Slight Comparisons between Versions of Wuthering Heights

Abstract: Based on two Chinese versions of Wuthering Heights ( Yang Yi’s and Fang Ping’s versions named in Chinese 《呼嘯山莊》)，this paper makes comparisons of some specific sentences between them in language differences and style translation.

摘 要：本文以《呼嘯山莊》兩個中譯本（楊苡及方平的版本都命名為《呼嘯山莊》）為基礎，對兩個版本的語言差異和風格翻譯就個別句子進行細微的比較。

關鍵詞：《呼嘯山莊》；比較；語言差異；風格翻譯

Key words: Wuthering Heights; comparisons; language differences; style translation

作者簡介：金阿蘭，女，出生于1989年2月；籍貫：江西；學歷：本科；研究方向：英美文學。

[中圖分類號]： H059 [文獻標識碼]：A

[文章編號]：1002-2139(2012)-16-0-01

Introduction

Emily Bronte’s only novel Wuthering Heights， published in 1847， was introduced to China in mid-20th century， and had many Chinese versions. One is translated by Yang Yi (Yang in short) who translated the book in 1956 and modified it in 1979. Another version was translated by Fang Ping (Fang in short)， a distinguished translator. His translated work was published in 1993， which has some differences bases on different translating methods from Yang’s version.

1.1 Language comparison

(1) Lexical Level

An English word may have many meanings; the usage of a word may lead to different understanding of a sentence. Translators should interpret a word according to the context and the social background.

“This is a certainly a beautiful country!”

楊：這兒可真是一個美麗的鄉(xiāng)間！

方：這還算不得一個美麗的山鄉(xiāng)嗎！

Word’s lexical meaning---denotative meaning is the meaning given in dictionary， and affective meaning is concerned with feelings and attitudes of the speaker or writer [1]. “certainly” means“當然”， which is closer to Yang’s“可真是”， and implies affective meaning， expressing deep affection. While Fang’s“還算不得”，is far away from the original meaning.

(2) Syntactic Level

In complex sentences， negation is sometimes transferred to the matrix clause from a clause where it belongs to semantically. Verbs permit such transferred negation are verbs of senses.[2]

“In all England， I do not believe that I could have fixed of a situation so completely removed from the stir of society.”

楊：在整個英格蘭境內，我不相信我竟能找到這樣一個能與塵世的喧囂完全隔絕的地方。

方：我不信在整個英國境內我還能挑中一個地方，象這兒那樣完全跟熙熙攘攘的社會隔絕開來。

In both versions， the two translations“我不信”，that do not pay attention to transferred negation phenomenon. In my opinion， “I do not believe that…”should be translated into“我相信再也找不到”.

1.2 Translation Style

Writers express personal style that is different from others， which can be reflected in their. Translation should reflect the original style. Different translators would use different translation methods， criterion to manifest their own style at the same time.

（1）“The ‘walk in’ was uttered with closed teeth， and expressed the sentiment， ‘Go to the Deuce’.”

楊：這一聲“進來”是咬著牙說出來的，表示了這樣一種情緒：“見鬼!”

方：這一聲“進來！”是咬牙切齒、帶著“去你媽的！”這一種口氣說出來的.

A method to identify the translation style is to recognizing formal markers where language displayed by symbols to leave traces of translation style.

In this sentence， as to lexical markers， “Go to the Deuce”， Yang translated it into “見鬼”， which is more moderate than Fang’s “去你媽的”， and reflects female attitude to negative words by transferring them to neutral words.

（2）Besides， names of two versions are different[3].

Based on phonetic motivation， Yang applied foreignization， while in Fang’s version， he used domestication， especially words“希克厲”that is more like a Chinese name ，rather than five words.

1.3 Conclusion

In general， both translations of Yang and Fang are successful. From two versions， the original advantages are mostly translated into Chinese. Chinese readers can easily understand plot and values of the original and empathize with the characters. Comparisons between the two versions of Wuthering Heights are in language differences and translation style. Despite these differences， both of them are faithful to original work written by Emily Bronte， readers of target language highly accept their works.

References:

[1]、張韻斐，《現代英語詞匯學概論》(p.96-100)，北京師范大學出版社

[2]、Carl Bache. Essential of Mastering English: a concise grammar. (p.114)

[3]、劉艷杰，程紹華，孫琳：《從人稱看<呼嘯山莊>譯本中歸化和異化程度》