A Comparative Study Between Two Translation Versions of the Real Story of Ah Q

赖寒

（成都中医药大学外语学院，四川 成都 610000）

A Comparative Study Between Two Translation Versions of the Real Story of Ah Q

赖寒

（成都中医药大学外语学院，四川 成都 610000）

Lu Xun has been regared as a great writer,thinker and reformer in China’s modern times.He excelled in creating short storiesand essaysto attack the social evils.His style can be characterized as conciseness and harsh irony.The real story of Ah Q isone ofhisrepresentative work ofshort storiesfrom the short story collection“Call to Arms”.Thispaper aimsto analyze and compare two translation versions given by the Chinese couple translators Yang Xianyi and American translator William A.Lyell through two aspects,namely translation purpose and translation standard so as to lay a good foundation for further study oftranslating Lu Xun’sshort stories.

Style;translation purpose;translation standard

Introduction:The modern Chinese writer,Lu Xun enjoys great popularity in China.Chairman Mao thought highly of him and described himas“the Saint ofmodern China”He is well-known for his short stories.A great manyscholars at home and abroad are interested in the studyofhis works.The Real StoryofAh Qis one ofthem.It has been translated into several languages.The first English translation version of it was done by the Chinese American George Kin Leung. Then other translation versions done by translators both at home and abroad came into being after that.Of them,the two translation versions by Yang couple and Lyell are highly praised among people. Therefore,this paper aims to analyze and compare two translation versions given by the Chinese couple translators Yang Xianyi and American translator William A.Lyell through two aspects,namely translation purpose and translation standard so as to lay a good foundation for further study oftranslatingLu Xun’s short stories.

1.Introduction of Lu Xun and His Creation of the Real Story of Ah Q

1.1 Introduction ofLu Xun(including hiswriting style)

Lu Xun,whose real name was Zhou Shuren was a great writer and thinker in China’s modern times.He introduced the vernacular writing in modern Chinese literature to replace the traditional literary style.During his life time,Lu Xun wrote a great many short satirical stories and essays.The short stories in mainly collected in two volumes Call to Arms and Wandering.The"Real Story of Ah Q,"which is included in Call to Arms,is Lu Xun's most representative work. After his death,he was called"the saint of modern China"by Mao Zedong.

Lu Xun initiallytended tobecome a doctor and studied medicine in Japan.He wanted to save the lives of Chinese people.But while studying in Japan,he found Chinese students there were indifferent watching a Japanese film showing a Chinese spy being executed. Then he realized it was even urgent to cure the illness in Chinese people’s mind than their physical health.He turned to the pen as his fighting tools in the hope of awaking the thoughts of Chinese people, gettingrid ofthe ignorance and blindness and bringingchanges ofsocial habits.

His writing style is known as conciseness and skillful use of irony.It has been commented as“tense and trenchant use of language,biting satire,powerful symbolism and close attention to compositional structure”.In a broader term,his fiction conveys both“sympathetic engagement”and“ironic detachment”at different moments.In The Real Story of Ah Q,the author expressed his great sympathy for Ah Q’s miserable life.At the same time,he author also applied the harsh irony to criticize Ah Q’s self-deception and the cruelty of the society in the hope of arousing Chinese peasants' awareness and desire for revolution.

1.2 Creation ofthe Real Story ofAh Q

After the opium war,China had suffered greatly both internally and externally.On one hand,Chinese people were under the cruel rule ofthe feudal government.On the other hand,theywere bullied by the Western invaders.The 1911 bourgeois democratic revolution led by Sun Yat-Sen succeeded in ending the control of the feudal government.However,it failed in embodying the democratic thoughts in the masses for the Chinese people then being enslaved in the thought for so long.And the foreign dominance remained.Therefore the 1911 revolution then was incomplete and Chinese people at that time were in turmoil.

Lu Xun created The Real Story of Ah Q in 1921 after the May 4th movement characterized as anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism in 1919.At that time,he was in the frontier of positively publicizing the“New Culture,New Thought and New Morality”so as to crack down the backward feudal thoughts that had restrained Chinese people’s thoughts for solong.

The Real Story ofAh Q was set against in the 1911 revolution in a remote and isolated village called Weizhuang.Ah Q was the miniature of Chinese peasants who were exploited and tortured both physically and mentally by the imperialism and feudalism.That book depicts Ah Q,a miserable peasant who was constantly teased and bullied by his fellowmen,the officials and the revolutionaries.Though he was always defeated by them,he adopted a Psychological Victory mindset which made him conceited even after all these sufferings. When he was beaten by the idler,he comforted himselfby taking as ifhe was beating by his own unfilial son.After being kicked and blown in the gamblingsite,he gave himselfanother slaps on the face as ifhe paid pack his humiliation by defeating his other self.This short novel can be served as a mirror of the rural life during the 1911 revolution which was the exact depiction ofenslavement offeudalism afflicted by the lowlifes there.In a broader sense,it is also the miniature of the nation suppression bythe imperialismand feudalismin those days.

2.Comparison between Translation Versions

2.1 From the viewpoint oftranslation purpose

Lyell’s translation is mainly aimed at English-speaking people while Yang’s is targeted at both English-speaking people and English learners in China.Lyell was a sinologist from the US.He learnt Chinese in Yale University and earned his doctorate in Chinese studies at the University of Chicago.He then went to Taiwan,China to learn Chinese as well.With English as his mother tongue,he also had a good mastery of Chinese.As Professor Emeritus Lyman Van Slyke, an expert on Chinese history said,”I shared the widespread admiration for Bill's fluency and wit in so many modes and styles of Chinese".Lyell serves the purpose of meeting the needs of native English-speaking people who are interested in Chinese culture.Thus he plays an important role as a bridge to spread out Chinese culture to the western world.His translation of modern Chinese short stories is aimed at the Westerners.

Yangis Chinese whoexcel in both Chinese and Western culture. When he was young,he received education of Chinese classics at home.Then he went to England to study classics and English literature.He carried out translation with his wife,an English woman who was interested in Chinese culture.Theyco-translated ancient Chinese Classics such as such as"Chu Ci","Li Sao","Selection of Shi Ji", "Selected Tales ofthe Han,Wei and Six Dynasties Periods","Selected TangDynasty Stories"Ofwhich,their translation ofADreamofthe Red Mansions"has won them the most popularity.They also translated modern Chinese short stories such as"Selected Works of Lu Xun" intoEnglish.GuoXiaoyongcommented Yangat the Translation award ceremonyas“has made outstandingcontributions tothe Chinese-foreign cultural exchanges,especially in introducing Chinese culture to the world”It showed,tosome extent,Yangserved as a cultural emissary tomake his own cultural understood and appreciated bythe people in Western world.He has the strong sense of carrying forward his native culture and adding more power to the influence ofit.Eva Hung put it that“Translation out of the mother tongue can be considered a highly moral and patriot act.”The above sentence can be a suitable summery of one of Yang’s roles.At the same time,he needs to focus on the interest of those Chinese people who are in the process of acquiring English as a second language.Compared with Lyell,Yang’s translation works of Chinese short stories(The Real Story of Ah Q is included)is not only targeted at readers from Western countries,but also English learners in China.What’s more,the English language learners in China can be the more possible potential readers.

2.2 From the viewpoint oftranslation standard

According to translation master Qian Zhongshu,the highest standard of literary translation is“transmigration”.He further explains that a piece ofwritingtaken from one language toanother without showing strain inflicted by differences in language customs while perfectly preserving the original style can be said to be in a state of“transmigration”.In other words,Qian put forward the reproduction of the literary text through translation by retaining the spiritual resemblance of the original one.To achieve that high standard,it is essential for translators to retain the style of the original satisfactorily.As Liu Zhongde,a learned scholar in translation put the macroscopic and microscopic viewin dealing with reproducing the original style.Then we will examine the two translation versions from those two views so as tomake a comparison ofthe two.

2.2.1 Fromthe macroscopic view

First,we will begin with the macroscopic view.In Liu’s word, the macroscopic view (literary point of view)refers to that one’s translation should be“in conformitywith the thought,feelingand the style of the original”.Reading through the two translation versions of the Real StoryofAh Q,a vivid picture can be seen in our mind as the main character Ah Q please and comfort himself by applying the“psychological victory”even after constant bullies from others.While reading the translation versions,one can perceive the original author’s criticism against the social evil,his intention of awaking the innocent common people and arouse their desire for revolution.The very sense ofAh Qismcan be felt which is the essence ofthe original writing as well as the symbol of mindset of Chinese people who had been exploited by both the feudal rule and foreign dominance.What’s more,exploring through the apparent amusement of Ah Q’s ridiculous words and behaviors,one can find Lu Xun’s profound sympathy with the hapless Ah Q.His pity toward Ah Q and resentment toward the cruel society is reexpressed in both of the translation versions.At last,the main structure,the tone and the content are effectively carefully transferred in both of the translation versions.To conclude,in a broad sense,both ofthe twotranslation versions are in conformitywith the thought,feelingand the style ofthe original.

2.2.2 Fromthe microscopic point ofview

Then let us move to the microscopic view (linguistic point of view).Liu explains it as follows“From the linguist point of view,style is formed by the happy coordination of paragraphs,sentence and words.”It means that the successful reproduction of the translation version is determined by the choice of words,sentence patterns and the structure of the paragraph and the harmony and unity of the three in the translation process.

First,we will look at the choice of words.The focus will be laid on analyzingthe twotranslators’renderingoffour-letter idioms.In the sentence“阿Q也心满意足的走了”the four word idiom“心满意足”is translated differently by Lyell and Yang.Of the Chinese idiom“心满意足”,“心满”and“意足”in fact embody the same meaning of describingsomeone whois verycontent.Therefore it suffices totranslate either one of them.Lyell renders it into fully satisfied and fully victorious in which the latter part fully victorious is added.By applying this art(the art of additon)of translation,Lyell not only achieves the beauty in form and sound as has been displayed in the“心满意足”,the four Chinese characters but also demonstrates the ironic effect in the original writing by visualizing readers the funny and content looks of Ah Q.He is in fact a real loser however he masters theart ofpsychological victory.The added“fully victorious”is in conformity with the original author’s ironic style.While Yang translated the four-character idiom into one word“satisfied”.On one hand,Yang has the very mastery of Chinese culture and he is able to draw the essence of the Chinese idiom and summarize it into one word“satisfied”.On the other hand,his rendering also accords with the Lu Xun, the original writer’s conciseness in style.Lu Xun was noted for his concise in style.As he himself pointed it out that“I did my best to avoid any wordiness.If I felt I had made my meaning sufficiently clear,I am glad to dispense with frills”.The differences in their Chinese idiom translation can also be seen in other examples such as“忽忽不乐”.Apart from the techniques Lyell uses in rendering“心满意足”，Lyell translates“忽忽不乐”into“disappointed and depressed”even applying the alliteration which add more grace in its beautyin sound and sense.Through analysis ofthemand other examples,we may generally conclude that in translating four word Chinese idiom,Lyell reproduces the ironic style of the original author while maintaining the beauty in sound and form.Yang mainly conforms to the concise style of original author and translates them in a simple waywithout losingthe essence oftheir meaning.

Second,we move on to compare their translation of sentences. When describing Ah Q who is the victim of big bullies also bullies those who are inferior to him,it reads“口讷的他便骂，气小的他便打”.In it,parallelism is contained.Lyell translates into”if it happened to be someone who stuttered so badly that he couldn’t get the second word out after the first,Ah Q would curse himup one side and down the other;if it was someone so puny and weak that he could hardly stand,Ah Q would start a fight”.He breaks the framework limits ofthe parallel structure and elaborates on the concrete strategic actions taken by Ah Q.Ironic feelings are preserved intact in his translation as he gives a concretion of“口讷”and“气小”as“someone who stuttered so badly that he couldn’t get the second word out after the first”“someone so puny and weak that he could hardly stand”respectively.His use of exaggeration in the figures of speech vividlyconveys the ironic style ofthe original one.Yangrenders it into“Ifit were someone weak in repartee he would curse him while if it were a poor fighter he would hit him”.Yang’s translation sticks to the parallel structure and is concise in form.

Last,we will take an analysis of the paragraphs.Liu Xie in his Wenxin Diao Long held the viewthat sentences of made up of words, paragraphs of sentences and a whole article of paragraphs.Therefore the proper rendering ofthe words,sentences lay a solid foundation for the successful translation of the paragraghs.In Liu Zhongde’s view“paragraphing here refers extensively to chapters and natural paragraphs in novels.All these should be translated in their original order”The two translation versions all translate without inversion,which helps maintain the style ofthe original one.

3.Conclusion

The translation versions ofLyell and Yangcouple are both faithful translations to the original one.In terms of translation purpose, Lyell serves the purpose of meeting the needs of native English-speaking people who are interested in Chinese culture.And Yang’s task is dual.His translation is not only targeted at readers from Western countries,but also English learners in China.What’s more,the English language learners in China can be the more possible potential readers.In regards to translation standard for the reproduction of style,both translation versions have their own flavors.Lyell tends to be more close to the original author’s style in vividly presenting the harsh irony while Yang is more close to the author’s conciseness.

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1005-5312（2014）14-0189-03