A Study On Lin Yutang's Translation Of Six Chapters Of A Floating Life: From The Perspective Of Tytler's Three Principles Of Translation

As an outstanding translator in China, Lin Yutang translated Shen Fu's autobiographical works Fu Sheng Liu Ji successfully. This book consists of six chapters, that is, Wedded Bliss, The Little Pleasures of Life, Sorrow, The Joys of Travel, Experience and The Way of Life. Shen Fu gave a vivid description of Chinese traditional life, world outlook and values on life unique to scholars in the old times in this book. After more than ten times of revision, Six Chapters of a Floating Life becomes one of Lin Yutang's representative translation works.At the guidance of British translation theorist Alexander Fraser Tytler's "three principles of translation", this thesis analyzes in what way Lin Yutang's translation gives a complete transcript of the ideas of the original works, retains the style and manner of the original and has all the ease of original composition on the basis of typical phrases, sentences and paragraphs in the target text. The thesis attempts to promote the intelligibility and readability of Lin Yutang's Six Chapters of a Floating Life. During the process of the analysis, the author also expresses his own understanding of Tyler's general laws of translation and Lin's translation version.This thesis first briefly introduces relevant study of Lin Yutang's Six Chapters of a Floating Life at home and broad and Tytler's "three principles of translation". The first general rule of Tytler's "three principles of translation" is "a translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work". Rhetoric, superstition and cultural-loaded words are all important parts of Chinese culture. Translation activity is not only languages transmittion but aslo cultral communication. Lin Yutang is not only a loyal reader but an excellent translator as well. This thesis comes to conclusion that the translation of rhetorical words, superstitious words and culture-loaded words in the target text gives a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work.The second general rule is "the style and manner of writing in a translation should be of the same character with that of the original". Poetry underwent a long history in China and gratually matured. In some sense, the development process of poetry stands for the development of Chinese culture; however, at the same time, the translation of poems is quite difficult for a translator due to the characteristics of poems. Lin Yutang has a perfect knowledge of both languages and is best acquainted with the subject in the source text. The thesis finds that Lin Yutang conveys the true character of the style and manner of the original on the basis of analyzing the translation of poems and paragraphs in the target text.The third general rule is " a translation should have all the ease of original composition". Tyler implies that this rule is of extreme difficulty in the observance. FSLJ is Shen Fu's autobiographical works, which contains traditional Chinese convention and touching sentimental conversation. Lin Yutang provides outstanding attainments and striking accopmlishments in arts and culture. This thesis has come to the conclusion that Lin Yutang's translation is of the same fluency as the original composition on the basis of the analysis of Chinese convention, sentimental discriptions and idiomatic expressions.The author of this thesis hopes that this research will advance the intelligibility and readability of Shen Fu's Fu Sheng Liu Ji and Lin Yutang's Six Chapters of a Floating Life in the literary world.