论翻译中的风格再现

陈亮　云建辉　姜珊

【Abstract】This translation report，based on the translation work of two chapters in an autobiography--Fresh Off the Boat：A Memoir by Eddie Huang，a Chinese American writer，looks at the feasibility of style translation and the approaches to recreate the style in target language.In the two translated chapters—Chapter 13 and Chapter 16，Eddie Huang transforms from an obedient law school graduate to an owner of a Chinese restaurant in New York，overcoming numerous difficulties.Stylistic marker is a system of symbols that can be recognized from linguistic forms.With thorough examination，the source text has many distinctive stylistic markers in the two translated chapters，representing the overall colloquial and succinct style of the author.Stylistic markers consist of formal markers，and non-formal markers.By analyzing the source texts formal markers，which includes lexical markers，syntactical markers，register markers and markers of figures of speech in these two translated chapters，and by mainly adopting free translation approach to find the corresponding markers in target language，the translator suggests that to achieve faithfulness，expressiveness and gracefulness in translating the style of the author，the free translation approach，compared with literal translation approach，is more effective in recreating the authors style in target language.

【Key words】style translation； Chinese American； free translation

【摘要】基于翻譯华裔美籍名厨黄颐铭的自传《初来乍到》，本论文主要讨论的是风格翻译的可能性和如何在目的语中实现原文风格的对应。在本翻译报告所选取的两章——第十三章和第十六章中，作者从一名逆来顺受的法学院学生，通过克服种种困难，转变成了在纽约拥有一家中国餐馆的老板。在原文中，由于作者第二代华裔移民的身份，尤其是在翻译的两个章节中，有大量的显示作者写作风格的形式标记，代表了作者口语化和明晰的写作风格。风格标记即作者语言风格的符号体系。风格标记包括形式标记和非形式标记。通过分析翻译部分两个章节中的这些标记，其中包括，词汇标记，语域标记，句法标记和修辞标记，并且采用意译为主的翻译手法，译者找到了在目的语中的对应标记。据此，译者认为，要达到风格翻译的“信”“达”“雅”的翻译标准，意译的翻译手法能更加有效地再现原文的风格。

【关键词】风格翻译 华裔美国人 意译

1.Introduction

Fresh Off the Boat：A Memoir is an autobiography written by Eddie Huang，a Chinese American writer.While translating Chapter 13 and Chapter 16，the translator finds out that there are many stylistic markers in original text.Then，how to keep those personal stylistic markers in target text is the most important task for the translator.

As for the definition of style，scholars opinions differ.In Buffons words，“Style is the man”； Savory Theodore defines style as “the essential characteristic of every piece of writing，the outcome of the writers personality and his emotions at the moment，and no single paragraph can be put together without revealing in some degree the nature of its author”.According to Cuddon，style is “how a particular writer says things.The analysis and assessment of style involve examination of a writers choice of words，figures of speech，the devices（rhetorical and otherwise），the shape of his sentences（whether they be loose or periodic），the shape of paragraph，indeed，of every conceivable aspect of his language and the way in which he uses it.”

From those definitions，we can conclude that without thorough analysis of the authors diction，his choice of sentence patterns and figures of speech and other aspects of language，it is insufficient to recognize the authors style，let alone translating it into target language.

Then，how to recognize and translate style is the most significant issue.The stylistic markers can be categorized into formal markers and non-formal markers.Formal markers can be further categorized into phonological markers，register markers，syntactical markers，lexical markers，textual markers and markers of figures of speech.While non-formal markers are unstable structure of the source text，which consists of expression methods，inner quality of the text and Fusion of Visual Field of the receptor.

In regards to the translation approaches that should be adopted in style translation，scholars opinions differ.Liqin Zhang advocates in her paper that “in translating literature works，literal translation is better than free translation in remaining the authors style since literal translation can keep all the stylistic markers in target language.” Nevertheless，literal translation pays more attention to the equivalence on the lexical and syntactic level，which will undermine the overall style of literature text.So the translator suggests that literature works always contain the authors psychology and mood.

2.Stylistic Markers & Translation Approaches

In this chapter，the translator focuses on the different stylistic markers in the source text，and the most effective translation method towards these different stylistic markers.

2.1 Lexical Markers

In formal markers，lexical markers and register markers in some degree overlap with each other.The register markers refers to some particular words used in particular situation，class or regions and the register markers can clearly reveal the authors class，education background and even region.Take the authors identity as a second generation immigration and his law school education background into consideration，his lexical style can be either colloquial or written.Then，to achieve faithfulness in translation，the translator should also reproduce the explicit style，and communicate the same feeling to readers in target language.

Example 1.What the fuck did he mean by “that face”？

This sentence in Chapter 13 clearly expresses the authors wrath when he was refused by the editor in the company because his Asian face.Besides，at that time，the author has graduated from a college.In other words，he has fulfilled his parents expectation，and in his mind，if he can get a degree that anyone else cant acquire，his life would be significantly different from his previous experience.Just as he thought he has embraced a new chance，he was rejected to get that job，which made him furious.Finally，those unspoken pressure from that society and culture is poured out in this sentence.And the readers both in source language and target language should have the same feeling as the author do.The intense mood of anger is expressed by the underlined part “the fuck”.But the author didnt use the word to curse the interviewer.If translated directly into its Chinese counterpart，the meaning is distorted because the author graduated from law school and he shouldnt come up as a coarse young man.Taking the authors background and his mood into consideration，the translation version should be “‘這张脸到底是什么意思？”.

2.2 Syntactical Markers

Compared with lexical markers，syntactical markers are more difficult to cope with because Chinese and English have many different sentence patterns.Generally speaking，the author in this text，restricted by English grammar，tends to used declaration sentences rather than exclamation sentences to express his anger and aspiration when he was treated unfairly.In regards to syntactical markers，the translator should usually comprehend them in context and translate them into a different sequence in target language.

Example 1.I wanted power，I wanted respect，and I never ever ever wanted

anyone to tell me about my face again.

The author uses three “wanted” to express his urgent feeling，and repetition is one distinct feature of the source text，so the translator should imitate the sentence structure to communicate the urgency and anger to the readers.But the sentence is a declarative sentence and if they are directly translated into the same sentence type，the powerful feeling would be erased in the translation version simply because declarative sentence in Chinese is just to state a fact without any feeling.Whats more，the repetition of “ever” in the original sentence should be kept in the translation.So the translator has to change it to exclamation sentence as in “我要權力！我要尊重！我再也不想，再也不想别人来告诉我我是黄种人！” By translating it into exclamation sentence，the readers in target language can know his anger，and after years of obedience to the societys bias towards him，he finally realized that he has to fight for his future.And since then，the author embarks on his road of seeking new identity in that culture.

2.3 Markers of Figures of Speech

Figure of speech is one of the writing tools for the authors to strengthen the effect of the language，so they can be viewed as one key component of style.Many scholars argue that figures of speech cant be translated.The source text contains many figures of speech，mainly similes and metaphors.Based on free，the main approach is to keep the tenor and vehicle as much as possible，reproducing the style in translated text.When the translator cant find corresponding markers in target language for the vehicle in source text，then annotation or explanation in target language is inevitable.However，the translator believes that too many annotations will block the reading process of the readers in the target language.So，adding explanatory sentence is more preferable.

3.Conclusion

Although style is sometimes vague in some source texts，translators should firstly spare no efforts to recognize the formal markers and non-formal markers in the source text and then translate them into target language with corresponding expressions by free.The particularity of the source text in this thesis—Fresh Off the Boat：A Memoir is that the author is a Chinese American.The author uses this book to express his anger，hesitation and success.So，except that the translator should improve their bilingual skills and cultural background，another task for translator is to learn the background of the author.By fully realize the life experience，the translator can better grasp the psychology and translate more accurately.Through translating the culture-related text，the translator believes that among translation approaches，free is more effective in communicating lexical meaning and cultural meaning and it should be widely used in translation practices.

Reference：

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