A Study on Creative Treason in the English Translation of The Seventh Day
《第七天》英译本的创造性叛逆研究
Li Wei
李维
Abstract: The Seventh Day was written by Yu Hua and published in 2013. It explores profound themes of life and death, human nature and destiny. This paper explores how translator Allan H. Barr uses "creative rebellion" to innovate in language and narrative while staying true to the original text, impacting readers'understanding and emotions. The study finds that the translator implements various creative adjustments during the translation process, including individualized translation, mistranslation and missing translation, as well as abridged translation and edited translation. Specifically, he adopts domestication strategies to handle idioms and colloquialisms in the original text, significantly enhancing the readability of the target text. Furthermore, based on a profound understanding of the original text, he simplifies and integrates character actions, omitting details that do not affect the original meaning, thus increasing the narrative's coherence. While the translator preserves metaphorical meanings in expressions rich in traditional Chinese culture, some cultural imagery may have been lost during the literal translation; however, this did not impede the overall comprehension of the text by readers.
摘要：《第七天》是中国作家余华于2013年出版的一部长篇小说，探讨了生与死、命运与人性的深刻主题。本文聚焦于《第七天》的英译本，运用“创造性叛逆”探讨白亚仁如何在忠实于原著的同时，通过语言和叙事技巧进行创新，从而影响读者的理解与感受。研究发现，白亚仁在翻译过程中进行了个性化翻译、误译与漏译、节译与编译等多种创造性调整。具体而言，白亚仁通过归化翻译的方式处理原文中的成语和俗语，显著提高了译文的可读性。此外，他根据对原作的深刻理解，对人物动作进行了简化与整合，省略了一些不影响原文含义的细节，从而增强了叙事的紧凑性。白亚仁在处理富含中国传统文化的表达时，虽然保留了比喻含义，在直译过程中可能造成了部分文化意象的缺失，但这并未妨碍读者对文本的整体理解。
Key words: creative rebellion; Yu Hua; Allan H. Barr; The Seventh Day
关键词：创造性叛逆；余华；白亚仁；《第七天》
中图分类号：H315.9
文献标识码：A
文章编号：2832-0317（2024）04-0009-6
DOI：10.12424/HA.2024.074
本文链接：https://www.oc-press.com/HA-202404-009.html
