A Study Of Three Chinese Versions Of Longfellow's A Psalm Of Life From The Perspcetive Of Translator's Subjectivity

The cultural turn in Translation Studies in the West after the 1970s brought about new dimensions and approaches for the studies. This shift foregrounded the roles of translators in the translation process. Those factors exercising restraints upon translation are to reflect by means of the translator. Therefore, the translator's choices, ways of translation, and translation strategies, reflect the social cultures in special times as well. The turning of translation studies, so to speak, makes translator's subjectivity a necessary and important research subject for translation researchers.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, an American poet of 19th century, creating a number of works in which his lyrics and ballads are world-famous, enjoys the reputation of "A Flower in American Pastoral". His masterpiece A Psalm of Life was first translated into Chinese early in Qing dynasty, followed by a variety of Chinese versions. The thesis aims at the representation of A Psalm of Life in Chinese. It is a fact that it is up to the author to adopt which kind of translation strategies that may bring about different versions, as well as different social responses. In other word, a translator's subjective choices or likings do exert different influences on target language readers literally. Three Chinese versions of A Psalm of Life are chosen to further discuss the concrete manifestation of translator's subjectivity in each version. They are respectively translated by Dong Xun, Su Zhongxiang, Yang Deyu.Through the comparison of these three versions, the authors'endeavor in preserving the original beauty in form and image for the poem can be seen. This whole process is grounded on the related theory of translator's subjectivity. The translator's position has shifted from the former "invisibility", "desalination", and "transparency" to today's emphasizing on translators:as a key subject in translation criticism, the translator has become a basic starting point in translation. It is just this theory that provides the theoretical points for diverse translation works. The author fosters the hope of contributing a bit to a wider study on Longfellow by analyzing different versions in different times.The whole thesis is made up of Five Chapters.Chapter One is a general introduction to the research background of Longfellow's A Psalm of Life, the significance of the study, and the layout of thesis.Chapter Two focuses on the literature review, and gives a general survey of translator's subjectivity which includes translator's position in traditional studies. In addition, the research status of Longfellow's A Psalm of Life at home is included in this part.Chapter Three provides background information of Longfellow, including his literary career and his major works, the Chinese versions of A Psalm of Life.Chapter Four, five parts in this chapter, serves as the essential constituents of the thesis. The first part talks about the internal factors and external forces on translator's choice of source texts; part two is about decoding of source texts; part three is a detailed analysis on the three Chinese versions of A Psalm of Life, covering the choice of translation strategies; part four illustrates translator's conquering or overcoming of the objective restrictions in literary translation; the last part in this chapter is about translator's special features in translation.Chapter Five is the summary of the thesis, with limitations and suggestions for further research.