A Study On The Translator’s Creative Treason In The Translation Of Happy Dreams From The Perspective Of George Steiner’s Hermeneutics

In recent years,under the background of Chinese literature “going out”,an increasing number of Chinese literary works have been translated and introduced to foreign countries.As an important part of Chinese literature,Chinese native literature has thus received wide attention from Western readers.Jia Pingwa’s novel Happy Dreams,one of the major masterpieces of native literature,was translated by the internationally renowned sinologist Nicky Harman and published by Amazon in 2017.The novel is a humorous and witty account of the hardships of urban scavengers in Xi’an.It also shows the unremitting pursuit of ideals by these scavengers living at the bottom of society and the unique folklore of Shaanxi.The English version of Happy Dreams has received wide acclaim from Western readers upon its publication.And its sales and ratings on Goodreads,a mainstream book review site in the United States,rank among the top works of contemporary Chinese literature in English translation.Therefore,the study of the English translation of such a novel with rich vernacular flavor is helpful to promote contemporary Chinese literature to the world better.The hermeneutic translation theory is a theory about “understanding” and“interpretation”.This theory emphasizes the pluralistic interpretation of translation,and its theoretical connotation affirms translators’ subject positions and breaks with the traditional faithful translation view.George Steiner’s hermeneutic theory views the translation process as a four-step process of “trust,aggression,incorporation,and compensation”,focusing on the dynamic balance between the original and the translation.As the subject of translation,the translator’s multiple interpretations in the translation will inevitably lead to creative treason,which makes George Steiner’s hermeneutics and creative treason have commonalities.Guided by George Steiner’s hermeneutics,this thesis adopts the descriptive research method,selects the English version of Happy Dreams as the research corpus,and explores the translator’s creative treason in the translation from four-motion of Steiner’s hermeneutics:“trust”,“aggression”,“incorporation” and “compensation”,and analyzes the translation methods adopted by the translator in the translation.The research results are displayed below: 1.The translator’s trust in the original is based on her appreciation of the novel and strong empathy with the characters.Meanwhile,the translator’s extraordinary language ability and rich translation experience guarantee the success of the translation.The translator’s “trust” in the original text is not equal to the traditional faithful translation.In order to achieve the goal of effective translation,the translator’s creative treason is mainly reflected in two aspects: personalized translation and abridged translation;Out of her linguistic and cultural awareness,the translator intrudes into the source text and absorbs the original in terms of linguistic meaning and form.Finally the translator compensates for the original text in terms of both background information and grammar.The translator’s creative treason runs through the whole process.2.During the translation process,the translator adopts flexible translation methods in order to achieve desired translation effect.In the motion of trust,in order to convey effective information,the translator adopts abridged translation method to reduce the difficulty of understanding by target readers;In the motion of aggression,the translator uses paraphrase,idiomatic translation,and syntactic shift to weaken the cultural differences brought by the original dialect and conform to the expressions of the target countries;In the motion of incorporation,the translator preserves the characteristics of dialectal vocabulary,four-character phrase,Shaanxi folk songs,and classical Chinese featured in the original mainly through free translation,paraphrase,literal translation,and transliteration.In the motion of compensation,the translator mainly uses addition and paraphrase to compensate for the missing information in the original,which achieves a dynamic balance between the original text and the translated text.On the whole,in order to promote the overseas dissemination of Happy Dreams,the translator adopts a reader-centered translation strategy,taking into account the acceptability of the target readers,and prefers to use the free translation method to conform to the target context.