Mobilizing Initiative In Restrictions-A Study On The Essence Of Translator’s Subjectivity In Bing Xin’s Translation Of Sand And Foam

In the waves of globalization,the collision and fusion among different cultures can be seen everywhere.As the medium of cultural communication,the role of translation in globalization is self-evident.While as a performer of translation activities and an important member of cultural communication,translators also play a vital role in the process of globalization.For that reason,translator’s subjectivity has gradually become one of the hot topics in translation studies both at home and abroad.However,the vast majority of existing researches tend to equate translator’s subjectivity with initiative,which will inevitably lead the research on translator’s subjectivity to the extreme.Therefore,it is of great significance for translation practitioners to have a correct understanding of the essence and connotation of translator’s subjectivity.Khalil Gibran was a Lebanese writer and one of the founders of Arabic literature.His representative Sand and Foam is a book of aphorisms about life,humanity,art and love.Bing Xin finished the translation of Sand and Foam in 1931,her translation is regarded as the masterpiece of literary translation.Therefore,this thesis takes Bing Xin’s translation of Sand and Foam as the research object and performs in-depth analysis of some examples in the text with the expectations to provide some beneficial references for the future translation practitioners.According to the research findings,translator’s subjectivity is the key to the success of Bing Xin’s translation of Sand and Foam.The results of the research further reveal the essence of translator’s subjectivity,that is,a dialectical unity of initiative and restrictiveness.As the subject of translation activities,translators do have chances to exert their creativity and initiative in the course of translation,but they will be confronted with the restrictions of source text,target readers,translator’s own ability and other factors inevitably.Hence,translators must have a clear understanding of the restrictions in the process of translation and deal with them properly,so as to give full play to their own initiative and finally open the door to cultural exchange and integration.