A Study On Yu Guangzhong’s Translation Thoughts And Practice

Yu Guangzhong is a famous contemporary Chinese writer, scholar, and translator. He has expertise in both Chinese and Western literature. He made great contributions and achievements in literary teaching, creation, researching, translation, and criticism. As an outstanding representative of the modern Chinese translators, he published nearly 20 translation works including The Importance of Being Earnest, Lust for Life, A Selection of Modern British and American Poems, and Old Man and Sea. He also wrote many translation commentary articles, where he intensively explains his understanding of the nature of translation and his translation methods and strategies. In comparison with his great achievements as a translator, studies on his translation thoughts and practice fall far short of comparison. This study thinks there are three major reasons for this. The first one is the lack of communication between Taiwan and Mainland China for a long time. The second one is that his being a successful and influential writer, poet, and scholar distracts people’s attention from his accomplishments as a translator. The third reason is people’s long-existed view of the inferiority of translation to composition.This study uses Yu Guangzhong’s understanding the nature of translation as a key clue and discusses the formation and influence of Yu Guangzhong’s translation thoughts and examines his translation practices. Apart from the introduction, there are four major chapters. The first chapter is the literature view. The second chapter introduces Yu Guangzhong’s life as a translator. The third chapter introduces Yu Guangzhong’s translation thoughts, including his understanding of the nature of translation, his translation strategies, and translations critisicm. The fourth chapter examines his translation practices in the light of his translation thoughts.Our major findings is: translating the original experience instead of original text makes up the core of his translation thought, which in turn decides his translation strategy and translation criticism, and directs his translation practices.