目的论与戏剧翻译_浅析莎士比亚名剧Measureeasure的三个中文译本

1、目的论与戏剧翻译 _ 浅析莎士比亚名剧measure for measure的三个中文译本 提要 众所周知,戏剧作为一种特殊的文学体裁,还同时具有舞台表演的特性,这导致了戏剧翻译中的一对矛盾:是将源文本的文化特征淋漓尽致地表达出来,还是为舞台表演牺牲部分文化因素?研究并解决这一矛盾成为当前戏剧翻译研究的重中之重。而纵观中外翻译史,翻译界对戏剧翻译所作的研究为数并不多,且缺乏系统的理论指导,对戏剧中这一矛盾的关注更是不够。本文尝试从目的论出发来审视这一矛盾,以目的论为研究的理论框架,试图证明目的论对研究和解决戏剧翻译中的矛盾行之有效,在戏剧翻译中意义重大。 作为文学艺术和舞台艺术的结合体,戏剧具

2、有双重性。这种双重性使得传统翻译理论难以指导或评估戏剧翻译。而目的论主张翻译目的为翻译活动中的首要决定因素,这为翻译研究,特别是戏剧翻译研究开拓了新的视野。只要译文实现了既定翻译目的,那么该译本就算是成功的译本。为验证目的论在戏剧翻译中的可行性,本文运用该理论评价莎士比亚“measure for measure”的三个中文译本,以期从成功的翻译实践中找到有益启示。 全文由五个章节构成。第一章对戏剧进行全面介绍,总结戏剧语言的特性,进一步指出戏剧翻译中的矛盾,并回顾了翻译界的相关研究。第二章引进目的论的理论框架,阐明其主要概念及其对戏剧翻译的特殊意义。第三章从目的论影响译者翻译方法的四个因素出发

3、,介绍原作者莎士比亚、译者梁实秋、朱生豪和英若诚的相关信息。第四章从目的论的角度,对三个译本进行了详尽分析,进一步验证目的论在戏剧翻译中的可行性。第五章总结目的论在戏剧翻译中的重要意义及深远影响。关键词:戏剧翻译,目的论,文学性,舞台表演 ivtable of contentschapter i general introduction to drama and drama translation. 1 1.1 definition of drama: literary art & theatrical art1 1.2 features of dramatic language: s

4、peakability & individuality.2 1.3 duality of drama translation: performance-oriented & reader-oriented.3 1.4 relevant study of drama translation5 1.4.1 drama translation theories in china.5 1.4.2 drama translation theories in western countries7chapter ii the skopos theory and drama translati

5、on. 11 2.1 development of the skopos theory. 11 2.2 two rules of the skopos theory12 2.3 five points of the skopos theory.13 2.4 factors affecting translators strategies from the skopos theorys standpoint.14 2.5 significance of the skopos theory for drama translation.15chapter iii researches on thre

6、e chinese shakespearean translators from the skopos theorys standpoint.17 3.1 william shakespeare and his measure for measure.17 3.2 liang shiqiu and his complete works of shakespeare18 3.2.1 initiator or commissioner18 3.2.2 translator.19 3.2.3 source-text producer and target-text receiver21 3.3 zh

7、u shenghao and his translation of shakespeare.22 3.3.1 initiator or commissioner22 3.3.2 translator.23 3.3.3 source-text producer, target-text receiver24 3.4 ying ruocheng and his drama translation.24 3.4.1 initiator and translator.24 3.4.2 source-text producer and target-text receiver26chapter iv s

8、ample analysis27 4.1 characters names.27 4.2 allusions.28 4.3 metaphors.31 4.4 idioms.34 4.5 puns.37 4.6 obscene words40 4.7 summary42chapter v conclusion 44bibliography 46vchapter i general introduction to drama and drama translation drama translation is a special and distinctive branch of literary

9、 translation due to the dualistic nature of drama. then what on earth are the unique features of drama and drama translation? we may start our discussion with a general introduction to drama and relevant study of drama translation before going any further1.1 definition of drama: literary art & t

10、heatrical art originally, the word “drama” comes from a greek word, “dran”, meaning “thing done”, “action” or “deed”. to make it clear, the author looks up the word “drama” in several authoritative dictionaries and collects the following interpretations for further reference:ndin the oxford english

11、dictionary 2 edition 1989, “drama” is “a composition in prose or verse, adapted to be acted upon a stage, in which a story is related by means of dialogue and action, and is represented with accompanying gesture, costume, and scenery, as in real life; a play”in the encyclopedia britannica 1964: “dra

12、ma” is “a form of art in which the artist imagines a story concerning persons and incidents without himself describing, narrating or explaining what is happening”in the encyclopedia americana 1986: “drama” is “a form of literature intended for performance by actors. in general the subject matter is

13、narrative in character and, in the type of story traditionally considered suitable for presentation on the stage”we may summarize the above interpretations like this: drama is a genre of literature with a story related by means of dialogue and action, and produced to be acted upon the stage. the ter

14、m “drama” is used in an inclusive way that emphasizes both its literary nature on page for the reader and its potential for performance on stage for the audience. on the one hand, it is literature whose aesthetic effect depends on a collective endeavor and the receptors response is mostly spontaneou

15、s and immediate. since the play text contains stage directions and dramatic language which depict the portraits of characters and push forward the plot, we can still read the play text as any other literary works. on the other1hand, drama is “an audiovisual presentation of time and space, involving

16、music, dance, fine arts and literary language, with the simultaneous presence of actors and audience” lin, 1993: 4. the original intention and full potential of drama can only be brought out and realized by performing on stage. thus the ultimate receptor of drama is supposed to be the audience in th

17、e theatrealthough most dramas are produced to be performed, there is an exception. some dramatic works are called “closet dramas” or “closet plays”, which are created to be readin this case the playwright does not need to take theatrical performance into considerationhowever, plays with such a pure

18、purpose are scarce, and here in this thesis, we focus our attention on stage-oriented drama1.2 features of dramatic language: speakability & individuality as a special form of literature, dramatic writing is largely different from other literary genres. in jiao juyins words, the receptor of most

19、 literature genres, such as poetry and prose, is the text reader, while the receiver of drama includes not only the reader of the playtext, but also the audience in the theatre. thus the playwright needs to bear reader and audience in mind at the same time. on this point, robert cohen also stated hi

20、s opinion: “because drama is often thought of as a form of literature and because many dramatic authors begin as poets or novelists, it may be seen as if playwriting is primarily a literary activity. it is not. etymology helps here: playwright is not playwrite. writing for the theatre entails consid

21、erations not common to other literary forms.” cohen, 2000: 82as a genre of literature, drama is mainly composed of stage directions and dramatic dialoguestage directions refer to the playwrights imagination of the stage space barranger, 1986: 290. it is actually a description of intended paralinguis

22、tic instructions to direct actors physical action. stage directions can be divided into several categories, including environmental description, setting description, description of characters facial expressions, mood and gestures. as a common role, stage directions are formal in style and concise in

23、 languagedramatic language, as the main content of a drama, is not merely an arrangement of2words on a page. it differs from other literary language in that it is “more than words on a page?it is the playwrights blueprint of a special kind of experience, created to appeal as much to the eye as to th

24、e ear” barranger, 1986: 89-90. it is a conceptualization of the interactions of myriad elements in the theatrical medium: movement, speech, scenery, costume, staging, music, spectacle, and silence. as is said in an introduction to literature, drama is “not simply words but words spoken with accompan

25、ying gestures by performers who are usually costumed in a particular setting” barnet, berman and burto, 1997: 536dramatic dialogue is of essential importance in developing plots, creating characters, presenting crisis, describing circumstances and revealing the theme. the relationships between chara

26、cters are, for the most time, constructed and developed through the language they use. thus the creation of drama language becomes even harder. on the requirements of dramatic language, many scholars have put forward their opinions, such as nicolls “economical and artistic” nicoll, 1985: 95, backers

27、 “clear in meaning, helpful to the advancement of plots and in accordance with personalities” backer, 2000: 426, li jianwus “colloquial” li, 1982:153, lan fans “actable, individual and poetic” lan, 1992: 474 and so on. taking all these requirements into account, the most conspicuous features of dram

28、atic dialogue can be summarized into speakability and individualityspeakability guarantees the effectiveness of being naturally spoken by actors and quickly understood by the audience. and individuality defines the characterization of the whole drama1.3 duality of drama translation: performance-orie

29、nted & reader-oriented as has been explored in previous sections, drama differs from other literature genres, for it is not only a linguistic art with reader-reception as its form of fulfillment, but also a performing art with the theatre-goers as its ultimate receptor. the peculiarity of drama

30、results in the duality of drama translation. other than those general requirements for literary translation, drama translation bears its own characteristicsas a genre of literature, drama is loaded with the specificity of the culture it is situated in, like any other literary form. as we know, drama

31、 is to reflect real life and the production of drama is closely related to the life style and ideology of a certain society. to3put it in another way, drama, within hours performance, reflects the essence accumulated in a culture and the seemingly concise dramatic text actually is loaded with plenti

32、ful cultural traits. thus translator, as his mission determines, has to do his best to transmit the cultural information embedded in the original drama text, delivering the properties of source culture and conveying the aesthetic art of the source text as much as possiblewhile at the same time, dram

33、a is to be presented to the audience, the actual fulfillment of the essentiality of it depends as much on the extra-linguistic situation as on the linguistic context. as a result, drama should not be translated simply as the text on the page. the stage aspect of the play text should also be emphasiz

34、ed in drama translation, that is, to ensure the performability of the source dramatic text on a foreign stage. according to backer 2000: 51-52, performability means that theatrical needs are satisfied, and emotion is conveyed to audience within a certain time indirectly by actors rather than directl

35、y by the playwright himself. but to naturally perform a foreign drama in a different context is not an easy thing, for people from different cultures have different conventions and ideologies. when translating other literary forms, we may resort to footnotes to solve this problem, but on the stage,

36、its impossible for actors to read footnotes to the audiencetherefore adaptations to target language and culture are inevitable in drama translation, thus to avoid footnotes as well as difficulties in understandingthus the drama translator is confronted with a central problem: to maintain the origina

37、l culture-bound message is a basic requirement for the translator. however, in order to ensure the performability, adaptations have to be made and thus source cultural messages will inevitably be affected. we may get a more thorough understanding of the dilemma in drama translation from a text book

38、of translation newmark, 2004: 172: “the main purpose of translating a play is normally to have it performed successfullytherefore a translator of drama inevitably has to bear the potential spectator in mind though, here again, the better written and more significant the text, the fewer compromises h

39、e can make in favor of the reader. further, he works under certain constraints: unlike the translator of fiction, he cannot gloss, explain puns or ambiguities or cultural references, nor transcribe words for the sake of local colour: his text is dramatic, with emphasis on verbs, rather than descript

40、ive and explanatory.” 4in light of all these factors, due to the peculiarity of drama translation, traditional translation theory, which is mainly based on linguistic equivalence, could hardly help here in drama translation 1.4 relevant study of drama translation although drama is the oldest genre o

41、f literature, academic study on drama translation only got its start thirty years ago and still leaves much of its territory unexploredcompared with the study of the translation of other literary genres, study of drama translation lags way behind, and only a few scholars have systematically summariz

42、ed theories of drama translation1.4.1 drama translation theories in china in china, few works have been written on the central issues involved in translating plays across languages. yet we do have several scholars who have come up with some principles or theories concerning drama translation based o

43、n their own translation practicesamong them the most prominent are zhu shenghao, yu guangzhong, and ying ruocheng1.4.1.1 zhu shenghao mr. zhu shenghao, an excellent writer and translator in china, translated most of shakespeares plays successfully into chinese. in the preface to his translation of s

44、hakespeares plays, he shared his experience in drama translation:while translating this book, i tried to maintain the verse of the original work to the utmost. when that could not be achieved, i strained for resemblances, and lucidity and fluency are preferred in my translated version to faithful re

45、production of the original style. as for word-for-word translation, i personally think poorly of this mechanical rendition. when the original text differs vastly from the chinese version in grammatical structure, id rather adjust the sentence structure of my translation for the sake of intelligibili

46、ty. after i translated a section, i would go through my translation as if i were a member of the audience and tried to see if there were any ambiguous and misleading places. i would then act the translated play out as if i were an actor and see if the5translation read smooth and sounded melodious. a

47、 single hard word or sentence often may throw me into weeks of deliberationzhu, 1984: preface here zhu shenghao emphasizes some important aspects of drama translation: first, translation should try to preserve the original spirit; second, translation should be clear and easy to understand; and third

48、, translation should be smooth and easy to be pronounced by the actors 1.4.1.2 yu guangzhong yu guangzhong has also summarized his tri-fold translation principle in the preface to his translation of oscar wildes the importance of being ernest: fictional dialogue and dramatic dialogue are different i

49、n that readers can read the dialogue in a fiction again and again for better comprehension, while theatre-goers can only listen to the dialogues in a play for one time. when certain information is missing, its gone for good. i translated this play not only for chinese readers, but also for the chine

50、se spectators and actors, therefore i adopted a specific translation principle this time: i tried to make sure that my translation is pleasing to the eye of the readers, and pleasing to the ear of the audience, and easy to deliver by actors and actresses. i hope that my translated play turns out to

51、be an animated drama-on-stage rather than a restrained closet-drama. yu, 1983: preface for yu guangzhong, dialogues in novel and drama are written for different purposes so the translation of them should be done with different strategies. he emphasizes that the dialogue in a drama is to be heard by

52、the audience and spoken by the actors, so a translator should bear in mind the principle of making his translation “pleasing to the eye of the readers, pleasing to the ear of the audience, and easy to deliver by actors and actresses”1.4.1.3 ying ruocheng ying ruocheng is a famous drama actor, direct

53、or as well as translator. as an actor, ying ruocheng emphasizes the colloquialism in drama translation. in the preface to his6series of translated works, he points out some important features of drama translation and summarizes his own principles for drama translating a line spoken by an actor is transient; he cannot stop to annotate and explain, and this is the artistic essence of dramatic languagethe dramatic language should be s