A Study Of "Translator Responsibility" Displayed In Harold·Shadick's English Version Of The Travels Of Lao Ts' An From The Perspective Of Eco-translatology

The Travels of Lao Ts' an is a novella written by Liu E in the late Qing Dynasty,which was evaluated by Lu Xun as one of “the Four Novels Concerning Condemnation in the late Qing Dynasty”.This novel is rich in the content,profound in the meaning and has achieved a high artistic achievement.It has been translated into many languages and has a great impact both at home and abroad.It is the one with the highest artistic achievement among “the Four Novels Concerning Condemnation in the late Qing Dynasty”,and has been recognized as the World Classic Literary Work by the United Nations Educational,Scientific,Cultural Organization(UNESCO).Besides,it has reached a superb level in many aspects,such as the refinement of the national traditional culture,the philosophy of life and art,the aesthetic and equality of women,the psychology of characters and the description of music and scenes and so on.Among these English versions of The Travels of Lao Ts' an,Shadick's English version mainly adopts the strategy of foreignization,and he tries his best to retain the original Chinese culture in his English version.Furthermore,the illustrations within his English version and the annotations at the end of his version can provide western readers the opportunity to understand and learn Chinese culture.As a western sinologist,Shadick is rigorous about his works.Before translating,he has visited Liu E's first son and learned many relevant information about Liu E and the novel---The Travels of Lao Ts' an.He has even written a long preface and detailed annotations(includes myths and legends,historical allusions,system of names,customs,etc.)in his translated version.In the process of translating this novel,Shadick has endeavored to “keep as close to the Chinese text as is consonant with readable English” and tried to retain the unique Chinese culture in his English version with fidelity.Meanwhile,Shadick has made great efforts to maintain the best ecological balance between the source text and the target text.It can be said that the translator,Shadick,has fulfilled his “translator responsibility” in many cases.However,after detailed research,the author has found that in the process of translating,the translator has also inevitably failed to fulfill his “translator responsibility” on some occasions.The eco-translatology theory believes that “ the process of translation is the ‘adaption' of the translator to the translational eco-environment,with the original text being the typically important component,and the ‘selection' of the translated texts made by the translational eco-environment,with the translator being the typically important component.The translation activity takes the translator as the center.(Hu,2013,p.86),so the translator should shoulder the responsibility for “all subjects” that are related to translation activities.That is to say,translators should adapt to the translational eco-environment,cultivate the target language ecology,pay attention to the acceptance and spreading of the translated text,and seek the “survival” and “permanence” of the translated text.Consequently,the author chooses eco-translatology theory as the guiding theory to have a rather systematic presentation about whether or not Shadick has fulfilled the “translator responsibility” in his English version of The Travels of Lao Ts' an.In terms of Shadik's fulfillment of “translator responsibility”,he has mainly adopted the following three approaches to fulfilling his “translator responsibility”,namely,“making up” for the translational eco-evironment,properly adjusting the ecologies of the source text and the target text and dynamically adjusting the “translation community”,so as to provide the target readers with an excellent English version of The Travels of Lao Ts' an.In terms of Shadick's failure to fulfill his “translator responsibility”,he has mainly produced imperfect translated versions from the following three aspects: partial imbalances in linguistic ecology,partial imbalances in cultural ecology and partial imbalances in communicative ecology.Moreover,the thesis offers corresponding solutions to solving these problems mentioned above.Based on this specific solutions,the author provides a revised version.The author hopes that through the research,it can make some contributions to the improvement of the study of “translator responsibility” from the perspective of eco-translatology.At the same time,the author hopes to provide some reference for the study of C-E translation of Chinese Classics.