A Study Of Translation Of China’s Folk Songs Into English

The Chinese folksongs, which have a long history, are the crystallization of the Chinesepeople’s wisdom through ages and a representative form of the Chinese music culture. As aspecific literary genre, they are the fruit of all Chinese people’s wisdom, and constantlyevolve with time. There are many kinds of Chinese folksongs, and Northern Shaanxifolksongs make an important branch in Chinese folksongs. The Northern Shaanxi folksongswhich have occurred within the Loess Plateau, Northern Shaanxi, are the most direct responseof the working people to their living environments, reflecting their character and culture, andthey have attracted the listeners with their strong sense of local color. However, little attentionhas been paid to C-E translation of Chinese folksongs and particularly, the Northern Shaanxifolksongs, for most practices in and studies about translation of folksongs have been focusedon translation of folksongs from other languages. Under such a lopsided background, WangHongyin’s translated work Xibei Huixiang (Voice from the Northwest) was published, and itrepresents the important achievement in C-E translation of Chinese folksongs. The studieswith this achievement as their research object are of practical significance and academicvalue.This study aims to explore the principles, strategies, and methods of translating Chinesefolksongs, and its object of research is the Chinese folksongs and their translations collectedin Voice from the Northwest. It is conducted by employing the method of literature researchand case study, involving inductive analysis. The key research questions include: What are themain translation principles and strategies which Wang Hongyin has applied in his translationof northern Shaanxi folksongs and how does his theory cohere with his practice? What has hemainly achieved in the folksong translation theory? Drawing on the present research inanswer to the first research question, how should we surmount the obstacles in translation offolksongs? On the basis of what has been attained by other scholars in this regard throughconducting a literature review, the general features of translation of folksongs, principles andstrategies, as well as difficulties in translating them, are discussed, and in the case study, incorporating the relevant theoretical analysis, a number of typical translation examples areanatomized. As for the thesis structure, it is composed of five chapters. Besides the firstchapter introduction, the second chapter a literature review and the last one conclusion, thethird chapter is concerned with some relevant theoretical concepts of translating folksongs,and some different tendencies in practices of translating folksongs, and the fourth chapteranalyzes the translations of Northern Shaanxi folksongs by Wang Hongyin, involving theirlanguage, content, structure, style, and effect, and also touches some theoretical viewsproposed by the translator.The major findings are as follows: The big difficulties of translating Chinese folksongslie in the contradictions between transformation in language and retaining of the Chinese folkculture, how the cultural differences should be dealt with, how the lyrics should becoordinated in translation with the musicality and tunes, and how the dialect and syllablesshould be rendered, etc. Wang Hongyin’s main principle is that for literary translation, for heregards the process of translating folksongs as one of artistry and recreation. He tries totranslate those folksongs into English versions which are readable, thinkable, and recitable,and can be the basis for further modification if they are to be sung. In practice, taking thesemantic rendering as the basic priority, his main strategies and methods include flexibletreatment of the Chinese dialect, syllables, and the line length, with emphasis on poetic taste;giving full play to the expressive power of English folksongs in the translated version, yetmaking no conscious effort to pursue rhyming; explaining properly some cultural terms, yeton the whole rather making the cultural elements appear a little strange to English readersthan producing over domesticated versions which are fluent yet neglect some original color.He advocates that in the practices of translating Chinese folksongs, special attention should bepaid to the overall pattern, key note, and the style of the translated versions, and the effectiveways of expressing them. His achievement in translating Northern Shaanxi folksongs mainlylies in his emphasis on the irreplaceable role of translation of Chinese folksongs indisseminating Chinese culture and music spirit, his confirmation on the translatability ofChinese folksongs, and laying initial practical and theoretical foundation for the systematicresearch of translating Chinese folksongs. His practical and theoretical exploration is enlightening to the cause of translating Chinese folksongs.