A Review on Foreignizing Translation During the Period of the May 4 Movement “五四”運動時期異化翻譯探究

摘 要：“五四”運動時期，翻譯文學作品中引入大量的歐化的詞匯、句式等新的語言成分，異化翻譯成為一種翻譯潮流。這種現象與當時中國文學在多元文化系統中的弱文化態勢即中國文化處于邊緣化狀態有關。

Abstract: Foreignizating translation was prevalent during the Period of the May 4 Movement in China， which was characterized by the borrowed expressions and new elements from the European languages. The reason for it is that the Chinese literature was experiencing a crisis and a turning point， and the translated literature maintained the central role in the Chinese literary polysystem.

關鍵詞：多元系統；“五四運動”時期；異化翻譯

Key Words: Polysystem; foreignizating translation; the Period of the May 4 Movement

作者簡介：李瑞凌 (1971-)，男，山東莒縣人，大連大學英語學院講師，碩士。研究方向：翻譯理論與實踐；雙語詞典學。

[中圖分類號]：H315.9 [文獻標識碼]：A

[文章編號]：1002-2139(2011)-24-0287-02

Translation Studies has shifted its focus from looking at translation as linguistic phenomena to looking at translations as cultural phenomena. Foreignizating translation was prevalent during the Period of the May 4 Movement in China. When we study the translation strategies in this specific period， we can not draw an objective and impartial conclusion without considering the social， cultural and historical context.

1. The Polysystem Hypothesis

Even-Zohar pointed out that translated literature could be in the primary position under the three social circumstances (Munday， 2001: 110):

a. When a literature is “young” or in the process of being established;

b. When a literature is “peripheral” or “weak” or both;

c. When a literature is experiencing a “crisis” or turning point.

Under the Polysystem Hypothesis， the foreignizing translation fulfils the role and responsibility of helping the young literature， weak literature and literatures at the position of turning point develop and become more mature increasingly. For example， During the Period of the May 4 Movement in the 20th century， the Chinese culture experienced a serious crisis which gave rise to the flourishing of translation of foreign literature by introducing new elements and expressions into the Chinese literature.

2. Cultural Position During the Period of the May 4 Movement

After Yan Fu and Lin Shu， the dominant trend in the translation fields “was to adhere closely to the formal features of source texts and to import， on a huge scale， foreign terms and expressions” (Venuti， 1995: 265). The reason is that the cultural development in China underwent an upheaval. As a result， the Chinese culture was in weak position. At this turning point many translators turned to foreignization represented by Lu Xun.

The literary revolution in modern China came in 1917， led by Dr. Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu， advacating the use of the spoken language as the literary medium. And Lu Xun’s first story A Madman’s Story is considered the first story written in modern Chinese.

The classic Chinese literature was written in classical Chinese language， which is different from the language spoken everyday by folks. Any scholar worth his salt would write in this literary style. But the classical tradition inclined to extreme economy of words， and believed in concentration， selection， sublimation and reorganization. Thus， the literary language was entirely unsuitable to discuss or narrate facts， which had prevented the development of literature. The literary language was regarded as dead language， so it could not express the modern thoughts at that time. Therefore， the most important step for the literary revolution was to advocate modern (spoken) Chinese while discarding the literary one. Dr. Hu Shi， leader of the literary revolution， thought that why for almost two thousand years there were no literature in true sense was because the literature produced by those literati were written in dead literary language. Dead language could never produce literature that lasted long. Therefore， the basic task of literary revolution was to reform language.

3. Europeanization of the Chinese Language

One of the important changes the literary revolution brought about was the so-called “Europeanization” of the Chinese language in syntax as well as in vocabulary. Europeanization of Chinese was the direct result of literary revolution and became very popular in the Chinese literary circle at that time. But it aroused a hot debate. Lu Xun was the representative of innovative force， who held that “in translation not only the new content should be imported but also the new expressions”. (Chen Fukang， 2000: 299) His “importing the new expressions” means the importation of new vocabulary and foreign syntax， because he thought the Chinese language was incomplete， and it had to be improved and enriched both in syntax and vocabulary. With such an attitude， Lu Xun tended to keep the foreign flavor embedded in his versions. The following example can well illustrate this point:

兩人貪婪地吸了沒有鹽的刁彌沙。一看見乏透了的可憐的畢加的模樣，美諦克總不得不記起曾使他們醉的坐在幽靜的葦蕩旁邊的那閑靜的爽朗老人的形象來。畢加就好像用了自己的壓碎了似的神情，在映發沒有休息和救援的這寂寞的不安和空洞。《毀滅》

In Lu Xun’s translated version， he retained Europeanized linguistic features such as long modifiers (“幽靜……的形象”) and strange collocations（“映發沒有休息和救援的這寂寞的不安和空洞”）in order to import alien expressions.

4. Conclusion

During the Period of the May 4 Movement in China， the traditional Chinese culture was experiencing a crisis and a turning point. The translated literature maintained the central role in the target literary polysystem. Therefore， translators tended to take foreignizing strategy， which was characterized by the borrowed expressions and new elements from the European languages.

References:

[1]Munday， Jeremy. Introducing Translation Studies[M]. London: Routledge， 2001.

[2]Venuti， Lawrence. The Translatoracute;s Invisibility: A History of Translation[M]. London: Routledge， 1995.

[3]陳福康，中國譯學理論史史稿[M]，上海：上海外語教育出版社，2000。