A Comparative Study On Two English Translations Of The Ture Story Of Ah-Q From The Perspective Of George Steiner’s Hermeneutics Translation Theory

The True Story of Ah-Q is one of Mr.Lu Xun’s representative works.Since its publication and translation,it has attracted the attention and love of readers at home and abroad.With the expansion of Lu Xun’s influence in the literary and ideological circles at home and abroad,more and more scholars have begun to conduct multi-faceted research on Lu Xun and Lu Xun’s works.The True Story of Ah Q has also become one of the concerns of scholars.However,because hermeneutic translation theory as a rising theory has not gained the same influence as some mainstream translation theories such as Nida’s functional equivalence theory in China,scholars related to translation studies have not studied The True Story of Ah Q from the perspective of hermeneutic translation theory.George Steiner’s book After Babel:Aspects of Language and Translation published in 1970 is generally regarded as the beginning of hermeneutic translation theory.Steiner proposes four motions of hermeneutics translation:trust,aggression,incorporation,and compensation,explains how a translator starts from trusting and selecting the text,incorporates it into the target language with his own understanding by invading the meaning of the original text,and finally restores the balance between the original text and the translation through the compensation motion.This theory absorbs many theoretical achievements of modern hermeneutics,regards the translation process as the process of understanding,and provides a new perspective for translation studies.This thesis adopts both case analysis and comparative analysis based on the theory of four motions of George Steiner’s hermeneutic translation process.The author chooses the two English translations of The Ture Story of Ah-Q by two famous translators Yang Hsien-yi and Julia Lovell as the research object,selects some specific translation examples,and analyzes how the translations of these two translators reflect the motions of trust,aggression,incorporation and compensation.It is found from the study that due to the discrepancy of translators’ translation purpose and the choice of translation strategy,the degree of each hermeneutic translation motion reflected in specific translation examples is also different.As for Yang Hsien-yi and Julia Lovell,although they have different translation styles and translation strategies,both of them have successfully kept the balance between the original text and the translated text required by hermeneutic translation theory,achieved their respective translation goals,and provided readers with excellent translations.This study helps us to see clearly how the two translators conveyed the connotation of Lu Xun’s works,especially the connotation of Chinese culture,and it is hoped that it will provide a reference for the future translation and research of similar works.