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摘 要：Vanity Fair well reveals the English culture in 19th century, and Yang Bi’s translation on Vanity Fair won a wide-spread reputation for her good job on transferring culture elements. However, due to the difference between cultures, the loss of culture elements is certain to happen during the process of translation. Adopting the domestication strategy, Yang Bi’s version of Vanity Fair is very successful in dealing with the translation of cultural elements. Yet, there are some translations arose author’s second thoughts so some suggestions come into being.
关键词：Vanity Fair；religious elements；names；social habits
中图分类号：H059 文献标识码：A
文章编号：1009-0118（2012）07-0319-02
1.On Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair is regarded as Thackeray’s masterpiece. According to Li Funing, “Vanity Fair is Thackeray’s best novel, and it is always regarded as the best English novel between 1832 and 1848.” (李赋宁, 2001:273) The novel’s name originates from John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress in which there is a town fair held in a village named Vanity. Also there is a subtitle of Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero. Chen Jia commented on this as: “The subtitle indicates that the novel is concerned principally not with individual heroes but with the society as a whole, though it is also possible to interpret the phrase as meaning that there are only heroines or heroine but no heroes.” (陈嘉, 1986: 244) As a social panorama of the English upper and middle classes of the nineteenth century, this novel exposes the heartlessness and pretentiousness of the English aristocratic bourgeoisie. The story in Vanity Fair set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars, mainly talked about the fates of two women named Amelia Sedley and Becky Sharp.
2.On Yang Bi and Her Translation of Vanity Fair
Yang Bi was born in 1992 and passed away of heart attack in 1868 at a very young age of 46. She received her higher education in Zhendan University during which her brother-in-law Qian Zhongshu was one of her teachers. She was also encouraged by him to work on English-Chinese translation. Later she worked as an assistant professor in the English Department of Tsinghua University for one year. Then she returned to her Alma Mater served as a teacher. Yang Bi began her translation on Vanity Fair in 1953 under the encouragement of Qian Zhongshu. Besides her job as an associate professor in the Foreign Languages Department of Fudan University, she spent all the spare time on the translation of Vanity Fair. Due to the painstaking effort she managed to finish the translation before due time and the translation was published in 1957. Her translation arouse acknowledgement through a wide range of individuals from all circles of society. Thanks to Yang Bi’s experience of rich reading in childhood and youth, she made the language in her translation as smoothly as original instead of translated from other language. In addition to those high level skills praised by many such as choice of words and sentence, structure organization, Yang Bi’s translation also shows us her profound ability on making the language natural and vivid. Especially in the translation of some culture loaded words and phrases, though some cultural elements were lost, her version fulfilled the task of showing the original information to readers. Some scholars like Sun Zhili started learning translation with Yang Bi’s version of Vanity Fair. Besides Sun Zhili, many scholars commented highly on her translation. Xu Yuanchong once mentioned, “In my opinion, there are there famous translated works in the translation field of China in the 20th century, that is, A Complete Edition of Shakespeare’s Plays by Zhu Shenghao, Selections from Balzac by Fu Lei, and Vanity Fair by Yang Bi. (许渊冲, 2004:214)”
There are also many other researches which studies about her version Vanity Fair, of which all speak highly of her work. In a word, Yang Bi’s version of Vanity Fair is really a great translated work and it is worth reading and studying as the model of cultural translation.
3.Problems and Improvements
3.1 Religious Elements
As we mentioned before, due to the different beliefs among different nations, the religious element are not easy to be translated under the guideline of equivalence. Yet, it doesn’t mean that we can choose miss-leading words. Let’s see the examples below:
English: At this, I don’t know in the least for what reason, Mrs. Sedley looked at her husband and laughed. Mr. Sedley’s eyes twinkled in a manner indescribably roguish, and he looked at Amelia; and Amelia, hanging down her head, blushed as only young ladies of seventeen know how to blush, and as Miss Rebecca Sharp never blushed in her life—at least not since she was eight years old, and when she was caught stealing jam out of a cupboard by her godmother.
Chinese: 我不懂为什么他一说这话，赛特笠太太就瞅着丈夫笑起来。赛特先生眼睛里闪闪发光，满脸顽皮的瞧着艾米丽亚。艾米丽亚红了脸低下头去。只有十七岁的女孩儿才会这么娇羞，利倍加?夏泼小姐就不行。自从她八岁那年在壁橱你偷糖浆给她姑妈捉出来之后，此次没有红过脸。
English: Here he kept all the documents relating to him ever since he had been a boy: here were his prize copy-books and drawing-books, all bearing George’s hand, and that of the master: here were his first letters in large round-hand sending his love to papa and mamma, and conveying his petitions for a cake. His dear godpapa Sedley was more than once mentioned in them. Chinese: 从小儿一直到成人的都在这儿，里面有得奖的书法本职和图画本子，都是乔治的手笔，又经过教师改削的。还有他初到学校的时候写回来的家信，一个个圆滚滚的大字，写着给爸爸妈妈请安，同时要求家里送蛋糕给他。信里好几次提到他亲爱的赛特笠干爹。
From the above two examples we can see that Yang Bi put “godmother”, “godpapa” into “姑妈”and “干爹”, which is unfaithful to the original text. We know that there is a implied religious meaning in “godmother” or “godpapa”, so the author thinks that it will be better to put those words into “教母”, “教父”. For as the globalization and development of cultural exchange, especially the show of film The Godfather, Chinese readers are getting familiar with those names. So, it is better to be faithful to the TL at this time.
3.2 Names
As the author mentioned before, the meaning of names will not be mentioned here. Let’s study the below examples:
English: Discovery walks respectfully up to her, in the shape of huge powdered man large calves and a tray of ices—with Calumny(which is as fatal as truth) behind him, in the shape of hulking fellow carry the wafer—biscuits.
Chinese: 却不料她的底细全握在旁边那个听差手里—就是那个身材高大、小腿长得又粗又壮，头发里洒了粉、捧着一盘子冷饮恭恭敬敬送到她面前来的一个。另一个笨手笨脚的家伙，端着一盘子松饼跟在后面；只要她一开口，这位漂亮太太少不得名誉扫地，因为闲人嘴里一句流言就会坐实你的罪名，好比给人拿住了真实凭据一样。
The names of two servants in the SL implies the inner quality of them: “Discovery” means this servant is well-informed. He can find out whatever you want to know from other servants or his observation. “Calumny” means that the servant likes to make untrue statement about someone in order to reduce other people’s respect and admiration for them. These two names are very good examples to show Thackeray’s sense of humor for he was bold in using adjectives of personality to be the figures’ names in her own work. The translation should, accordingly, to contain the names’ meaning or we can say the servants’ personality. However, in Yang Bi’s translation the implied quality of these two servants was missed although she added a sentence to explain why this lady would lose reputation. The effect was not the same with an explanation added after.
In another version translated by professor Peng Changjiang, he used “包打听” and “流言客” when translating the two servants’ name. Those two names well explained the quality of two servants and in accordance with Thackeray’s sense of humor.
In addition to the two servants’ names , there is one more name worthy attention—the food’s name“ Wafer-biscuit” refers to a kind of crispy and thin biscuit instead of the “松饼” in Yang Bi’s translation. Well, thinking that her version was finished in as early as 1950s, she has no means to refer to internet or other reference source. It will be inevitable to make such little lapse. English: She apportioned the sweetbreads，jellies，chickens; their quantity and order.
Chinese: 甜面包、糖浆、鸡肉，也由别德太太分派，每分的多少，上菜的先后，一点儿错不得。
In English, sweetbreads are meat obtained from the pancreas of a calf or a lamb. However, Yang Bi put it as “sweet bread” in Chinese, it is a typical lapse caused by unfamiliarity about the original culture’s peculiar things. Though it seems to be inevitable in translating those names of peculiar cultural meaning, we should be more aware to eliminate misleading in our translation.
3.3 Social Habits
For social habits are different in different cultures .So when during the process of translation, we should get known of those different social habits in the SL society.
The obvious example in Yang Bi’s translation is as follows:
English: What keeps them dancing till five o’clock in the morning through a whole mortal seasons? What causes them to labour at pianoforte sonatas, and to learn four songs form fashionable master at a guinea a lesson, and to play the harp if they have handsome arms and neat elbows, and to wear Lincoln Green toxophilite hats and feathers, but that they may bring sown some “desirable” young man with those killing bows and arrows of theirs?
Chinese: 为什么连着好几个月晚上跳舞直到早上五点钟？为什么孜孜不倦地弹奏钢琴鸣奏曲？为什么肯出一基尼一小时的学费，到时髦的唱歌先生那里学唱，而且一唱就是四支歌呢？胳膊长得美丽，胳膊肘生的细巧的姑娘还学竖琴呢！她们为什么模仿古代箭手，带着小绿帽子，插着鸟毛，还不是想射倒一个“合适的”青年公子吗？
In the 19th century, the main way for the young girls in English to find and get known the future husband is from various parties. Early in their childhood, they had to receive all kinds of education in the aim of be elegant and descent in the parties. When they became adolescents, they had more chance to attend parties held by the local rich. They often dressed themselves up and armed themselves with graceful dance and sweet voice in order to achieve a wider range of recognition. In order to attract a decent boyfriend or male-friend. Well, in China, the situation is quite different by then, girls were supposed to stay at their rooms all day long and the frequent appearance in public places was a sign of indelicacy. And what’s worse, this kind of girls who often went out and sang in public places could seldom marry excellent boys. In Yang Bi’s translation there is no mention of the 18th century English social custom of making friends. The author believes an annotation related to the by then social custom is necessary and it will give the Chinese readers the background knowledge about making friends.
Based on the above examples, the next chapter is going to talk about the strategies to achieve cultural translatability.
参考文献：
［1］陈嘉.英国文学史［M］.北京:商务印书馆,1986.
［2］李赋宁.欧洲文学史［M］.北京:商务印书馆,2001.
［3］许渊冲.谈唐诗的翻译［M］.北京:中国对外翻译出版公司,1987.
［4］萨克雷.名利场［M］.上海:上海外语出版社,2001.
关键词：Vanity Fair；religious elements；names；social habits
中图分类号：H059 文献标识码：A
文章编号：1009-0118（2012）07-0319-02
1.On Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair is regarded as Thackeray’s masterpiece. According to Li Funing, “Vanity Fair is Thackeray’s best novel, and it is always regarded as the best English novel between 1832 and 1848.” (李赋宁, 2001:273) The novel’s name originates from John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress in which there is a town fair held in a village named Vanity. Also there is a subtitle of Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero. Chen Jia commented on this as: “The subtitle indicates that the novel is concerned principally not with individual heroes but with the society as a whole, though it is also possible to interpret the phrase as meaning that there are only heroines or heroine but no heroes.” (陈嘉, 1986: 244) As a social panorama of the English upper and middle classes of the nineteenth century, this novel exposes the heartlessness and pretentiousness of the English aristocratic bourgeoisie. The story in Vanity Fair set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars, mainly talked about the fates of two women named Amelia Sedley and Becky Sharp.
2.On Yang Bi and Her Translation of Vanity Fair
Yang Bi was born in 1992 and passed away of heart attack in 1868 at a very young age of 46. She received her higher education in Zhendan University during which her brother-in-law Qian Zhongshu was one of her teachers. She was also encouraged by him to work on English-Chinese translation. Later she worked as an assistant professor in the English Department of Tsinghua University for one year. Then she returned to her Alma Mater served as a teacher. Yang Bi began her translation on Vanity Fair in 1953 under the encouragement of Qian Zhongshu. Besides her job as an associate professor in the Foreign Languages Department of Fudan University, she spent all the spare time on the translation of Vanity Fair. Due to the painstaking effort she managed to finish the translation before due time and the translation was published in 1957. Her translation arouse acknowledgement through a wide range of individuals from all circles of society. Thanks to Yang Bi’s experience of rich reading in childhood and youth, she made the language in her translation as smoothly as original instead of translated from other language. In addition to those high level skills praised by many such as choice of words and sentence, structure organization, Yang Bi’s translation also shows us her profound ability on making the language natural and vivid. Especially in the translation of some culture loaded words and phrases, though some cultural elements were lost, her version fulfilled the task of showing the original information to readers. Some scholars like Sun Zhili started learning translation with Yang Bi’s version of Vanity Fair. Besides Sun Zhili, many scholars commented highly on her translation. Xu Yuanchong once mentioned, “In my opinion, there are there famous translated works in the translation field of China in the 20th century, that is, A Complete Edition of Shakespeare’s Plays by Zhu Shenghao, Selections from Balzac by Fu Lei, and Vanity Fair by Yang Bi. (许渊冲, 2004:214)”
There are also many other researches which studies about her version Vanity Fair, of which all speak highly of her work. In a word, Yang Bi’s version of Vanity Fair is really a great translated work and it is worth reading and studying as the model of cultural translation.
3.Problems and Improvements
3.1 Religious Elements
As we mentioned before, due to the different beliefs among different nations, the religious element are not easy to be translated under the guideline of equivalence. Yet, it doesn’t mean that we can choose miss-leading words. Let’s see the examples below:
English: At this, I don’t know in the least for what reason, Mrs. Sedley looked at her husband and laughed. Mr. Sedley’s eyes twinkled in a manner indescribably roguish, and he looked at Amelia; and Amelia, hanging down her head, blushed as only young ladies of seventeen know how to blush, and as Miss Rebecca Sharp never blushed in her life—at least not since she was eight years old, and when she was caught stealing jam out of a cupboard by her godmother.
Chinese: 我不懂为什么他一说这话，赛特笠太太就瞅着丈夫笑起来。赛特先生眼睛里闪闪发光，满脸顽皮的瞧着艾米丽亚。艾米丽亚红了脸低下头去。只有十七岁的女孩儿才会这么娇羞，利倍加?夏泼小姐就不行。自从她八岁那年在壁橱你偷糖浆给她姑妈捉出来之后，此次没有红过脸。
English: Here he kept all the documents relating to him ever since he had been a boy: here were his prize copy-books and drawing-books, all bearing George’s hand, and that of the master: here were his first letters in large round-hand sending his love to papa and mamma, and conveying his petitions for a cake. His dear godpapa Sedley was more than once mentioned in them. Chinese: 从小儿一直到成人的都在这儿，里面有得奖的书法本职和图画本子，都是乔治的手笔，又经过教师改削的。还有他初到学校的时候写回来的家信，一个个圆滚滚的大字，写着给爸爸妈妈请安，同时要求家里送蛋糕给他。信里好几次提到他亲爱的赛特笠干爹。
From the above two examples we can see that Yang Bi put “godmother”, “godpapa” into “姑妈”and “干爹”, which is unfaithful to the original text. We know that there is a implied religious meaning in “godmother” or “godpapa”, so the author thinks that it will be better to put those words into “教母”, “教父”. For as the globalization and development of cultural exchange, especially the show of film The Godfather, Chinese readers are getting familiar with those names. So, it is better to be faithful to the TL at this time.
3.2 Names
As the author mentioned before, the meaning of names will not be mentioned here. Let’s study the below examples:
English: Discovery walks respectfully up to her, in the shape of huge powdered man large calves and a tray of ices—with Calumny(which is as fatal as truth) behind him, in the shape of hulking fellow carry the wafer—biscuits.
Chinese: 却不料她的底细全握在旁边那个听差手里—就是那个身材高大、小腿长得又粗又壮，头发里洒了粉、捧着一盘子冷饮恭恭敬敬送到她面前来的一个。另一个笨手笨脚的家伙，端着一盘子松饼跟在后面；只要她一开口，这位漂亮太太少不得名誉扫地，因为闲人嘴里一句流言就会坐实你的罪名，好比给人拿住了真实凭据一样。
The names of two servants in the SL implies the inner quality of them: “Discovery” means this servant is well-informed. He can find out whatever you want to know from other servants or his observation. “Calumny” means that the servant likes to make untrue statement about someone in order to reduce other people’s respect and admiration for them. These two names are very good examples to show Thackeray’s sense of humor for he was bold in using adjectives of personality to be the figures’ names in her own work. The translation should, accordingly, to contain the names’ meaning or we can say the servants’ personality. However, in Yang Bi’s translation the implied quality of these two servants was missed although she added a sentence to explain why this lady would lose reputation. The effect was not the same with an explanation added after.
In another version translated by professor Peng Changjiang, he used “包打听” and “流言客” when translating the two servants’ name. Those two names well explained the quality of two servants and in accordance with Thackeray’s sense of humor.
In addition to the two servants’ names , there is one more name worthy attention—the food’s name“ Wafer-biscuit” refers to a kind of crispy and thin biscuit instead of the “松饼” in Yang Bi’s translation. Well, thinking that her version was finished in as early as 1950s, she has no means to refer to internet or other reference source. It will be inevitable to make such little lapse. English: She apportioned the sweetbreads，jellies，chickens; their quantity and order.
Chinese: 甜面包、糖浆、鸡肉，也由别德太太分派，每分的多少，上菜的先后，一点儿错不得。
In English, sweetbreads are meat obtained from the pancreas of a calf or a lamb. However, Yang Bi put it as “sweet bread” in Chinese, it is a typical lapse caused by unfamiliarity about the original culture’s peculiar things. Though it seems to be inevitable in translating those names of peculiar cultural meaning, we should be more aware to eliminate misleading in our translation.
3.3 Social Habits
For social habits are different in different cultures .So when during the process of translation, we should get known of those different social habits in the SL society.
The obvious example in Yang Bi’s translation is as follows:
English: What keeps them dancing till five o’clock in the morning through a whole mortal seasons? What causes them to labour at pianoforte sonatas, and to learn four songs form fashionable master at a guinea a lesson, and to play the harp if they have handsome arms and neat elbows, and to wear Lincoln Green toxophilite hats and feathers, but that they may bring sown some “desirable” young man with those killing bows and arrows of theirs?
Chinese: 为什么连着好几个月晚上跳舞直到早上五点钟？为什么孜孜不倦地弹奏钢琴鸣奏曲？为什么肯出一基尼一小时的学费，到时髦的唱歌先生那里学唱，而且一唱就是四支歌呢？胳膊长得美丽，胳膊肘生的细巧的姑娘还学竖琴呢！她们为什么模仿古代箭手，带着小绿帽子，插着鸟毛，还不是想射倒一个“合适的”青年公子吗？
In the 19th century, the main way for the young girls in English to find and get known the future husband is from various parties. Early in their childhood, they had to receive all kinds of education in the aim of be elegant and descent in the parties. When they became adolescents, they had more chance to attend parties held by the local rich. They often dressed themselves up and armed themselves with graceful dance and sweet voice in order to achieve a wider range of recognition. In order to attract a decent boyfriend or male-friend. Well, in China, the situation is quite different by then, girls were supposed to stay at their rooms all day long and the frequent appearance in public places was a sign of indelicacy. And what’s worse, this kind of girls who often went out and sang in public places could seldom marry excellent boys. In Yang Bi’s translation there is no mention of the 18th century English social custom of making friends. The author believes an annotation related to the by then social custom is necessary and it will give the Chinese readers the background knowledge about making friends.
Based on the above examples, the next chapter is going to talk about the strategies to achieve cultural translatability.
参考文献：
［1］陈嘉.英国文学史［M］.北京:商务印书馆,1986.
［2］李赋宁.欧洲文学史［M］.北京:商务印书馆,2001.
［3］许渊冲.谈唐诗的翻译［M］.北京:中国对外翻译出版公司,1987.
［4］萨克雷.名利场［M］.上海:上海外语出版社,2001.