学校编码：10384 分类号_______密级 ______

学号：12020101152583 UDC ______

硕 士 学 位 论 文

阿瑟·米勒短篇小说《表演》翻译报告

Report on the Translation of Arthur Miller’s Short Story “The Performance”

傅 莹

指导教师姓名： 林 斌 教 授

专 业 名 称： 翻 译 硕 士

论文提交日期： 2013 年 4 月

论文答辩日期： 2013 年 5 月

学位授予日期： 2 0 1 3 年 月

答辩委员会主席：_________

评 阅 人：_________

2013 年 月

阿瑟·米勒短篇小说《表演》翻译报告

傅

莹

指导教师:

林斌

教授

厦门大学

厦门

大学

博硕

士论

文摘

要库

厦门大学博硕士论文摘要库

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厦门大学博硕士论文摘要库

I

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the translation of “The Performance” written by Arthur

Miller, which is a part of the translation project initiated by Shanghai Translation

Publishing House. This short story is a clever irony on the Nazi and on Hitler himself,

which not only inspires readers to brood on the relationship between politics and art

but also to reconsider their attitude towards historical figures and events.

As is known to all, active understanding of literary works plays a significant role

in literary translation. Meanwhile, hermeneutics is a theory about how to understand

and interpret the meaning of a text, which provides a new perspective for translation

study. Based on George Steiner’s hermeneutic motion, namely “trust”, “aggression”,

“incorporation” and “compensation”, this thesis attempts to analyze the solutions to

the problems that are encountered during the translation process as well as the

translation techniques, such as free translation, amplification and annotation.

In conclusion, translation is never easy. The whole translation process, including

the preparatory work for the translation, the translating work as well as the subsequent

editing and revising, does call for active understanding and interpretation of the text

as well as great patience of the translator. In literary translation, translators should,

based on pre-understanding, bring their subjectivity into full play and reproduce the

aesthetic charm of the original by following some translation principles and

understanding the implications of the original.

Key words: “The Performance”; literary translation; George Steiner’s hermeneutic

motion; translation techniques

厦门大学博硕士论文摘要库

II

摘 要

本文是一篇翻译实践报告，所译原文为阿瑟·米勒短篇小说集《存在》中的

《演出》一文，这是由上海译文出版社发起的翻译项目的一部分。该小说是对纳

粹党以及希特勒本人的极大讽刺，激发了读者对艺术是否能脱离政治的思考，同

时也让读者开始重新审视一些历史人物和历史事件。

众所周知在文学翻译中对文学作品的理解在整个过程中占有举足轻重的地

位，而阐释学则是一门对意义进行理解和解释的科学和理论，为翻译研究提供了

新的视角。本文试图从乔治·斯坦纳提出的翻译四步骤理论角度，尝试从“信赖”、

“侵入”、“吸收”和“补偿”四个方面系统分析在《演出》一文翻译过程中遇到

问题的解决方法以及所运用的翻译技巧，如意译、增译、词性转换和加注法等。

后笔者指出，翻译绝非易事。不管是在译前准备阶段、翻译过程当中或者

是译后的校审阶段都需要译员对原作有准确的理解阐释以及极大的耐心，在文学

翻译中尤是。译者应充分发挥译者的主体性，以理解原文为前提，遵循翻译的若

干原则，通过理解原作的思想蕴义准确再现原作的神韵。

关键词：《演出》；文学翻译；翻译四步骤理论；翻译技巧

厦门大学博硕士论文摘要库

III

Table of Contents

Abstract ....................................................................................................................... I

摘要 .............................................................................................................................. II

Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1

Chapter One The Author and the Book ........................................................ 4

1.1 Introduction of the Author ........................................................................................ 4

1.2 Introduction of Presence ............................................................................................ 5

1.3 Analysis of “The Performance” ............................................................................... 6

Chapter Two The Original Text and My Translation ............................. 7

2.1 The Original Text ....................................................................................................... 7

2.2 My Version of Translation ....................................................................................... 27

Chapter Three Theoretical Framework .................................................... 44

3.1 Origin and Development of Hermeneutics ......................................................... 44

3.2 Hermeneutics as Translation Theory ................................................................... 45

3.3 Steiner’s Hermeneutic Motion and Its Application ......................................... 46

Chapter Four Translation Analysis ............................................................. 49

4.1 The Choice of the Text .............................................................................................. 49

4.2 The Active Understanding and Interpretation of the Text ............................ 50

4.2.1 Accuracy of the Connotations of the Original Text .............................. 50

4.2.2 Exact Representation of the Scenes in the Original Text ................... 52

4.2.3 Vivid Portrayal of Characters in the Original Text ............................. 54

厦门大学博硕士论文摘要库

IV

4.2.4 Expressiveness of the Translation .............................................................. 56

4.3 Translator’s Compensation ..................................................................................... 58

Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 60

References ................................................................................................................ 62

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................... 64

厦门大学博硕士论文摘要库

V

目 录

Abstract ...................................................................................................................... I

摘要 .............................................................................................................................. II

引言 .............................................................................................................................. 1

第一章 原文分析 .................................................................................................... 4 1.1 作者简介 ....................................................................................................................... 4

1.2 《存在》简介 .............................................................................................................. 5

1.3 《演出》简介 .............................................................................................................. 6

第二章 项目原文与译文 .................................................................................... 7 2.1 原文 ................................................................................................................................ 7

2.2 译文 .............................................................................................................................. 27

第三章 理论框架 ................................................................................................ 44 3.1 阐释学的起源与发展 .............................................................................................. 44

3.2 阐释学作为一种翻译理论 ..................................................................................... 45

3.3 斯坦纳的翻译四步骤及其运用 ............................................................................ 46

第四章 翻译过程分析 ....................................................................................... 49

4.1 译文的选择 ................................................................................................................ 49

4.2 原文的积极理解 ....................................................................................................... 50

4.2.1 意义的准确性 ............................................................................................... 50

4.2.2 意境的再现 .................................................................................................... 52

4.2.3 人物形象的传绘 ........................................................................................... 54

4.2.4 译文语言的表现力 ...................................................................................... 56

厦门大学博硕士论文摘要库

VI

4.3 译者的补偿 ................................................................................................................ 58

结论 ............................................................................................................................ 60

参考文献 ................................................................................................................... 62

致谢 ............................................................................................................................ 64

厦门大学博硕士论文摘要库

Introduction

1

Introduction

It is known to all that literature can be classified into poetry, fiction, drama, prose

and so on. But it is easier said than done to give literature a fixed accurate definition.

Simply speaking, literature characterized with three qualities—truth, imagination and

beauty, which is the true mirror of society, is an art of language as well as a rendering

of the writer’s experience through which readers are influenced. Therefore, “literary

translation is the transplantation of literary works from one language into another, but

it is not merely the transfer of language” (Wu Wen’an, 2004:18). As the literary works

are a kind of art created in language, what we demand from them is more than just the

recording of characters and incidents. In addition, they should possess artistic images

which are attractive to the readers. In other words, the readers must have a strong

feeling about the characters’ thought and behavior.

Throughout history, translators of the East and the West have offered various

definitions of “translation”, including literary translation, but most have just clarified

their connotation and denotation from the linguistic perspective and ignored the main

features of literary translation. It is widely accepted that in literary works, emphases

are always laid not on the meaning of language, but on language itself. The language

of literary works conveys various feelings of human beings and is of ample

connotations, and so is literary translation. In China, the most popular definition of

literary translation is given by Mao Dun at the National Conference of Literary

Translators in 1954. As he claims, “Literary translation is to reproduce the original

artistic images in another language so that the reader of the translation may be

inspired, moved and aesthetically entertained in the same way as one reads the

original” (Liu Zhongde, 1991:104). According to this definition, literary translation

must be full of emotion and sentiment as the original is, without which it will be dull

and monotonous to its readers. Gachechiladze, a famous representative of Russian

literature, once pointed out that “literary translation is one form of literary

厦门大学博硕士论文摘要库

Introduction

2

writing and one form of art facts with form and content perfectly combined with

each other, which the translator reflects what he has chosen with his specific

views of the world” (qtd. in Yu Zhihua, 2007:17). This definition apparently

reveals the subjectivity of the translator in the translation process.

From my point of view, literary translation is an art, in which the translator’s

subjectivity and creativity should be fully displayed; it should not only convey

semantic meanings but should also reproduce the aesthetics of the source text; it

means the reflection of the artistic images and the artistic styles of the source text in

another language so that the target text readers can be inspired, moved and

aesthetically entertained in the same way as the source text readers are.

Presence is a posthumous collection of Arthur Miller’s last published stories that

first appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire, and elsewhere, which reveals the

same profound insight, humanism, and empathy which are the hallmarks of his great

dramatic works. It was published collectively shortly after Miller’s death in 2005. The

translation of Presence is one of the translation projects initiated by Shanghai

Translation Publishing House. Professor Lin Bin and I undertook the task of

translating it. The book consists of six short stories, namely “Bulldog”, “The

Performance”, “Beavers”, “The Bare Manuscript”, “The Turpentine Still” and

“Presence”, and I undertook the translation of three of them —“The Performance”,

“Beavers” and “The Turpentine Still”. As the original work is heavy with specific

cultural information and literary devices, I plunged myself in a tremendous amount of

literature research and data collection so as to translate it both aesthetically and

faithfully. After four months’ hard work, I finally finished the first draft and then had

several discussions with my supervisor, who meticulously revised my work. In this

report I would like to choose “The Performance” as the source text for a detailed

analysis, because analyzing and summarizing the different techniques employed

during the translation process as well as the methods used to deal with cultural

backgrounds may be useful for my future improvement in translation.

The significance of this translation project lies in three aspects. Firstly, it

provides the Chinese readers with a Chinese version of this collection of short stories

厦门大学博硕士论文摘要库

Introduction

3

so as to help the Chinese readers learn more about Arthur Miller as a short story writer.

Secondly, it illustrates the methods and techniques employed while translating this

short story. After finishing the first draft, I spent a lot of time on proofreading and

revised the translation over and over again. During that process, I also tried to analyze

and summarize the methods and techniques I employed. Last but not least, I have

learned from this translation practice by comparing my first draft with my

supervisor’s final draft, reflected on the limitations in this version of translation, and

come up with some unsolved problems in this translation practice.

Hermeneutics can be defined as the science and methodology of interpreting

texts. As a theory concerning understanding and interpretation, hermeneutics has a

close relationship with literary translation studies. Ever since its first appearance,

hermeneutics has always been connected with interpretation and translation. In

Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutic point of view, every translation is, at the same

time, an interpretation. Thus, hermeneutics is highly relevant to literary translation.

The results of translation studies can provide evidence for the research of

hermeneutics, and in turn, hermeneutics provides numerous theoretical principles for

translation studies. Against this theoretical background, this thesis will deal with the

translator’s subjectivity as well as the methods and techniques employed on the basis

of George Steiner’s motion of hermeneutic translation.

The thesis consists of four chapters: Chapter One provides a brief introduction to

Arthur Miller and Presence and a detailed analysis of “The Performance”. Chapter

Two presents the original text and my version of translation. Chapter Three is the

theoretical framework of this thesis, in which the hermeneutics theory and George

Steiner’s hermeneutic translation motion theory are explained. Chapter Four is the

most important part of the thesis, in which an analysis will be made of the methods

and techniques employed while translating this short story in terms of accuracy of the

connotations of the original text, exact representation of the scenes in the original text,

vivid portrayal of the characters in the original text and expressiveness of the

translation. In the end a natural conclusion will be drawn based on the above analysis.

厦门大学博硕士论文摘要库

Chapter One The Author and His Presence

4

Chapter One The Author and His Presence

1.1 Introduction of the Author

Arthur Miller (October 17, 1915─February 10, 2005) was one of the most

renowned American playwrights. His representative works include Death of a

Salesman and The Crucible, the Tony Award winners. He was awarded the Pulitzer

Prize, the New York Drama Critics’ Award, and the National Book Foundation Medal

for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He was born in New York City to

a Jewish businessman who had immigrated from Austria. His father owned a women’s

clothing manufacturing business; therefore, Miller’s childhood was comfortable. Due

to the Great Depression of 1929, Miller’s comfortable life ended at that time. He

started to take several jobs to pay his college tuition. Miller enrolled in the University

of Michigan in 1934, and spent much of the next four years learning to write. There

Miller first majored in journalism and worked as a reporter and night editor of a

student newspaper. He also wrote his first student play No Villain, which won the

annual Hopwood Award. Miller was greatly encouraged by his success; thus, his

career of playwriting was launched.

After graduation, Miller joined the Federal Theater Project, a New Deal agency

established to provide jobs in the theater. There he finished writing this Broadway

plays, The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944), Situation Normal (1944) and All My

Sons (1947) included. Later came his most successful play, Death of a Salesman

(1949), which employs techniques of realism and symbolism, illustrating the tragic

life of a salesman as victim of the American Dream. Throughout Miller’s life, the

Great Depression of 1929 exerted a great influence on his view of life. He became a

man of great insight into the psychology of desperation, and was quite capable of

creating stories that express the deepest meanings of struggle. Together with Eugene

O’Neill and Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller has been regarded as one of the three

great American dramatists in the 20th century.

厦门大学博硕士论文摘要库

Degree papers are in the “Xiamen University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Database”. Fulltexts are available in the following ways: 1. If your library is a CALIS member libraries, please log on http://etd.calis.edu.cn/ and submitrequests online, or consult the interlibrary loan department in your library. 2. For users of non-CALIS member libraries, please mail to etd@xmu.edu.cn for delivery details.

厦门大学博硕士论文摘要库