An Analysis Of The English Version Of The Song Of Everlasting Sorrow Through Hermeneutic Theory

This paper aims to analyses the English version of The Song of Everlasting Sorrow through hermeneutic theory, summarizing how to strike a balance between the source text and target text, the source culture and target culture and then explore the strategy for the promotion of Chinese literature to the world in a way that is more acceptable to the western audiences while preserving the Chinese elements. In beginning, the paper gives a brief introduction of Wang Anyi and the translator:Michael Berry and Susan Chan, and discusses the research goals of this paper. Then through the literature review, the paper introduces the study of Wang Anyi and the English version, both from the media and the academic community. Then the paper discusses hermeneutics and combines the translator’s subjectivity with it. He summarizes the four steps of translation. The employment of translator’s subjectivity is the foundation of the hermeneutic theory. The paper then reviews the English version in detail from the perspective of hermeneutics and suggests some new ideas. The conclusion provides some points worth further studying.