| Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez(Márquez for short) has long been quite familiar to the Chinese. By virtue of his techniques of magic realism, this world-renowned writer has exerted a strong and long-lasting influence in China. Although it is difficult to have a clear idea of what literary mechanism and background have led to such a great influence of Márquez, translation of Márquez’s works is surely an essential portion and indispensable precondition. Translation is not only an entrance to interpret Márquez, but also an effective channel of transmitting exotic cultures as well as a special way of communicating between different languages.Medio-translatology is a humanistic discipline which aims at examining and illustrating how different nations, cultures and societies communicate with one another by putting its research objects(including translators, their works and translation behaviors) against two or more different national, cultural and social backgrounds. This article will study the Chinese translation of Márquez from a Medio-translatological point of view by comparing the different versions of Chinese translation of Márquez’s main works and will try to analyze the causes of the differences and their implications and significance.Very great changes have taken place in China in social, political, historical, cultural and ideological spheres during the period of more than 30 years since the translation and introduction of Márquez from early 1980 s to 2012. These changes have found expressions in the different Chinese translations of the same English versions of Márquez through the translators’ reading and decoding of the English versions and completing their coding in Chinese by transforming them into the target language. The first chapter of the article will illustrate the translation variations of Márquez, from the aspects of language use, translation styles, the choices of what to translate by comparing the Chinese translations of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gao Changrong, Yang Naidong, Song Biyun and Love in the Time of Cholera translated by Jiang Zongcao and Jiang Fengguang, Xu Helin and Wei Min and Yang ling from the English versions of these two novels. The second chapter attempts to explain and analyze the possible causes of translation variations shown in different translations of Márquez with regard to the essence of language transformation, translators’ personal factors and the historical contexts they were in. In the last chapter, the author will discuss the implications of the translation variations in the flexibility in complying with translation criteria, the important role the translators play in the communication between Chinese and Western cultures. The study of the translation variations of Márquez will help us understand the features, laws and functions of literature translation between different nations, different languages and different cultures. |
