| Apart from his essays, ZHOU Zuoren has also made a substantial contribution to the field of interpretation. Due to his preference for ancient Greek myths, ZHOU has spent a great strength on interpreting Gods, Heroes and Men of Ancient Greece, an English book for children written by W.H.D. Rouse, together with BIBAIO(?)HKH, a handbook of ancient Greek myths with the traditional author's name of Apollodorus.This thesis firstly points out that ZHOU's interpreting ancient Greek myths from the original texts should take an important position in the translation history of our country. And by means of comparing ZHOU's translation with the original texts, it also makes clear that ZHOU paid much attention to "children's literature" when interpreting Rouse's book; and he was deeply influenced by the anthropological approach to myth and the theories of Myth and Ritual School when interpreting Apollodorus'book, which possesses rather a high bibliographical value. In a word, ZHOU has been insisting on the standpoint of "human literature" in this whole process.Although some mistakes among ZHOU's translation has been revised in this paper, it still stands fairly well that ZHOU has preserved the linguistic characteristics of the original texts and innovated as well. His interpretation of BIBAIO(?)HKH is especially valuable for innovation, for he has avoided of simply copying Frazer's qualified English version.Because ZHOU Zuoren on the one hand makes the anthropological approach to myth and the theories of Myth and Ritual School gradually known by the Chinese, on the other hand enlightens the contemporary translators as to the method of "translating directly", it is convincing to conclude that his efforts in interpretation are worthy of respect and reference. |
