First of all, briefly introduce life.
Lin Yutang, 1895 10 June 10 (end of Guangxu 21st year), was born in Banzai Village, Longxi County, Fujian Province. His original name was Lehe, and later he changed his name to Yutang and Yutang. 190 1 At the age of six, Lin Yutang entered Mingxin Primary School run by Banzi Church. At the age of ten, he went to Gulangyu, Xiamen to continue his primary school. At the age of thirteen, he entered Xiamen Xunyuan Academy. 19 12 years, 17-year-old Lin Yutang graduated with honors from St. John's University in Shanghai, 19 16 years later graduated with the second place in liberal arts from St. John's University, and later worked as an English teacher in Ren Zhongxue, Tsinghua University, Beijing. 19 19 In the summer, she married Liao Cuifeng, the daughter of Xiamen Yufeng Qianzhuang, and in the autumn, she took her new wife to Harvard University for further study. A year later, due to economic reasons, he went to France to serve China workers and teach them to read and write. 1922 received a master of arts degree. In the same year, he transferred to Leipzig University in Germany to study linguistics. From 65438 to 0923, he returned to China as Professor Peking University, Dean of Beijing Women's Normal University and Head of the English Department. 1924, he is one of the main authors of Yu Si. 1926 Dean of College of Literature, Xiamen University. 1927 left Xiamen and arrived in Wuhan, where he served as secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for only half a year. 1932, Lin Yutang founded the Analects of Confucius bimonthly, advocating humor; 1934 created "the world on earth", advocating that the article should express the spirit; 1935 held biweekly cosmic wind, advocating "self-centered, leisure-oriented" essays. In the same year, Lin Yutang's English book My Country and My People (translated from China) was published in the United States, with seven editions printed in four months, which made Lin Yutang famous overseas. Subsequently, at the invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Pearl Buck, Lin Yutang's family moved to the United States in 1936 and began his 30-year overseas career, which was also an important period for his literary creation. His English work "The Importance of Being Alive" ranked first in the American bestseller list for 52 consecutive weeks, and his novel "Smoke in Beijing".
Lin Yutang once gave a lecture in Chongqing on 1944. 1945 went to Singapore to set up Nanyang University as the president. 1952 co-founded tianfeng magazine in the United States. 1966 and settled in Taiwan Province province. 1967 was employed as a research professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. 1975 was elected as the vice president of International PEN. 1976 died in Hong Kong.
Second, translation theory.
Lin Yutang's understanding of Chinese and Western cultures and his mastery of Chinese and English languages laid an important foundation for his translation achievements. Lin Yutang devoted himself to writing all his life, but he still wrote many articles about translation. As early as 1924, Lin Yutang published an urgent proposal for unifying the translation of names in the Morning Post. His other works related to translation theory include An English Dictionary from which I have benefited a lot, The Overthrowing of Old Grammar and the Construction of New Grammar, Answering Elegant Translation Humor, Talking about Bad Faces and the Construction of Putonghua Grammar. These articles either comment on linguistic theories or analyze examples, all of which show the deep foundation of Chinese and English. Lin Yutang's preface to Wu Shutian's On Translation in 1933 (published by Guanghua Press 1937+0) is nearly 10,000 words (later included in his linguistic essays), which is his most systematic and comprehensive article on translation theory. Lin Yutang proposed that translation is an art, thus becoming a representative figure in China's translation history. His thesis mainly includes the requirements for translators' basic qualities and translation standards.
As far as the requirements for translators are concerned, Lin Yutang believes that the art of translation depends on three things: "First, a thorough understanding of the original text and content; Secondly, the translator has a considerable degree of Chinese and can write fluent Chinese; The third is training in translation, and translators have a correct view of translation standards and operations. "
Lin Yutang's thesis is based on translation practice, not mysterious, nor simple in reasoning. In his view, apart from the above three rules, "there is absolutely no discipline for translators". In his view, most of the articles on translation in the past either talked about translation methods or just translated names. "They are all based on experience directly, and they have never made theoretical analysis on issues according to facts". However, he proposed that "when discussing translation, we should study its linguistic and psychological problems", in other words, "translation problems can be said to be linguistic and psychological problems." . He believes: "If we want to solve this problem objectively, we should base our argument on the psychological analysis of language and words. We must first understand the facts of language and writing psychology before we can draw conclusions about the translator's standards and attitudes. " It should be pointed out that Lin Yutang is the first person in the history of translation studies in China to take modern linguistics and psychology as the basis of "theoretical analysis" of translation arguments.
It is on these two foundations that he expounded the translation criteria and put forward three translation criteria: faithfulness, expressiveness and beauty. From another angle, he described these three criteria as three responsibilities of the translator: the responsibility of the translator to the original author, China readers and art, and "three sense of responsibility, and then we can say that we have the qualifications of a real translator." This is what the sender didn't send. In addition, he also summarized the previous translation methods and pointed out that translation can only be "sentence translation" with sentences as the main body, but not "word translation" with words as the main body. Therefore, he put forward four meanings of "loyalty standard": non-literal translation, vivid expression, non-absoluteness and fluency. Regarding the "fluency standard", he believes that two things should be done: "First, we should take sentences as the standard; Secondly, it must be based entirely on the psychology of China people. " Regarding the "standard of beauty", Lin Yutang believes that "translation should give consideration to both beauty and practicality, and an ideal translator should regard his own work as an art". Love it with love for art, treat it with care for art, and make translation an art. Especially when translating literary works, we must pay attention to the beauty of words.
In addition, Lin Yutang also agrees that real works of art are untranslatable. "Because in the best works, the author's thoughts and the author's words are completely and naturally integrated. If they are separated from their inherent words, they will lose their spiritual body, and the elite at this point will not survive." Finally, he agrees that "translation is creation" and thinks that people who translate literary works "must regard translation as an art". Literary translators "must first realize the charm of the author in advance, and then give full play to it in translation, which is the obligation to translate artistic articles." Lin Yutang's view is similar to the theory that the translator should be a critic in translation theory.
In a word, Lin Yutang's On Translation puts forward three criteria again on the basis of predecessors' theories, and comprehensively discusses the essence of translation and the tasks and methods of literary translation. He also made some new explorations from the perspectives of linguistics and psychology, and his translation theory has something in common with the modern view that traditional translation is subordinate to the original.
Third, translation practice.
Lin Yutang's achievements in translation can also be said to be the achievements of his life in the United States at the peak of his middle age. From 1935' s My Country and My People to 1964' s Escape to Freedom City and 1967' s On Chinese Painting, there are 32 works and translations, all in English: including discourses, essays, poems, novels and biographies, among which from a macro perspective, Everything he says and does is the embodiment of translation. Therefore, Lin Yutang's translation is not only a literal effort, but also conveys the feelings, thoughts and life of China people to western readers through various activities of interpersonal relationship, so that they can understand and appreciate it.
When talking about the characteristics of English, Lin Yutang once said: "English words are very clever, which can really reach the realm of' wonderful pen and flowers'." English can be large or small and can be completely spoken, so it is often touching. Some seemingly ordinary sentences can stay in people's hearts forever. " And his own English writing and translation have reached this level. "Sometimes China culture is solved casually with British American English and slang; Sometimes difficult Chinese words and expressions are retained, and meaningful interpretations are made in a perceptual and insinuating way. " His second book, The Art of Living, published in America, is the most creative and explanatory book. From a certain point of view, this book can also be regarded as an anthology of translated works, but the author has added more explanations before and after each quotation, integrating ancient and modern Chinese and foreign countries, southeast and northwest, preparing readers psychologically and adding his own opinions in one go.
The uniqueness of Lin Yutang's translation lies in that he can thoroughly digest his beloved articles, then narrate and discuss them, and concoct them with his own creativity, which can not only grasp the form and spirit of the original text, but also make it easy for ordinary western readers to understand. Lin Yutang has an important book, The Wisdom of Confucius, which challenges the original text in translation practice. There are many English versions of The Analects, but Lin Yutang's approach is different. He didn't translate "Learning while Learning" word for word, but rewrote it in different categories. The topic is: Confucius' love life; Confucius' talking style; Confucius on gentlemen and villains; Confucius talked about politics, education, etc. , and several other articles introduced the life experience of Confucius, and extracted the relevant chapters of The Doctrine of the Mean, The University and Mencius, which became a well-known book with strict logic, giving western readers a concept, knowing that Confucius is a flesh-and-blood figure and how Confucianism has been deeply rooted in the hearts of China people for thousands of years.
Lin Yutang's English version of Tao Te Ching, The Wisdom of Laozi, is another important translation of China culture. First of all, this is attributed to his profound knowledge, profound knowledge of Chinese studies and considerable research on Taoist philosophy, which enabled him to thoroughly and accurately understand the original text and laid the foundation for his faithful transmission of the original text. On the other hand, his idiomatic English and his insistence on the "vivid" translation standard make his translation fluent and clear. Therefore, although the Tao Te Ching has been translated into many languages since19th century, and the number of its western-language versions is second only to that of the Bible, Lin Yutang's version translated by free poems is quite successful, which is more faithful in content and style than the previous version, and the written expression is more concise and accurate, which makes people feel that it is a pleasure to read.
The novel Clouds in Peking, which made Lin Yutang a candidate in Nobel Prize in Literature, is a complete creation, but it still contains translation elements. Although the novel is written in English, it describes the story of China from the Boxer Rebellion to War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in the past 40 years, so things full of strong Chinese flavor can be seen everywhere. The perfect translation example in his creation is his biography of Su Dongpo, which vividly shapes this talented and open-minded ancient man with the writing method of western biographical literature. The reference books in the book are very rich: everything and every sentence of Su Dongpo are based on history and literature, including thousands of poems, articles, letters and notes handed down to later generations. Some are directly translated into English and quoted in paragraphs, such as Su Dongpo's letter to Emperor Zongshen against Wang Anshi's New Deal; Some people say that he lives in Huangzhou and drinks very lightly. Lin Yutang adopted the method of narration and discussion on the poem "The Red Wall Fu", which has been told for ages.
Another important contribution of Lin Yutang is Contemporary Chinese-English Dictionary, which was compiled and published in 1973 under the sponsorship of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Before that, there were only two popular Chinese-English dictionaries in the world, namely 1892 edited by Zhai Lisi and 1932 edited by R.H. Mathews. Lin Yutang spent five years compiling this Chinese-English dictionary, which not only satisfied his decades-long wish, but also met the needs of contemporary Chinese-English translation. The word search method used in this dictionary is revised according to the "Up-Down Lexical Search" invented by Lin Yutang, and the pinyin used is also the "Simplified Chinese Roman Characters" simplified by the Roman Pinyin method he participated in the formulation of that year, and the fifty radicals pioneered by Lin Yutang have become another feature of this dictionary.
Fourth, cultural exchanges between China and the West.
In Lin Yutang's works, translation and creation are inextricably linked. There is creation in his translation, and there is creation in translation. The combination of "time" and "place" made him shoulder the responsibility of explaining China and China people to western readers. His success depends not only on his exquisite writing style, but also on his love for the motherland culture and unique views. His works strongly show his attachment to the motherland and its culture. He not only introduced China's philosophy, but also widely displayed the culture of the Chinese nation, including economy, politics, philosophy, religion, literature, art, folk customs and so on. Therefore, his English works are very popular and there are many translations. At the same time, he often gives speeches everywhere to promote China culture. Lin Yutang's efforts and achievements in striving for international understanding and promoting cultural exchanges between China and the West in China are rare. His series of works written in English caused a sensation in European and American literary circles and had far-reaching influence. Some of them have been selected into teaching materials, and some of them have been regarded as required reading for senior government officials to understand China, and they have always been regarded as authoritative works of oriental culture. When it comes to China's literature and thoughts, many foreigners know ancient Confucius and modern Lin Yutang, which shows the influence of Lin Yutang's works on spreading culture and promoting international understanding. 1975165438+1October, Lin Yutang was elected as the vice chairman of the International PEN at the 4th1General Assembly. This is the first China writer to win this honor in the decades since the establishment of International PEN. As the vice-chairman of International PEN and a nominee of Nobel Prize in Literature, his translated works have undoubtedly won him the status of a master in the international literary world and the pride of the people of China. In the history of modern literature in China, Lin Yutang has made many achievements with his outstanding talent. The couplet he wrote: "One article, two feet on the eastern and western cultures" can reflect his ambition and his efforts and contributions in introducing China culture to the west.