| Na Han(《呐喊》)and Pang Huang(《彷徨》)are Lu Xun’s(1881-1936)two important collections of short stories.Since the first English version of A Q Zheng Zhuan(《阿Q正传》)was published in 1926,many works from them have been translated into English,though only three translations contain all the texts from Na Han and Pang Huang.The three translations are rendered by the American sinologist William A.Lyell,the British translator Julia Lovell,and the renowned Chinese translator couple Yang Xianyi&Gladys Yang,respectively.As they all have a large readership and their translators possess distinctive translation perspectives,the three translations are chosen as the subjects of the study.This study focuses on the three complete English translations of Na Han and Pang Huang.Through a self-built corpus,the research employs a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to comparatively analyze the translation styles of these three versions.Quantitative analysis reveals significant differences among the three translations in aspects such as type-token ratio,mean sentence length,complex sentences,etc.Lyell’s translation has the highest word count but the lowest vocabulary diversity.It features longer mean sentence length and frequently uses complex sentences.It uses more conjunctions than original English novels,with fewer personal pronouns for reference.The text is relatively loose,and its readability is in an intermediate position among the three translations.Lovell’s translation displays diverse vocabulary usage,with its type-token ratio surpassing that of original English novels.It has a long mean word length but a shorter mean sentence length,resulting in concise sentences with noticeably fewer clauses.Both conjunction and personal pronoun usage are limited,making it the most challenging version.The Yangs’ translation features low vocabulary diversity.Both its mean word length and mean sentence length are short,with the use of clauses falling in between the other two translations.Its uses of conjunctions and personal pronouns are significantly higher than in the other two translations,which accords with the fact that it is the easiest version for reading.Qualitative analysis shows that most information about age or social status in Chinese social appellations and the content related to Chinese culture are preserved in Lyell’s translation as he aims to provide English readers with the same level of understanding as Chinese readers.Besides,numerous footnotes are provided for background information.By contrast,Lovell prioritizes the acceptability of the target text over its fidelity to the source text.Consequently,most Chinese social appellations are translated with common English appellations,such as "Mr." and“Mrs.".She also omits much of the content related to traditional Chinese culture.For the retained content,Lovell often employs expressions from English culture or provides explanations directly within the text,with few footnotes.The Yangs believe that translators should be as faithful as possible to the source text,but they also care about the smoothness of the target text.Therefore,both Lyell’s and Lovell’s strategies for rendering Chinese social appellations can be found in this version.Much content related to Chinese culture is retained,and quite a few footnotes are added.However,sometimes they simplify the content without providing explanatory notes,which may get readers confused.This study indicates that it may be difficult to distinguish translation styles based solely on quantitative analysis of corpus data,and qualitative analysis can be included for a more comprehensive and systematic investigation.In addition,translators of the same source text can differ in their views on translation,styles,and finally,acceptance of their work,and this study may provide reference significance for professional translators and translation students. |
