A Comparative Study On The Two English Versions Of Shan Hai Jing: A “Thick Translation” Perspective

Shan Hai Jing, a unique and invaluable encyclopedic record of various beliefs held by the ancient Chinese, has irreplaceable value and significance in Chinese classics. In recent years, an increasing attention has been given to folklore and mythology, thus the book has gradually attracted the interest of more and more domestic and foreign scholars in the related fields. At home, many consensuses have been reached with the in-depth study of Shan Hai Jing. At abroad, different translated versions have emerged, among which the English versions account for the majority. Rich in cultural imagery, together with the differences in Chinese and English culture, the translation of Shan Hai Jing will inevitably adopt some compensatory measures to achieve an effective conversion of two languages. Thick Translation, proposed by American scholar K. A. Appiah, is a conception related to cultural transmission theories. It is of great significance to the translation of Shan Hai Jing.Previous studies show that although Appiah proposes the conception of Thick Translation, the implementation of it is still a controversial issue. Appiah himself only gives a general direction and emphasizes that Thick Translation is context-dependent, and the specific methods should be designed by translators. Based on this fact, in recent years, many scholars put forward their own classifications of Thick Translation. However, most of the classifications are either incomplement or lack of theoretical support. In light of previous researches, the author firstly introduces the conception of Paratext and the translation strategies of Realia to put forward a more comprehensive classification of Thick Translation, and that is: Thick Translation presented as paratext like introductory words, graphics, pictures, ect., and Thick Translation presented as text, which can be put in another way “the translation strategies of Realia”, like calque, transcription, assimilation, formation of a new word, approximate translation and descriptive translation.Based on the classification of Thick Translation, the author then makes a comparative study of Anne Birrell’s version in 1999 and Wang Hong’s version in 2010, which are the two lastest English versions of Shan Hai Jing. The author probes into the similarities and differences between two versions and analyzes the gains and losses of each version. At last, a cause analysis is made to further explore the behind reasons that caused the differences between them. It is found that both Anne Birrell and Wang Hong adopt the method of Thick Translation during the process of interpretation of Shan Hai Jing. However, because of historicity of understanding, prejudice, fusion of horizons and effective history, the two versions exhibit their own characteristics: Birrell tends to adopt calque, descriptive translation method as well as annotation to show every connotative meaning of images that occurred in Shan Hai Jing, while Wang Hong is more inclined to use transcription and approximate translation method to realize a clear, fluent and concise translation.