The Beautiful and Damned之中譯與譯評

Abstract

The Beautiful and Damned is the second of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s five long stories. Published in 1922, this novel is one of the books that best depicts the life of American aristocratic elites during the Jazz Age. It is not only a social document that portrays the extravagant lifestyles of young celebrities, but also an autobiographical depiction of Fitzgerald’s married life with Zelda. Despite its importance, The Beautiful and Damned never attracted much attention in Taiwan, making the translation of Wang Wen-Juan the only official Chinese translation of the book. This study focuses on the chapter three of the first book of the novel. It analyzes and discusses the inadequacy of the original translation and offers a revised version of Chinese translation. This study reveals the following: First, in Wang’s translation of The Beautiful and Damned, there are some distortions of the original messages, which are mainly caused by misunderstanding of grammar. Second, some of the word choices had resulted in “translationese” in the translation, which was probably because of overly literal translations or failing to understand the contexts. Third, Fitzgerald is famous for using creative and beautiful analogies to bring concrete images to the audience, but many images in the original book were ignored or changed in Wang’s translation. By dealing with grammar misunderstandings, word choices and adopting strategies that better retain the ideas and images hidden or missed in Wang’s translation, the revised translation is hoped to convey the author’s messages to the audience more effectively.