A Study of the Translation Strategies of Culture-loaded Terms in Six Chapters of a Floating Life

By

Wang Tong

In partial fulfillment of the requirement

For the B.A. degree

Department of English

School of Language and culture

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

May, 2016

A Study of the Translation Strategies of Culture-loaded Terms in Six Chapters of a Floating Life

Wang Tong

Department of English

School of Language and culture

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

Abstract: This thesis is an attempt to study translation strategies of culture-loaded terms in Six Chapters of a Floating Life translated by Lin Yutang. With reference to Eugene A. Nida’s functional equivalence theory, four categories of culture-loaded terms, i.e. classical Chinese poetry, Chinese literary quotation, some spots and Chinese customs in traditional festivals are analyzed. It is found that Lin used domestication, foreignization and literal translation strategies to achieve the goal of translating source text properly and naturally. Hopefully, this thesis may help translation learners use more natural ways to translate culture-loaded terms. It may also provide some implications for the on-going “Chinese literature going out” practice.

Key words: culture-loaded terms; functional equivalence; Six Chapters of a Floating life; Lin Yutang

摘 要

《浮生六记》是清代文学家沈复所著的自传体散文，在当时极具代表性。本文主要基于尤金·A·奈达的“功能对等理论”，研究《浮生六记》林语堂英译本中四类文化负载词句：中国古典诗歌、中国文学典故、景点地名以及传统节日习俗的翻译策略。文中为译者提供了中国文学中文化负载词句的翻译方法以及对应的实例，从而能够更好地帮助翻译学习者在涉及文化负载词的源文本中使用更加自然的方式进行翻译,提升中国文学“走出去”和被外国读者所接受的水平。

关键词：文化负载词；功能对等理论；《浮生六记》；林语堂

Acknowledgments

Upon the completion of thesis, I want to thank my adviser, Dr. Li Xiaosa, who offered me valuable feedbacks and constructive suggestions.

I would also like to thank my parent’s and friends’ encouragement during writing this thesis.

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 A brief introduction to Six Chapters of a Floating life 1

1.2 A brief introduction to Lin Yutang as a translator 1

2. Literature review 2

2.1 A definition to culture-loaded terms 2

2.2 Functional equivalence theory 2

2.3 The Previous studies of culture-loaded terms in Six Chapters of a Floating Life 3

3. Translation of culture-loaded terms in Lin’s version 4

3.1 Translation of classical Chinese poetry 4

3.2 Translation of Chinese literary quotation 6

3.3 Translation of some scenic spots 9

3.3.1 Names of some scenic spots 9

3.3.2 The prospect of sceneries 10

3.4 Translation of Chinese customs in traditional festivals 11

4. Conclusion 12

References 14

Introduction

1.1 A brief introduction to Six Chapters of a Floating life

Six Chapters of a Floating Life, a highly acclaimed book by Shen Fu, includes six chapters, but the last two chapters are still missing for historical reasons. In the book, Shen Fu described in plain words the life experiences with his wife Yun as well as the various places he visited. The book demonstrates the couple’s nature with satisfaction and indifference towards fame or gain. In his description of the natural landscape, Shen infused his personal emotions into nature, showing no regard for the religious ideas, social utilitarianism and life confusion and picturing a harmonious vision with aesthetic pleasure. Yun, with her special characteristics, plays an important role in whole book. And that’s the very reason why Lin Yutang was willing to translate it ten times to ensure that the target language version can help introduce a pair of lovely and comfortable couple to foreign readers. In 1939, Lin Yutang’s English Translation was published in T’ien Hsia Monthly, a magazine that was firstly printed in 1935 and then became popular both at home and abroad.

1.2 A brief introduction to Lin Yutang as a translator

Lin Yutang (October 10, 1895--March 26, 1976) was born in Banzai, a small town in Fujian province, and he was a Chinese writer, linguist and translator as well as inventor. His father was a Christian minister. Even though he was born in a poor village, he was still willing to send his sons to schools in favor of education. Later, Lin graduated from Saint John’s University in Shanghai. From 1923 to 1926, Lin Yutang taught English literature in Peking University. Then he studied for a doctoral degree in Chinese philology at the University of Leipzig. Lin experienced a lot of things in his life, but all of this did fulfill his knowledge and consciousness to be a bridge between Chinese and English.

In 1927, Lin gave up his job and moved to Shanghai, where he produced some well-received books, especially Kaiming English Books. It was so popular that middle schools at that time used them as English textbooks. Furthermore, Lin’s translated works have also been well received because of their naturalness.

Literature review

2.1 A definition to culture-loaded terms

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