History of Translation Theories

History of Translation Theories

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1 李瑞洋 Translation Theories of Contemporary China--from 1949 to Present

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1.Development of translation criterion

 Translation criterion is of great significance to Chinese translation theory. Since Yan Fu’s idea, namely “faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance”, came into being, there has been years of discussion about it. With the development of translation study, more and more critics of Yan Fu's idea have been raised. People have gradually come to realize that the translation criterion of “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance” is not perfect enough, especially the idea of elegance, which is doubted by many translators. In Translation As a Communication (2001), Cheng Yongsheng points out that there are three types of criticism on Yan Fu’ s translation criterion. The first type is pure critique; the second type is improvement; and the third type is a partial or full reinterpretation.

1.1 Pure critique

 Wang Zuoliang (1916-1995), a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, was a representative of pure critique on Yan Fu’s translation criterion., and he clearly opposed Yan Fu's "elegance" idea. Since from the point of view of "elegance", Yan Fu advocated the use of quaint language for translation. He thought it was inappropriate to use vulgar words in any translation. However, Wang Zuoliang believed that Yan Fu's "elegance" was unreasonable. “If the original is not elegant, there is no need for elegance in the translation(Wang, 462).”He took Gold Vase Plum as an example, which was a famous vernacular novel, he pointed out that “If you put these coarse social figures into graceful style of Zhou and Qin Dynasties and use refined words from Six Dynasties to convey the dialogue of them, the translation must be very ridiculous, causing a great loss of the meaning of the original text(Chen, 135).” Wang Zuoliang did not think that "elegance" is equivalent to beautification. He opposed Yan Fu's quaint translation of any text, but insisted on that the style of the translation depended on the original text.

1.2 Improvements

 Unlike pure critique, many translators have put forward their own criteria while criticizing "faithfulness, expressiveness, elegance". Like Xv Yuanchong, Liu Chongde and Chang Xiefeng, they made improvements on the basis of Yan Fu's idea.
 Xv Yuanchong (1921-2021), who was a professor at Peking University, regarded “faithfulness and smoothness” as necessary conditions for translation, but “elegance” as a sufficient condition. In other words, "faithfulness” and “expressiveness" are criteria that must be followed in translation, but the implementation of "elegance" depends on the specific text. In contemporary China where writings are in the vernacular instead of in classical Chinese, the idea of “elegance” can no longer be limited to the original meaning of quaint, but should turn to rhetoric. He refuted the idea that the relationship between translation form and the original content was dialectical unity. In his opinion, regardless of literal translation or free translation, faithfulness to the original content is the first priority. If only faithful to the form, ignoring the content, it was not a qualified translation. He considered that different literary genres shared different translation criteria. The prose translation criterion was concerned with “the faithful content of the original text, the smooth translation form, and the promotion of the advantages of the target text.” As for poetry translation criterion, he emphasized the beauty of meaning, sound and form. 
 Liu Chongde (1914-2008), who was the vice president of Translators Association of China, presented his own translation criterion as “faithfulness, expressiveness and closeness (in style)”. He agreed on Yan Fu’s first two criteria-- “faithfulness” and “expressiveness”, but changed “elegance” into “closeness”. From his perspective, the unity of a literary work was composed of ideological content, language expression and style characteristics, and literary translation must also be a true representation of the original complete unity. He bored down on the importance of “closeness in style”, which meant that the translation style was determined by the athor’s own writing style. The translator must know very well about the writing style employed by the author, and carefully select wording and phrasing to fit the original style while translating. In order to fulfill the criterion of "closeness", Liu Chongde clearly defined what kind of language ability a translator needed. He must be proficient in the native language and the language that needed to be translated. For one thing, he should translate the accurate thought content of the original text easily and smoothly and cause no rigidity to the readers. For another, he should notice every subtle difference in the author’s words, even a tiny particle, and find an appropriate form in the native language.

1.3 Reinterpretation

 Ma Zuyi (1925-), the author of A Brief History of Chinese Translation, reinterpreted the concept of "elegance" as translating in a standard language used throughout the country. He found the source of Yan Fu’s “elegance” in The Analects of Confucius. Confucius used the dialect of Lu state in his usual conversations, but when reciting The Book of Songs and The Four Books, he used the official language of the Zhou Dynasty, namely "Ya Yan"/elegant language. Yan Fu lived in the late Qing Dynasty, when the articles should written in classical Chinese, so he advocated the quint language. However, after the New Culture Movement in 1919, writings in the vernacular occupied the main historical stage, the criterion of “elegance” changed into using vernacular language while translating.   
 Shen Suru (1919-2009) , who was a honorary member of Translators Association of China, held a view that “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance” formed a theoretical system of translation criterion. He defined translation as follows: "Translation is a cross-language and cross-cultural communication, which is to convey an original content of certain language expressed by the sender to the recipient with different cultural background as fully as possible.” He emphasized that translation was communication, so translation research could not be confined to the study of two language conversions, but should highlight how to achieve the purpose of conveying information through interlingual conversion......
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2 陈心怡

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3 张扬 An Introduction of Contemporary American Translation Theory——The American Translation Workshop

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4 曾俊霖 An Overview of the Development of Western Translation Theories

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5 张怡然 History of Translation Theories from early Russia to the Soviet Union

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Abstract

Translation as a means of intercultural communication, each country has a distinctive translation ideology. This article focuses on the history of translation in pre-Soviet Russia. Through analyzing the history of translation, can find that Russia has formed a literary tradition of translation studies in the late 18th century. In the 19th century, Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev and other outstanding poets and literary scholars were keen on translation, especially in the middle of the century when Belinsky and other famous literary critics published a series of comments on literary translation, which emphasized the literary tradition of Russian translation to an unparalleled extent, which is rare in the history of translation in the world. The general principles of Russian literary translation thought were also formed during this period: namely, to insist on commenting on the merits of a translation in terms of the overall effect of the work, to emphasize the ideological content and literary value of the translation, and that the translation should serve the reader and be people-oriented. The above ideas influenced the formation of translation theory in the Soviet period. Therefore, a study of the history of translation theory in pre-Soviet Russia will help learners of Russian to better understand the characteristics of their translations and to improve the accuracy and peopleliness of their translations.

Key words

Translation theories, Translation ideas，History of Translation

Introduction

This essay provides a comprehensive and concise overview of the history of translation in Russia: Russian written translations began in the Kievan Rus' era, when religious subjects were the main focus of translations, especially the Bible, which was translated from Greek. Religious translations continued to flourish under the Moscow principality, represented by Maxim Gleick (МаксимГрек). At the same time, the national character of Russian translations began to emerge, and the languages of translation expanded from Greek to Latin, German and West Slavic, and the subjects covered included Western chivalric fiction, geographical literature, alchemy and medicine. In the eighteenth century, Peter the Great introduced a number of measures to focus on translation, making this period a turning point in the history of Russian translation. The proliferation of specialised translations (e.g. of legal texts) was the main feature of translation activity in the early eighteenth century. After this period Russian translators began to translate literary works, particularly French poetry. The main translators were Lomonosov (М.В. Ломоносов) and Tretyakovsky (V.K. Тредьяковский). In the second half of the eighteenth century, translation was given greater importance in Russia, and the Society for the Translation of Foreign Books was founded by Ekaterina II, in which a large number of outstanding translators emerged. The nineteenth century was a golden period in the history of Russian translation. Karamzin (Н.М.Карамзин) and Rukovsky (В.А.Жуковский) both produced many excellent translations. Pushkin (A.С.Пушкин) and Lermontov (M.Ю.Лермонтов) contributed greatly to the development of Russian literature in translation, while Fetter concentrated on love poetry. In the twentieth century, the Russian translation community made significant achievements in theoretical translation studies. In particular, the rapid development of the philological school and the debate between the literary and philological schools made Soviet translation theory one of the leading theories of translation in the world.

1.The evolution of Russian Literary Translation.

1. The development of literary translation Ancient Rus' literature was born out of the creative combination of indigenous Rus' cultural traditions and international cultural traditions, and literary activity was recorded with the creation of writing. During the Kievan Rus' era, the Kirill and Mefuti brothers not only created the Kirill alphabet, which laid the foundations for the Russian alphabet, but also translated several prayer books from Greek into Slavonic. By the 9th and 13th centuries, Byzantine literary contacts with the Slavic (Greek, Czech, Bulgarian and Russian) countries were flourishing and were a very important and distinctive aspect of the European literary process. The works of Kievan Rus in this period, mainly from Bulgaria, were translated from Greek, and translations at this time were mostly of a religious nature. Between the mid-11th and the end of the 12th century, the literature of Kievan Rus converged towards that of medieval Byzantium and the medieval East. By the 11th-13th centuries, the translated literature of ancient Rus enriched it with a wealth of religious-philosophical and socio-political ideas, historical geography and knowledge of the natural sciences. in the mid-14th century, Rus, although still under Mongol-Tatar rule, was actively preparing to overthrow foreign domination. In the 16th century, Moscow was finally established as the political centre of Russia, and also as the centre of Russian translation. This was the time when literary translations began to be signed with the translator's name, as opposed to the old practice of not signing the work. The role of the translator in the development of language and culture was gradually recognised by society. During this period Maxim·Grek (Максим Грек) was invited to Moscow by the Grand Duke Vasily III to engage in religious activities, which also included translation. He translated widely, including religious books and non-religious works, in addition to proofreading and annotating older translations. In addition to his translation practice, he left behind a number of statements on the art of translation. He advocated the need to analyse the original carefully and to fully grasp the full mystery of the text. In the 17th century, translations were mostly in Polish and Latin, and the literature translated, unlike in previous centuries, was mainly of a secular nature. Such translations were quite popular with all classes, from aristocratic circles to the democratically-minded lower classes of society. In the second half of the century, collections of novels emerged, which were a fun read and contained a great deal of slang and colloquialisms. At this time Russian translation activity developed a distinctive idea of translation. In the 18th century, following the reforms of Peter the Great and his complete westernisation, a new dimension was created in the field of literature. The need for greater economic and cultural cooperation with the West required the acquisition of a wealth of foreign materials and literature, and the rise of a culture of foreign worship in the upper echelons of society contributed to the rise of literature in translation in the 18th century. During the reign of Peter the Great, the need for translations of religious texts was greatly reduced, and translators were more often required to understand foreign works of an 'applied' nature, and rarely to deal with literary works, while at the beginning of the 18th century the priority for translators was to translate works on military, technical, exact sciences, legal issues and so on. Many translators tried to determine how literary works should be translated, the most famous of whom was Vasily· Kirillovich·Tretyakovsky (Василий Кирилович Тредиаковский). In his writings he advocates translations that are as good as the original, and it is characteristic that in defining "the most important criterion of a good translation, i.e. its simple signs", Tretyakovsky is the first to demand that "the full meaning of each verse be described The requirement of "describing the full meaning of each verse". At this time the literature in translation was also gradually establishing a normative language.

6 殷美达

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7 尹媛 A Brief Introduction of Contemporary American Translation Theory——Examplified mainly by Nida

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1 Abstract

The contemporary American translation theory mainly consists of American structural school of translation theory, communicative theory school, and social semiotics translation school. American structural school of translation theory is based on the thoughts of American structuralist school; Nida, as the representative of Communicative theory school, thinks that translating is the a manner of communication and must regard the readers as the service object from the view of Social linguistics and communicative function of language; social semiotics translation school views language as a symbol phenomenon that cannot be ignored when it is explained and translated. Nida is the theorist who experienced these three periods and its theory and ideas saturate with a strong sense of their influence, therefore, this paper gives a brief introduction of the history of the contemporary American translation theory as exemplified by Nida's theory and other translators' theory.

2 Key words

History of American Translation Theories, Nida, American structural school of translation theory, communicative theory school, a social semiotics translation school

3 Introduction

The contemporary American translation theory mainly consists of American structural school of translation theory, communicative theory school, and social semiotics translation school. American structural school of translation theory is based on the thoughts of American structuralist school; Nida, as the representative of Communicative theory school, thinks that translating is the a manner of communication and must regard the readers as the service object from the view of Social linguistics and communicative function of language; social semiotics translation school views language as a symbol phenomenon that cannot be ignored when it is explained and translated. As is known to all, in China, Nida's translation theory is the most widely known and deeply impressed among contemporary Western translation theories. Professor Tan Jinxi rightly classifies Nida's translation thought into three different stages: first, descriptive linguistics. Second, the stage of communication theory. Third, the stage of social semiotics (Tan,132). Generally speaking, we can summarize Nida's linguistic thoughts and translation thoughts as follows :(1) Nida is a universalist of language, who insists that all languages are equally expressive. What is expressed in one language can be said in another. (2) Nida's translation theory has undergone a transition from the tendency that translation is science to that translation is art. (3) Nida's basic translation thoughts can be summed up in the following three sentences: Translation is a communicative activity. Translation is to translate connotation. In order to translate meaning, it is necessary to change the form of language expression. (4) When it coms to the nature of translation, Nida proposed the famous concept of "dynamic equivalence", which was later renamed as "functional equivalence". Nida is the theorist who experienced these three periods and its theory and ideas saturate with a strong sense of their influence, therefore, this paper gives a brief introduction of the history of the contemporary American translation theory as exemplified by Nida's theory and other translators' theory.

4 The Characteristics of American translation theory

There are some mainly characteristics in the contemporary American translation theory. First of all, serialization and systematization of literary translation is the distinct feature of theory. After the World War II, lots of books of translation emerged in many countries. In terms of the whole western translation industry, the scope, forms, scale and achievements of translation after the Second World War are unmatched in any period in the history of western translation. German translation theorist P. W. Jumpelt called the 20th century "The Age of Translation"(Tan Zaixi, 113). Research institutions and publishing houses vigorously made full use of human and material resources to translate, edit and publish various series of books, so as to compile and systematize the translation and publishing of western classics. Secondly, the scale of professional translation is unprecedented. Although western literary translation continued to flourish in the decades after the second World War, the 20th century has come to be known as the "Age of Translation" mainly because of its expansion into other fields. Thirdly, the translation organizations are everywhere. After the end of world War II, translators in western countries had mushroomed to establish various translation associations and set up various translation publications. Each association had its own purpose and purpose to carry out its work effectively. There were more translators' organizations in the United States than in any other western country. There were thirty organizations of translators of all sizes, among which the most well-known are the American Society of Translators, the American Federation of Linguists and the American Association of Literary Translators. Besides, machine translation developed rapidly during these years. The advent and development of machine translation is a remarkable event in the field of modern translation. The last one is that the translation works appeared one by one endlessly. As mentioned above, one of the major features of modern western translation studies is to bring translation issues into the field of linguistic research. Translation theorists, under the influence of the structural theory, transformation theory, function theory, discourse theory and information theory of modern linguistics, from the perspectives of comparative linguistics, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, semantics, semiotics, logic, anthropology and philosophy, this paper tries to give new meanings and new contents to the ancient subject of translation studies, to propose new research methods, theoretical models and translation skills.

5 The development of Nida's translation theory

It could be said that Eugene Nida is well known in the field of translation studies and linguistics in China, because his translation theory is the translation theory of contemporary foreigners introduced earlier after the opening of China's academic portal to the outside world, his translation view is also widely criticized by the domestic translation circle. During his academic career, Nida has worked in linguistics, semantics, anthropology, communication engineering, and other fields,also in Bible translation work. He is proficient in many languages, investigated more than 100 languages, especially some minority languages in Africa and Latin America. From 1945 to 1997, he has published more than 200 articles and nearly 40 books, both co-edited and co-edited. Among them, there are about 20 monographs on language and translation theory, and a collection of theses has been published. Eugene Nida, the famous American linguist and translation theorist, proposed the concepts of "formal equivalence" and "dynamic equivalence" in his book Toward a Science of Translating (4th issue) in 1964. Later, in order to emphasize the communicative function of translation and to instruct translation practice better, Mr. Nida perfected and integrated the two concepts into the theory of "functional equivalence". As Eugene A. Nida defines, “Translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style.” Nida's definition of translation indicates that translation is not only lexical equivalence, but also semantic equivalence, stylistic equivalence and stylistic equivalence. The equivalence in "dynamic equivalence" includes four aspects: lexical equivalence, syntactic equivalence, text equivalence, style equivalence. Of these four aspects, Nida believes that meaning equivalence is the most important and form equivalence the second. (Nida, 2002:168) It is worth mentioning that this initiative is not to encourage students to focus on content and ignore form, but to pursue formal equivalence on the basis of content. The information conveyed by translation includes both lexical information on the surface and deep cultural information. “Functional equivalence” pursues the consistency of readers’ mental responses, that is, the psychological reactions caused by the target text to the target audience should be equivalent to the psychological response resulted from the original text to the target text audience, which is the highest level of functional equivalence and the essence of this theory. Only if the reader of the target text can understand and appreciate the translated text in the same way as the reader of the original text can the target text achieve the lowest level of equivalence, which is the minimum standard required for translation. It is generally known in the translation field that the best translation version should be like the original work, but not the translation text. For the purpose of functional equivalence between the source text and the target text and avoid “translationese” as much as possible, the translator needs to break the barriers of language structure and made a breakthrough in shackles of corresponding form between two languages, no matter in literary translation or scientific translation. From Nida’s point of view, the first problem that should be considered about to measure a translation version is to predict the readers’ reactions, and then to compare the responses of the readers and the original readers. In the Language, Translation and Culture, “functional equivalence” is defined as: the target language readers should be able to understand the translation in the same way as the source language readers. In this definition, it underlines the fairly similar feelings of the target language readers and the source language readers. The translators can find equivalence, restructuring forms and semantic deconstruction to achieve it, which involves “closeness”, “naturalness” and “equivalence”.

9 李双 History of translation theory of France from 20th century to the present

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Abstract

Translation activities have a long history in France and its theories occupy an important position in the West. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the emancipation of the mind, the progress of science and technology and the transformation of society have reinvigorated the study of French translation theory and entered its heyday. This paper first summarizes the development of French translation studies from the 20th century to the present, then discusses the main translation theories of this period from the perspectives of translation and interpretation, and analyzes the influence of the society and other disciplines on the formation of the theories. Finally, it aims to have a clearer and comprehensive understanding of the development of contemporary French translation theories.

Key word

history of translation theories, France, contemporary

Introduction

Language is one of the symbols of human civilization and an important feature of every nation. Language exchange is accompanied by the beginning of translation activities, which has a long history. Translation theory that comes from practices guides and refines translation activities in turn. As a big western country, France has made a mark in its history both in terms of politics and economy and in terms of culture and ideology. Its translation activities were initially concentrated in the Latin works at the end of the Middle Age, but there were no articles or works devoted to translation theory at this time. With the rise, development and gradual maturity of translation, more and more experts and scholars began to study systematically the translation and put forward their own theoretical propositions. The 20th century has been the heyday of French translation theory. The characteristics of French translation in this period are as follows: the practice of translation was unprecedented prosperous, covering politics, economy, military affairs, culture, literature and other aspects. The study of translation theory was unprecedented, and theorists who had great influence on the history of translation in the world have emerged. It was in the 1970s that ‘translatology’ began to formally exist as an independent discipline. In addition to the traditional study of theories focusing on traslation, France has made great achievements in the field of interpretation theory. The International Association of Interpreters is based in Paris. The main achievement of Chinese researches on French translation theory is The Contemporary French Translation Theory compiled by Xu Jun and Yuan Xiaoyi, which systematically reviews the theories of translators in the second half of the 20th century, led by Georges Mounin, and makes important comments on various translation schools. Yang Jiangang from Wuhan University also sorts out the three stages of French translation studies in the 20th century and briefly introduces several major translators and their theories in the article French Translation Theory.

10 杨堃 French Translation Theories

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Abstract

French translation theory plays an important role in western translation theory.However, due to various reasons, compared with translation theories in the United States and The United Kingdom, there are very few studies on French translation theories in China, and the only studies are mainly limited to some famous French translators.This paper gives a brief overview of the development of French translation theory from three aspects: French Renaissance translation theory, Modern French translation theory and contemporary French translation theory, combining with some famous French translators and their theories.

Key words

French Translation Theory;The Renaissance;Modern French Translation Theory;Contemporary French Translation Theory

Introduction

The history of western translation originated in the third century BC. The earliest translation is the Seventy Greek texts of the Old Testament, the Bible, translated by seventy-two Jewish scholars in Alexandria, Egypt.But strictly speaking, the first translation in the West was a Latin translation of The Greek Homer's epic Odyssey.Therefore, western translation activities have been going on for more than two thousand years.Since the reform and opening up, China has made great achievements in the study of western translation theories, but the main achievements are English and American translation theories, and there is not much research on the translation theories of France, Germany and other "small language" countries.As Professor Xu Jun said, "Due to various reasons, we have not made a systematic introduction to the translation studies of many countries, let alone an in-depth study. For example, we have little understanding of the translation studies of France."However, it is undeniable that these countries have also made great achievements in translation studies, such as Etienne Dore, Charles Barth, George Munan and the Interpretive School.Therefore, a brief introduction to French translation theory will help us better understand the history of French translation and the history of western translation theory, and also contribute to the in-depth and development of translation theory research in China.The following will be discussed from the Renaissance, modern and contemporary periods.

1.Translation theories of the Renaissance

The Renaissance movement in Europe from the 14th century to the 16th century was a great movement of ideological and literary innovation as well as a great development in the history of western translation.Especially in the 16th century and the following century when the Renaissance movement was widely carried out in Western Europe, translation activities reached an unprecedented peak.Translation activities went deep into the fields of ideology, politics, philosophy, literature and other fields, involving the major works of classicism, and produced a large number of outstanding translators and a series of excellent works in translation.The translation of this period has three characteristics: first, the focus of translation from religious works to classical literature works;Second, the national consciousness of translators of various countries has been strengthened, and they have shifted from mechanically imitating Latin to attaching importance to the unique style of national languages.Third, the translation of national languages in Western Europe has developed in parallel and independently.During this period, French translators are most famous for Etienne Dolet and Jacques Amyot.

（1）Etienne Dolet

Etienne Dolet (1509-1546) established himself as a translator, humanist and linguist in the history of French translation.He was born in 1509 in Orleans, France, studied in Paris, travelled to Italy and returned home at the age of 21.In the field of French translation, he is honored as "the father of French translation theory" and "the first one who put forward translation theory systematically in the modern History of Europe".Dolet returned to France at a time when the Renaissance was sweeping Western Europe and he actively participated in the humanist movement.During this period, the study of Greek and Latin flourished in the country, and ancient Greek and Latin writers were respected and valued.Translation activities became more frequent and the focus of translation shifted from religious works to classical literature works. Erasmus,a contemporary Dutch translator, exerted a certain influence on the formation of Dolet's translation thoughts, such as his emphasis on language and style.At the same time, Dolet was also deeply influenced by his contemporary German translator Martin Luther, who stressed that the translation should use the language with its own characteristics so that the general public can accept it.When it comes to specific translation skills, they all agree that the desired effect can be achieved by adjusting the word order. Dolet's translation principles were his translation thoughts which were put forward in his article How to Translate Well from One Language to Another in 1540. He listed the following basic principles of translation: (1).The translator must understand perfectly the content and intention of the author whom he is translating; (2).The translator should have a perfect knowledge of the language from which he is translating and equally excellent knowledge of the language into which he is translating; (3).The translator should avoid the tendency to translate word for word, for to do so is to destroy the meaning of the original and to ruin the beauty of the expression; (4).The translator should employ the forms of speech in common sense; (5).Through his choice and order of words the translator should produce a total overall effect with appropriate “tone”. The first principle is aimed at the meaning of faithfulness to the original work, which is the fundamental principle that can not be ignored in translation.The second principle is the language requirement for the translator. Dolet believed that an excellent translator must be proficient in both languages. In principle, there is no primary or secondary distinction between the two languages, and the translator should be a language expert who is good at reading and writing in the target language.The third principle shows that Dolet did not advocate literal translation or word-by-word dead translation, but advocated free translation and live translation.In the fourth principle, Dolet, like all humanists, stressed the importance of using national languages and idioms to serve the general audience so that the translation can be understood by the common people.The last principle refers to the style, which requires the translation to be consistent with the original text in style through various rhetorical devices. The translation itself must be natural, smooth and harmonious, so as to give readers "aesthetic enjoyment". Dolet's translation theory is quite modern in its principles.It involves the basic principles and problems of translation put forward by the later theorists.Gallix, a famous contemporary French translator, believes that Dolet's principle is "concise and clear, he was the first person who really put forward the theory of translation art in Europe" (Tan Zaixi, 2004:71).Ballard, another famous French translation theorist, believes that Dolet's translation propositions constitute the embryonic form of French translation theories, and his principles are of universal significance (Xu Jun, Yuan Xiaoyi, 1998:228). However, due to the brevity of Dolet's articles, he did not elaborate on the principles after they were put forward, and he did not write or have time to write more similar works or papers to reiterate his views, so he did not form a school of theory, and did not have a great influence at that time.

（2）Jacques Amyot

Jacques Amyot (1513-1593) was another outstanding French translator of the Renaissance.Born into a small merchant family, Amyot studied ancient Greek and Latin languages and literature at the French School.He was appointed professor at Bourges University on the royal recommendation and served as tutor to two princes.His later years were bleak because of the religious wars.Amyot's achievements are mainly the translation of several ancient Greek and Roman literary classics, but because of the great influence of the translation and the pursuit of "trying to be comparable with the original work" in the translation of the lofty ambition, he is generally regarded as a writer in the history of literature. Amyot's first translation, Heliodorus's novel, Theagnes and Calicerea (Aethiopica), was completed in 1547. Later, he translated Diodorus Siculus's seven-volume History Series (Bibliotheca Historica), Longos's pastoral novel Daphnis and Heloa in 1559, Plutarch's Moral Treatises (Moralia) in 1572,Before that, he also translated Plutarch's The Lines of The Noble Grecians and Romans (Vies des hommes illustrus ) in 1559, which is Amyot's most famous work. In the process of translating The Lines of The Noble Grecians and Romans, Amyot was always supported by the king and had favorable conditions.In 1542, When Francois I assigned him the task of translation, he chose to translate The Noble. Undoubtedly, this choice played an important role in the success of the subsequent translation.In order to ensure the accuracy of the content and clarify the ambiguous areas in the translation, he went to Venice and Rome to collect and study the manuscripts of ancient books, and compared various versions.It is not a very long book, but it took 17 years to translate from the time it was commissioned in 1542 to its publication in 1559. His translation was a success, providing material for contemporary and later writers in France and other western European countries, such as Racine and Shakespeare.Montaigne, a famous contemporary French writer, once spoke highly of Amyot's achievements, believing that without his translation, no French would have known how to write. He said, "If this book had not pulled us out of the mire, we ignorant people would have been over." Amyot's principles in translation are : (1).The translator must understand the original text thoroughly and work hard on the transfer of the content; (2).The translation must be simple and natural, without embellishment. In his opinion, "the task of a competent translator is not only to faithfully restore the author's meaning, but also to imitate and reflect to some extent the mood of his style."It can be seen that he emphasized the unity of content and form, free translation and literal translation.Under the guidance of this principle, he fused the language of the people and the language of scholars into one furnace, and paid attention to the simple beauty of the text, so that the style of the translation is independent.As a result, some people commented that Amyot adopted creative free translation, and The Noble became Amyot's The Noble, rather than someone else's The Noble.In his translation, he borrowed from Greek and Latin and simultaneously created a large number of words in politics, philosophy, science, literature, music and so on, thus greatly enriching the French vocabulary.At that time, the French language was still in a state of confusion, the country has not a unified French language.The famous Seven-Star Poetry Society (La Pléiade) and other humanists made great efforts to unify the French national language. But there is no doubt that Amyot also made an indelible contribution to the purity and standardization of French through his translation.The unique literary style of the translation later became the object of imitation by Montaigne and other writers at the end of the 16th century. It also played a great role in the form of classical French prose and in improving the literary literacy of readers.

11 刘运心= History of Translation Theories in Ancient Rome

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11.2 Introduction

George Steiner, in After Babel, divides the history of translation practices and theories into four periods. The first starts from the statements of Cicero and Horace on translation up to the publication of Alexander Fraser Tytler’s Essay on the Principles of Translation in 1791. The translation activities of this period can be further divided into three stages: the translation of ancient Greek classics into Roman; Translation of the Bible in the Middle Ages and inter-translation of Arabic and Greco-Roman works; translation of the Bible and translation of secular literature into ethic languages. Those translation activities correspond with the philosophical trends successively emerged in the timeline, including the natural culture of ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Christian culture, humanism of Renaissance and the Enlightenment. (Meng, )

The translation theories produced in the first stage are called classical theories of translation which are closely related to the translation practices of translating Greek classics into Roman. From Steiner’s point of view, the translation in Ancient Rome marked the beginning of translation practices and theories and exerted considerable impact on the successive generations of translators. And Steiner was not the only one who recognized the important role that translation in Ancient Rome has taken in history of translation theories. Eric Jacobsen claims rather that translation is a Roman invention.

The translation practice reached its very first climax in translation history during the end of 4th Century B.C. when the Roman Empire replace the Greece as the country with the most powerful economic and military force in the Mediterranean region. However, the Greek culture with abundant legacy of predecessors still exerts great attraction to the Romans. Many roman writers flung themselves into the translation of Greek literature and inherit the great transition of Greek culture. The translation theories of this time, which all stemmed directly from practical work of translating mainly discuss the standard and techniques of translation in order to provide better guidance to the translation practice in return. The very first translation theory formulated by Cicero stemmed from his translation practices of Greek classics.

In the late period of Ancient Rome (around 3rd to 4th century A.C.), with the decline of literature creation in Rome, literary translation gradually retrogressed. In the aim of winning over the people and save the country from collapse, the ruling class resorted to the Christianity. Under such circumstances, religious translation especially translation of Bible gained great importance during this period. This is said to be the second translation climax in western translation history. (Tan 24) The prosperous religious translation practices gave rise to the translation theories. The most influential figure of this time is St. Jerome. Both as a translator and translation theorist, he proposed feasible translation principles and strategies and applied when translating.

In conclusion, the translation theories first appeared in ancient Rome all shared an empirical focus and primarily unsystematic. Those theories of early theorist exerted considerable impact on the successive generations of translators.

11.3 Cultural and Historical Background

The 5th century BC, the Roman Republic was established around 509 BC, As a result of great growth in productivity and the need for better development, the Roman Republic began to expand outward. After many wars, Rome conquered much of the Mediterranean and the Balkans areas and thus established its political, economic, and military dominance. The definitive Roman occupation of the Greek world was established after the Battle of Actium (31 BC), and afterwards conquered Alexandria (30 BC), the last great city of Hellenistic Greece. The Roman era of Greek history continued with Emperor Constantine the Great's adoption of Byzantium as Nova Roma, the capital city of the Roman Empire.

From 1400 BC to 1200 BC, Greek culture had reached its peak especially in literature, philosophy, architecture, aesthetics, science and art. By the 4th century BC, Greece was still the center of culture and philosophy. Although after the conquest on Greece Rome served as the political and economic center in Mediterranean, the splendid heritage of Greek culture outshone those of Rome. Since the 3rd century BC, namely the heyday of the republic, the Romans began to absorb nutrition from the Greek culture through translating and imitating Greek classics.Romans’ attitudes towards Greek culture witnessed great changes as a result of its military conquest (to be continued...）

12 魏兆妍 The Development of Humanism Trend in Western Translation Theory from the 14th to the 19th Century

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Abstract

From the 14th century, Europe began to enter the Renaissance, and the Christian world view gradually degenerated with the emergence of individual centered humanism. People who submitted to God were regarded as rational and unique individuals, emphasizing their creative potential and giving full play to their talents. With the invention of printing in the 15th century, education and schools began to be open to the public. Reading translated works from different countries was no longer a noble enjoyment. Words and information were transmitted in all directions and more quickly through translation. Translation was called the forerunner of the Renaissance. It can be said that without translation, there would be no European Renaissance and humanistic thought. In Europe, the writers, thinkers and scholars in this period were also translators who knew several languages, translation and creation were closely linked. This paper will focus on the development of humanism in western translation theory from the 14th to the 19th century, and discuss the representative figures and their translation ideas in this period.

Key words

Western translation theory, Humanism trend, Poetics of translation

1. Introduction

From the 14th century, Europe began to enter the Renaissance. Dante, the last poet in the middle ages, completed The Divine Comedy in 1321. In Dante's mind, all human life experience, including life and death, must be explained by Christian faith in order to show its meaning and significance. This Christian worldview gradually degenerated with the emergence of individualism-centered humanism. All beings who submit to God are regarded as rational, unique and creative individuals. In the past years, translators were servants attached to God. Now they have shifted from God to focusing on the translator. Personal development has become the goal and value of life. Although humanist thinkers, writers and translators still maintain the Christian faith, they put more emphasis on personal creative potential and give full play to people's strengths. The focus of translation activities in this period also shifted from the classics of the Christian Church to the translation of more secular humanistic works.

With the invention of printing in the 15th century, education and schools began to be open to the public. Reading translated works from different countries is no longer a noble enjoyment. Through the wings of translation, words and information are transmitted in all directions and more quickly. For example, Marco Polo (1254-1324) told the story of his travels in China, which spread all over the European continent through printed words. The invention of printing not only brought about a cultural revolution, but also a sharp increase in the number of translations. With the emergence of new disciplines, great changes have taken place in the function of translation. Translation is known as the forerunner of the Renaissance. It can be said that without translation, there would be no European Renaissance and humanistic thought. Take the role of translation in English literature for example: "Translation played a great role in the British Renaissance: first, as a pioneer, it was countless translated works that first caused the mental climate of humanism. Second, translation was still active in the era of the restoration of the king's government, but attention has turned to French works. In the intervening years, that is, in the half century from 1558 to 1603 when Queen Elizabeth was in office, translation activities were more frequent, and famous translations also appeared the most frequently, which constituted a translation climax in the whole history of English literature. " （王佐良、何其莘。英国文艺复兴时期文学史。北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1996年，第72页）In the Queen Elizabeth era, translation reached an unprecedented prosperity, and good translations of famous works continued to emerge. In the following 17th to 18th centuries, neoclassical literary translation surpassed the previous stage. Translation is particularly important to the development of modern English language, literature and culture.

In Europe, the writers, thinkers and scholars in this period were translators who knew several languages, translation and creation were closely linked. A large number of scholars and poets have expressed their opinions on translation. From the 14th to the 16th century, the most representative was Dante's "untranslatability of literature" in Italy (1265-1321); Erasmus of the Netherlands (1466 - 1536) relied on the translator's language knowledge in the translation of The Bible; The translation of German Luther (1482 - 1546) must adopt the language of the people; The translators in Dore’s mind (1509-1546) in France must understand the original content, be proficient in two languages, avoid word for word translation, adopt popular form and pay attention to the "five translation principles" of beautiful style; Poetry translation in English Chapman's(1559-1634) mind can not be stiff translation, and the poetry translation method of "rebuilding a new image" can be used.

From the 17th to the 19th century, the representative figures were as follows. Abranco of France: the translation method of “the beautiful unfaithful ones” which emphasized literariness and readability; Bartow (1731-1780) : accurate translation view of "the author is the master and the translator is the servant"; Dryden (1747-1841) of England: three translation principles of "literal translation, free translation and imitation translation"; Tytler (1747-1814): three translation principles of "the translation must completely reproduce the thought of the original work: the style and tone of the translation must be consistent with the characteristics of the original; the translation must be as smooth as the original." ; Humanistic thinker Herder (1744-1830) of German Romanticism: made a pioneering thinking on the language, nationality and the characteristics of relativism in translation. Goethe (1749-1832) of German: called the translator as "the prophet of the people"; Humboldt (1767-1835): expressed the views on translatability and untranslatability which had a great impact on the 20th century. The foreignization translation method of Schleiermacher (1768-1834) in the later stage has influenced the deconstructive translation theory of the 20th century. For the above representative figures and different translation views, due to the limitation of the length of the article, this paper will discuss some of the representatives according to the development sequence of the history of translation theory.

13 吴婧悦 History of Translation Theories in the Soviet Union

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Abstract

As is well know, the Soviet translation theory plays a prominent role in the world translation theory. Firstly, we discuss about the overall situation of the development of the Soviet period, the history of the Soviet period and discusses the characteristics of the Soviet translation theory. Finally, we introduce the famous translation theorist like: S. G. Barkhudarov (С. Г. Бархуда́ров) and I. A. Kashkin (И. А. Кашки́н) and so on.

众所周知，苏联的翻译理论在世界翻译理论中占有十分突出的地位。本文首先从苏联时期翻译理论发展的整体状况出发，对苏联时期翻译发展史进行梳理；探讨了苏联翻译理论发展的特色；最后向读者介绍了著名翻译理论家S. G. Barkhudarov (С. Г. Бархуда́ров) 以及I. A. Kashkin (И. А. Кашки́н) 等人的翻译理论。

Key words

Translation theories, Western translation theories, Soviet Translation theories

1.1 History of translation theory development before World War II

The Soviet translation theory occupies a very prominent position in the world translation theory.The Soviet study of translation theory began shortly after the October Revolution, began with literary translation.

In 1918, Gorky (А.М.Горький) founded the World Literature Press (Издательство "Всемирная литература") in conjunction with the help of Lenin(В.И.Ленин).The publisher's task is to introduce world classics, improve the translation art, and train translators.At this stage, nearly 100 professors and writers attended the work.In order to unify the thinking, discuss the theory of literary translation, and stipulate some clear rules, Gorky handed the burden to Chukowsky(К.И.Чуковский). Therefore, after a short effort, Chukowski wrote the book "The Principles of Literary Translation" ("Прицины художественного перевода") in 1919.He first proposed that the translator of the novel should be an artist and a master of language.Chukowski believed that a good translation can reproduce the artistic characteristics of the original text in vivid and rich Russian.But at that time, there was a very popular view in literary and theoretical criticism that translation was essentially impossible work.

In 1930, The Principles of Literary Translation was collected in Chukowski's "The Art of Translation" ("Искусство переводов").It suggests that translators must understand the social environment.In addition, the communication of the structural characteristics and rhetorical characteristics of the original text, as well as the principles of translation and expression, are also discussed.

In 1934 Translation theorist Smirnov (А.А.Смирнов) made the first proposal of the concept of "equivalent translation" in the term "Soviet Literature Encyclopedia", "translation" (Перевод).The "equivalent translation" here means "conveying the ideological content, feelings, and written structure of the original work", that is, "conveying the full creative intention of the original author". Smirnov suggested that not only can use the direct counterpart of the original in translation but also can use the functional approximation of the original in translation.

In 1936, Loginski (М.Л.Лозинский) reported at the first National Conference of Translators, "The Art of the Translation of Poetry" ("Искусство стихотворного перевода"), and pointed out that poetry translation should be the same in aesthetics as the original poetry works, highlighting the equivalent aesthetic function of literary and artistic translation.

Also in 1936, Kashkin (И.А.Кашкин) proposed the theory and became the founder of the Soviet theory of realism. His translation method is: translators should try their best to reproduce the objective reality expressed in the original text, rather than words; they should see, experience, and perfectly reproduce the reality in the eyes of the author from behind the original text. He equated the realistic method of translation with the socialist realism in literary creation.In the Soviet Union, he was hailed as "a theorist representing a entire era in the history of Russian translation". He believes that translators should be loyal to the original, to their readers, to reality, and that the three are inseparable. Kashkin believes that without a theory, translators are just a craftsman, and can never become a translator or artist. Also in 1936, Kashkin (И.А.Кашкин) proposed the theory and became the founder of the Soviet theory of realism. His translation method is: translators should try their best to reproduce the objective reality expressed in the original text, rather than words; they should see, experience, and perfectly reproduce the reality in the eyes of the author from behind the original text. He equated the realistic method of translation with the socialist realism in literary creation.In the Soviet Union, he was hailed as "a theorist representing a entire era in the history of Russian translation". He believes that translators should be loyal to the original, to their readers, to reality, and that the three are inseparable. Kashkin believes that without a theory, translators are just a craftsman, and can never become a translator or artist. It is worth noting that by the beginning of World War II, the discussion of translation theories did not form systematic and complete theories, and they were all carried out from a literary point of view. Only translation of textbooks and translation instructional references are exceptional and are conducted from a linguistic perspective.

1.2 History of translation theory development after World War II

Since the 1950s, a new period of studying translation theory from the perspective of linguistics began. Its main characteristic is to link translation theory with comparative linguistics, and on the basis of comparing the phenomenon of the two languages, to reveal the law of the two languages.

In 1950, "Theory and Methods of Translation Teaching" ("Вопросы теории и методики учебного перевода"), which played a considerable role in the development of translation theory. For example, in Gary Palin(И.Р. Гпльперии) 's article, "Translation and Rhetoric" ("Перевод и стилистика"), shares Shakespeare's original Othello with Morosov’s (М.М.Морозов) translation, noting the similarities and differences between English and Russian in terms of meaning and aesthetic functions. Meanwhile, the book Lezkel(Я.И.Рецкер) ’s article, "On the regularity and correspondence in Russia" ("О закономерных соответствиях при переводе на роднои язык"), divides the language regularity correspondence into three categories: equivalent, approximation and equivalent substitution.These three methods are applied to scientific and technological translation, the translation of political articles, and literary translation.

14 杨爱江 History of Chinese Translation Theories in the Republic of China

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Abstract

Before and after the May Fourth Movement, there is an unprecedented cultural revolution in the field of ideology and culture, the New Culture Movement. The main purpose of this movement is to enlighten the public and spread advanced idea and culture. They translate many books which are written in foreign countries. The translation theories are developed gradually in this process. The aim of this paper is to give a systematic description and analysis about the translation theories raised by those famous writers, such as Lu Xun and Hu Shi. Then we will have a comprehensive understanding about the translation theories from 1911 to 1949.

Key words

Translation theories, Translation standards, Translators

1. Introduction

The New Culture Movement is also an important milestone in the history of Chinese literature. The literature changes greatly from form to content in this period, surpassing the literary changes of any past era.With the vigorous development of the New Literature Movement, literary translation has also entered the most glorious period in the history of translation. The journal “New Youth” which was founded by Chen Duxiu translated and introduced many foreign literature works, so did other associations and journals.

During this period, literary translation had two significant characteristics: First, the May Fourth New Literature translation was another translation climax following the climax of translating Western works. In Comparison with the climax of translating Western works, fundamental changes have taken place in the number of translation works as well as the quality of these works. The important sign is that the leading forces of translation in this period are revolutionary writers such as Lu Xun and Guo Moruo, who are first-rate literary translators. Under the active advocacy and hard work of these people, Chinese literary translation has achieved extensive and in-depth development, forming a positive translation style. At the same time, a large number of outstanding professional translators emerged, such as Zhu Shenghao and Fu Lei. Second, in comparison with translation of other foreign countries’ literature works, Russian literature works’ translation dominates in the society. In addition, translating works about Marxism is another important aspect in that period.

2. Some Debates in this Period

The prosperity of translation in the New Culture Movement brought about the vitality of translation theory, which made new advances on the translation work. Different translation methods were raised by different scholars. During this period, the vigorous literary revolution and the development of the vernacular literature movement promoted a thorough transformation of the translation style, boosting the transition of the traditional translation theories.

2.1 Literal Translation and Free Translation

The language structure and stylistic structure of English and Chinese have the same side. When translating the source texts, we can translate it according to the structure of the original text, which is the so-called "literal translation". The content of the original text is put in the first place, faithful to the original text the second. The smoothness of the target text is of the least importance of all. It is not only faithful to the original content, but also in line with the language and stylistic structure of the original text. On the contrary, free translation emphasizes that the content of the source text should be in the first place. What matters most is to express the meaning of the source text faithfully. Besides, the translator can be free from restriction of the form of the source language. But the target translation is required to be natural and smooth.

The first problem encountered in the development of the translation theory is the relationship between vernacular, classical Chinese, literal translation and free translation. Some thinks that literal translation should be used in vernacular, while free translation should be in classical Chinese. Using classical Chinese in free translation can reveal the beauty of Chinese to the most. Others deem that literal translation and free translation should be in vernacular. While the third view is that literal translation or free translation has nothing to do with vernacular or classical Chinese.

The common method in the translation process is to combine literal translation with free translation. Any good translation work will not just use a single translation method throughout the whole passgae. And the two translation methods are used together in the same translation work to maintain the accuracy of the original content and avoid ambiguity.

2.2 Faithfulness or Smoothness

From the late 1920s to the early 1930s, there was a debate about translation standards in the translation field. Many famous scholars were involved in this debate, which lasted for eight years and shocked the entire literary field. In 1929, Liang Shiqiu criticized Lu Xun's translation method of “rigid translation”, saying that "it is better to be smooth than to be faithful." Zhao Jingshen also believed that translating books should satisfy the needs of the target readers; In other words, we should put the readers in the first place. Then we could consider whether the translation was correct or not. The most important thing is the smoothness of the translation. Therefore, Zhao Jingshen said that it should be expressiveness, faithfulness and elegance according to the importance of the three standards put forward by Yan Fu. The main leaders of this controversy, the representatives of “Faithfulness” are Lu Xun and Qu Qiubai. The representatives of“Smoothness” are Liang Shiqiu and Zhao Jingshen. The two parties discussed the following topics: the issue of faithfulness and smoothness, literal translation and free translation, Europeanization and domestication and the issue of retranslation. These are the four central points of this debate. Consensus was reached in many aspects through this debates. This debate acts as a catalyst for the development of the traditional Chinese translation theory.