Ａｎａｌｙｓｉｓ ｏｆ Ｔｈｕｎｄｅｒｓｔｏｒｍ （ＡｃｔⅢ）

Ⅰ.Introduction

Thunderstorm written by Cao Yu in 1934 is a masterpiece in the history of Chinese literature.This drama depicts the love and hate between eight people， reflecting a tragic scene of the decline of a rich family in the feudal society.As a splendid treasure of Chinese literature，Thunderstorm was translated into English in 1958 by Wang Zuoliang and A. C. Barnes whose translation is regarded as a great work in the perspective of translating practice.

Ⅱ.Features of language in Thunderstorm(Act III)

Without the author’s extra explanation about the plots， the language in drama must reveal the conflicts between characters.Meanwhile，the language must be drawn from real life，easy for the actors to act it out on the stage.

The language in this excerpt of Thunderstorm has its own distinctive feature in addition to features mentioned above.First， sentences used in this excerpt are all very colloquial.However，they possess artistic feature of literary woks.Second，it is vivid and fluent， giving poetic effects.Some lines are very lyric and give people aftertaste.And last，the language in this excerpt always serves as the exterior representation of the personality of the characters，which is also the most vivid feature of the whole drama.

Ⅲ.Reexhibition of the soul by translating

By deeply discovering the author’s intention behind the words with a clear mind，Mr. Wang successfully transformed the soul of the original language into English and produced an excellent translation，faithful to the original content and style.

1.The massive usage of Spoken language makes Thunderstorm a good drama. But，the spoken language must be polished to be concise and artistic.To achieve this effect，the author used a great many of idioms.As these idioms are usually culture-bound，great difficulties arise when translating them.However，Mr. Wang successfully transformed them into natural English，by using the felicitous English idioms.One example is as follows:

魯貴：我是一輩子犯小人，不走運。剛才是怎么回事？我叫完電燈匠回公館；鳳兒的事沒有了，連我的老根子也拔了。

Lu Kuei: All my life I’ve just had one patch of bad luck after anotherM， and every time it’s been because some miserable nobody has put a spoke in my wheel. Look at what happened today: I go out to fetch an electrician and when I get back what do I find? Ssu-feng's lost her job and I'm .out on my neck into the bargain.

Besides the idioms， some of the conversations are also well rendered.As sentences of Chinese spoken language are usually short and sometimes ungrammatical，a simple literal translation may seem strange and awkward to English readers.Mr. Wang rearranged the sentence elements and changed them into appropriate English spoken language. Take several lines for example:

魯侍萍：（用力拉著大海的衣襟）大海，你別動，你動，媽就死在你的面前。

魯大海：您放下我！您放下我！（頓腳）

魯侍萍：（見周萍驚立不動）糊涂東西，你還不跑？

Ma:(catching him by the sleeve and holding him back with all her strength) Stop，Ta-hai，stop！Over my dead body!

Hai:Let me go!Leave go of me! (He stamps his foot.)

Ma:(realizing that Chou Ping is still standing there rooted to the spot) Run， you fool!Don't just stand there!

In this scene，Lu Ma's son-Ta-hai wants to beat Chou Ping and Lu Ma stops him because the latter is her son，too.So，in her words，there is a great anxiety.In order to display this to the target readers，Mr. Wang used imperative sentence and changed the comma and full stop into exclamatory mark which as well strengths Lu Ma's emotion.In the next line of Ta-hai，\"您放下我！”appears twice showing an intensity increase of Ta-hai’s emotion.So，Mr. Wang used two different expressions to deliver the same meaning.The first expression is short and the second is long，making the target readers easily feel the gradually heightened emotion of Ta-hai.

2.Being a writer of talent，Cao Yu is not only good at writing drama，but also poems and other kinds of literary genres. And in this drama， he infused dense poetic tint into the actor’s lines.

周沖：有時我就忘了現在，（沉醉在夢想里）忘了家，忘了你，忘了母親，并且忘了我自己。象是在一個冬天的早晨，非常明亮的天空……在無邊的海上……有一只輕得象海燕似的小帆船，在海風吹得緊，海上的空氣聞得出有點腥，有點咸的時候，白色的帆漲得滿滿的，象一只鷹的翅膀，斜貼在海面上飛，飛，向著天邊飛。那時天邊上只淡淡地浮著兩三片白云，我們坐在船頭，望著前面，前面就是我們的世界。

Chung: Sometimes I forget the present—(with a rapt expression on his face) I forget my home，I forget you，I forget my mother-I even forget myself.It seems like a winter morning with a brilliant sky overhead on a boundless sea there's a little sailing-boat，bright as a gull.When the sea-breeze gets stronger， and there's a salty tang in the air， the white sail billow out like the wings of hawk and the boat skims. over the sea， just kissing the waves， racing towards the horizon.The sky is except for a few patches of white cloud floating lazily on the horizon.We sit in the bows， gazing ahead，for ahead of us is our world.

This passage is a beautiful prose describing the strong yearn of Chou Chung for a free and pure world.Born in a depressing family，Chou Chung keeps a pure heart and wants to get out of his family with his beloved Ssu Feng.When reading this passage，readers tend to be touched by his ideal as well as the beauty of the language.Mr. Wang similarly translated it into a beautiful prose by applying phonetic devices.When describing the nicety of Chou Chung's ideal world，he used words like \"boundless\"，\"sailing\"，\"tang\"，\"floating\"which contain diphthong or long vowel expressing lyric features.While expressing the eagerness of Chou Chung to get out the depressing environment，Mr. Wang used \"skims\"，\"kissing\"which are pronounced promptly. So，Mr. Wang's translation successfully delivers the key tone of the original and leads the English readers to a natural and beautiful poetry.

3.Every character in Thunderstorm speaks words of his individual feature，which corresponds to the character's own background， status and personality.In this excerpt， the most vivid character exhibited by the author is Lu Kuei，the servant to Chou Family.

魯貴：（咳嗽起來）他媽的！（一口痰吐在地上，興奮著）你們想，你們哪一個對得起我？（向四風同大海）你們不要不愿意聽，你們哪一個不是我辛辛苦苦養到大？可是現在你們哪一件事做得對得起我？（對魯大海）你說？（對魯四風）你說？（對著站在中間圓桌旁的魯侍萍）你也說說，這都是你的好孩子啊？

Lu: (Coughing) God almighty! (Heatedly) Just look at you.There's not one of you can look me in the face!(Turning to Ta-hai and Ssu-feng)It's no good you pretending not to hear either.I've worked my

fingers to the bone to bring you two up，both of you， but what have either of you ever done to show your gratitude?(To Ta-hai)Eh? (To Ssu-feng) Answer me that!(To Lu Ma， who is standing by the round table in the center)Or perhaps you can tell me，seeing that they're your precious children?

Lu Kuei is a person who bullies the weak and fears the strong.To his rich and powerful master，he is docile and obedient. But when he is at home，he always lifts up his horn.This passage is a vivid portraiture of his personality.There are three“你說”in the original text and when translating these into English，Mr. Wang Zuoliang used three different interpretations instead of three\"tell me\".This is because he grasps the under meaning of the original text.Ta hai is a strong man and fears nobody，so Lu Kuei dares not to displease him.And the translation of Wang turns out to be a simple interjection-\"Eh\".As for his simple-minded daughter， he puts on air and said unscrupulously-\"Answer me that!\"And to his wife Lu Ma，he softens his tone and says-\"Or perhaps you can tell me \"Very obviously， the effect of these three different interpretations is much better than three“tell me”.And from this，the greatness of Mr. Wang’s translation abilities can be seen.

Ⅳ.Conclusion

Language is the soul of a drama. In this excerpt of Thunderstorm，Mr. Wang Zuoliang has presented a natural and faithful translation which is of the same excellence compared with the original one.This attributes to his taking the three distinctive features of the excerpt of the drama as the most important thing while he was translating.So，a translation that is fluent， natural，and faithful to the original content can't be regarded as a good translation.Only when the distinctive features of language in the original work are faithfully exhibited in the target version，the translation can be called a good one.So， the translation of Mr. Wang Zuoliang’s translation is really an excellent work.

References:

[1]Tsao Yu.Thunderstorm[M].Trsns. Wang Tso-liang A. C. Barnes. Peking: Foreign Languages Press，1978.

[2]孫慶升.曹禺論[M].北京：北京大學出版社，1981.

[3]王佐良.翻譯：思考與試筆[M].北京：外語教學與研究出版社，1989.

[4]許建平.再現人物神韻的典范—王佐良譯《雷雨》片段欣賞[J].中國翻譯[N].1997，(6).

（作者單位：魯東大學國際交流學院）