A Study Of Xin-Da-Ya In Translation Of Historical Material

The translation criterion of "Xin-Da-Ya" covers the three stages of translation:comprehending,interpreting and localization.It requires fidelity,or faithfulness to the ST,a full,clear expression of the original meaning of the ST in the TT,correct wording of the TT,as well as acceptance by the target reader in terms of social,psychological and cultural backgrounds.By definition translation is an inter-lingual activity of translating meaning,and meaning consists of conceptive meaning,contextual meaning,formal meaning,stylistic meaning,figurative meaning and cultural meaning.Successful translation of multi-level meaning would provide the key to achieving "Xin-Da-Ya" In reality,however,as the ST of different text types are characterized by different kinds of meanings,specific requirements for "Xin-Da-Ya" vary as well.This thesis begins with Yan Fu’s "Xin-Da-Ya" theory to see how it can be applied in the translation of historical materials.The discussion focuses on the translation of"The Meiji Revolution",an excerpt from Marius B.Jasen’s The Making of Modern Japan,on which my commentary is based."The Meiji Revolution" is characteristic of concise language and a clear logic.Unlike literary texts,it is of a different style which may not contain aesthetic effects or emotions one should care about in translation,but it is still multiple in meaning,demanding a sophisticated understanding of its subtlety.Thus a complete translation has to emphasize how to render the conceptive meaning,contextual meaning and cultural meaning in the TT.Following the discussion,the commentary of the thesis analyses the linguistic features of "The Meiji Revolution" that include:1)plentiful of terms and historical documents;2)cultural default,marked as confusion and ambiguity caused by the author’s over-simplification or omission of historical facts;3)complicated and informative sentences,all presenting themselves as a challenge to the translator.Guided by these features,my discussion tries to elaborate how I treat them by following Yan Fu’s "Xin-Da-Ya" theory,arguing that the following strategies may be applied in order to meet specific challenges derived from the text chosen as ST:1)borrowing and adapting help to correctly reproduce the terms and historical documents in the TT;2)amplifying and specifying prove to be effective compensation methods for the omitted historical and cultural background;3)reconstructing,cutting,blending and shifting perspective can be used to overcome the lexical and syntactic differences between English and Chinese,thus adapting the TT into a more readable and faithful one.These strategies help to effectively translate the conceptive,contextual and cultural meanings of the ST into the TT,and consequently achieve faithfulness,fluency and readability in translation.