Different Understandings and Translations on A Rose for Emily

王泳娣

【Abstract】People usually have different understandings for the same novel, which is just the irreplaceable charm of literary works. The short novel A Rose for Emily described the tragic and legendary life of Emily, a representative of declining aristocrat culture in southern US. Different viewpoints are shown comparing to the mainstream translations and understandings in China. The paper is about my understandings of the novel, which aims at providing more ways of thinking and creating more imaginary space relating to the novel for readers.

【Key Words】rose; Emily; understanding; translation

1.Brief introduction to A Rose for Emily

William Faulkner was one of the greatest litterateurs in the twentieth century of US. Called the spiritual leader of southern literature, he was good at exploring southern spiritual culture. Possessing unique writing style, he had created many novels which received universal praise. Published in 1930, A Rose for Emily was one of the works which belonged to gothic novels. This short novel described the tragic and legendary life of Emily, a representative of declining aristocrat culture in southern US. The ending was beyond all expectations, which left people with unlimited imaginary space, long aftertaste as well as deep impression.

2.Different understandings and translations on the title

The title A Rose for Emily has already been translated into 《獻给艾米丽的玫瑰》, for which many critics show different opinions. They have tried all means to translate the title into “Give Emily the Rose”. However, throughout the whole novel, there is no the rose flower except in the title.

In understanding the title, I speculate that many readers have complicated the simple title due to the lack of understanding for Western funeral cultural conventions. In American funeral, people are used to giving flowers to the departed before the coffin is buried. Many flowers can be used on the funeral, in which rose is the most universally used one. The author used A Rose for Emily as the title so as to show that “Emily, representative of southern tradition, died; a rose is presented on the funeral in order to say farewell to her as well as the downfallen noble culture in the south.” Only by understanding in this way can the title be consistent with the content. Besides, in the last chapter of the novel, “the town coming to look at Miss Emily beneath a mass of bought flowers”, the scene of the funeral convention is mentioned. Most readers thought that a rose is presented to show “love and esteem” for Emily. It is in self-contradiction to the content of the novel.

In translating the title, original translators maybe knew this funeral convention, for which the translated version of 《献给艾米丽的玫瑰》cannot be defined as an error. However, the title 《献给艾米丽的玫瑰》could cause misunderstanding to all the readers with incomprehension of the Western funeral convention. From the perspectives of a translator and reader, I believe that the translation 《悼别艾米丽》would be more appropriate, especially for that the beginning of the novel is the funeral of Emily and the ending chapter is again back to the funeral where people say farewell to Emily with flowers. This title conforms to the content while at the same time will not mislead the readers.

3.Different understandings and translations on the characters

3.1Emily.Aloof, proud, and stubborn as Emily was, she was born in a noble aristocratic family in the south of America. Regardless of the pressure, she was brave in pursuing the love for a northerner, which was both contradictory and consistent with her personality. In fact, her abnormal psychology and actions were an extreme reflection of her arrogance and self-abasement, independence and reliance as well as stubbornness and weakness. These contradictions cannot be eliminated from her mind so that she became the murder due to intersect of love and hatred as well as madness over reason. The author William Faulkner described not only the decline of the south, but also the complexity and contradiction of humanity.

Emily behaved stubborn and showed no compromises to most things. For example, the government officials from new generations asked her to pay taxes, but she repeated the same sentence again and again, “I have no taxes in Jefferson.”And another time, “When the town got free postal delivery, Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it. She would not listen to them.” From her firm attitude, it can be seen that she had a rejective and antipathy attitude towards new things. However, there are no absolutes, and Emily also compromised. For example, when she was about forty, uncommonly, she opened the front door of the first floor so as to start a studio used to teach kids drawing due to the life pressure. Moreover, Emily was the representative of downfallen force in the south; but she insisted in marrying her fiancé, representative of the new things in the north. So it can be seen that Emily would also make concessions for life or love. Like ordinary people, she had flesh and blood.

In A Rose for Emily, Emily seemed a life tragedy. She locked herself in a solidified life. Denying the difference of past and present, she obscured reality and illusion. Many people held the viewpoint that it was the abandoning from the fiancé that resulted in the abnormal behavior that Emily murdered and slept with the dead body. However, she had already had previous conviction in her sub-consciousness. Did everyone remember how Emily dealt with her fathers body? In Chapter Two: “The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom. Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. Just as they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly.”That is to say, for three days, Emily had lived with her fathers body; she pretended that her father was still alive. Hence, she would naturally do the similar thing several years later. Emily quietly murdered her fiancé and told herself that her fiancé was still alive! Then, they hugged and slept together for forty years on the wedding rooms bed! Maybe Emily was not the so-called necrophilia as some people mentioned; she was only a lonely woman living in her dream world.

3.2Colonel Sartoris.Colonel Sartoris was clearly an advocator for the old thoughts for southern nobility. He had contributed a lot for that Emily can be a monument. In the first chapter: “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor – he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron – remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity.” Colonel Sartoris once issued an order that black women without wearing aprons could not go into the street, in which the premise that Colonel Sartoris had racial discrimination and gender discrimination was indirectly introduced. Hence, after that, he made up a set of excuses so as to exempt all the tax payments from Emily, which seemed to be reasonable. For the credibility of special tax exemption policies, “Only a man of Colonel Sartoris generation and thought could have invented it, and only a woman could have believed it.” The translated version for the sentence in collected materials is basically as follows: “这一套话,只有沙多里斯上校那一代的人以及像他那样头脑的人才能编得出来,也只有妇道人家才会相信.” However, I hold different views about the translation. Based on the verbs “invent” and “believe” as well as peoples responses in the town, it should be believed that the authors original meaning was that only “one man” of Colonel Sartoris generation could have invented it, and only “one woman” could have believed it. Then, “one man” and “one woman” refer to “Colonel Sartoris” and “Emily” respectively. Hence, in my opinion, the translation shall be “这套说辞,只有沙多里斯上校的脑袋才能瞎编出来,也只有艾米丽才会相信.”

3.3 Negro servant Tobe.The Negro servant Tobe was the only servant for Emily, and was the only person who can freely come in-and-out of Emilys house. Although the author had only a little description about him and the Negro servant even did not say a single word, as shown in “he talked to no one, probably not even to her, for his voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse.” However, he was an absolutely special character, who appeared throughout the novel. He was the only one accompanying Emily from young to old. It was until the death of Emily that he opened the door and let the women enter the house, “and then he disappeared. He walked right through the house and out the back and was not seen again.”

The existence of the Negro servant is full of mysterious color. Readers may wonder if he knew the fact that Emily slept with the dead body after she killed her fiancé; if he knew, why did not he disclose the murder? Why did he still persist in serving the downfallen Emily until her death? Many readers with romantic feelings turned to “love”, which in their opinions, was the only thing that can support the fact. So, did the Negro servant love Emily or not? My answer is: No! Not at all! If not, what indeed supported his doing? The explanation would be that Tobe was endowed with deep slavishness! Despite of that Negro slave had been emancipated on the surface; the ethnic inferiority feeling deeply rooted in the mind of the Negro slaves could not be entirely eliminated. Tobe and his master conducted no communication with each other, let alone the care or even the love. Without personal thoughts and ability of judgment, he followed the master obediently. Tobe must know the murder, because the whole street was full of the bodys smell. But slavishness and blind loyalty made him serve Emily honestly. Another evidence showed that Negro servant had no feelings for Emily is that after the death of Emily, the Negro servant left without a trace. He did not stay for funeral arrangements, or participate in Emilys funeral. He was supposed to run for freedom with great joy, and the emancipation consciousness of Negro slaves in the heart finally woke up.

4.Conclusion

There is an old saying that “There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand peoples eyes.” Even the same person will have different feelings or views when he/she reads the same works at different ages, which is just the irreplaceable charm of literary works. Hence, subjectivity is unavoidable, and there is no standard for the translation and understanding of literary works. This paper is about my understandings of the novel, which aims at providing more ways of thinking and creating more imaginary space relating to the novel for readers. The writer of the paper is willing and ready for the guidance and communication from relevant specialists at any time.

References：

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[2]唐霞.略谈爱米丽变态性格[J].涪陵师范学院学报.2004(05).