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1.1.2 Studies on Translator’s Subjectivity
The famous translator Ye Junjian once said in 1983 that the role of personal factors of the translator in translation process must not be ignored. In literary translation, the translator will inevitably be integrated into the process and even elaborate original work according to the translator's language style, life experience, and personal temperament. Thus, the subjectivity of the translator is an objective reality in literary translation, and translation theories which ignore the subjectivity of literary translation is not a complete theory (Zhou Jinggang, 2004: 4-6). Willis Barnstone (1984: 49-53) emphasizes that translator should do everything possible to the content and form with the constraints of the original work to create closer content and form to the original. The existence of translator subjectivity is inevitable. A good translator should grasp the balance between their subjectivity and text objectivity, and should restrain the inappropriate creative impulse in translation, and to maximize the reproduction of the original artistic beauty. Chinese translators have launched a new debate on an old problem, which extended and deepen the academic study of this subject. The discussion on translator subjectivity has heated up. Today's literary translation is beyond the conversion of the language itself, but rise to a higher spiritual level, for example, Guo Jing (2009: 36-38) analyses Pound's translation of Chinese poetry from three aspects –the selection of the translator, translator’s background and translator’s preference, which brings the study of translator’s subjectivity to a higher level. At present, few articles study metaphorical translation from the perspective of subjectivity of the translator. Wang Bin (2001: 17-20) only discusses different translation strategies embodied in the Subjectivity of the Translator, but does not evaluate the application of translation strategies. According to the author’s observation, although some scholars discuss metaphor translation, translator’s subjectivity is rarely involved. Therefore, this thesis intends to studies the translation strategy of conceptual metaphor in Yang’s and Hawkes’ translations from the perspective of translator's subjectivity.
1.2 Research Question
Among the papers on the study on different English versions of A Dream of Red Mansions, most are about which is better or more advantageous so far as foreignization translation and domesticating translation are concerned. Such debates seem endless, and it cannot come to a conclusion easily. When talking about Hawkes' version, scholars often begin with cultural gap or his translation strategy of domestication. Besides, most of them hold an attitude of denouncement. As for Yang's version, praise is more than criticism given because of its faithfulness and completeness.
In addition, metaphor translation was apparently ignored in the English translation of A Dream of Red Mansions. One of the reasons is that metaphor is always regarded as only a rhetoric phenomenon. Therefore, scholars just simply deal with metaphor translation to a rhetoric level. Hence it can only be hidden in a corner of the literary translation. Since the creative theory about conceptual metaphor emerges, we can see that metaphor is not only a rhetorical means in the A Dream of Red Mansions, but also a great reflection of writer’s creative thinking.
1.3 Purpose and Significance of the Study
As to the comparison made between the two English versions, many articles have been given by the authors such as Lin Yiliang, Liu Shicong, Wang Hongyin, Gu Qinan and so on Such massive and dynamic efforts, as well as the various works within the translation field have stimulated extensive attention, concerns and discussions on different aspects, such as the study of the translation of idioms, poems, proverbs, metaphors, allusions and so on Since A Dream of Red Mansions is such a magnum opus of Chinese history that it is impossible for any researcher or critic to cover every aspect for the study from every angle at one go, so I suppose one of the angles should be the role as the translator. Moreover, China is living in an era of great renaissance, and foreign people are increasingly anxious to learn Chinese culture, so how to spread Chinese culture abroad well and truly becomes an important problem demanding prompt solution. Hawkes says in the introduction to volume Ⅰ of his version, “if I can convey to the reader even a fraction of the pleasure this Chinese novel has given me, shall not have lived in vain.” From the words of this British Sinologist we know that the pleasure of appreciating the Chinese culture and art is so great and meaningful to westerners. It is also believed that any study of the two versions in any aspect from any perspective will do some good to our C-E translation practice and theory. Here the author makes bold to copy Hawkes’ words to say if her thesis can bring even a little illumination to the C-E translation study, she shall not have studied in vain.