Download pdf
An Analysis of the Chinese Translation of De Profundis from the Perspective of Communicative Translation
- 1 Jimei University
- 2 China Agricultural University
- 3 Wuhan University of Technology
- 4 Guangdong University of Finance & Economics
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This thesis is based on Zhu Chunshen's translation of De Profundis. The original text is the prison memoir of Oscar Wilde, reflecting on his relationship with his lover-- Bosie, but also involving topics such as art, life and religion, and it discusses the emotions and arts based on the inextricable relationship in the context of suffering. Due to its profound content and meaningful prose, as well as the language and cultural differences between China and the UK, it is difficult to fully convey the original meaning in translation. Regardless of it, Mr. Zhu Chunshen's translation is widely circulated in the industry and highly praised. This work uses Newmark's translation theory to analyse this translation from three aspects, namely ‘the application of four-character phrases’, ‘the adjustments of sentence structures’ and ‘the reformation of the original forms’, so as to understand the deep meaning and translation art conveyed by the translator.
Keywords
translation analysis, communicative translation, De Profundis
[1]. Joyce, J. Letters of James Joyce, edited by Stuart Gilbert, Faber and Faber, 1957, p. 193
[2]. Newmark P. A(1988) textbook of translation[J].
[3]. Zu, M., & Dong, Y. (2015, December). A Brief Analysis of Communicative Translation and Semantic Translation. In 2015 Joint International Social Science, Education, Language, Management and Business Conference (pp. 269-272). Atlantis Press.
[4]. Cai, Y. (2019). A Brief Analysis of Peter Newmark’s Communicative Translation Theory.
[5]. Yan Q.(2019).An analysis of translation strategies of The Thorn Birds based on Newmark's Theory. Journal of Jiangxi Vocational and Technical College of Electricity (06),134-135.(in Chinese)
[6]. Yang W., Dai W., Gao L. (2012) A Study on Chinese Continuous Four-character Collocations and Their Translation into English Strategies[J]. Theory & Practice in Language Studies, 2(5).
[7]. Kang, H., & Yang, Y. (2022). A study on English translation of Chinese four-character idioms: Strategies and problems. Linguistics and Culture Review, 6(1), 200-213.
[8]. Wilde, O. (2010). De Profundis. Modern library.
[9]. Zhu, C. (2008). 自深深处. The Chinese Translation of De Profundis. Yinlin Press.
[10]. Guo,W.(2009).An Exploration on the Application of the Chinese Four-Character Structure in English-Chinese Translation. Shandong Foreign Language Teaching (04),84-87. (in Chinese)
[11]. Yang W. (2010) Brief study on domestication and foreignization in translation[J]. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 1(1): 77-80.
[12]. Shi,C., & Qin,C.(2011).On the Application of Chinese Four-character-structure-words To the Translation in English for EST. Journal of Sichuan International Studies University (02),74-78.(in Chinese)
Cite this article
Chen,L.;Huang,Y.;Mei,Y.;Yuan,J. (2023). An Analysis of the Chinese Translation of De Profundis from the Perspective of Communicative Translation. Communications in Humanities Research,6,311-318.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title: Proceedings of the International Conference on Social Psychology and Humanity Studies
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).