An Aesthetic Approach To Prose Translation

People hold divergent opinions about the connotation and scope of prose. Prose, in a broad sense, refers to all the literary writing with the exception of poetry, fiction and drama. In a narrow sense, it means literary prose, which is mainly on narrative and lyric literary form bearing the characteristics of being diverse in topics, short in length, integrated emotions and literary expressions.Our country has a long traditional convention for prose and the achievements made by prose composition are not inferior to poetry composition, but the research of prose translation seems to be left far behind compared with prose composition. At present, prose translation study is mostly found in articles which are descriptive or commentary, and its systematic and theoretical study is scarce. According to the feature of prose as "free form but focused spirit", the beauty of prose is the most important and difficult problem for translators to surmount. Aesthetics is an important approach in assessing prose values for both theoretical probe and translation practice.Based on translation aesthetics theory proposed by Liu Miqing, together with the aesthetic category as "horizon of expectation" in reception aesthetics, the thesis uses the exemplary materials from Selected Modern Chinese Prose Writings (rendered into English by Zhang Peiji), Prose translation and appreciation by Liu Shicong and A Retrospective of Chinese Literature-Modern Chinese Prose by Yang Xianyi as a leading translator. The author introduces some elements of aesthetics including aesthetic subjects and aesthetic objects. The translator is aesthetic subject of the original text, and he or she should reproduce the aesthetic value of the original in another language through exploring the aesthetic features in the original text. The reader is the aesthetic subject of the translated text. The aesthetic value of the translated text can only be concretized in the reading of target language readers.From the perspective of translation aesthetic object, the beauty of prose mostly lies in the formal system and non-formal system. An ideal prose translation is to realize the beauty in these two layers. However, the representation of aesthetic quality in translation aesthetic object can only be gained by the participation of translation aesthetic subject. So it is necessary to know the aesthetic cognitive processes of translators well and their aesthetic qualifications in order to represent the beauty of prose.Prose translation is an aesthetic comprehension of all kinds of opposed factors and relations in the process of translation. The translator should not only overcome the cultural differences, but also conquer the aesthetic differences in formal system and non-formal system between source language and target language, which can accurately command the aesthetic constituents in source text in order to represent the aesthetic value and artistry of source text in translated text.