A Study On Lin Yutang’s Translation Of Scfl From His Cultural View

Lin Yutang is not only a writer, a linguist, but also a great translator. The statement that “Steeped in the Chinese and Western cultures, commenting on the articles all over the world” is the most vivid description of literature translator, Lin Yutang. Lin Yutang translated many Chinese literature works to the world, which made a great contribution to China international culture communication. Among those translated Chinese classical literature works, Six Chapters of a Floating Life is regarded as the most influential and successful work of Lin Yutang. At the same time, this piece of work is thought the model of culture translation and it is spread and read widely in the west. According to the news media’s statistics, Lin’s English version had been one of the most popular books for 50 weeks. So, Lin Yutang’s translation of SCFL, as one study on Lin Yutang’s translation, is becoming a research hotspot.Having been immersed in both Chinese and western culture since his childhood, Lin Yutang had experienced both Chinese and western life. So Lin Yutang is not only familiar with the traditional culture of China, but also knows well about the world’s culture. Thus, he has a special and unique view towards culture. After having a look at Lin’s life experiences, education background as well as his view of religious, philosophy, women and aesthetics, we find that Lin Yutang’s cultural view is complex and comprehensive. In details, Lin Yutang’s cultural view is personal, national and international, which includes his human natural view, his affection to Chinese classical culture as well as his inclusive and calm cultural attitude to the world’s culture. The thesis, from cultural perspective, combines Lin Yutang’s cultural view to have a look at the relationship between Lin’s cultural view and his translation of SCFL.Through document analysis and case study of Lin’s translational behavior and choice in the process of translating SCFL, that a close relationship between Lin’s cultural view and his translation behavior is found, that is, no matter it is the choice of original text or the choice of different translation strategies, Lin Yutang’s cultural view affected his choice of translation.As the reason why Lin Yutang chose SCFL as the translation text, on one hand, Lin Yutang wants to spread the excellent and classical culture of China to the world; on the other hand, the spirits in SCFL that the author, Shen Fu and his wife love the nature, pursue the freedom and personal happiness are in accordance with Lin Yutang’s personal pursuit. And the later is of more importance. In the actual translation process, Lin Yutang used foreignization and domestication translation strategy flexibly, taking foreignization as the main strategy and domestication as the secondary strategy. The choices of different translation strategies are all under the care of Lin Yutang’s cultural view. On one hand, due to his affection to Chinese classical culture, Lin Yutang mainly used foreignization strategy to show the westerners more Chinese culture and the spirits of the original work; on the other hand, for Lin Yutang is familiar with both the western culture and Chinese culture, he can mix the two, looking at the world’s culture and people with an objective, inclusive and neutral attitude. Therefore, in some places of the cultural translation, Lin Yutang used the domestication as the secondary strategy. While, Lin Yutang’s cultural views don’t function alone but mutually and together, which finally leads to the flexible translation and the success of the work, SCFL.