外国语20世纪30年代鲁迅与梁实秋之间的翻译论战.doc

20世纪30年代鲁迅与梁实秋之间的翻译论战

The Dispute on Translation Criteria Between Lu Xun and
Liang Shiqiu In 1930s

Xiao Yan

Under the Supervision of

Liao Hong

School of Foreign Languages and Cultures

Panzhihua University

May 2006

Contents

摘要……………………………………………………….…………………………………………...I
关键词………………………………………………………………………………………………....I
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………..…Ⅱ
Key words…………………………………………………………………………………………….II
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………….1
I. Brief Introduction about Lu Xun and Liang Shiqiu………………………………………...2
A. Brief Introduction about Lu Xun …………………………………………..………………...…2
B. Brief Introduction about Liang Shiqiu……………………………………….…………………3
II. The Dispute between Lu Xun and Liang Shiqiu in 1930s…………………….…………..4
A. The Background of the Dispute……………………………………………….…….…………..4
B. The Main Content of the Dispute………………………………………………….……………5
a. Contradiction and Unification Between Faithfulness and Expressiveness……….…………5
b. Literal Translation and Liberal Translation………………………………………….………7
c. Europeanization and Domestication…………………………………………………….…...8
d. Repetition………………………………………………………………………………….…9
III. The Significance of the Dispute…...…………………………………………………………9
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….…12
Acknowledgement………………………………………………………………………………...13
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………….…14
摘 要

20世纪30年代，准确地说，从1927年至1937年是中国新文学繁盛的时代，翻译文学也呈现出了一片欣欣向荣的景象。有关翻译标准的争论由来已久，30年代达到了空前高潮，许多著名的作家诸如鲁迅、梁实秋、瞿秋白、林语堂、陈西滢、赵景深和叶公超等都直接或间接地介入了这场论战。
本文从翻译研究的角度出发，分析了20世纪30年代以鲁迅、梁实秋为代表的关于翻译标准的论战的核心内容及其影响和意义，具体包括三个方面：鲁迅和梁实秋的介绍、翻译论战涉及的主要内容、以及此次翻译论战的影响和意义。

关键词

翻译标准；翻译论战
Abstract

In the 1930s, to be more precise, from 1927 to 1937, Chinese new literature made a rapid development and the translation literature was also in prosperity. The dispute on the translation criteria has existed for a long time and reached the unprecedented climax in the 1930s. A lot of famous writers，such as Lu Xun, Liang Shiqiu, Qu Qiubai, Lin Yutang, Chen Xiying, and Zhao Jingshen， got involved in the 1930s dispute directly or indirectly.
From the perspective of translation, the thesis makes an analysis of the dispute about translation criteria in 1930s which was initiated by Lu Xun and Liang Shiqiu. This thesis includes three aspects concretely: the brief introduction about Lu Xun and Liang Shiqiu; the main content of the dispute; the significance of the dispute.

Keywords

Translation criteria; translation dispute

Introduction

In the 1930s, to be more precise, from 1927 to 1937 the new literature made a rapid development and the translation literature was also in prosperity. The dispute about translation has exited a long time and during this period it reached its unprecedented climax. The main characters of this dispute are Lu Xun and Liang Shiqiu, still many other famous writers such as Qu Qiubai, Lin Yutang, Chen Xiying, and Zhao Jingshen got involved in the dispute directly or indirectly.
This thesis doesn’t attempt to dig out the real causes of the heated debate between Lu Xun and Liang Shiqiu in 1929. However, the author is going to introduce some ideas about it from the perspective of translation.
On the surface, the dispute was centered on the criteria for translation. Liang Shiqiu attacked Lu Xun’s literal translation. He called it the "dead translations". According to Liang Shiqiu, this kind of translation was totally unintelligible to readers. Lu Xun just admitted that he was translating in a "hard' way. He defended that he was faithful not only to the originals but also to the readers. Lu Xun, in return, accused LiangShiqiu for sacrificing accuracy for fluency. Coming along with these arguments were ridicule, derisive and malicious personal attacks.
This thesis holds that so far as translation is concerned, there was no fundamental difference between Lu and Liang. Both would like to have an accurate and more readable translation. The real difference between them was the political stances. Lu Xun, in 1929, turned left. Supporting the Communist cause, he started to translate Marxist literary theories and works. On the other hand, Liang Shiqiu became a close follower of Irving Babbitt, master of Neo-Classicism, after his studying abroad. He could not tolerate the political agenda behind Lu Xun's translation activities.
This thesis is planned to bypass all the political factors. The author only makes a retrospect and analysis on the 1930s’ dispute from the perspective of translation.
This thesis includes three aspects concretely: the brief introduction about Lu Xun and Liang Shiqiu, the main content of the dispute and the significance of the dispute.

I. Brief Introduction about Lu Xun and Liang Shiqiu

A. Brief Introduction about Lu Xun
Lu Xun, the father of modern Chinese literature, was born on September 25th, 1881, and died on October 19th, 1936. He was a famous Chinese writer, a thinker and revolutionist. His original name was Zhou Shuren and he was born in a rich and conservative family in Shaoxin, Zhejiang. His literature's backgrounds were focused on the end of the feudalism period. When he was young, he was influenced by the theory of revolution, Nietzsche’s superhuman philosophy and Tolstoy’s universal love thoughts. In 1902, he studied abroad in Japan. He studied medicine in Xiantai Medical School. However, he didn't become a doctor after he went back to China. He was influenced by different ideas and social backgrounds, which made him give up being a doctor and determine to be engaged in the literature work. Between 1905 and 1907, he participated in the revolutionary party. During his lifetime, he published many literature works that affected the Chinese people and the people in the world. Thus people gave him an honorable nickname as the "Father of Modern Chinese Literature".
Lu Xun was one of the greatest writers in China during 1880 to 1940. In this period, China was in the period of revolution. This special historical background made Lu Xun acquire many positive ideas which had been shared by the Chinese. At that time, the government was corrupted. Hence, he wrote many articles and fictions to reflect the society of that age. Therefore, the themes of his books are all around depravation. His most famous books are Outcry, Wandering, Diary of a Madman and Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dust, etc. During his lifetime, he wrote a lot of literature works which were more than 29 kinds. He died in Shanghai at the age of fifth-four.
A famous writer at the same period ------ Lao She said: “Lu Xun was good at not only the modern literature but also the classic literature. His poetry was very good, but he was not belonging to any kinds of old times. He had his own way and style. He was interested in everything, no matter the new or the old things. He could make the judgment anytime when he studies.”(Meizi, 2006)
Moreover, the first Chairman of China, Mao Zedong spoke highly of him, too. He said: “Lu Xun is the one of the greatest people of our time and he is also a great person of new China just the same as that Confucius is a great person of ancient China.” (Han Shishan, 2006)

B. Brief Introduction about Liang Shiqiu
Liang Shiqiu, whose original name was Liang Zhihua, was born on December 8, 1902, Beijing, and died on November 3, 1987, Taibei, Taiwan, He is a prominent essayist and translator, the first person who translated The Works of Shakespeare from English into Chinese. He attended the University of Colorado as a senior and then made research at Harvard and Columbia. At Harvard, where he was influenced by the critic Irving Babbitt, he wrote a paper in which he outlined the romantic essences of modern Chinese literature and suggested that Chinese literature should borrow from the forms of Western literature. Later he expanded these ideas into a book entitled The Romantic and The Classic.
By the time he returned to China in 1926, Liang Shiqiu felt strongly about the aesthetic and independent purposes of literary creation; and thus he was denounced by left-wing writers who favored a more political approach to literature. He and other like-minded writers, including Hu Shi and Xu Zhimo, founded the Crescent Moon Society in 1927 and published their ideas in the journal Xinyue (“Crescent”). Liang Shiqiu taught English literature at Peking University (1934–1937) and worked on his translation of The Works of Shakespeare into vernacular Chinese which was completed it in 1967. He began his prose writing in 1940, which was during the Sino-Japanese War. A collection of his essays, Yashe Works (translated as Sketches of a Cottager), was published in 1949 and has been reprinted more than 50 times. When the communists took control of China in 1949, he moved to Taiwan.
In addition to his many critical works and his rendition of Shakespeare, Liang Shiqiu produced a number of other excellent translations, such as, Héloïse’s Love Letters, Peter Pan, and Wuthering Heights. He also wrote The History of British Literature in Chinese and compiled several dictionaries both from Chinese into English and vice versa.
Liang Shiqiu was a literary critic known for his devastating critique of modern romantic Chinese literature and for his insistence on the aesthetic. Literary historians remembered him chiefly for his conservative leaning and the famous “war of words” with Lu Xun, the acknowledged leader of leftist writers. Liang Shiqiu has contributed a lot to the history of Chinese translation, too.
Liang Shiqiu was younger than Lu Xun. At that time he was only 24 years old and he just came from America as an unknown person. There were few people who knew him. However, he refuted Lu Xun's translation theory strongly and definitely. Therefore, between Lu Xun and Liang Shiqou, there broke out a dispute on translation criteria.

II. The Dispute Between Lu Xun and Liang Shiqiu In 1930s

A. The Background of the Dispute
Yan Fu's translation criteria ------ “Faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance” has been regarded as the standard translation criteria all the time, but there were still many people who held different views about it. At the very beginning, these people just expressed their own views about translation and did not bring about dispute. Later, more and more people took an active part in expressing their opinions, and then the dispute broke out and reached its climax in 1930s.
Liang Shiqiu wrote an article named "On Lu Xun's 'hard translation'" (Guo Zhuzhang, P193, 1999) and he published it on Crescent, which initiated the dispute. Later, Zhao Jingshen advocated his view about translation, that was, "It is better to have a smooth version than a faithful one" (Guo Zhuzhang, P193, 1999). Then, Lu Xun refuted it as “Rather to be faithful (in thought) than smooth (in language)” (Guo Zhuzhang, P193, 1999). Qu Qiubai not only supported Lu Xun but also put forward the principle of "the correct translation should be done with vernacular" (Guo Zhuzhang, P193, 1999).
In the article "On Lu Xun's 'hard translation'" (Guo Zhuzhang, P193, 1999), Liang Shiqiu pointed out that the structure of some sentences which were translated by Lu Xun were complicated and hard to understand. He criticized Lu Xun’s ‘hard translation as the ‘dead translation’, which should be read only with extending fingers for seeking the clue of the syntax position. In Liang Shiqiu's opinion, this kind of translation was the worst translation. At the same time, Zhao Jingshen also opposed Lu Xun's translation criteria and maintained that "It is better to have a smooth version than a faithful one" (Guo Zhuzhang, P193, 1999).At once, Lu Xun wrote many articles with pungent words, such as "Hard translation and the Class Character of Literature", "Several Flowing Translations” etc. He refuted Liang Shiqiu and Zhao Jingshen's propositions on translation and he also proposed his own translation criteria, which was “Rather to be faithful (in thought) than smooth (in language)”.
Here, the author has to mention a person and he is Qu Qiubai. He had once written a letter to Lu Xun and signed his name as J.K in that letter. He congratulated the publication of "Destroy" at first. Meanwhile, he also praised Lu Xun for his faithful translation, criticized Liang Shiqiu and Zhao Jingshen’s translation theory. Qu Qiubai said: “The modern language in China is poor and much of the vernacular was created from the translation"(Guo Zhuzhang, P193, 1999). At the same time，he objected to Lu Xun's view of translation. He said: “Translation should introduce the original idea of the original text to Chinese readers totally. To make the concept that Chinese readers receive equal to the concept that readers acquire in Great Britain, Russia, Japan, Germany and France ......"(Guo Zhuzhang, P193, 1999).
While correcting Lu Xun's "lumpy", Qu Qiubai pointed out that his "smooth" translation meant to use "vernacular". Like Qu Qiubai, Lu Xun thought that Chinese language had problematic syntax and should absorb from the foreign syntax for improvement. However, Qu Qiubai thought that “it was very important to absorb the foreign syntax and formed Chinese own syntax. Only if the unusual sentences were smooth, they could be introduced into Chinese and fully mixed with the Chinese language. If they were not, it was an irresponsible attitude for the readers" (Guo Zhuzhang, P193, 1999). Qu Qiubai’s opinion was the same as Lu Xun’s to some extent.
As regard to Lu Xun's "Europeanization", Liang Shiqiu offered sharp opposition by “Answering Mr. Lu Xun" (Li Zhao, P224, 1997) and "A letter about translation"(Guo Zhuzhang, P194, 1999,). Ye Gongchao also published many articles on “Crescent” (Guo Zhuzhang, P194, 1999) to criticize Lu Xun and Qu Qiubai. He said: “The western languages and Chinese language have their own features. It is wrong to think one is better than another and it is important to find the comparison." (Guo Zhuzhang, P194, 1999)
The protagonists of this dispute were Lu Xun, Liang Shiqiu, Qu Qiubai and Ye Gongchao. They participated in the dispute directly. Chen Xiying and Lin Yutan participated in the dispute indirectly, but they also wrote "Talk about translation"(Guo Zhuzhang, P194, 1999). Though Zhao Jingshen participated in the dispute directly, his view was quickly denied by the others.

B. The Main Content of the Dispute
Referred to the dispute of translation criteria in 1930s, it includes four aspects as the follows: 1. Contradiction and Unification between Faithfulness and Expressiveness; 2. Literal Translation and Liberal Translation; 3. Europeanization and Domestication; 4. Repetition. In the following passages, the author makes a brief analysis on them.

a. Contradiction and Unification Between Faithfulness and Expressiveness
The focus of the dispute was that Liang Shiqiu criticized Lu Xun's ‘hard translation’ and he proposed his own trans