A Commentary on the Translation of The Shoes from the Perspective of Documentary Translation

1. The Shoes

A girl named Shou Ming was engaged at eighteen. Once engaged， a girl gets a fiancé and becomes a member of her future husbands family. Shou Ming was not used to this form of address： fiancé， which was a bit unfamiliar but too significant to her. She would feel diffident and afraid to call it out. In her heart， she addressed her fiancé as “that man” or as “the man from that village”， following the local convention. The village the man lived in was not far from Shou Mings. A high bridge， and further to the south， another flat bridge connected the two villages. The two villages belonged to the same production group， and whose headquarters was in Shou Mings village.

The mans family asked the matchmaker to deliver the betrothal gifts—a few pieces of clothes for making garments with， including corduroy， worsted， blue khaki， moon-white poplin and a large garnet kerchief. People were still very poor then and thus could not afford ready-to-wear clothes. These fabrics were the best things at that time. Having heard that the matchmaker was coming to send the gifts， Shou Ming quickly hid in her bedroom， covering her chest with her hands， daring not give a gasp. Her mother， instead， took the gifts for granted–she received those for her daughter.

When the matchmaker left， the presents wrapped in a red square towel was given intact to Shou Ming. Her mothers curved eyes were filled with smiles that she could hardly conceal. She said to Shou Ming， “take them. They are from your future husbands family.”

The “future husbands family” sounded a bit aloof to Shou Ming； particularly when she heard her mother say so， she felt that she was being pushed out from this home. She called her mother like a spoiled child with a little protest and said： “who wants his stuff？ I dont want it！”

Her mother said， “fine， thats good. Ill keep it and make dowry for your younger sister.”

The younger sister was also at home—she directly called out the mans name and said that she did not want his stuff. She wanted to return the betrothal gifts to the mans family and tell them that her sister disdained these worthless clothes and ask him to send some real stuff if the man is in earnest.

“How dare you say so？ I am going to tear your mouth！” Shou Ming finally took the gifts over from her mother. She got sort of annoyed by her younger sister—not for what she said about the gifts， but because she directly called out the mans name. This name was hidden in Shou Mings heart； she was so careful with it that she could never dare to call it out. Her younger sister must have heard this name from somewhere else and she called it out straight without respect. This sudden call tugged at Shou Mings heartstring， as if there had been some kind of connection between this name and her heart.

2.Source Text （ST） Introduction

The ST is excerpted from short story The Shoes（《鞋》）by Liu Qingbang. The story is set in Chinas old society. At that time， a matchmaker introduced two young people to each other， then they started a romantic relationship and got married. The heroine in this novel is called Shou Ming， who has been engaged with her fiancé. The novel describes her psychology when she received the betrothal gifts. The writer uses plain language in this novel， in which many idiomatic Chinese expressions can be seen. Secondly， this novel is written by Liu Qingbang， a Chinese famous novelist， and it won the Lu Xun Literature Prize （one of the four major literature prizes in China）， so the literary value contained in this novel should not be overlooked.

3.Nords documentary translation and its application in this translation

The translator applies in this translation the documentary translation proposed by Christiane Nord in Text Analysis in Translation （1988/2005）. Nord noted that documentary translation ‘serves as a document of a source culture communication between the author and the source text （ST） recipient （Nord 2005： 80）. Documentary translation puts its emphasis on the source author and the source culture； it retains the pith and features of the STs language regardless of the awkwardness or the strangeness the TT recipient may encounter in reading.

When a translator chooses which translation process is to be applied in the translation， there are at least several important factors need taking into account： firstly， the genre of the source： it is a novel of literary value； secondly， the purpose of the translation： it is to spread classic Chinese literary work to a foreign country， thus to allow the TT recipient appreciate Chinese literature； thirdly， the properties of the TT readership （such as： their educational level， aesthetic taste…）： the supposed readership of this work are relatively well-educated readers， who have interests in Chinese culture. And their reading purposes are to appreciate the literary work and to gain a deeper understanding of Chinese culture.

Considering the factors discussed above， documentary translation is applicable to this translation. As Walter Benjamin regards ‘true translation is transparent： it does not obscure the original， does not stand in its light， documentary translation similarly requires the translator to retain the “foreignness” in the translation， in other words， to produce a “transparent translation”.

Documentary translation includes three translation methods： word-for-word translation， literal translation and ‘foreignizing or ‘exoticizing translation， etc. （Nord 2005： 81）.

3.1 word-for-word translation： it reproduces the diction and sentence structure of the ST in the translation， which is mainly applied in works related to linguistics；

3.2 literal translation： it prefers to use wording resembling the ST in its translation， which is mainly employed in political speeches， academic research theses…

3.3 “foreignizing”or“exoticizing”translation： it retains the cultural elements and reproduces the background of the ST in its translation， despite the TT readers may encounter strangeness in reading. This translation process is mainly applied in literary translation.

4. Case Analyses

两个村庄同属一个大队，大队部设在她的庄。

Translation： The two villages belonged to the same production group， and whose headquarters was in Shou Mings village.

Commentary： In the ST， the expression “大队” is difficult to deal with. In that time， people in villages cultivated land together and formed production groups. So， it is translated as “production group”， which conforms to the culture background in the ST.

“再胡说我撕你的嘴！”

Translation： “How dare you say so？ I am going to tear your mouth！”

Commentary： The translator uses “literal translation” here. At first， considering her tone is too violent， the translator intended to modify her tone and use some gentler words to translate it. However， the translator finally decided this version because she thought only with the violent tone can Shou Mings anger towards her younger sister be expressed in the TT. It also can impress readers that Shou Ming attached great importance to her fiancé.

妹妹猛地一叫，带动得她的心疼了一下。

Translation： This call tugged at Shou Mings heartstring.

Commentary： The ST can be interpreted as “the younger sister called out suddenly， which hurts Shou Mings heart”. However， when it is translated like this， both the language and the emotion contained in it will suffer losses. Therefore， the translator uses a phrase “tug at heartstring” as a metaphor to describe Shou Mings feeling. This is a typical Chinese idiomatic expression. The strategy： ‘foreignizing translation has been employed here.

5. Conclusion

The essay analyzes the translation process of The Shoes from the perspective of documentary translation. Firstly， it illuminates the reason why the translator applies this translation process. Then， it introduces the most commonly used translation methods in this translation： literary translation， word-for-word translation and ‘foreignizing translation， which are main strategies included in documentary translation. Then， it discusses translation processes of three typical sentences with case analyses.

The translation process puts emphasis on how to reserve the pith of the ST， including its language， the significant cultural elements， and sometimes the ST authors personal characteristics. In this way， the ST has been reproduced in another language， thus the target readers can be given a chance to appreciate the beauty of the original.

References：

[1]Benjamin， Walter. The Task of the translator[J]. The Translation Studies Reader， edited by Lawrence Venuti and NetLiberary， Inc， Routledge，2000.

[2]Munday， Jeremy. Introducing translation Studies： Theories and Applications[J]. 2nd ed.， Routledge，2008.

[3]Nord Christiane. Text Analysis in Translation： Theories， Methodology， and Didactic Application of a Model for Translation-Oriented Text Analysis[J]. 2nd ed.， Rodopi，2005.

【作者簡介】谢荔荔（1995-），女，汉族，四川人，香港浸会大学，硕士研究生，研究方向：文学及电影翻译。