On Zhang Peiji’s Prose Translation from the Perspective of the Translator’s Subjectivity

Abstract

Chinese prose characterizes being formally-loose and essence-focused with features such as many a free style and myriads of assorted contents, among which the poetic images and artistic conceptions are so distinct that they are usually regarded as criteria for measuring its excellence. Whereas, it is the same features that impose obstacles for the prose translation, for it is difficult for the translator to grasp the whole essence of the original text in the first place and then recreate it in the translation works in another language. Therefore, during the translating process, it is inevitable not to adopt the translators’ subjectivity. And the three basic characteristics of it, namely, activeness, passiveness and purposiveness, will combine to affect the whole translating activity in one way or another. Nowadays, translation theorists both at home and abroad have conducted many studies on translators’ subjectivity. Grounded on those authoritative theories, this paper will make a tentative study on Zhang Peiji’s translation of Chinese modern prose writings. Professor Zhang’s classics Selected Modern Chinese Prose Writings will be focused. In the main body of the paper, the demonstrations of those three features of subjectivity will be elaborated with abundant examples from the two volumes of his translation works. In particular, great attention will be paid to the function of the translator’s activeness in the translation, which will be analyzed via three levels: lexical, semantic and textual. Thus, readers and translators-to-be would be better able to appreciate and draw upon those excellent translated prose.