Contrastive Research on Two Chinese Translation Versions of W. Basil. Worsfold - A Bookreview of<i> On the Exercise of Judgment in Literature</i> Published by the Commercial Press

Abstract

At the end of December 2021, in order to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Mr. Yan Fu, a famous translator, the Commercial Press published <i>On the Exercise of Judgment in Literature</i>, written by British writer W. Basil. Worsfold in 1900. This book includes the preface written by Professor Luo Xuanmin and his complete translation, Mr. Yan Fu's three-chapter abridged translation, thus completing the construction of intertextuality between the two Chinese translation versions and the English original work lasting for more than a century. This paper gives a brief introduction to the main contents and features of the book, and uses both comparative and contrastive methods to deeply analyze the similarities and differences between Luo's translation and Yan's translation. It holds that the commonness lies in that translation is an act that serves ideological and political purposes; the difference is that different translation ideas lead to different translation results, especially the two versions have completely different treatment of the book title. Through the analysis of homogeneity and heterogeneity, this paper aims to arouse more scholars' attention to the intertextuality and sociology of translation.