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Later on, the appearance of the Chinese version of his novel in 1950s earned him popularity in China. At the same time, scholars and readers in China have shown a great interest in his works, leading to the advent of several Chinese versions of the scarlet letter. The introduction of the novel helps Chinese readers know more about the colonial period of America and makes it possible for the scholars conduct researches on the literature of that period. Meanwhile, the Chinese versions themselves are also worthwhile studying, especially the translation strategies employed in different versions.
In this paper, two Chinese versions are selected. One is Han Shiheng’s version in 1954 and the other is Yao Naiqiang’s in 1996. The reason why these two versions are studied is that there is a long time span between publishing the two versions. Due to this long span, they are quite different from each other. Han’s version is less fluent than Yao’s, which is owing to the social background, the culture position and the choice of translation strategies.
This paper will be pided into four parts. The first part is the introduction part including some research backgrounds. The second part reviews the previous studies on the development of Chinese versions of this novel and on translation strategies of domestication and foreignization. The third part is the most significant one that compares the application of the translation strategies in the two versions. The final part concludes the relationship between domestication and foreignization as well as the factors contributing to the differences between Han’s and Yao’s.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Previous studies on Chinese versions of the Scarlet Letter
The scarlet letter was introduced to China in the 1930s. Lots of Chinese versions have sprung up, including the versions by Wu Guangjian and Zhang Menglin published in 1934 and so on. Han Shiheng(韩侍桁)who has a high position in Chinese translation field translated it in the 1940s and revised it several times in 1954 and 1981 after the founding of the state. His version has been quite popular among Chinese readers for decades. In half of a century, the novel has entered the university classroom, library, and even a number of families, which has become a vivid textbook of American literature that our readers can better understand the history of the United States. In recent years, multiple versions have appeared, including “the scarlet letter” translated by Yao Naiqiang and published by Yilin Press in 1996. According to the publishing time of the versions, three stages can be pided. They are from 1930s to 1950s, from1960s to 1970s and from 1980s to now. Han’s version is the most important one during the first stage while Yao’s version is during the last stage. 来!自~751论-文|网www.751com.cn
In fact, Han’s and Yao’s versions have their own characteristics and give a full reproduction of the original. The former which is the fist fully translated Chinese version of the novel was published about forty years ago. Therefore, there is no doubt that Yao’s version is considered to be the best one, for he absorbs the essence of former translators and adds his own ideas. However, it is virtually impossible to give a perfect reproduction of the author’s meaning and stylistic flavor, as a translator is bound to leave his or her own trace in the translation. Nida says, “the translator can be as free as possible from the personal intrusion in the communication process. The translator should never tack on his own intellectual and emotional outlook. He must spare no effort to reduce any intrusion of himself which is not in harmony with the intent of the original author and message to a minimum.” (Nida 154) Thus, the reason why they are chosen is that both of them are representatives of the Chinese versions at different times.