Translator and Identity

任春燕

【Abstract】with the prosperous development of translation， the identity of translator has attracted more and more attention. The relationship of translator and identity is worth studying. This article takes translator Lin Yutang as an example to see how identities influence a translator. The conclusion is that the choice of translation martial， translation strategy， translation attitude and other aspects in translation are influenced by Li Yutangs identities such as his religious identity， class identity， national identity and personal identity.

【Key words】Translator； Identity； Lin Yutang； Influence

In the Longman dictionary of Contemporary English， translator refers to someone who changes writing into a different language. Identity is the concept of who we are in the world. A translator has many identities in the society he or she lives in.

Li Yutang is an outstanding writer and translator. His works promoted the Chinese culture to the West. He has played an important role in Chinese culture because he masters both Chinese and English language. So he wrote many masterpieces in Chinese and English.

The translation attitude of Li Yutang is influenced by his national identity—a Chinese. National identity is national citizenship. During Li Yutans times， most westerners knew little about China. In their mind， China was the image of womens foot-binding， mens pigtails， ugliness， no sense of public morality and so on. Westerners thought Chinese people was inferior and Chinese people were called the sick man of Asia. In order to change the bias against the Chinese， Li Yutang translated some classical books of Chinese culture， such as the Importance of Understanding， Six Chapters of a Floating Life and some ancient poetry. The translation attitude of Li Yutang is objective and sincerity. As a Chinese， he translated some good virtues of Chinese， at the same time， he was not shameful to translate some bad situations of China. His intention was to let westerners know the true condition of China. And we can see his attitude in his book My County and My People.

Li Yutangs choice of translation martial is influenced by his religious identity. Religion identity is a sense of belonging to a religious group. As for Li Yutang， he was raised as a Christian for his father was a pastor. However， he gave up Christianity when he was a teacher at Tsinghua University. He began to be interested in Taoism and Confucianism， especially the thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi. So he translated LaoziTao Te Ching into English. And he also translated Confuciuss The Analects and The College as well as Mencius and Chuangtse and so on. We can see that Li Yutang preferred to choose some books which were related to his religious identity to translate.

Class identity has influenced Li Yutangs translation strategy. During the time Li Yutang stayed in America after 1935， he was not in the upper class in America. His translation was limited by his overseas publishers. The translation should be responsible to the target reader and meet the taste of target reader. In order to make his translation well understand by the Westerner， he had to adopt the translation strategy of communicative translation and domestication. As a result， he has his own humor style. The westerner likes humor. On the other hand， some Chinese images are not familiar to the westerners， Li Yutang needs to use domestication to make sense.

Personal identity runs through the whole process of Li Yutangs translation practice. Personal identity refers to the concept who we think we are and who others think we are. In The Importance of Understanding， he said that he refused to translate anything which did not awake in him an echo of hearty assent. Lu Xun once advised Li Yutang to translate some British famous literary works， not to write or translate works about humor and leisure. However， Lin just wanted to say that he wanted to translate from Chinese to English in his middle age， and translate from English to Chinese in his elder age. Lin Yutang knew who he was， what he wanted to translate and knew his personal identity about translation.

In a word， everyone has different identities. It is also very important for a translator to make clear his identities in translation. Thus he or she can do a good job in translation.

References：

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