On Zhang Yousong’s Chinese Translation Of English Fictions From The Perspective Of Poetics

The translator Zhang Yousong(1903-1995)had translated at least 49 books in more than 60 years.In particular,his translation of Mark Twain’s works has gained great popularity in China.For certain reasons,Zhang became unknown,nearly invisible in public of in his later years.In academic circle,there are great deficiencies in both breadth and depth in current researches on Zhang,which fail to fully reveal his translation practice and translation contribution throughout his life.The dissertation aims to fill in study gaps to some degree,the research finding will also provide valuable reference for further academic study on Zhang.Referring to two different concepts of poetics(one is the poetics originated from Russian Formalism,the other is the poetics of cultural school in the field of translation studies),the dissertation re-examines and explores Zhang’s poetics and poetic choices in his translation from the internal and external perspective of poetics studies,mainly involving the following three issues: 1)What kind of poetics did Zhang have? 2)How about Zhang’s poetics recognition competence? 3)How is Zhang’s poetics embodied in his translation? Given the need for further discussions on the matters,systemically collecting and collating the first-hand documentation and publications,this dissertation classifies Zhang’s poetics(including his views about translation and literature)into three periods(early,middle,and late),summarizes and elaborates the representative works,main ideas,intrinsic features,possible reasons of formation or social-cultural impacts on his poetics respectively.The comprehensive efforts would make up the deficiency of the previous studies on Zhang’s translation,pave the way for advancements in poetic analysis on translation with profound background information and theoretical support.In the main body of this dissertation,four Zhang’s translations(Vanka,The Grapes of Wrath,The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc)are selected and divided into three chapters to explain Zhang’s poetics in the translation.Chapter Three concludes with a detailed examination of socialcultural factors and translation history about Anton Chekhov’s Vanka in China(Zhang made two versions)by version comparison and poetic analysis to discuss in detail and in depth Zhang’s poetics on selection of original texts,translation,publication.Chapter Four explores Zhang’s revisions and retranslation of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath(translated by Hu Zhongchi,revised and retranslated by Zhang twice),focusing on translationese in translation to explain Zhang’s poetic efforts in translating words,figures of speeches,genre and register.Chapter Five elucidates Zhang’s belief--translation as an art--in his translation practice.Taking Zhang’s translation of Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc as examples,this chapter explores the connotation,peculiarities and influence of Zhang’s ideas of“translation as recreation” by analyzing the poetic features(especially the deviations and four-character words)in the two Chinese versions.Briefly speaking,Zhang Yousong’s poetics has the following characters:Zhang’s poetics is interacted with ideology,power,patronage and other influential factors.And his poetics would have different connotations and would have some changes as he played diverse social roles(translator,editor,publisher,proofreader,etc.)in different periods.In his early period,Zhang advocated realism,opposed pure art theory,and uphold the sense of mission and social significance of literature;his translated works were about realistic,especially Russian literature;his purpose of translation was to transform the national language and domestic literature and art;his translation strategies mainly focused on the readability and adhered to fluency and smoothness.After the founding of People’s Republic of China,Zhang’s views on poetics,literature and translation changed with his understanding of proletarian revolutionary thought.He advocated that translation should serve the revolution and the people.In the later period,Zhang’s poetics was mainly embodied in his views on literary translation,involving the essence,function and language features of literary translation.He believed that literal translation and free translation should be combined together to produce the best quality of the translated works.Translation should be faithful to the original work,and take account of both faithfulness and fluency.The translator should fully grasp the original author’s artistic conception,and enable readers to enjoy the same artistic sense while reading the translated work as the original one.The gradual formation and internalization of Zhang’s poetics revealed a typical mental process of a senior translator accepting the proletarian literary thoughts.As for the second and the third questions,the following findings are explored in the study:In the early period(1926-1948),Zhang had clear stylistic consciousness,but his poetic competence was not on a high level.He followed the principle of “smoothness”promoted by the majority of translators at that time.He took the aesthetic taste of the readers as the poetic choice rather than orient at presenting the awkward and obscure translation,even though he advocated literal translation.Thus,the principles of“smoothness” and “appropriateness” played a great role in poetic filtering in translation.By comparing the English version of Vanka and two Chinese versions(1929 and 1943),we find that Zhang’s translation pursued literal translation and had characteristics of the certain age.In the adaptation of Vanka(1943),Zhang shew a more thorough view of literal translation,more sensitive in selection of words and syntax,and would rather sacrifice the fluency of words to accommodate the meaning in the original work.In the middle period(1949-1977),Zhang had a clear poetics and was fully aware of the poetic features of the original work.From the analysis of his two adaptations of Grapes of Wrath(1959,1982),we can discover that he manages to get rid of the translation accent and reshape the poetic features of the original work.In his second adaptation(1982),the interpretation of poetics was more emphasized and vocabulary were updated to adapt to the development of social language and culture,reflecting the language features of the time.At the rhetorical and textual level,his second adaptation(1982)focused on the foregrounding part of the original work,and effectively reproduced poetics of the original work.In the later period(1978-1995),Zhang’s poetics deepened and pursued the artistic reproduction of language.After intensive analysis of Zhang’s translated work The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,we conclude that Zhang’s poetics and strong recognition competence of poetics undeniably contribute to the well-received translated works.Combined with the comparison of translated versions,poetic analysis and version research,concerning Zhang’s interpretation of childlike innocence in the original work,this study investigates and evaluates the language deviation from three aspects:phonetics,register and graphology.Zhang had careful identification of foregrounding of the original work The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and tried his best to artistically reproducing the poetic features of the original text in the translation.In the adaptation of Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc,he used numerous four-character expressions to carry out poetic transformation,which was not only the external embodiment of his poetics,but also one of the important features of his artistic creation of literary translation.The contributions of this dissertation show up in following aspects.Firstly,the perspective of poetics is an effective way to the study of translators.This dissertation provides some ideas and methods for the future research on translators,and at the same time,it can promote the research process of poetics in translation studies in China.Poetics is also the main means of the struggle between the translator and ideology.Zhang’s written name Chang Jian is printed on the translation of Twain’s works,which can be regarded as a landmark event of his translation and his poetic success.Besides,poetics is the main secret to the best-selling and long-term sale of translation works.Secondly,this study has fully and carefully explored the historical facts of Zhang’s research,especially his translation practice,publication catalogue,original versions and translated ones.It not only focuses on Zhang’s role as a translator,but also covers his contributions in other fields.The appendix(The Compendium of Zhang Yousong’s Writings and Translations)is one of the most important significances of this dissertation.Thirdly,in terms of practice,as an expert in English and translation teaching,Zhang was keen on publishing English-Chinese bilingual books with notes and translations.His selected works were classic,literary,interesting and readable,which is of reference value to the current English reading market construction.Last but not least,Zhang suffered great loss in copyright interest in his later years.One of the main reasons for his tragic life was that the popularity of his translated works did not improve his material life.This is also a wake-up call for today’s publishing and translation circles.