A Rewriting-theoretic Account Of Back Translation In The Case Of Four Generations Under One Roof

As one of the most distinguished writers in China,Lao She was known as the“Artist of the People” and the “Master of Language”.He left us with plentiful literary works,including Rickshaw Boy,Teahouse,and Four Generations under One Roof which is his longest fiction,consisting of three parts.Unfortunately the last thirteen chapters of the third part were missing for unknown reasons.In 1982,Ma Xiaomi translated those chapters from the English abbreviated version into Chinese.However,Ma's back-translation remains largely untouched.This study has collected two versions translated separately by Ma Xiaomi and Zhao Wuping.By drawing a contrast between the two versions of back-translation,it aims to answer two questions:(1)did Ma and Zhao alter the English versions? If they did,which parts of the English versions had been heavily altered in their back-translations and in what ways;(2)and if Ma has consciously manipulated the back-translation,what were the patronage,ideological and poetological constraints behind those changes according to the Rewriting Theory.The study has shown that Ma heavily edits the original English version by means of omission,addition,substitution,and intentional mistranslation,while Zhao's back-translation is relatively literal through preserving the original meaning.Zhao also unconsciously mistranslates a few expressions.In the aspect of patronage,Ma belongs to the coterie of translators and writers.Her back-translations were published by the traditionally authoritative publishers and literary journals which exerted a huge influence.Zhao's version was published by a relatively unknown publisher.In the aspect of poetics,the codification of Lao She's works of literature determines that his works have entered the dominant poetics.The status of classics decides that translators should take after the Universe of Discourse of Lao She during their back-translations.Ma and Zhao have followed the constraints of dominant poetics by means of imitating the Beijing dialect and colloquialism employed by Lao She in order to restore the characteristics of his language.In the aspect of ideology,it is concluded that Ma can be classified into translators influenced by a conservative ideology in a totalitarian society.She largely deletes the ST to justify and embellish the hero Rey Tang to create the perfect image of an anti-Japanese activist.But for negative characters,she consciously adds abusive expressions and uses intentional mistranslations.She replaces expressions such as ‘Son of Han',‘ten thousand years to the Chinese Republic',and ‘flag with the blue sky and the white sun' in the ST with ‘descendants of the Yellow Emperor',‘ten thousand years to the Chinese nation',and ‘national flag' in the TT.On the contrary,Zhao produces a highly literal translation to keep in line with the English version and reproduce inner conflicts of the character.