Translation is re-creation. In this case, it is not limited to the textual research and scrutiny of the original manuscript, writing background and author's life, but accurately expresses the literal meaning of the original text in words. It's just a blunt process of mechanically transplanting one text to another-the so-called literal translation in the past was probably like this. Perhaps people can do this for mathematical papers and mechanical instructions, but even so, they must have two of the three translation criteria proposed by Yan Fu, namely faithfulness and expressiveness. Literary translation must also meet the third condition: elegance. But these three standards are only writing standards, and I think a literary standard should be added. Take Andersen as an example. He is a poet, philosopher and democrat. His fairy tales, like many other famous works in the world, are also the crystallization of poetry, philosophy and political thought. Although these works are written for children, in fact, young people, middle-aged people and old people like to read them, especially the old people, who have profound life experiences and can best understand the true meaning of life from them. But not everyone thinks the same, and different people have different experiences and understandings of the essence of this true meaning. What makes them different is their life experience, cultural level and political philosophy accomplishment. My understanding of Andersen's fairy tales is the embodiment of my accomplishment in all aspects. The so-called style of my translation is limited by my understanding, so there is a lot of personal subjectivity in it. Although I stick to the original intention word for word in translation, my personal writing style comes into play when I turn them into Chinese articles. The words I choose, the associations I hope to generate, and the emotional impulses I arouse through them are all deeply personal-the so-called literary style, which also reveals its clues here. But I insist that Andersen's fairy tales are poems, so I hope my translation can also have the effect of poetry-whether this wish is realized can only be judged by readers.
Excerpt from Discovering a Poetic Fairy Tale
Text/Ye Junjian