A Comparative Study Of Two Translation Versions Of Moment In Peking Between Zhang Zhenyu And Yu Fei From The Perspective Of Translator’s Subjectivity

Born at the end of the nineteenth century,Mr.Lin Yutang began to create a large number of works in the early twentieth century.He is a well-known Chinese bilingual writer between Chinese and English in literature all over the world.He has created many influential Chinese and English works throughout his life.Among his English works,Moment in Peking is the most famous one.Moment in Peking was written by him in the late1930 s when he was living in Paris.It is a novel describing modern Chinese society.He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.Although he failed to win the prize in the end,his influence should not be underestimated.Moment in Peking presents the social miniature of many changes in modern China by describing the convergence and separation of Yao family,Zeng family and Niu family.This novel,written in English,has been very popular since its publication and has been translated into Chinese,Japanese,French,German and several other languages.According to incomplete statistics,there are about seven Chinese versions,among which Yu Fei’s version and Zhang Zhenyu’s version are more influential and popular.However,due to the difference of cultural background,social environment and other factors,there are great differences between the two versions.Translation is a complex cross-cultural human activity,which is influenced by many factors,such as the author,the translator and the reader.Translation is of great significance in cultural communication,especially,the translator plays an important role.Translation is often regarded as a kind of re-creation.The essence of re-creation is the exertion of translator’s subjectivity.However,most of the translation studies still focus on the text itself and pay less attention to the translator’s subjectivity.Until the 1970 s,when western translatology put forward the "cultural turn" concept in translation studies,this problem was improved,and people gradually realized the influence and importance of the translator in translation.This paper chooses Yu Fei’s and Zhang Zhenyu’s version of Moment in Peking as the research objects,and makes a comparative study of the differences between the two versions from the perspective of translator’s subjectivity.The translator’s subjectivity,subjectivity is the translator,has three main characteristics: initiative,passivity and creativity.The exertion of translator’s subjectivity will affect the translator’s understanding of the source text and the nature of translation,and ultimately present different versions.Based on this,the author makes a more detailed comparative study of the translated text from the translator’s personal choice and linguistic level.Through comparative analysis,the author draws the conclusion that the translator’s personal choice is influenced by such factors: translation thoughts,translation purposes and aesthetic preferences,which further affects the translator’s choice of the target language.In addition,the author also makes a comparative study of the differences between the two versions at the linguistic level.To a certain extent,the differences in language choices determined the differences of the translation versions.Through comparative analysis,this paper aims to provide some references for the study of translator’s subjectivity,and at the same time,offering a deeper understanding of the two different translation versions.