Analysis on Two Translation Versions of Peanuts from Skopostheorie

何娜 何松 滕麗梅

【Abstract】 Peanuts is a famous essay written by Mr. Xu Dishan, where Mr. Xu gives a meaningful interpretation of the truth of life. On the basis of Skopostheorie, a comparison analysis on the two translation versions from Zhang Peiji and Liu Shicong is of great importance.

【Key words】 Skopostheorie; Translation; Peanuts; Analysis

【作者簡介】何娜(1992-)，女，山東外國語職業技術大學，助教，從事英語教學與翻譯研究；何松(1997-)，男，河北建筑工程學院，本科在讀，機械電子工程；滕麗梅(1984-)，女，山東外國語職業技術大學，助教，從事翻譯理論與實踐研究。

Skopostheorie reflects a general shift from predominantly linguistic and rather formal translation theories to a more functional and sociocultural oriented concept of translation. Based on former findings, this thesis attempts to study the two versions of Peanuts from skopostheorie.

1. Skopostheorie

Put forward by Hans Vemeer, Skopostheorie aims to explain translation from the target language and focus on the purpose, which determines the translation methods and strategies that are to be employed to produce a functionally adequate result. According to Vemeer, there are three essential rules: skopos rule, coherence rule, and fidelity rule. Skopos rule should be applied to the whole translation process, and the others can be decided by different situations.

2. Characteristics and Text Type of Peanuts

Peanuts is an famous and highly acclaimed essay of Xu Dishan, where he uses fresh, brief and fluent language to tell us a story of his childhood. With only less than 600 words, it illustrates the truth of life by the tiny image of peanuts to illustrate that the author wants to be a useful man like peanuts and meanwhile achieve its aesthetic and artistic value. According to Reisss text type theory, it belongs to expressive text. Characteristics and text type of the original text should also be taken into consideration to achieve translation purpose.

3. Analysis of Two Translation Versions from Skopostheorie

The versions of Zhang Peiji and Liu Shicong are the most popular worldwide. Skopostheorie takes a view from the target language readers reception and understanding. In this part, Zhangs translation and Lius translation will be appreciated in details from vocabulary selection different.

Example 1:

母親把花生做成好幾樣的食品。

劉譯：Mother cooked the peanuts in a variety of styles.

張譯：Mother made quite a few varieties of goodies out of the peanuts

Analysis: the first version doesnt translate “食品”, but the whole sentence has contained the meaning. Instead although the second one uses specific words “goodies”, it doesnt equal to “食品”. The second one violates coherence rule, which doesnt keep intra-textual coherence.

Example 2:

“……這小小的豆不像那么好看的蘋果、桃子、石榴…..”

Zhangs Version: “ Unlike nice-looking apples, peaches, and pomegranates... tiny little peanuts…”

Lius Version: “Unlike apples, peaches and pomegranates ... peanut…”

Analysis: both the two translators adopt synthesization to translate the original work. But when it comes to “小小的豆”, “小小的” is translated into “tiny little” in Zhangs version by combining two synonyms “tiny” and “little” to emphasize the meaning, while Liu doesnt notice the word and forget translating the small word.

Example 3:

“過不了幾個月，居然收獲了！”

張譯：“we gathered in a good harvest just after a couple of months!”

劉譯：“In a couple of months, and we had a harvest!”

Analysis: in most occasions, translators will translate “居然”into “unexpectedly” or “surprisingly”. But here both use other forms to express the transition, which can connect more naturally and achieve better effect.

4.Conclusion

From the whole essay, conclusion can be drawn that both versions have their own strengths and weaknesses, translators should absorb the merits and try to carry the translation of Peanuts forward.

References:

[1]賀湘錦.基于奈達“讀者反映論”對比賞析《落花生》三個英譯本[J].外語教學,2012.

[2]Schaffner, Christine. Skopos Theory. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.