The Significance of Creative Treason in Literary Translation.doc

the significance of creative treason in literary translation-comment on two translations of jane eyreabstract: the practices of literary translation have proved the aim that what people bestow on literary translation is often not identical with the result of practical literary translation. because on one hand there are many complicated factors, for example, artistic demand and language demand itself etc.; on the other hand it is decided by the characteristics of literature itself. in fact, people want translations to be the same work of art as the original. in this case, it is obvious that literary translation is no longer a simple language change, but a kind of creative work. this research paper explains the application of “creative treason” in literary translation through comparing and discussing two translations of jane eyre on four aspects: making a choice among the meanings of a word, the variety of sentence pattern, the choice of cultural meaning and the choice of literary form. by doing this, a conclusion is drawn that in terms of “creative treason” in literary translation, zt is better than lt.key words: creative treason; literary translation; lt (lis translation); zt (zhus translation)an introduction to “creative treason”the essence of any translation is to transform the information of one language to the other. but there is fundamental distinction between literary translation and any other translation. the language of literary translation is not the language in common use. that is to say, not just to achieve the aim to communicate and exchange information. the language of literary translation is a special language just as mao dun says: literary translation uses the other language which expresses the artistic mood of the original work and allows readers to gain the same inspiration, the same thoughts and feelings and the same appeal of beauty just as reading the original work”. obviously, this is a kind of artistic language which has the function of aesthetics. this kind of language should be able to reproduce the artistic world which is created by the original author through his/her means of images. also it can reproduce the artistic image that the original author portrays. literary works in one language can be adapted to another new language by literary translation. in order to let receivers experience the artistic effect the same way as from the original, translators must find out the effective language medium which can arouse receivers to produce the same or similar imagination as from the original. in fact, it means translations should be works of art similarly as the original work. in this case, literary translation obtains the same meaning as literary creation. and it is not a simple language exchange any more, but becomes a kind of creative work. also mao dun says: this kind of translation, of course, is not just pure change of language form, moreover, it requires translators have understood the original authors creation process and already have grasped the spirits of the original work. in this way, translators try to find the best confirmation from his/her own thought, emotion or experience of life. then they use the most suitable words to reproduce the content and form of the original correctly and faithfully. in the process of translating, translators and authors should combine into one. it seems that the original author writes his/her own work in another language. it requires translators not only to give free rein to their creativity in their work, but also requires them to give a faithful account of the originals intention-this is a difficult task. because the main task of literary translation is to reproduce the spirits and features of the original, it is completely necessary for this kind of artistic creative translation. writers creativity is taken for granted when he/she is fulfilling a piece of literary works. the creativity of literary translation is also obvious. it gives a literary work new life in the new language, nation, society and historical environment. but, the creativeness of translation differs from the creativeness of the original. it is the second time creation, namely re-creation. its hard to say which is good and which is bad between creation and recreation. they all have their own specialty and unchangeable independent value .the practice of translation reveals that both good translation and bad translation exist. even some translations are better than the original, for example, alan poes poems translated by nevarl in french etc. in terms of the essence of translation, this argument should not be tenable. because translation should be faithful to the original, of course the bad translation is not worth mentioning, but the translation that is better than the original is also inconsistent with translation principles. english translation research worker george stainer says: ideal translation should be neither worse nor better than the original, but we all know it is “ideal translation”, which is actually impossible ever to be achieved. in literary translation, either the translation is better than the original or worse than the original is depending on the creativity and rebellion of literary translation. supposing the creativity of literary translation indicates a kind of subjective efforts that translators try to copy or reproduce the original by their own artistic creative talent; then the rebellion of literary translation reflects a kind of objective deviation of the translation from the original when translators want to achieve a certain goal in the process of translation. this is only theory, whereas in the practices of literary translation, it is hard to separate creativity from rebellion, because they are one unified organism. so french literary sociologist robert escarpit proposes a new terminology-“creative treason”, and says “translation is a kind of creative treason all the time”. different translations of jane eyre and the concrete usage of “creative treason” by different translators as a famous literary work, nowadays jane eyre still attracts chinese readers strongly. this not only accounts for her moving stories, but also depends on her beautiful and stirring language. so in china, there are a lot of translations of jane eyre. among them, li jiyes translation (lt) is the earliest chinese translation, which was finished in 1936, and published by cultural life press. since then, it has been revised and republished many times. zhu qingyings translation (zt)of jane eyre was first published in 1980 by shanghai translation press. later it was revised and republished again and again. this research paper intends to make comparisons between these two translations in the view of “creative treason”, to prove that “creative treason” is the most important feature of literary translation. in terms of “creative treason”, in order to copy or reproduce the content and meaning of the original, translators are bound to give play to their subjective efforts to fulfill the recreation about the original. at the same time, because affected by specific era, society, literary environment and ideology, translators would give their specialties to translations. that is to say, translators want to achieve certain goals through their translations. in this case, it causes the objective deviation of translation from the original. by comparing lt with zt, we know that zt is better than lt in terms of “creative treason”. 2.1 making a choice among the meanings of a word in the process of translating, translators use some kinds of reference books, like english-chinese dictionary etc. in these books, there may be different interpretations for the same word. so the problem for translators is how to make a choice and which interpretation to choose. for the sake of being faithful to the original, translators must learn to use dictionaries flexibly and choose the interpretation of a word exactly. namely according to the text or logical connection of words, translators must carefully choose the most suitable meaning of a word among a group of meanings of it. in addition, translators should give free rein to their creativity, to reproduce the meaning of the original truthfully. but, sometimes owing to lack of deep understanding of the text, it is hard for them to avoid errors, thus making their translations hard to understand for readers.e.g.1: desiring me to hold a stein of thread: while she was winding it, she talked to me from time to time, lt: 司密斯女士想要我拿着一绺子线，在绕着线的时候，她时时向我谈话。 zt: 她要我给她绷一束线，她一边绕线，一边不时地和我聊几句。according to common meaning, li has translated hold into “拿着” and it does not express the meaning of original completely. zhu takes the context wind thread into account, then translates hold into “绷”. the word “绷” conveys the concrete way of “hold”- unfurl. in this way, she makes her translation more vivid and more suitable. zhu gives play to her creativity, so that to make her translation faithful to the originals content. comparatively, lt is inferior. e.g.2: four hands were immediately laid upon me and i was borne upstairs. lt: 四只手即刻放在我身上，就把我弄到楼上去。 zt: 立刻就有四只手抓住我，把我硬拖上楼去。the literal meaning of lay in chinese is “放”，not”抓住”,but zhu integrates the context and translates laid upon me into “抓住我”, not”放在我身上”. zhus “抓住” describes the situation that jane eyre was borne upstairs distinctly. zt reproduces the intention of the original, and its creative treason is quite clear. e.g.3: my impulse was to rise from it like a spring; their two pairs of hands arrested me instantly. lt: 我满心要像弹簧一般从凳子上起来，她们两双手即刻把我按住了。 zt: 我一心要像个弹簧似的蹦起来。她们的两双手立刻把我按住。li translates rise into“起来”，which completely accords with its literal meaning “起立” in chinese，but it does not contain the full meaning of rise in the sentence. while zhu translates it into “蹦起来”which expresses the authentic meaning of rise. the word“蹦” here was just right for the purpose and quite vivid.e.g.4: the child clung round my neck in terror, and almost strangled me.lt: 孩子恐怖地把在我颈上，几乎把我闷死。zt: 那个孩子吓得紧紧地抱住我的脖子，差点把我掐死。in lt, clung round my neck is translated into“把在我头上” which does not express the full meaning of round . zhu adds “紧紧” to this sentence and it becomes “紧紧抱住我的脖子”, which make the translation more faithful to the original. especially the word “抱住”, which conveys the meaning of round clearly. at the same time, it explains the reason of “差点把我掐死”紧紧地抱住我的脖子vividly.e.g.5: externals have a great effect on the young i thought that fairer era of life was beginning for me. lt: 外表对于年轻的人很有影响：我想一个更美好的生活时代为我开始了。zt: 外表对于青年人是有强烈的影响的。我想对于我来说，生活中一个比较美好的时期正在开始。li interprets the young into “年轻的人”which could be easily associated with someone who is lack of experience and maturity. so the best word is “青年人”which was associated with someone who is full of vigor, vitality and energy. in this way the translation is more original .a faire era in lt becomes “一个更美好的生活时代.”. the meaning of“时代”is too wide in range for a single person.“时期” in zt seems more suitable. for me was translated into “对于我来说” in zt seems more better than “为我” in lt, because zt has accorded with the expression of chinese, it sounds natural , smooth and easy. 2.2 the variety of sentence patternlt was produced in 1930s, so the language has the characteristic of that era europeanized chinese. this should be a kind of language style of lt. it is shown as: li adopts the way of literal translate. li always places the time adverbial modifier at the end of sentences (e.g.6 and e.g.7) and frequently use the link-verb(e.g.8 and e.g.9) and adjective postfix“的”(e.g.8 ). the sentence attribute is relatively long (e.g.8 and e.g.9) and the sentence structure is complicated (e.g.10 and e.g.11). in addition, the organization of sentences centered on verbs just likes western language shape (e.g.11).in lt, in order to transmit the content and form of the original work faithfully, the translator mainly takes the literal translation method. but it is the translator that attempts to do literal translation everywhere. as a result, some sentences of his translation are not clear and coherent. with the authors view, faithful should include being clear and coherent inside. if original texts are clear and coherent, the faithful translations must be the same. zt was produced in the 1980s. the language of her translation is smooth and natural. in zt, the translator doesnt use europeanize chinese any longer. on the contrary, she uses many short sentences and the language turns to become brief and clear consequently. in terms of “creative treason”, influenced by the times, the effect of “creative treason” in lt is not as obvious at that in zt. in lt, the translator doesnt take the characteristics of target language into account while he is emphasizing the loyalty to the original text. some sentences in lt are hard for readers to understand.e.g.6 a run fire of raillery and jests was proceeding when sam returned.lt: 诙谐玩笑的火光流动着，当沙姆回来的时候。zt: 开玩笑和打趣像火一样蔓延开来，这时候山姆回来了。e.g.7with the exception of some of two or three rooms fitted up for the accommodation of the squire when he went there in the season to shoot.lt: 只有两三间屋子收拾好了给老先生应用，在他到那里去打野味的时候。zt: 只布置了两三个房间，供老爷在打猎季节上那儿去住。in the 6th and 7th examples, in lt the translator adopts the way of literal translation, which doesnt take the characteristics of target language into account. the translation without changing the order of the original sentence, and places the time adverbial modifier on the end of the sentence, which makes the translation a little funny.in zt, the translator disperses the time adverbial modifier that at the end of sentence in the original. there are many clauses in zt, in this way the translation is not only faithful to the original, but also natural and smooth.e.g.8 she said in a voice as decided as her glance, as harsh as her feature. lt: 她用和她的眼色一般果断，和她的面貌一般严厉的声音说。zt: 她说，那声音和她的眼神一样果断，和她的面貌一样粗鲁。in lt，there is a series of adjectives before the word”声音”. in zt, the sentence keeps in agreement with chinese subject-predicate structure. in order to avoid the tediously long attribute, the translator zhu uses two clauses. another example: e.g.9 ,a woman after mr. braklehurst own heart, made up of equal parts of whalebone and iron.lt: （哈登太太）是一个顺从布鲁克尔哈斯忒先生心意，同样严厉无情的女人。zt：她完全合布洛克尔赫斯特先生的心意，是用同样的鲸鱼骨和铁制成的。because of using europeanized chinese, li makes the sentences structure complicated and hard to understand. at the same time, lt only focus on the form but not take the expression in chinese into consideration. as a result, li cant translate the original vividly and incisively. for example: e.g.10 i turned in the direction of the sound,lt: 我对着声音所从来的方向转过身，zt: 我转向声音传来的方向，in lt, there is an attribute in adverbial which is before predicate. the structure of the sentence is complicated and it cant be read smoothly. e.g.11 i thought id just set off and get a look at you before you were quite out of my reach.lt：我想我就起身前来，在完全不能见到你之前看一看你。zt: 我想你走了以后，我就没法去看你了，我还是马上出发，趁你没走，来看看你。li writes the sentence centered around the verb“看”.before “看”there is a time adverbial modifier“在完全不能见到你之前”，which has nothing to do with the verb“看”.under this circumstance, the sentence structure becomes compact. in zt, the translator adopts many verbs to form parallel structures. in this situation, the sentence structure is loose and flexible, also the rhythm is relaxed.from the above-mentioned examples, we realize that different languages have different sentence structures and express the same meaning in different ways. in the process of literary translation, on one hand in order to give readers in a new language system a full understanding of the original text, the translation should give full play to its creativity and rebellion. only in this way, can the translation express the meaning of the original faithfully and make the text reborn; on the other hand, if translators dont take the target languages characteristic into consideration and tend to learn foreign language structure blindly, the translation would be neither fish nor fowl. 2.3 the choice of cultural meaning as mentioned above, for the sake of be faithful to the original, translators must give free rein to their creativity, and do all they can to make the translation as vivid as the original both in form and content. then there will be the feature of creative treason in the translation. this requires the translators to pay attention to contemplating the meaning of vocabulary and sentence during the process of translating. meanwhile translators should also consider both eastern cultural background and western cultural background. only by doing this can a translation be successful.in the process of translation, the knowledge about different cultural background has quite important functions. different languages have reflected different cultural traditions. in the course of english-chinese translation, if without considering the differences of the chinese and western cultural background, the translation is difficult to accept by chinese readers. in lt, a lot of examples have proved the translator has neglected this key element. so though the translation considers the original text, it doesnt accord with the traditional culture habit of china. as a result, chinese readers feel confused with it.liu miqing points out in his book contemporary translation theories：the spoken and written languages are the socialized result of nationality, while it is the carrier of the social cultural information. in this sense, the spoken and written languages are information symbol systems of a certain kind of culture. national socialization is reflected in this symbol system all without exception. so, the conversion between the languages cant ignor