The Translation of Wolf Totem from the Perspective of Translation Variation Theory
Throughout the whole translation history, traditional literary translation methods mainly focus on word-for-word translation, i.e. complete translation.maximizes the original information but cannot optimize the information of the original works. Some scholars argue that translating literary works word by word or ntence by ntence is nothing el but really rigid matter sometimes. It is totally unnecessary to transmit every ntence,even every word to the target readers. The purpo of translation is to enable target readers to grasp the main contents and understand culture and customs in the original text concily and explicitly. Translation Variation Theory offers a very good solution to the problems.
As a newly emerged theory,translation variation theory was first put forward by Professor Huang Zhonglian in the late 1990s.According to Professor Huang, translation variation theory has four characters.First, translation variation theory thinks highly of the subjects of translation, .Second,translation variation is a dissimilation of the complete translation.Third,translation variation is a partial negation of the source texts.Fourth, the value of the translated text exists in the author's and the translator's intellectual work.
The theory provides scholars with a new angle for rearches on the literary translation.Translation variation is not a new phenomenon and it has been in existence for a long time. At the very beginning, there is no such word as "variation" in translation studies. The u of translation variation can be traced back to the translation of ancient Bible and after that this phenomenon appears more and more in translation field. Focusing on the Chine history of translation,we can find that translation variation is adopted by many scholars from ancient to modem times.
According to translation variation theory,there are ven variation strategies, namely,supplement, deletion, edition,summarization, reduction, combination and adaptation.The theory emphasizes translator and target readers. Readers' acceptance is the decisive factor in translation process.
Wolf Totem is a novel written by a Chine writer Jiang Rong. The story consists of dozens of successive "wolf stories". Since its publication, it becomes a great bestller and has attracted many scholars' attention both at home and abroad. And then it is transl
海简笔画ated into English by a renowned American translator, Howard Goldblatt. On the whole, the English version of Wolf Totem translated by Howard Goldblatt is really great. The translated version takes target readers into consideration.Through reading the literature, the author finds out that rearchers mainly focus on the feasibility of translation variation theory rather than the value of this theory.The application of translation variation strategies in the translation of Wolf Totem provides translator with proper opportunity to make full u of translator's subjectivity, which can make the information of translated text largely accepted by the target readers.
转正考核For example,there are many Mongol names in the original work,such as “毕利格”，“嘎斯迈”,“巴图”，“乌力吉”and so on. According to the method of translating Chine names,“毕利格”should be translated into “Bi Lige". As long as any Chine read the novel,they will soon figure out that the names are all Mongol names, which have Mongol meanings and local features. Therefore,if translated in a Chine name way,the novel will lo its cultural information. Noticing this difference between Chine Han name and Mongol name, Goldblatt translated “毕利格”王戎识李into "Bilgee",“嘎斯迈”儿童拍手歌into "Gasmai",“巴图”into"Batu",“
乌力吉” into "Uljill",which sound more like English names. In this way, the target readers can better understand them. Translation of the names is a good example to show the translator's subjectivity.
Supplement is a translation strategy that would add necessary but not original information in the translation process. The translator adds information of the source text to ensure accurate comprehension of the source text and achieve the purpo of translation.
Example 1:
两年前陈阵从北京到达这个边境牧场插队的时候,杨柳依依的意思正是十一月下旬,暗恋的英文额企草原已是一片白雪趙白岂。( Jiang Rong,2004:4)
额企草原地处大兴安岭南边的西部,北京正北,与蒙古国接壤。自古以来就是东北地区与蒙古草原的南通道,是几个不同民族、不同游牧民族争斗的古战场,也是游牧民族农耕民族潜在冲突的拉锡之地。( Jiang Rong,2004:4)
Two years early, in late November, he had arrived in the border-region pasture as a production team member from Beijing; snow covered the land as far as the eye could e.The Olonbulag is located southwest of the Great Xing'an mountain range,directly north of Beijing; it shares a border with Outer Mongolia. Historically,it was the southern passage between Manchuria and the Mongolian steppes,and,as such, the site of battles between a host of peoples and nomadic tribes, as well as a territory in which the potential struggles for dominance by nomads and farmers was ever prent.(Howard Goldblatt,2008: 2)
连锁女装Deletion is one of translation variation strategies which refers that translator omits some information or content of the original which are not needed for readers intentionally and highlight the value of uful information.
