A Report On The English Translation Of Kam Grand Choirs:Translation Compensation Theoretic Perspective

Kam grand choir is the general term for the polyphonic folk songs of Kam ethnic groups residing in Southwest China,which are sung on many occasions without accompaniment and conductor.It is not only the epitome of Kam musical arts but also an encyclopedic recording of Kam cultural traditions.It fulfils the multiple social functions of entertaining,educating,and enlightening people,promoting social harmony,inheriting cultural heritage and practicing sacrificial rites,and so on.In 2006,it was included in the state-level Intangible Cultural Heritage List,and in 2009,it was further included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.Kam ballads,which began to flourish in the Qing Dynasty(1644-1912 A.D.),constitute an important component of the Kam grand chorus.They are precious folk oral literature of Kam communities while their written versions recorded by Kam folk artists contribute much to the valuable treasures of the folk literary classics of Chinese ethnic groups.In this translation project,the present writer has selected 12 Kam ballads from the Kam-Chinese bilingual book 20 Pieces of Kam Ballads(Kgal Jibl 20 Meix)as the source text for translation,and 8 of the translated pieces as the corpus of the present case study,which include Jul Langc & Nyangc Muih,Bux Yil & Neix Yil,Jeml Biih’s Journey to Heaven for Bidding for Duoye,Yonc Dongh,Muih Daov,Meengh Siix& Liuuc Muih,Liangc Sans Beec & Zuc Yens Taic,and Jeml Hank,ranging in content from Kam social customs and habits,religious beliefs and rites,moral values,to the traditional folklores,love tragedies,myths and legends circulated among Kam people from generation to generation.Compensation in translation is a typical operation of cross-language transformation whereby those meanings of the SL text,which are lost in the process of translation,are rendered in the TL text in some other place or by some other means(Klaudy,2008: 163).Losses in translation can be compensated for in two ways: local compensation,in which individual,vernacular,or class speech patterns in the source text will be rendered with means available in the target text,and global compensation,in which striking and idiomatic expressions of the target language are used in the target text(the quality of which can only be evaluated from a holistic perspective)to compensate the readers for less ideal solutions because of compromises imposed upon the translator.Under the guidance of translation compensation theory,the present thesis is intended to conduct a case analysis of the present writer’s translation practice of 8 Kam grand choirs as mentioned above from the dimensions of local compensation and global dimension,which has arrived at the following results:First,local compensation techniques can be used to make up for linguistic losses,including phonetic compensation for the individuality in Kam pronunciation,lexical compensation for the particularity in Kam terminology,grammatical compensation for the deviance in Kam expressions,and textual compensation for the markedness in textual cohesion.Second,local compensation techniques can also be used to make up for cultural losses,including borrowing translation of Kam-specific terms of addresses,interpretation of Kam-specific social etiquettes,annotation for Kam-specific proverbs and idioms,amplification for Kam-specific taboos,and substitution for Kam-specific cultural images.Third,global compensation techniques can be used to make up for stylistic discrepancies,including metrical pattern resetting,rhyming scheme adjustment,meaning clarification and filtration,and style unification.Fourth,global compensation techniques can also be used to make up for aesthetic inadequacies,including structural symmetrization,musical reproduction,and rhetorical diversification.The report is concluded by making a reflection on this translation project and pointing out that translation compensation theory can provide a new solution to the linguistic and cultural losses,stylistic discrepancies,and aesthetic inadequacies in the ethnic literature translation.