以《雷雨》英译本论戏剧翻译中的规则,戏剧论文

Chapter 1 An Overview of Drama Translation andNorms

Drama translation, as a unique literary genre, only limited attentionhas been devoted to it. Though there is no systematic theory on dramatranslation, many scholars have offered their views on drama translation.

1.1 A Literature Review of Drama Translation
As drama translation is different from other literary forms, SusanBassnett states that "I still find that the image of the labyrinth is an aptone for this most problematic and neglected area of translation studiesresearch. Less has been written on the problems of translating theatretexts than on translating any other text type."(Bassnett, 2001: 90) Beforethe mid of 1970s, the arguments on drama translation studies were mainlylimited in the comparative texts analysis by using prescriptive researchmethods to find the equivalence between the source texts and target texts.After the mid of 1970s，the drama translation studies began to develop inthe research direction of descriptive methodology.
1.1.1 Main Drama Translation Theories in the West
According to Zuber-Skerritt, "drama translation is defined as the translation of the dramatic text from one language and culture intoanother and the transposition of the original translated or adapted textonto the stage." (Skerritt, 1988:485) However, for Aaltonen, Head ofDepartment of English of University of Vaasa, considers that theatre textsare not necessarily synonymous with dramatic texts and the two may, insome cases, function as objects or elements in different systems and begoverned by different systemic conventions. (Aaltonen, 2000:33) Sheclaims that: "theatre texts, like all texts, are rich and fertile. Both the'original' and its translations are like rented apartments where rentersmay make substantial changes to their living quarters. Theatrepractitioners and audience redecorates the texts when they move intothem, and make them make sense in the framework of their own history.Texts can therefore be approached and studied in relation to their tenants,who have responded to various codes in the surrounding societies, andthrough this response integrated the texts into the entire socioculturaldiscourse of their time." (Aaltonen, 2000:112) She focuses on culturalcontext, which is common to all kinds of translation, but it may appear tobe distinct in theatre translation, owing to media-related factors andephemerality of the stage.
Susan Bassnett is the first scholar in the field of dram translationstudies who says that "a theatre translator must make his version meet thecriterion performability" and points out that "the first criterion for drama translation is that of playability or performability." (Bassnett, 1985:91)But later she revises her view. She asserts that "The term 'performability'is frequently used to describe the indescribable, the supposedly existentconcealed gestic text within the written. It has never been clearly defined,and indeed does not exist in most languages other than English."(Bassnett, 1991:102) Clearly, she begins to doubt the existence ofperformability, for she believes that this criterion lacks theory base andauthority. No one knows what kind of translation could be called"performable".
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1.2 Theories on Norms
The 1970s saw the development of polysystem theory, which regarded translated literature as a system operating in the larger social,literary and historical systems of the target culture. This is an importantmove, since translated literature has been up to the point that mostly beendismissed as a derivative, second-rate form. Polysystem theory feeds intodevelopments in descriptive translation studies, a branch of translationstudies that has been crucial in the last twenty years and which aims atidentifying norms and laws of translation. (Munday, 2010:109)
In the descriptive translation studies, Toury aims to reconstruct thenorms that operate on the translation process. He puts the translationbehaviors in a given community and finds out the norms behind thetranslation. According to Toury, the definition of norms is: "thetranslation of general values or ideas shared by a community—as to whatis right or wrong, adequate or inadequate——into performance instructionsappropriate for and applicable to particular situation." (Toury, 1995:55)
Translation norms can thus be considered as the constraints thatrooted in the general values or ideas shared by a community. As pointedout by Toury and Kruger, from the translator's point of view, everyinstance of decision-making in the translation process is governed bycertain norms and from the researcher's standpoint norms are a categoryfor descriptive analysis of translation phenomena. (Toury, 1980:57;Kruger, 2000:36) Aaltonen also claims that "even though manipulationand rewriting are the gist of translation, translational behavior is not erratic. Rather, it is always governed by norms and conventions."(Aaltonen, 1996:182) 
In China, the researches on Toury's norms begin only in the recentyears. Zhao Ning discussed some basic questions about norms. In hisviews, Toury's researches are not to map out the translation norms, but tofind out the norms that the translators obey by researching the translatedtexts. Translation norms are not prescriptive, but descriptive. Therefore, ifone wants to be an excellent translator under the specific social culturebackground, he or she must master the translation norms.(赵宁，2001:216) According to Sun Yifeng, in Toury's single norm, if the initialnorms impair the subjectivity of translators, and then the operationalnorms will intensify the subjectivity of translators. The initial normsprescribe and limit the subjectivity, and the operational norms developthe function of translators' subjectivity so that they can accord with thenorms of target language under the limited bound prescribed by thesociety and ideology. Therefore, the former one is about the socialness oftranslators, while the latter one is related to the translators' subjectivity.(孙艺风，2004:194) In the field of academic papers, there are also manyresearches in the view of translational norms. Just like Cui Ting's “ADescriptive Study on the English Translation of China s National DefenseWhite Papers from the Perspective of Toury，s Theory of TranslationalNorms” (崔停，2012), Wang Xiaoyang's “A Comparative Study of Two Chinese Versions of Pride and Prejudice from the Perspective of Toury'sTranslation Norms” (王晓阳，2012), Jiang Zhangjian' s “AComparative Study of Two Chinese Versions of Harry Potter and theGoblet of Fire from the Perspective of Toury 's Translation Norms'''(蒋樟建，2012) and so on. They are all about texts' comparative analysesfrom the perspectives of Toury's initial norms, preliminary norms andoperational norms. And in this paper, the author also adopts the view ofthe three norms, and applies the theories of Toury's norms into the twoEnglish versions of Leiyu.
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Chapter 2 Initial Norms: Wang Zuoliang's and YaoKe's Orientations

According to Toury's norms, the initial norms refer to the overallchoice of the translator. Namely, the translator could choose to obey theoriginal text (the original culture) or to obey the target text (the targetculture). If the translator's choice is to follow the original text, thetranslation will be adequate; If the translator chooses to follow the targettext, the translation will be acceptable. In Wang Zuoliang's Englishversion of Leiyu, his translation methods preferring the domestication orforeignization depend on the initial norms. While in Thunderstorm, theinitial norms would decide Yao Ke's translation being partial to theoriginal culture or target culture. Owing to the initial norms closely tiedwith the culture, it has to come back to the then culture background forthe analysis.

2.1 The Background of Wang Zuoliang's Version
Since the New Culture Movement of 1919, Chinese drama began tostand out under the impellent of democratic culture thought. During theperiod, the "one—act play" of Hu Shi(1919), marked the beginning ofChinese drama. In the following 1930s, the birth of Cao Yu's Leiyu marked the maturity of Chinese drama. Leiyu is not only the topmasterpiece of Cao Yu, and meanwhile it is the most translated workamong the dramas of Cao Yu. Wang Zuoliang's English version of Leiyuwas edited in 1958, which was cooperated with Barnes. Cooperating witha foreign friend means essentially to comply with the norms of the targettext, namely Wang Zuoliang is in charge of translating Chinese intoEnglish while Barnes is in charge of checking whether the target textaccords with the habits of English expressions. Just as Mr. WangZuoliang said "I paid much effort on the target text, but it still hadshortcomings, namely the dialogues were not plenty excellent andespecially the joints of text were not flexible enough. However, after aBritish friend's overall reading and embellishment, the text finally wasimproved a bit.“(王佐良，1989:2) In addition, it was in the1950s一rightly the early days of New China's founding, China'sinternational influence was not great with the low international status, andit had to cling to the socialism camp centering on Soviet. Excepttranslating greatly the Soviet Russia literature or exporting its ownliterature works to Soviet Russia, China was not strong enough to attractthe foreign scholars to pay attention to its own literature. Even Mr. WangZuoliang himself says that "The western translators are evidently tied bythe "Europe Center Statement", so they pay little attention to the smalland rural literature works which hasn't formed their own fashion. Therefore it influences the literature field as well, namely the third orfourth rate western works are known by most people in our country, butthe first rate Chinese works are silent and have no echoes even among theBritish or American scholars and researchers. Of course, it has otherreasons, but the western world doesn't regard the translation and the biasin choosing translation works are also one of the factors."(王佐良，1989:2) Besides, the history of Chinese drama is much shorter whencompared with the western drama's history. Therefore, the translatorsimperceptibly put the original text to a secondary status in the initialnorms in order to comply with the culture norms of target language, sothat his translation can obtain the "acceptable" standard in theEnglish-speaking world. Then the goal of publicizing local excellentworks is achieved. Wang Zuoliang's overall choice is shown in thetranslation of Leiyu frequently.
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2.2 The Background of Yao Ke's Version
Yao Ke's Thunder and Rain was published on the T'ien HsiaMonthly in 1936, and it is the earliest English version of Leiyu. On May6th, 1935, Doctor Wu Jingxiong summoned the editors of T'ien HisaMonthly for a meeting for the first time. They planned to create anEnglish cultural and literary journal to explain the Chinese culture to thewest. Wu Jingxiong recollected that on that day they talked about setting up a Chinese-English journal to communicate Chinese culture, but suchkind of journal would have a few readers and no one would subsidize it.(吴经熊，2002:228) However, about this problem, Sun Ke wrote thepreface for the journal in 1935, he claimed that the internationalenvironment was to suspect each other instead of understanding eachother at that time and China was facing the threaten of war. Therefore, hebelieved that the best way to improve the international trust was to haveculture communication. He once said "culture has always maintained anOpen Door policy."(孙禾斗，1935:5). He imagined that under the big frameof international alliance, every country should set up an organization topromote the understanding of international culture. The ZhongshanCultural Museum was such kind of organization chaired by Sun Ke.Therefore, he sponsored the T'ien Hisa Monthly. As an English periodicalset up by Chinese people, it certainly aimed at introducing or explainingChina to the western countries more than introducing western countries toChina. Yao Ke, as one of the editors clearly knew hismissionexplaining China through his translation.
When Leiyu achieved great success in China, Yao Ke was eager tointroduce the excellent work to the foreign countries. Then two years later,Yao Ke translated Leiyu firstly on the T'ien Hsia Monthly, with thepurpose of this journal. Under the influence of initial norms, Yao Kechose to obey the original culture and made his translation adequate. His orientedness in his Thunder and Rain presents many times.
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Chapter 3 Preliminary norms: Wang Zuoliang's and Yao Ke'sChoices of Texts............................. 35
3.1 An Introduction to the Six Versions of Leiyu............................. 35
3.2 An Analysis of Wang Zuoliang's and Yao Ke's Choices of Texts............................. 3 7

Chapter 4 Operational Norms: the Influence ofTextual-Linguistic Norms in the Two Versions

As presented above, the operational norms include matricial normsand textual-linguistic norms. The matricial norms are about thecompleteness, forms, textual segmentation and so on. Generally speaking,both versions of Leiyu were fully translated according to their originaltexts as proved in Chapter Two. And the translators' orientations isintroduced in Chapter Three. However, textual一linguistic norms restrictthe choice of translation language material, like lexical items, expressionsand stylistic features, which will be discussed in this chapter.

4.1 The Stylistic Features of Leiyu
Leiyu, as the original text, is a special literary form——drama,therefore its translation language must possess the stylistic features ofdrama. The peculiarities of drama translation lie in its literariness andstage effect. Apart from involving with the interlingual translationbetween two different languages, drama translation still needs to considerthe stage and audio effect of translation language, and the acceptability ofthe audience. If a translated drama couldn't be put on the stage, itstranslation is not successful. The drama language must be colloquial,behavioral, personalized and cohesive in the context, etc. The followingdetails will list respectively some examples from the view of colloquiallanguage, individualized characters, lines filled with action and cohesionof the context to prove whether the two translators have been influencedby the textual一linguistic norms.

4.2 The Influence of Textual-linguistic Norms: the StylisticFeatures in Thunderstorm and Thunder and Rain
The drama literature is limited by the time and space, for it has todeeply display the rich ideological content and lively depict thecharacters' dispositions in the limited time. Therefore, the drama languageneeds to be more concise and succinct. Such stylistic features will beshowed in the drama texts.
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Conclusion

Drama translation is a special field, and its translation strategies andaims have been argued by lots of scholars for many times. This fieldmostly focuses on the performability of the drama translation, and in thisthesis analysis is made on Wang Zuoliang's and Yao Ke's Englishversions of Leiyu from the perspectives of norms. The effect of normsgoes throughout the whole translating process. Before the translationhappens, the culture background, the then policy, the commissioning andthe translator's aesthetic criteria are all the norms which affect thesubsequent translation activity. And then, the translator's choice of thesource text, the direct or indirect ones, is bound up with the translator'ssubjective tendency and the objective factors. The two norms referred justnow are called initial norms and preliminary norms. When the translatorbegins to hold his pen to translate, the operational norms start to takeeffect. In this step, the translation strategies should be decided. Inconsideration of the drama's special characteristics, the translator has toconsider the performability of drama and the acceptability of targetaudience. All of these norms's influences are reflected in the analysis ofthe examples from the two English versions of Leiyu.
As these two versions were produced under different backgrounds,their translations differ in some aspects. Wang Zuoliang, chooses to obeythe target culture, therefore his version is acceptable. Yao Ke, with thepurpose of explaining China to the western world, chooses to obey theoriginal culture, so his version is adequate. Drama, as a special literaryform, its language must be colloquial, expressive, cohesive and full ofaction. Wang Zuoliang has fully considered these factors in his translation.However, in order to keep the original style and some words withtraditional Chinese culture, he has to faithfully translate the source textand even adds some notes in his translation. Different norms makedifferent translations.
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参考文献（略）