A Study Of The Translation Of Puns In The English And German Versions Of Fortress Besteged Based On Delabastita’s Pun Transiation Theory

Fortress Besieged,a satirical novel by Qian Zhongshu,is of great significance in the Chinese literary history.One of its eminent features is the frequent use of ingenious puns.After its publication in 1947,Fortress Besieged has been translated into many languages.The English version was translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K.Mao,and the German version by Monika Motsch.Approaches adopted by translators to reproduce the puns reflect their understanding of translation and the source text.Puns are difficult to translate because it’s not always easy to find equivalents in the source and target languages.Many scholars in translation studies even argue that puns are untranslatable.In contrast to conventional views,the Belgian linguist Dirk Delabastita believes that puns are translatable and proposes 10 strategies for pun translation:PUN>PUN(same type),PUN>PUN(different type),PUN>PUN(different pun),PUN>PUNOID,PUN>NON-PUN,PUN>ZERO,DIRECT COPY,NON-PUN>PUN,ZERO>PUN and EDITORIAL TECHNIQUES.Based on Delabastita’s theory,the thesis analyzes 32 puns in Fortress Besieged and compares their English and German translations.These puns are divided into two categories:puns translated with the same strategy in the two versions and puns translated with different strategies.The thesis also investigates the meaning differences between the source text and translations.Finally,possible contributing factors are given to explain differences in strategy and meaning.The analysis indicates that the English translation mainly uses the PUN>NON-PUN strategy,while the German translation takes a more flexible and balanced approach,adopting different strategies such as PUN>PUN,PUN>PUNOID and PUN>NON-PUN.The reason is that the English translators focus more on conveying the meaning of the text than reproducing the puns in the translation.On the contrary,the German translator regards puns as an important element with profound meanings and tends to reproduce as many puns as possible.Due to the different strategies adopted,the English and German translations of Fortress Besieged also have different semantic effects.Nearly half of the puns are translated into non-puns in the English version,thus in general the meaning remains unchanged.But in some cases the absence of pun and its double meanings makes it very difficult for readers to understand the text.The German translation takes a more flexible and balanced approach.PUN>PUNOID and PUN>PUN strategies are more frequently used in the German translation.Such an approach results in more but minor meaning differences,and readers can relate to the context and/or editorial notes to understand the meaning.Some general suggestions for pun translation can also be drawn from the analysis of Fortress Besieged:a)Pay attention to the role of puns in readers’understanding of the context.b)Usemore than one strategy whenever necessary(e.g.editorial techniques).c)Refer to translations in similar languages and cultures for possible hints.