1. Introduction
Ba Jin is an outstanding writer. He also is an excellent translator in Chinese literature history. His vision of The Happy Prince sell well in China in the past several decades. He has a sense of aesthetics in translation. The version translated by Ba Jin perfectly reflects his aesthetic thought. The version has simple wording, vivid image and fresh style. In recent years, more and more scholars have begun to focus on the translation of Ba Jin’s The Happy Prince . The thesis focuses on exploring Ba Jin’s version--The Happy Prince from strategies and features in translation.
Through this study, it is found that translator should not omit the core of the origin text during the translation, on the contrary, the aesthetic information as its ultimate goal to be taken representative. This thesis will be helpful for those scholars who want a deep understanding about Ba Jin’s aesthetic thoughts on translation and stimulate people ’s interest to the aesthetic translation. By summing up experience and lessons learned in this field, more and better works will be published.
2. Translation Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a philosophical branch of inquiry concerned with beauty, art and perception. Translation aesthetics has a long history. There are few points about translation aesthetics. Liu (2004: 45) thinks that “the formal system is constituted by physical, natural properties and external components that directly build up images ” . Mao (2005: 97) discusses few topics about beauty in his book, including the beauty of sounds, the magic words, emotion, and so on . He defines the Translation Aesthetics is the study on aesthetic subject, aesthetic object and the aesthetic activities in Translation Aesthetics, this is the first time that translation aesthetics as the title in his book, he briefly reviewed the development history of Chinese translation aesthetics, concluded that “the basis of theory in traditional Chinese translation theory is aesthetics ”. Translation aesthetic object contains the original work and target work; translation aesthetic subject contains reader and translator; aesthetic activities have many details, including aesthetic judgments, aesthetic appreciation, creative aesthetic representation and so on.
Liu (2004: 78) pointed out that “the combination of translation theory and artistic aesthetics is the basic characteristics of Chinese traditional translation theory ” in his book, [1]
[2] [1]
in which he analyzes the aesthetic subject and aesthetic object briefly. Translation is a progress, including comprehension, transformation and improvement.
2.1 Aesthetic Subject
Nida (1963: 45) said “Translator is the aesthetic subject. A good target text not only has a bearing on the aesthetic constituents of its aesthetic object, but also has a bearing on the aesthetic subject ’s ability. When they are both in the integrating aesthetic relationship, translating, as the progression of aesthetic representation, should be endowed aesthetic effect” . Fu (1993:79) states that there are two aesthetic subjects during translating work--translator and receptor . Translator plays a very important role in translation. Aesthetic subjects refer to those people who can make judgment under the specific condition. Aesthetic subject is called “second reality ” by Tytler (2009: 32) because it is different form reality, and it has two types: translators and readers. Translator is the aesthetic subject of origin works, while reader is the aesthetic subject of the target works. Translators play a crucial role in translation. Translator should understand the works first, and then transform the meaning to target works. Translator is a active part in aesthetic translation. Considering the receptors, Mark (1997: 124) thinks that translator not only transform the main meaning to target work, but also aesthetic
consciousness, culture accomplishment and aesthetic experience .
Lao Zi (1999: 223) holds translator is the aesthetic subject of target text, he plays a very important role in perceiving, judging and evaluating original text and transforming every detail into target text, the deeper he understands the original text, the higher the quality of
translation work would be
.
Liu (2004: 35) thinks that the translator should start translating work from the children ’s
angle . So it is indispensable that the translator to master three aesthetic conditions: aesthetic consciousness, culture accomplishment and aesthetic experience .
(1) aesthetic consciousness
Aesthetic consciousness refers to the perception of aesthetics or a sense of aesthetics, they are from translator ’s instinct. In children ’s world, everything is so quite and simple, everyone is so friendly, their thoughts are very different from adults ’. If children think the world is imbalance after reading a book, the book is not a good one.
(2) culture accomplishment
[3]
[4] [5] [6] [7] [1]
