A Case Study of the Two Chinese Versions of The Old Man and the Sea from the Perspective of Aestheti

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  [Abstract] Literary translation requires translator both to re-illustrate the writer’s story, and to reproduce his/her style, tone, emotion. In fact, translator is first a reader, receiving the original and digesting it, and then a translator. Aesthetics of reception is a theory of literary criticism which emphasizes the dynamic role of the reader. Under the framework of aesthetics of reception, this thesis makes a comparative study of the two Chinese versions of The Old Man and the Sea. Based on the study of this thesis, we can re-evaluate the translating process, and discover the negative and positive effects of the reader on accepting the original,
  [Keywords]translator’s role aesthetics of reception The Old Man and the Sea
  
  1. Introduction
  
  As a cultural-importing activity, the effect of literature translation, to a large extent, depends on the translators. The translating process differs from translator to translator because of their different aesthetic appreciation, knowledge and horizons of expectation. Aesthetics of reception focuses on people, dialogues and communication, which inspires us in terms of translation studies and leaves broad space for people to discuss and explore in translation theories. Under this theoretical framework of aesthetics of reception, this study affirms the participation of readers in translational works and translator’s dynamic role in putting life into translation.
  Based on this study, we can re-evaluate the translating process, and discover the negative and positive effects of the reader on accepting the original, which are brought about by the active participation of the translator.
  
  2. Literature review
  
  2.1. Essays concerning Hemingway himself and his works are numerous and accessible to the Chinese readers. Unfortunately, not many studies have been done to different Chinese versions Due to the limited number of the studies on the translations of The Old Man and the Sea, the space of further studies on this topic is left. And my study is to compare the two Chinese versions under the framework of aesthetics of reception so that people may be reminded of the important role played by the reader as well as the pre-translating step of receiving and reproducing step of creating done by the translator.
  2.2 Aesthetics of reception is a theory of literary criticism which can be traced back to 1960s, whose representative figures are Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser of Constance School in Germany.
  Horizon of expectations is the most important concept in Jauss’s basic theories and it is also a basic concept in aesthetics of reception. It is mainly the predicted structure formed by the former understanding, target texts and text creation completed by the receiving subject. Its essential significance and function lie in putting literary in a process that the writer and the reader are constantly interacting with each other in history.
  The most outstanding assertion of Iser’s theory lies in his stress upon the gaps and indeterminacies of the text meaning. In Iser’s opinion, meaning cannot be found in the text itself, instead, it will be produced during the reading process. Literary texts possess numerous indeterminacies which constitute the most important element of literary works. Filling the gaps or indeterminacies is a realization of communication, for they exist in the interactions between the text and the reader.
  
  3. Earnest Hemingway and The Old Man and the Sea
  
  The Old Man and the Sea is the most important work written by the noted contemporary writer- Earnest Hemingway. It is this work that honored him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, which firmly established his status in the world literary history.
  The reason why The Old Man and the Sea is so evidently successful worldwide is for its unique writing style which gives rise to the vivid depiction of the key character inside the fishing story. In the end, The Old Man and the Sea comes to long existence in people’s hearts.
  
  4. Case study
  
  4.1 About the two translators
  Hai Guan and Huang Yuanshen are the translators living in two different times, which contributes to their different understandings and interpretations of the original work. Their translations are worth being analyzed because of the long time space in between. We can see from their translations the changes of the language. In addition to the analyses of how they receive the original work, we then can find out how their receptions influence their translating as a creating step.
  4.2 Case study
  Original text:
  “When the boy came back the old man was asleep in the chair and the sun was down. The boy took the old army blanket off the bed and spread it over the back of the chair and over the old man’s shoulders. They were strange shoulders, still powerful although very old, and the neck was still strong too and the creases did not show so much when the old man was asleep and his head fallen forward.
  Hai Guan’s version:
  孩子回來的时候,老头儿正在椅子上睡着,太阳已经西沉了。孩子从床上拿了一条旧军毯,搭在椅背上面,盖在老头儿的肩膀上。那两个肩膀真奇怪,老尽管老了,依然结结实实的,颈脖子也是这样,老头儿睡着了头向前搭拉下去的时候,是不大看得出皱纹的。
  Huang Yuanshen’s version:
  孩子回来的时候,老人在椅子上睡着了,太阳已经落下。孩子从床上拿来一条旧军毯,铺在椅背上,盖住老人的肩膀。这肩膀不同寻常,虽然很老,却依然有力。那脖子也仍然很壮实。老人睡着时,脑袋往前耷拉着,皱纹并不明显。
  Analysis:
  In TT1, Hai calls him “老头儿”, which is very casual. It is good to show that the old man’s social status is low and insignificant, while it is bad to stop the target readers from building up respect for such an old person. This may be caused by the aesthetic distance between the translator and the original work. On the other hand, Huang’s version of addressing the old man “老人”,which is the way the Chinese people call the elderly and respectable in Chinese. The gap between the understandings of the old man on both sides of the reader and the original is thus filled by the translator’s act of finding the potential meaning of a specific idea in the original. The chosen word “老人” comes to the translator due to his former experience of positive information of The Old Man and the Sea. The old man in the original is in Manolin’s eyes, full of affection and respect. When the translators first read the passage, they both can sense this detail. Based on their respective horizon of expectations, however, their interpretations of the old man’s image are not the same. So they decide to use “老头儿”, “老人” differently. Hai’s interpretation of the old man is a little bit negative, whereas Huang’s interpretation is more faithful to the original and is influenced by the ever-lasting impression of the old man’s image as being positive through so many years.
  In Hai’s version we can see the description of sun set with the words of “西沉”,the feeling towards the reader seems to be a little sad and no more is left in life, quite a passive idea conveyed. Also, “西沉” to a modern world seems to be old-fashioned and it is too genteelly written. This is not how Hemingway’s work is organized and planned. On the contrary, Huang’s version of translating the sun set is relatively normal and peaceful with not much emotional sense.
  Let’s look at the two versions’ translating of “they were strange shoulders”. Hai’s version is “那兩个肩膀真奇怪”,and Huang’s version is “这肩膀不同寻常”. If we first look at the direct translation of “strange” into “奇怪”, as a reader without the chances of reading the original, I don’t think I’ll get Hemingway’s depiction of the old man’s shoulders. This version can be faithful to the English words in the original, though. After Huang’s discovering the hidden meaning of the original work, the indeterminacy of the original and the target reader, which can be also regarded as a creating step in translating, is filled.
  
  5. Conclusion
  
  From the above study of the two Chinese versions of The Old Man and the Sea, we can find that the translators’ work is not simply translating, more important of all lies in their previous life and aesthetic experiences; their pre-understanding of the original so that their horizon of expectations can be fused or contradicted; their efforts in filling the indeterminacies hidden in the original texts by means of their interpretation of the original.
  
  References
  [1] Adorno, T. W. Aesthetic Theory[M]. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, Boston, Melbourne and Henley, 1984.
  [2]黄源深.老人与海[M].南京:译林出版社,2007。
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