摘 要
本文是一篇翻译实践报告,研究对象是印裔美籍女作家迪瓦卡鲁尼(ChitraBanerjee Divakaruni)的小说《夹竹桃女孩》(Oleander Girl)的第一章和第二章.该书的主人公是印度女孩科洛比(Korobi),主要内容是她成长为独立女性的过程,以此折射出作者的女性主义思想.女性主义翻译是翻译具有女性主义色彩作品的行之有效的对策.女性主义翻译旨在消除翻译研究与实践中对女性的歧视, 要求重新界定译作与原作的地位,译文与原文应享有同等地位,认为翻译不仅涉及语言技巧,还涉及到文化、意识形态等诸多方面.女性主义常用翻译策略有增补、加写脚注和劫持策略.本翻译实践报告主要内容包括翻译实践过程,遇到的翻译难题,以及解决办法.
笔者在翻译过程中主要遇到两大翻译难题.其一,角色的心理描写准确度不易掌控.其二,文化负载词的翻译也是译者面临的又一难题.基于翻译实践,笔者发现女性主义翻译策略能有效解决上述问题.增补翻译和加写脚注的翻译是女性主义翻译常用的翻译策略.笔者通过此次翻译实践,发现增补翻译适用于原文中的心理描写.增补翻译就是平衡的差异之处,显现角色的微妙心理活动.加写脚注则更适合翻译文化负载词.加写脚注的翻译是在译文中对原文文化背景加以注释.女性主义翻译理论家认为翻译和文化息息相关,而文化负载词则会造成翻译困难,加写脚 注则是翻译文化负载词的关键.
本报告分为五部分.第一部分介绍了《夹竹桃女孩》一书及其作者;第二部分则是女性主义理论、女性主义翻译策略和中国的女性主义翻译与实践;第三部分主要是笔者的翻译过程和翻译难点;第四部分是基于女性主义翻译指导之下的一些翻译实例分析;最后,第五部分结论总括报告全文.
关键词:《夹竹桃女孩》,女性主义翻译,翻译策略
ABSTRACT
This paper is a translation report whose research basis is the first two chapters offemale Indian-American writer Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's novel, Oleander Girl. AnIndian girl named Korobi refers to the protagonist of this novel. It mainly depicts how shegrows into an independent female, in order to reflect the feminism of writer. Therefore,feminist translation offers feasible solution to translate novels with feminist characteristicsand style. Feminist translation aims to eliminate gender discrimination of translationresearch and practice, redefine the relationship between source text and target text to ensureequal right of both. Feminist translation urges that translation is involved with lingual skills,culture, ideology and other aspects. Supplementing, footnoting and hijacking have beenconsidered as the widely-used feminist translation strategies. This report covers thetranslation process, the difficulties in translation and corresponding translation strategies.
The author has concluded two main problems during translation. On the one hand, itis hard to exactly convey the mental description of roles. On the other hand, the culturalloaded words have posed great difficulty to translator. According to translation practice,feminist translation can effectively solve above issues. Supplementing and footnoting arethe fundamental strategies of feminist translation. Then, through translation practice, theauthor has summarized the fact that supplementing is suitable to mental description ofsource text. Supplementing compensates the differences between source language andtarget language to mirror subtle mental movements of roles. Footnoting should be appliedto translate the culture-loaded words. Footnoting is used to add explanations of culturalbackground to target text. Feminist translation theorists deem that translation is bound upwith culture while the culture-loaded words may lead to translation difficulty. Footnotingis the key to translate the culture-loaded words.
This report includes five chapters. First chapter introduces Oleander Girl and itswriter. As to the second chapter, it refers to the introduction of feminist translation, feministtranslation strategies and feminist practice and research in China. Then, the third chapterbrings up the translation process and difficulties of Oleander Girl. Next, some practical examples are listed to analyze the application of feminist translation strategies. Finally, thelast chapter summarizes this translation report.
Key Words: Oleander Girl; feminist translation; translation strategy
Contents
摘 要 ...................................................................................................................................I
ABSTARCT......................................................................................................................II
Contents...........................................................................................................................IV
Chapter One Introduction ............................................................................................... 1
1.1 Introduction of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.......................................................................... 1
1.2 Introduction of Oleander Girl....................................................................................................... 2
Chapter Two Feminist Translation................................................................................. 4
2.1 Feminist Translation Theory ....................................................................................................... 4
2.2 Feminist Translation Research and Practice in China........................................................ 5
2.3 Feminist Translation Strategies.................................................................................................. 7
Chapter Three Translation Process................................................................................ 9
3.1 Pre-translation Preparation ......................................................................................................... 9
3.2 Difficulties during Translation..................................................................................................10
3.2.1 Culture-loaded Words.....................................................................................................10
3.2.2 Mental Description............................................................................................................11
3.3 Post-translation Management....................................................................................................11
Chapter Four Case Study............................................................................................... 13
4.1 Supplementing ................................................................................................................................13
4.2 Footnoting.........................................................................................................................................21
Chapter Five Conclusion................................................................................................ 29
5.1 Major Finding.................................................................................................................................29
5.2 Major Limitation............................................................................................................................30
5.3 Conclusion........................................................................................................................................30
References........................................................................................................................ 32
Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... 34
Appendix 1 Source Text ................................................................................................. 35
Appendix 2 Target Text.................................................................................................. 60
Chapter One Introduction
Since last summer holiday, author has begun the E-C translation of Oleander Girlwhose writer refers to Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. The excerpted first two chapters ofOleander Girl is source text of author's translation practice. There is no correspondingChinese translation of Oleander Girl by far. Author have translated the excerpts. For thatreason, this translation report is based on the translation of the excerpts. Hereinafter, thewriter is considered as the person who has composed Oleander Girl. Then, the author refersto the one who has disserted this translation report, the translator of source text.
1.1 Introduction of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Oleander Girl is a novel with feminist style and characteristics. Its writer, ChitraBanerjee Divakaruni, is an Indian-American female writer and poet. Kolkata of India is herbirthplace. She has lived there before her adulthood. She left Kolkata for the United Statesto get her further study in1976. Later, she settles in America since she has received adoctor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She has judged severalprestigious awards, such as the National Book Award and the Faulkner Award.
For one thing, her dual-cultural identity enables her to combine her experiences inIndia with the reality of American contemporary society. (Chen Xiaoyu, 2014:39) She hasdevoted exquisite description to portray females' emotion and situation. The mysteriousHindu style and western cultural influence have been perfectly interwoven through herwords. Female is the constant cynosure of her works. Especially, the vulnerable Indianwoman is her forever protagonist. In witness of such fact, the leading character of OleanderGirl is an Indian girl.
Moreover, she is a feminist writer. Her novels have denoted her rebellion against thepatriarchy society. She fights for woman's equal right. And the pen, held in her hand, shallbecome the most powerful weapon to achieve such equality. Her unpleasant experiences in India renders her to be a feminist. When Divakaruni was a little girl, she is interested inthe stories told by her grandfather. Such stories are collected from ancient Indian epics,including Ramayana and Mahabharata. But her grandfather never tells any story aboutfemale. She is confused. Afterwards, she begins to know the fact that woman is not asimportant as man in India. In other words, females are subject to males. Since then, she hasmade up her mind to write for woman. It's her swear. Such oath has been witnessed bytime and tide. As time goes by, she has settled America, and become a feminist writer.
1.2 Introduction of Oleander Girl
Oleander Girl tells the story about an Indian girl. Its protagonist has been named asKorobi which means the oleander in India. Korobi is a young girl who has left India forAmerica to search the truth of her own parentage. She has encountered difficulties whichhave shaped her into a more independent female.
At first, the wild and strong-willed Korobi has enjoyed a childhood of extremehappiness, though being orphaned at birth. She has spent her first seventeen years with hergrandparents in Kolkata. Her grandparents' uncommon silence or resistance on her parents'death has troubled her greatly. She finds a love note in an old book of poems someday. Itis the only memento from her parents. Year after year, she has grown up into a lovely andadorable young woman, dreaming of finding her soulmate one day. Soon after her entranceof college, her dream seems to come true when she met Rajat at her friend's birthday party. A stream of love rushes out from their eyes. They fall in love. They decide to get engagedwith each other.
The excerpts mainly depict their engagement. It is just a few hours before Korobi'sengagement with Rajat. At that time, a heartbroken secret is revealed to her, which thrusthuge changes into her life. At the end of this engagement, a sudden heart attack kills hergrandfather, revealing the devastating secret of her birth. She soon learns harsh truth. Probably, her father is still alive in America. Over the past seventeen years, she hasaccepted the fact that her parents have died soon after her birth. She wonders where herfather is, why he never comes to see her. Because of that, she decides to a courageousjourney to America to search for her father. (Subhra, 2015:373) Life is always hard. Besides courage and confidence, it requires a large sum of money to support her journeyto the United States. Unfortunately, she cannot pay such expenditure.
Additionally, she knows nothing about her father. Her fiancé, Rajat, opposes herdecision of travelling alone to America to find her true parentage. He has ever tried topersuade her to stay in India. Despite such disadvantages, Korobi resolves to leave indiafor America. Later, innocent and na?ve Korobi faces countless challenges when she landedin America. She never gives up. Fate favors the bold. She has collected certain clues of herfather with the help of a warmhearted Indian private detective. Finally, her true parentagehas been revealed to her. Then, she chooses to come back to India, to stay with her belovedgrandmother and Rajat. She has become an independent female after her return fromAmerica. She is no longer a meek girl. She can strive for her own life with Rajat, take goodcare of her grandmother.
All in all, Oleander Girl is the biography of a young girl written by the feminist writer,Divakaruni. Therefore, the author has chosen Oleander Girl as the translation material.Under the guidance of feminist translation, this report will analyze more details aboutfeminist translation and translation practice. Theory guides practice. Regarding translationpractice, translation theory also makes sense. Feminist translation theory is applicable totranslate feminist work. Therefore, the viewpoints of feminist translation shall be thethroughout stance of this report.
…………由于本文篇幅较长,部分内容省略,详细全文见文末附件
Chapter Five Conclusion
This report has mainly analyzed the translation difficulties and correspondingstrategies used during the translation of Oleander Girl. The feminist translation strategy isthe key to the E-C translation of this novel. Hereinafter, the findings and limitations andconclusion of this report will be developed as follows.
5.1 Major Finding
For one thing, feminist translation is obligated. It serves to fight for woman's dignityand equal right to eliminate the gender discrimination posed by the androcentric society onthe woman and translation. Woman has long been regarded as the servant to man whiletranslation occupies the same subordinate position to source text. So, as a translator, onehas the responsibility to reverse such situation through the application of feministtranslation approaches.
Subsequently, feminist translation is the handy way to resolve translation difficultieswhen it refers to translate a story full of feminist features. The three main strategies offeminist translation, respectively, are supplementing, footnoting, and hijacking. On thepremise of different context, the feminist translation concepts are different. Chinesefeminist translators focus on using the words or expressions with feminist characteristicsto attract Chinese readers' attention on gender and translation. That's to say, hijacking isseldom applied to Chinese feminist translation practice. In accordance with the content ofthe original text, supplementing and footnoting will be the two more suitable approachesto translate Oleander Girl.
5.2 Major Limitation
Through the translation practice of Oleander Girl, the author has found the limitationduring translation. The limitation is caused by the subtle mental description and the cultureloaded words.
On the one hand, the mental description of female characters has posed greatchallenges during translation. Such description is the connotation which requiresoutstanding language ability of translator to comprehend the writer's hidden intention.There is countless mental description in source text. Mentality of roles is hard to apprehend,and harder to translate.
On the other hand, the culture-loaded words troubles author. For instance, author hasjust ignored the true meaning of Korobi. At first, Author think the translation of name isnot that important. Then, author has grasped the connotation of Korobi in the process ofpost-translation management. It is found that Korobi is the alternative name of oleander inIndia. Therefore, "Korobi" has been footnoted to denote such connotation.
5.3 Conclusion
Feminist translation approach is a helpful way to translate the texts with feminist styleand characteristics. For that reason, feminist translation shall become the guiding principleof E-C translation of Oleander Girl. As Major limitation and finding have been listedbefore, the conclusion of this report may be summarized as follows.
Firstly, the mental description and the culture-loaded words are the two maintranslation difficulties. Feminist translators has proposed three strategies, includingsupplementing, footnoting and hijacking. Hijacking is a polarized translation approach. Itis difficult and important to deal with "degree issue" when a Chinese feminist translatorchoose to employ hijacking. Respectively, supplementing and footnoting have been provedto be the key to solve these problems.
Then, supplementing is appropriate to translate the mental description of OleanderGirl. Supplementing compensates feminist mental description. In order to vividly portraymental activities of the roles, supplementing shall be widely employed.
Finally, the culture-loaded words require footnoting to interpret the writer's intention.Culture-loaded words involves culture, religion, social customs, rituals. Feministtranslators are responsible to target readers who are supposed to understand the culturebackground of source text. Footnoting is the antidote for culture-loaded words of allcategories.
To sum up, feminist translation is available for the E-C feminist translation practice.Under the direction of feminist translation, supplementing and footnoting, respectively, areused to tackle the culture-loaded words and mental description during translation.Translation ability of author has been strengthened through this translation practice. Therestill exist so many unsolved textual problems of target text though great attempts have beenmade for a better version. At the end of this report, the author is in hope that it may givehelp to the future feminist translation study.
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