Ying Ruocheng_theatre translation 英若成剧场翻译.pdf

Babel 56 4 2010 363 378 F d ration des Traducteurs fit Revue Babel doi 10 1075 babel 56 4 05xia issn 0521 9744 e issn 1569 9668 traduction litt raire literary translation collection unesco d uvres repr sentatives unesco collection of representative works A translator on the target stage Ying Ruocheng s theatre translation Ren Xiaofei Feng Qinghua and Wang Nan Jiangsu University Shanghai International Studies University City University of Hong Kong 1 Introduction 1 1 Who is responsible for performability problems peculiar to theatre translation Theatre translation is gaining recognition with the development of globalization at the turn of the new century More and more scholars are becoming concerned with the nature of theatre translation such as Susan Bassnett 1978 1980 1985 1991 1998 Patrice Pavis 1989 1992 1997 Kruger 1986 2004 Nikolarea 2002 Aaltonen 1996 2000 to mention just a few Through various perspec tives semiotic cultural and theatrical most of them agree that theatre transla tion is peculiar with its own rules According to Pavis 1989 25 we cannot simply translate a text linguistically rather we confront and communicate heterogeneous cultures and situations of enunciation that are separated in space and time He quotes George Mounin when he tells the difference A playable theatre transla tion is the product not of linguistic but rather of a dramaturgical act one would translate the language well enough without translating the play ibid 28 Ismail The research is sponsored by Qinglan Project of Jiangsu Province and the Philosophic and Social Sciences Fund for Universities in Jiangsu Province 095JB740006 and the Talent Fund of Jiangsu University 09JDG053 and the Humanities and Social Sciences Fund of the Minis try of Education China 09YJA740055 and National Social Sciences Fund China 10BYY007 364 Ren Xiaofei Feng Qinghua and Wang Nan El Naggar holds that Central to translating drama is the issue of performability since the play is meant to be performed and not merely read Moreover a transla tor translating the dialogue of a play has to be able to choose the language suitable to the occasion and the relationships between characters http www translation Pavis thus claims that in order to conceptualize the act of theatre translation we must consult the literary translator and the di rector and actor we must incorporate their contribution and integrate the act of translation into the much broader translation that is the mise en sc ne of a dra matic text Pavis 1989 25 On the contrary some scholars Bassnett as a typical one argue against the performability as the major criterion of theatre translation For Bassnett 1991 102 1998 95 this term has no credibility because it is resistant to any form of definition According to her opinion the notion of performability with its im plicit indefined and indefinable qualities is used by many translators to excuse their various linguistic strategies or so called literal or draft translation to a play wright to suit his or her own purpose She advocates that the time has come to focus more closely on the linguistic structures of the text itself for after all it is only within the written that the performable can be encoded and there are infinite performance decodings possible in any playtext Bassnett 1985 102 Therefore Bassnett 1991 111 argues that an investigation into the linguistic structuring of drama texts should take precedence over an abstract highly individualistic no tion of performability and that the satisfactory solution of such textual difficul ties will result in the creation of a translated text that can be submitted to the pre performance readings of those who will be involved in the performance Thus she claims that the translator like the writer needs not be concerned with how that written text is going to integrate into the other sign systems It is a task for director and the actors Actually in producing a drama text it is appropriate for the play wright to bear in mind all the unique features of plays It is common sense that the nature of plays lies in their theatricality Therefore the reverse is true that the translator as the writer needs always to be concerned with how to make the text performable on the stage even though Bassnett is correct to remark that theatre is a collaborative process in which not only are different sign systems involved but a host of different people with different skills 1998 99 As for the gestic text or subtext as a typical factor of performability in theatrical texts she questions that how can the translator be expected not only to decode those secret gestic signs in the source language but also to re encode them in the target language In her eyes the expectation makes no sense because it requires that a translator would not only have to know both languages and theatrical systems intimately but would also have to have experience of gestic readings and training as a performer or di rector in those two systems 1998 92 A translator on the target stage 365 Through the contrastive analysis we may induce that there is an obvious commonness in the above mentioned scholars ideas that there is a close rela tionship between performability and theatre translation What remains unset tled is who is responsible for the realization of performability Some including Pavis and Bassnett are arguing that it can be achieved in performance on the stage only through the collaboration of translators directors and actors The strange phenomenon is due to the everlasting misunderstanding of the nature of theatre drama text Traditionally theatre text is thought to have two different ends One is for reading another is for performing which leads to all the contradictions and obstacles in theatre translation studies Quite surprisingly Bassnett 1985 87 ad mits that a theatre text exists in a dialectical relationship with the performance of that text The two texts written and performed are coexistent and inseparable though she later insistently denies performability and gestic features in theatre translation According to Boulton A true play is three dimensional it is literature that walks and talks before our eyes Though in fact plays are often read in silence the text of the play is meant to be translated into sights sounds and actions which occur literally and physically on a stage Boulton 1960 3 In China the holistic view of drama is also popular Wang Guowei an eminent literary critic in the Qing Dynasty defines drama as a play is to be performed on the stage Modern dram atists like Dong Jian Ma Junshan 2006 as well as Tan Peisheng 2007 share a blurring theory of drama that is the true nature of drama lies in both of its dram atism literary nature and theatricality theatre orientedness Similarly in trans lating a theatre text the translator alone should be responsible for the perform ability of the text while he can consult the director or actors and others which means that Bassnett s discussion of the expectations of a theatre translator makes real sense to have to know both languages and theatrical systems intimately and experience of gestic readings and training as a performer or director in the two systems We also agree with Nikolarea that the enduring polarization of perform abiltiy and readability is a reductionist illusion It is a reflection of the weakness of all prescriptive approaches in translation studies or a fallacy as it may be called Nikolarea 2002 10 11 We are lucky enough to meet this ideal kind of theatre translator Ying Ruocheng a well known Chinese actor director translator and China s Vice Minister of Culture 1986 1990 1 2 The man for Chinese modern drama and culture Ying was born into an influential Beijing Manchu family The Manchus conquered the Han Chinese in 1644 and founded the Qing Dynasty His grandmother was 366 Ren Xiaofei Feng Qinghua and Wang Nan a member of the royal Ai xin jue lo 爱新觉罗 line His grandfather Sir Vin centius Ying was an influential scholar in two important areas in China s mod ern history One is in the field of journalism He founded in 1902 the newspaper the Da Gong Bao 大公报 in Tianjin It was a major newspaper in the Republi can years and it continued publication in Hong Kong after 1949 The purpose of founding the newspaper was in Ying s own words to propel China forward as a modern and democratic nation It is well known for its brave criticizing of the conservative leaders of the time and promotion of democratic reforms The paper also pioneered the use of the vernacular language bai hua which is the substan tial foundation of current Chinese language the Mandarin Another is in the field of education He founded Furen University in Beijing in 1924 This Catholic uni versity encouraged scholars in Christian Confucian dialogues and promoted re search in cross cultural studies Leung Yuen Sang Ying s father Ying Qianli gained good education for both traditional Chinese culture and Western civilization He became a professor of English at Furen and introduced contemporary English literature to Ying He was always supporting liberal education and a more open society even after he went to Taiwan in 1949 Ying Ruocheng received his college education at Tsinghua University study ing western literature from William Empson He met his wife Wu Shiliang there who later became a personal interpreter for former Premier Zhou Enlai Since then on he became interested in acting and translating dramas both in Eng lish and in Chinese Especially after he and his wife joined the Beijing People s Art Theatre he showed great talent in various aspects such as acting translat ing writing and directing to promote the communications between western and Chinese drama At the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 in China Ying s most productive years began As a man of versatility as well as a man of determi nation and perseverance together with his knowledge of the traditional Chinese culture and the Western world as well as the English language he came to play an increasingly important role in Chinese modern culture making extraordin ary contributions and achievements in acting plays and films intercultural com munications through teaching and translating dramas which qualified him as the Vice Minister of China s Ministry of Culture 1 3 Ying s theatre translation and reception Ying was a diligent translator Until the time when he was seriously ill he still kept on translating Shakespeare into Chinese In 2007 Chinese Publishment Group and Chinese Translation Publishment Company reprinted Ying Ruocheng s Clas sical Drama Translation Series all of which have been successfully put on the theatre in the target culture with Ying s great effort directing acting as well as A translator on the target stage 367 translating The Series includes three Chinese dramas translated into English and five English dramas translated into Chinese They are Teahouse by Lao She The Family by Ba Jin and Cao Yu Uncle Doggie s Nirvana by Liu Jingyun now the Director of the Beijing People s Art Theatre Measure for Measure by Shake speare Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw Death of a Salesman by Ar thur Miller The Caine Mutiny Court Martial by Herman Wouk and Amadeus by Peter Shaffer It is obvious that the plays are all classical dramas in the origin al culture in different periods of history In commenting on Ying s choice of thea tre translation Ying Da 2007 Ying Ruocheng s son a popular director and actor in China says that as a professional he knows how tough it is to choose proper original theatre texts But his father with his discriminating taste of art and sen sitive insight as well as his thorough knowledge of both Chinese and western lan guages and culture together with his rich experience of directing and acting each of his translations and productions has proven to be a big success Here are three typical examples He translated and acted the famous Teahouse Cha guan 茶馆 in 1980 in Europe which is a remarkable revival of Chinese drama in the West In foreign audience s eyes Teahouse is a miracle on the eastern stage As a visiting professor at the University of Missouri Kansas City in 1982 he directed The Family writ ten by Ba Jin and adapted by Cao Yu with the students in the school and created a sensation there which gained him special honors in the U S In 1983 he pro duced Arthur Miller s play Death of a Salesman 推销员之死 co directed by the famous American novelist and playwright himself The play was so successful in China and he was nicknamed as the salesman in China s theatrical circle The confusion of time and space in the play by the insertions of Willy s illusions and recalling as a typical character of postmodern dramaturgical art brought fresh ideas of drama production into China exerting profound influence upon Chinese drama Barrie Rutter an old British actor made the acquaintance of Ying Ruocheng in 1979 with the excitement of being part of the first English speaking theater group to visit China since the Cultural Revolution says that I have very fond memories of Ying Ruocheng a man who had never been out of China whose English was perfect and whose simultaneous performance of the gravedigger in Hamlet is a treasured memory due to his timing and the reaction it created from the audience He Jianwei 2007 Patricia Mirrlees writes in The Guardian 12 Jan 2004 with the opening up of China Ying played an important role in transforming his country s cultural life encouraging international exchange and urging creative free dom for writers Best known outside China for his roles in films such as The Last Em peror the stage where he started his acting career remained his enduring love He was 368 Ren Xiaofei Feng Qinghua and Wang Nan also responsible for the translation and production of many foreign plays in China and Chinese plays abroad 1 4 Ying s ideas about theatre translation In the Preface of Ying Ruocheng s Drama Translation Series Ying makes a thought ful summary of his understanding of theatre translation with all the experience of translating and acting as well as directing In his opinion performability is the first and foremost criterion for a good theatre translation Orality gestuality and typic al characters are three major indications of performability 1 4 1 Orality Spoken drama is a kind of art which relies most heavily on the direct effect of oral ity of the dramatic discourses It is an audio visual art Audience receives the sim ultaneous message through the actors speech and actions The immediacy of the acting and watching makes it impossible for any additional explanations The liv ing language with brevity is preferable 1 4 2 Gestuality Dramatic dialogue is full of secret gestic signs to ensure the acting of the play Ac tors do things with words such as provoking threatening comforting contend ing warning and so on Translators should provide substantial convenience for the actor s playing by excavating the underlying gestic text and preserve the effect in the target text 2 Ying s theatre translation and production The Family and Death of a Salesman as cases 2 1 Research method 1 Selecting the first act of the original The Family and Death of a Salesman as parameters for Ying s drama translations 2 Using Concordance 3 0 and TextPreProcessing to collect relative data concern ing orality and gestuality as the typical characteristics of dramas performability such as word frequency sentence length discourse markers and deixis 3 Selecting another Chinese version of Death of a Salesman to make contrastive studies upon the two versions 4 Making comparative studies between the first act of the English version of The Family and the original Death of a Salesman A translator on the target stage 369 2 2 Data analysis 2 2 1 Sentence length and special lexis in Ying s version of Death of a Salesman The two Chinese versions of Death of a Salesman and the first act of the original The Family were selected and copied as text files Stop question and exclamation marks were taken as the symbol of sentences With Microsoft Word we got the mark for sentences By TextPreProcessing sentence length of the texts is reported in Table 1 The average length of the sentences in Ying s and Yao s translations and the first act of the original The Family are 16 3348 and 37 6308 12 9529 respectively Ying s version is closer to the original norm of orality The total number of senten ces in Ying s is almost two times of Yao s while Yao s average sentence length and sentence types with different length are in reverse two times of those of Ying s It is obvious that Ying s translation is more succinct which makes it easier for actors to match words with actions According to Shakespeare Brevity is the soul of wit And it is true to say that brevity is the soul of dramatic dialogue for it is an essential quality for speeches with good rhythm thus better followed by the audience Then we made an investigation of the specific lexis closely related with the shortness and the good rhythm of his translated dramatic text It is apparent that Ying tries to take advantage of the target language here Chinese to promote the theatrical effect of the dramatic lines He makes use of large numbers of slang prov erbs and idioms in Beijing dialect to meet the aesthetic expectations of the audi ence of The Beijing People s Art Theatre such as 有肩膀 he was a masterful man 火烧眉毛 The woods are burning 天不怕 地不怕 fearless characters and 八字 没一撇儿 You are counting your chickens again The livelihood and the vividness of these expressions contribute a lot to the popularity of his translated dramas Meanwhile the data show that there is still a clear gap between Ying s trans lated text and the norm of the source language 2 2 2 Discourse markers in The Family This section we choose the original Death of a Salesman as a parameter for the evaluation of Ying s translation of The Family It is no surprise that Ying s success Table 1 Sentence types and length of Ying and Yao s translat