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Abstracts：Every translation has an aim， even the creation of literature involves purposeful action. According to the Skopos Theory， the purpose of translation depends on the expectations， requirements or norms of the target culture， thus the translator's decisions in shaping a target text are determined by target culture expectations， norms， conventions， requirements， etc. In Yang Xianyi's translation， this means that the decision on whether to translate dynamically， literally or anywhere along the free/faithful spectrum rests on what is required in the target community.
Key words：Disseminator A Study Xianyi's Translation
【中圖分类号】 H059 【文献标识码】 B 【文章编号】 2236-1879（2017）14-0206-02
Domestication and foreignization are termed by Italian-American scholar L.Venuti （1995）， and are closely linked to each other in translation process. According to Venuti， the former refers to “an ethnocentric reduction of the foreign text to target language cultural values， bring the author back home”， while the latter is “an ethno deviant pressure on those cultural values to register the linguistic and cultural difference of the foreign text， sending the reader abroad” （1995）. This article focuses on analyzing Yang's choice of domestication and foreignization through case study on Selected Stories of Lu Hsun， which provides a new approach of studying translation .
Yang Xianyi （1915-2009） is a distinguished literary translator who is remarkable for the range of his works. Yang's approach is faithful to the originals but he always expresses them in readable language. One of Yang's great achievements is The Selected Stories of Lu Hsun， which wins widespread acclaim.
As Lu Hsun initiates the vernacular writing， the translation of his work greatly reflects the translator's awareness of cross cultural communication. This article mainly explores his several representative strategies of vernacular translation in the Selected Stories of Lu Hsun from the following angles under the Skopos theory.
Sentence Reorganization and Merging
According to Nida （1969）， in some circumstance， radical departures from the formal structure are legitimate and may even be highly desirable. Sometimes in order to translate meanings， the （linguistic） form must be changed. Sentence reorganization means that the translators should reorganize the conveyed information and make it conform to the requirements of target language， which may make translation much native and easy to understand. In Selected Stories of Lu Hsun， there are some examples showing the difference between English and Chinese versions of the same paragraph or sentence： Example： 華大妈在枕头底下掏了半天，掏出一包洋钱，交给老栓，老栓接了，抖抖的装入衣袋，又在外面按了两下；便点上灯笼，吹熄灯盏，走向里屋子去了。（鲁迅：《药》）
Translated Version： After some fumbling under the pillow his wife produced a packet of silver dollars which she handed over. Old Chuan pocketed it nervously， patted his pocket twice， then lighting a paper lantern and blowing out the lamp went into the inner room. （Yang， 1960）
In Chinese language， the expression of meaning is paid more attention rather than grammatical structure， and a sentence can contain several predicate verbs. In contrary， English is rather restrained by SVO structure， with limited predicate verb in one sentence. The source text is a coordinate compound sentence， using paralleled verbs and organizing in chronological order. Yang Xianyi splits it into two separated sentences according to two subjects in the process of translation. We notice that behaviors such as “fumble”， “produce”， and “hand over” belong to old Chuan's wife， while “pocket”， “pat”， “light”， “blow out” and “went into” belong to old Chuan himself， thus it is quite challenging to keep those verbs in one sentence like source text. By applying the method of reorganization， Yang restructures the sentence to conform those elements to different action doers， and endows target text with an explicit meaning.
Omission and Culture Default
First proposed by Howard Caet （1950s）， the culture default refers to random holes in patterns. A distinguished contemporary translation theorist， Nida （1964） develops his theory in Towards A Science Of Translating， and argues that “a language is always a part of culture and the meaning of any text refers directly or indirectly to the corresponding culture. Ultimately words only have meaning in terms of the corresponding culture.” As a carrier of culture， Chinese is celebrated for its profound history， which reflects the unique cultural characteristics and national identity of China. So translation is not simply about cross language communication， ultimately it is a cross cultural communicative activity. But problems such as cultural differences and cultural vacancy are inevitable in the process of translation.
Example： 母亲颇有些生气，说是过了三更了，怎么回来得这样迟，但也就高兴了，笑着邀大家去吃炒米。（鲁迅：《社戏》）
Translated version： Mother was rather annoyed， and asked why we had come back so late——it was after midnight. But she was soon in a good humor again， and smiled as she invited everybody to come back and have some puffed rice.（Yang， 1960）
In source text， the underlined “三更” is a special term of time， which is used by ancient Chinese to keep the track of time changing. According to the traditional timing standard， one “更” refers to two hours， and “三更” refers the time from 23pm to 1am， which is equivalent to midnight. Since there is not any particular term to refer to “三更” in western concepts， Yang uses free translation here and interprets it as “midnight”， making the target text much understandable and adequate for foreign readers. Translation is never a conversion from one language to another， it is always about cross cultural communication. Hence， we are able to explore many cultural elements through Yang's translation. Literary Quotation Translation
As an important component of culture， literary quotation refers to quoted words or stories which make texts vivid and profound. Quotations in the Selected Stories of Lu Hsun make its text a little bit difficult for foreign readers to understand， but Yang Xianyi makes efforts to achieve equivalent counterparts in the process of translation. Here is an example：
Example：現在虽然明知道是阿Q，但因为和破夹袄的阿Q有些两样了，古人云，“士别三日便当刮目相待”，所以堂倌，掌柜，酒客，路人，便自然显出一种疑而且敬的形态来。（鲁迅：《阿Q正传》）
Translated version： Although they knew quite well that this was Ah Q， still he was very different from the Ah Q of the ragged coat. The ancients say， “A scholar who has been away three days must be looked at with new eyes.” So the waiter， innkeeper， customers and passers-by， all quite naturally expressed a kind of suspicion mingled with respect. （Yang， 1960）
The underlined part has an equivalent expression in English， that is “Every dog has its day”， but Yang employs literal translation to explain the underlined idiom. On the one hand， it makes reading process smooth and the style as comparatively concise as the original one. On the other hand， it makes the text maintain the original culture flavor and its implication in the text. As Schleiermacher （1813） puts forward that there are two ways of translation， “Either the translator leaves the author in peace， as much as possible， and moves the reader towards him； or he leaves the reader in peace， as much as possible， and moves the author towards him.” Here， Yang chooses to move the reader to his viewpoint and seeks to represent to readers the same images and impression he gains through original text.
Intercultural Translation Problems
According to Nida and Taber， cultural translation is “a translation in which the content of the message is changed to conform to the receptor culture in some way， and/or in which information is introduced which is not linguistically implicit in the original” （1982）. Because of the differences between the source language and target language， there is always a translation equivalence limitedness， which is greatly manifested in cultural fields.
Example：早饭之后，她便到镇的西头的土地庙里去求捐门槛。庙祝起初执意不允许，直到她急得流泪，才勉强答应了。价目是大钱十二千。（鲁迅：《祝福》）
Translated version： After breakfast she went to the Tutelary God's Temple at the west end of the village， and asked to buy a threshold. The temple priests would not agree at first， and only when she shed tears did they give a grudging consent. The price was twelve thousand cash. （Yang， 1960） Eugene Nida （1969） emphasizes， “The translator must be a person who can draw aside the curtains of linguistic and cultural differences so that people may see clearly the relevance of the original message”. In this paragraph， the underlined part “捐門槛” refers to an ancient Chinese custom that people make donations to a temple by buying a piece of threshold and praying for a better life. The profound connotative meaning is to find something to suffer the predestinated misery on behalf of the people. Westerners usually go to church and dedicate to church services， which is similar to this Chinese customs. But westerners can not understand the hidden meaning of buying a threshold without further explanation. Undeniably， Yang Xianyi translates the text with a sense of subjectivity and creativity. Although foreignization， the strategy he employs， plays a considerable role in the cross-cultural exchanges between China and other countries， it is still more acceptable to use “donate a threshold” than simply “buy” one. In this case， by allowing people to be exposed to target culture and thoughts， better understanding can be achieved.
References
Flynn， P. （2004）. “Skopos theory： An ethnographic enquiry”. Perspectives-Studies in Translatology，12（4）， 270-285.
Newmark， Peter. （1988）. Approaches to Translation. Britain： A.Wheaton & Co. Ltd.， Exeter.
Nida， E.A.，&Charles， R.T. （1969）. The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden： the United Bible Societies.
Nord， Christiane. （2001）. Translating as a Purposeful Activity： Functionalist Approaches Explained. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
Reiss， K.，&Vermeer， H.J.（2014）. Towards a General Theory of Translational Action. London： Routledge.
Key words：Disseminator A Study Xianyi's Translation
【中圖分类号】 H059 【文献标识码】 B 【文章编号】 2236-1879（2017）14-0206-02
Domestication and foreignization are termed by Italian-American scholar L.Venuti （1995）， and are closely linked to each other in translation process. According to Venuti， the former refers to “an ethnocentric reduction of the foreign text to target language cultural values， bring the author back home”， while the latter is “an ethno deviant pressure on those cultural values to register the linguistic and cultural difference of the foreign text， sending the reader abroad” （1995）. This article focuses on analyzing Yang's choice of domestication and foreignization through case study on Selected Stories of Lu Hsun， which provides a new approach of studying translation .
Yang Xianyi （1915-2009） is a distinguished literary translator who is remarkable for the range of his works. Yang's approach is faithful to the originals but he always expresses them in readable language. One of Yang's great achievements is The Selected Stories of Lu Hsun， which wins widespread acclaim.
As Lu Hsun initiates the vernacular writing， the translation of his work greatly reflects the translator's awareness of cross cultural communication. This article mainly explores his several representative strategies of vernacular translation in the Selected Stories of Lu Hsun from the following angles under the Skopos theory.
Sentence Reorganization and Merging
According to Nida （1969）， in some circumstance， radical departures from the formal structure are legitimate and may even be highly desirable. Sometimes in order to translate meanings， the （linguistic） form must be changed. Sentence reorganization means that the translators should reorganize the conveyed information and make it conform to the requirements of target language， which may make translation much native and easy to understand. In Selected Stories of Lu Hsun， there are some examples showing the difference between English and Chinese versions of the same paragraph or sentence： Example： 華大妈在枕头底下掏了半天，掏出一包洋钱，交给老栓，老栓接了，抖抖的装入衣袋，又在外面按了两下；便点上灯笼，吹熄灯盏，走向里屋子去了。（鲁迅：《药》）
Translated Version： After some fumbling under the pillow his wife produced a packet of silver dollars which she handed over. Old Chuan pocketed it nervously， patted his pocket twice， then lighting a paper lantern and blowing out the lamp went into the inner room. （Yang， 1960）
In Chinese language， the expression of meaning is paid more attention rather than grammatical structure， and a sentence can contain several predicate verbs. In contrary， English is rather restrained by SVO structure， with limited predicate verb in one sentence. The source text is a coordinate compound sentence， using paralleled verbs and organizing in chronological order. Yang Xianyi splits it into two separated sentences according to two subjects in the process of translation. We notice that behaviors such as “fumble”， “produce”， and “hand over” belong to old Chuan's wife， while “pocket”， “pat”， “light”， “blow out” and “went into” belong to old Chuan himself， thus it is quite challenging to keep those verbs in one sentence like source text. By applying the method of reorganization， Yang restructures the sentence to conform those elements to different action doers， and endows target text with an explicit meaning.
Omission and Culture Default
First proposed by Howard Caet （1950s）， the culture default refers to random holes in patterns. A distinguished contemporary translation theorist， Nida （1964） develops his theory in Towards A Science Of Translating， and argues that “a language is always a part of culture and the meaning of any text refers directly or indirectly to the corresponding culture. Ultimately words only have meaning in terms of the corresponding culture.” As a carrier of culture， Chinese is celebrated for its profound history， which reflects the unique cultural characteristics and national identity of China. So translation is not simply about cross language communication， ultimately it is a cross cultural communicative activity. But problems such as cultural differences and cultural vacancy are inevitable in the process of translation.
Example： 母亲颇有些生气，说是过了三更了，怎么回来得这样迟，但也就高兴了，笑着邀大家去吃炒米。（鲁迅：《社戏》）
Translated version： Mother was rather annoyed， and asked why we had come back so late——it was after midnight. But she was soon in a good humor again， and smiled as she invited everybody to come back and have some puffed rice.（Yang， 1960）
In source text， the underlined “三更” is a special term of time， which is used by ancient Chinese to keep the track of time changing. According to the traditional timing standard， one “更” refers to two hours， and “三更” refers the time from 23pm to 1am， which is equivalent to midnight. Since there is not any particular term to refer to “三更” in western concepts， Yang uses free translation here and interprets it as “midnight”， making the target text much understandable and adequate for foreign readers. Translation is never a conversion from one language to another， it is always about cross cultural communication. Hence， we are able to explore many cultural elements through Yang's translation. Literary Quotation Translation
As an important component of culture， literary quotation refers to quoted words or stories which make texts vivid and profound. Quotations in the Selected Stories of Lu Hsun make its text a little bit difficult for foreign readers to understand， but Yang Xianyi makes efforts to achieve equivalent counterparts in the process of translation. Here is an example：
Example：現在虽然明知道是阿Q，但因为和破夹袄的阿Q有些两样了，古人云，“士别三日便当刮目相待”，所以堂倌，掌柜，酒客，路人，便自然显出一种疑而且敬的形态来。（鲁迅：《阿Q正传》）
Translated version： Although they knew quite well that this was Ah Q， still he was very different from the Ah Q of the ragged coat. The ancients say， “A scholar who has been away three days must be looked at with new eyes.” So the waiter， innkeeper， customers and passers-by， all quite naturally expressed a kind of suspicion mingled with respect. （Yang， 1960）
The underlined part has an equivalent expression in English， that is “Every dog has its day”， but Yang employs literal translation to explain the underlined idiom. On the one hand， it makes reading process smooth and the style as comparatively concise as the original one. On the other hand， it makes the text maintain the original culture flavor and its implication in the text. As Schleiermacher （1813） puts forward that there are two ways of translation， “Either the translator leaves the author in peace， as much as possible， and moves the reader towards him； or he leaves the reader in peace， as much as possible， and moves the author towards him.” Here， Yang chooses to move the reader to his viewpoint and seeks to represent to readers the same images and impression he gains through original text.
Intercultural Translation Problems
According to Nida and Taber， cultural translation is “a translation in which the content of the message is changed to conform to the receptor culture in some way， and/or in which information is introduced which is not linguistically implicit in the original” （1982）. Because of the differences between the source language and target language， there is always a translation equivalence limitedness， which is greatly manifested in cultural fields.
Example：早饭之后，她便到镇的西头的土地庙里去求捐门槛。庙祝起初执意不允许，直到她急得流泪，才勉强答应了。价目是大钱十二千。（鲁迅：《祝福》）
Translated version： After breakfast she went to the Tutelary God's Temple at the west end of the village， and asked to buy a threshold. The temple priests would not agree at first， and only when she shed tears did they give a grudging consent. The price was twelve thousand cash. （Yang， 1960） Eugene Nida （1969） emphasizes， “The translator must be a person who can draw aside the curtains of linguistic and cultural differences so that people may see clearly the relevance of the original message”. In this paragraph， the underlined part “捐門槛” refers to an ancient Chinese custom that people make donations to a temple by buying a piece of threshold and praying for a better life. The profound connotative meaning is to find something to suffer the predestinated misery on behalf of the people. Westerners usually go to church and dedicate to church services， which is similar to this Chinese customs. But westerners can not understand the hidden meaning of buying a threshold without further explanation. Undeniably， Yang Xianyi translates the text with a sense of subjectivity and creativity. Although foreignization， the strategy he employs， plays a considerable role in the cross-cultural exchanges between China and other countries， it is still more acceptable to use “donate a threshold” than simply “buy” one. In this case， by allowing people to be exposed to target culture and thoughts， better understanding can be achieved.
References
Flynn， P. （2004）. “Skopos theory： An ethnographic enquiry”. Perspectives-Studies in Translatology，12（4）， 270-285.
Newmark， Peter. （1988）. Approaches to Translation. Britain： A.Wheaton & Co. Ltd.， Exeter.
Nida， E.A.，&Charles， R.T. （1969）. The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden： the United Bible Societies.
Nord， Christiane. （2001）. Translating as a Purposeful Activity： Functionalist Approaches Explained. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
Reiss， K.，&Vermeer， H.J.（2014）. Towards a General Theory of Translational Action. London： Routledge.