “鹅庄”, he will try to make it sound country and natural, thus he uses direct translation. In translating names of places, the common way is to translate only the common noun, which in names of places shows what this place is, such as “village” and “town”, and leaves the proper noun transliterated, like what he does to “吴家镇”. These are both acceptable translating methods in translating a place’s name (Yuan Xiaoning, 2014). If Ha Jin discards the cultural connotation, or ecological connotation of “鹅”, its translation will be “E village”, which can be very confusing to English readers. However, “吴家镇” does not have such a worry as it is not as important as “Goose village” to this novel, thus even it is transliterated, it will still be accepted when it is transliterated. It also displays the high level of freedom of translation owned by Ha Jin.

3.1.3 Social Culture-loaded Terms

For the whole winter and spring he had seen only two movies. He had lost fourteen pounds, he was like a skeleteon now. (p14)

In a paper studying the translation of culture-loaded words in The Story of the Stone (translated by David Hawkes), the author indicates that Hawkes translates "斤" into "jin", remaining the original form and pronunciation of it through transliteration. However, Ha Jin chooses to render it into the English version of unit, pound. Actually it is not appropriate translation. "斤" is a traditional way for Chinese people when they want to weigh something. This custom goes abroad with them and lands in China town across the world. Even at present we can still find that the most welcome weighing unit taken from abroad is kilogram, because its two "斤". We should not underestimate readers' ability in understanding the culture loaded words of another culture, especially when the word was so simple. On the other hand, here is a successful example for liberal translation.

What is more, her feet were only four inches long. This was the New China; who would look up to a young woman with bound feet? (p8)

"小脚", indicated by its name, means small feet. Nevertheless, in Chinese, people will not use "xiao jiao" to describe somebody's feet if his/her feet is naturally smaller than others'. It has a fixed cultural reference, the bound feet of Chinese ancient women. This expression was neutral till the fall of the Qing Dynasty. After that, gender equality becomes the new trend and women were no longer required to bind their feet. Since then, “xiao jiao” are seen as the representative of lagging behind and ignorance by mainstream society. Consequently, "小脚" cannot be translated into small feet. In order to achieve the most similar literal meaning and the connotation in its culture, Ha Jin uses translation by meaning and put it as "bound feet". Another example may serve a better illustration.

On the whitewashed wall, the shadow of the lamp cord served the picture of a baby boy, fat and naked in a red bib, riding a large carp in billowing waves. (p7)

Only when translating comes to an end (admittedly, translating always meets it ends) can the writer's intelligence appear. It is a method of great research value, and here are two typical examples of this method. The first comes the translation of a Chinese national custom, "年画".年画is something every family keeps one when new year is to come. Because it is made for a new year, the images on pictures are propitious and paronomasia. It is both a spring festival custom and a household decoration. Ha Jin avoided translating "年画" literally by describing what is on this picture. On page 7, Ha Jin describes a traditional propitious image as "the picture of a baby boy, fat and naked in a red bib, riding a large carp in billowing waves". In Chinese, it is a four-character idiom called "年年有余": "鱼" (fish) and "余"(surplus) has the same pronunciation, so the carp in a fat baby boy's bosom has the meaning of having enough to eat and dress in the next year. With the absence of literal translating, Ha Jin reduces English reader's over-concentration on special expression that is common in Asian writers' novels and integrates this very long explanation into the description of Shuyu and Lin Kong's adobe house. It is undoubtedly a smart move.

He didn’t love her; nor did he dislike her. In a way he treated her like a cousin of sorts. (p9)

While a good many people think that "表亲" equals to "cousin" in English, they have a lot of discrepancies. In Chinese culture, one's closest kin should be siblings and those who share one's family name. "表亲" refers to another group of kin: the maternal cousins. They do not have the same family name with that person though they are related, so traditional Chinese people do not treat them equally to paternal relatives. Here Ha Jin puts it into "the cousin of sorts" to express that implicit remoteness inside this expression, and it successfully conveys the connotation to target readers.

“I can’t just dump her like a pair of outworn shoes. I have to give a good reason, or else everybody will condemn me and I won’t able to get a divorce.” (p78)

Some culture loaded terms, containing the cultural connotation of that special historic period, also worth taking a look deep into it. Take “outworn shoes” for an example. Its Chinese counterpart is “破鞋”。It can be seen as sexist word, since it is created for cursing women outcast by their husbands or lovers. There is another expression in this novel conveys the same meaning, “二手军用品”. Direct translation is the best way to maintain the original style and features of the original text and language, but on the field of culture-loaded terms, translators find direct translating sometimes incapable of expressing the culture default. Sometimes, directly translating something which people in another culture might not be capable of understanding is very risky that even a risky taker like translator could not afford the cost—the misunderstanding of readers. Hence, in using this useful yet thorny tool, Ha Jin finds a good way to coordinate the reading experience with the original features of culture-loaded terms. That is mingling the explanative phrases into the text in a disguise. Undoubtedly, he explains how writer is more advantageous than translator in this area via this instance. In this sentence, Ha Jin points directly out that outworn shoes’ associative meaning is Shuyu. Although westerners do not use this image to liken a group of women, they also “dump” shoes when shoes are “outworn”, so that they are able to grasp the associative meaning of this term. In this case, Ha Jin built the bridge between “abandoned women” and “outworn shoes”, and leads readers imagination to the designated path.

3.1.4 Religious Culture-loaded Terms

As explained above, sometimes direct translating can meet a great deal of confinements in translating culture-loaded terms. To address the consequent troubles, translators try a series of approaches, among which cultural substitution is a crucial and controversial one. The reason why it is crucial is that cultural substitution is a naturally easy-to-understand translating method for target readers since it is replacing the unfamiliar images of original language with very similar alternatives in target language. This kind of alternative images are usually from the idioms and slangs of target language. Hence, it brings this method both the bright and the dark side: it, to an extent, ensures the reading experience of readers, while disturbs readers following the imagery world coined so elaborately by the writer through providing similar-of-sorts associative meaning. As a consequence, translator tend to be very cautious in using cultural substitution, so does Ha Jin.

For the whole winter and spring he had seen only two movies. He had lost fourteen pounds, he was like a skeleton now. (P 14)

In limited cases, “he was like a skeleton now” is a very typical one. The traditional Chinese expression of over slim is “瘦得像鬼一样”, yet Ha Jin does not use the closest word to “鬼”, ghost or evil spirit, to render it, for the image of “鬼” and that of “ghost” differs considerably from each other, though these two concepts are similar in religious arena. The image of “鬼” reminds Chinese people of the skeleton shape and very ugly appearance, whereas in western “ghost” enables people to imagine the unknown look, smoky body, mystery and evilness. Since the associative meaning of them do not accord, Ha Jin would abandon using it however similar they are in designative meaning. To replace “鬼”, Ha Jin chooses the word “skeleton” as it is the hidden meaning of this Chinese character. Compared to other cases of cultural substitution in prestigious novels, this substitution from “鬼” to “skeleton” also has a sense of interpreting, since skeleton is not, strictly speaking, the “alternative” to “鬼”, it is rather the revelation of the hidden meaning of this character. After analyzing this case of translation, it is confident to say that Ha Jin is making effort to find the fulcrum of the level between catering to readers and remaining the characteristics of culture-loaded terms. But he is leaning towards the latter, since he avoids using images too familiar to his readers.

He lit the joss sticks and planted them one by one before the dishes, and them he strewed around the paper coins, each of which was as large as a palm and had a square hole punched in its center. (p93)

In addition, there is an interesting translation of “纸钱” in Waiting—it is translated two times in the same paragraph. Ha Jin does not translate it into “paper money”, rather, he carefully chooses the word “coin” to take the place of “money”. Every country with a long history has a series of coins issued in different periods of history. They not only differ in pattern and words engraved on them, also the value and shape. Without a further introduction, foreigner readers are very likely to mistake the “coin” in China has the same look with a foreign one. That’s why after mentioning Lin Kong and Shuyu are burning paper coins, Ha Jin inserts a long introduction of what the coins look like: as large as a palm with a spare hole punched in its center”(P93). Such a very detailed introduction will help readers form such a picture in their mind. After reading this part, they will remember the traditional Chinese custom—giving ancient-style paper coins to ancestors in certain festivals.

3.1.5 Linguistic culture-loaded terms

A man who doesn’t care for his family and loves the new and loathes the old--fickle in heart and unfaithful in words and deeds. (p12)

The first example is "fickle in heart". What is "fickle in heart" in Chinese? In both the mainland of China and Taiwan, people share a similar expression, named "花心". "花" in Chinese means flower. there are several idioms in association with this image, among which the most famous one is "招蜂引蝶", meaning frivolous and attractive. Although there is no "花" included in this idiom, we cannot deny that "蜂" and "蝶", meaning "bee" and "butterfly", have a clear connection with flora. Here we can infer that about a stereotype of flower in China is that they are attractive and frivolous. We can understand why Ha Jin do not want to use the image of "flower" in this expression. In English, flower is almost solely connected to beauty, brittleness, and good virtues. Using this image will only cause misunderstanding to readers. so he uses translation by meaning in translating "花" and only uses literal translation in the translation of "心". In addition, if looking it as a part of "fickle in heart and unfaithful in words and deeds", you can find that Ha Jin successfully renders the two parts of this expression into two paralleled structures, which makes it almost unseen to people study methods of translating and people who want to learn Chinese idioms with strong Chinese characteristic.

3.2 A quantitative study of culture-loaded words and their translation strategies

In order to give readers an explicit introduction of how Ha Jin uses translating methods in Waiting, here are a pie chart and a table describing the writer’s use of translation methods. All the surveyed culture-loaded terms are selected from the first 11 chapters (catalogue is included) in Waiting.

Table 1 A Quantitative Study of Chinese Culture-loaded Terms in the First Eleven Chapters of Waiting

Table 2 The use of translation methods

The run down through the first 11 chapters (the prologue is included) indicated that both direct translation and free translation are frequently adopted, and at the same time, paraphrasing and compound translation are also preferred methods of Ha Jin.

One thing worth concern is that the 11 chapters investigated actually contain much more than 40 culture loaded terms shown in the table. Nevertheless, only those terms which are created by Ha Jin are chosen as this group of terms are of greater value to researchers and translators who are eager to probe into the secret recipe of translation owned by Ha Jin.

3.3 Major findings

For several decades, the debate of whether the translation of culture-loaded words should lean to foreignizaiton or localization has been bothering the academia. These years, with the rise of China’s comprehensive power, there is a trend of foreignizationin the overall translation strategies in China, with the purpose to display our national competence and confidence. However, this novel with great achievement in America, Waiting, though possessing a general strong sense of foreignization, does not show a particularly clear inclination towards foreignization in rendering culture-loaded terms, according to data in the first table. In another word, Ha Jin keeps an equilibrium between the two strategies, and maintains the readability of this novel while achieving the defamiliarization of an exotic culture.

In Waiting, Ha Jin deliberately uses plain English to convey the relatively profound Chinese culture which is difficult to understand to target readers, and makes his writing language full of Chinese character while staying reader-friendly. Although Ha Jin is not doing translation, his work of writing still share some similarities with translation. Free translation and literal translation should not be two concepts opposite to each other, nor should they become the line drawn between domestication and foreignisation.

In translating literary works, localization and foreignisation should coexist, as they two are not opposite to each other. On the scale of translating language, the translated works should be reader-oriented, making the text reader-friendly; in the scale of the content of it, the translated work should be a good carrier of the original idea (Yuan Xiaoning, 2013). Only in this way can target readers have the similar response with that of the original readers.

It is not an easy task to achieve readability while preserving exotic features. But in Waiting Ha Jin accomplishes this task. Ha Jin must be conscious of the various differences between Chinese and American. But he has a natural advantage: he enjoys a much greater freedom in putting the Chinese culture-loaded terms into English than normal C/E translators. Although any adapting or rendering will cost faithfulness (Nida, 1993), Ha Jin as a writer is brave enough to use very long explanations of culture-loaded terms and plant them into the text in a literary way. To achieve this he applies a variety of translating methods and sometimes combine them together to translate one term, such as combining addition and cultural substitution, combining cultural substitution with notes.

Chapter IV Conclusion

There are many aspects attributing to Waiting’s success. First is that the writing language in Waiting is plain. Adapting to the language customs of target readers is crucial to a translated text. Secondly, in Waiting, Ha Jin expresses a universal love towards people sacrificing their born freedom and right to living, and towards those mentally homeless and lonely people (Liu Zengmei, 2008). Thirdly, the exotic culture of China has a great appeal to American readers, and Waiting is an excellent bridge between them. Of course, there are many other aspects, but the translated writing when Ha Jin copes with culture-loaded words is possible to be imitated and is of great academic value.

After analysis, it is found that Ha Jin tends to seek an equilibrium between domestication and foreignisation. As a writer, he enjoys a much greater freedom in translating culture-loaded terms in Waiting. Through an analysis of culture-loaded terms in Waiting, translators can draw lessons that he/she should adhere to expressing the original connotations in literary translation. Achieving readability in language while preserving cultural connotations in the original text, this is what translators can apply to their translating activities.

To accomplish it, a translator has to have greater freedom in translation. It should be admitted that in a number of cases, solely using literal translation will cause misunderstanding, which is another kind of unfaithfulness, since the similarity between the feelings of target reader and original reader is not achieved. Overall, higher freedom promises translator greater expressing possibility of translating in an appealing, readable way, rather than a faithful but tiring way.

References

Chen, Y. 2012. A Study of Potential Translation in L2 Writing in Waiting[D]. MA Thesis. Wuhan University of Technology.

Nida, E.A. 1964. Language in Culture and Society [M]. Dell Hymes, Allied Publishers pvt, Ltd.

Nida, E.A. 1993. Language and Culture – Context in Translating [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

Nida, E.A. 2004. Language, Culture and Translating [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

剩余内容已隐藏，请支付后下载全文，论文总字数：41449字