Key words: Mrs. Dalloway; Reception aesthetics; Poetic effect; Stream of consciousness; Rhythm characteristics
I. Introduction
Mrs. Dalloway is an English novelist Virginia? One of Woolf's representative works of stream of consciousness. The author describes the whole process of stream of consciousness in poetic and rhythmic language, showing his unique style. This also brings some difficulties to the translation and introduction of the novel in China.
Since the early 1980s, Mrs Dalloway has had an abridged edition and four full editions. The author thinks that Sun Liang, Gu Yinan and Wang Jiaxiang have profound attainments in fidelity of meaning, accessibility of words and adjustment of word order respectively, but compared with the original text, the poetic rhythm in the text is not well reflected. R.l. chambers in Virginia? Woolf's novel writes: diction, rhythm, vocabulary and pure voice are all closely related to this (stream of consciousness).
On the basis of analyzing the poetic artistic effect of the original text, the author compares Sun Liang's and Wang Jiaxiang's versions, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the versions in showing the poetic effect of the original text, and gives the author's own translation.
Secondly, the effect of poetry translation in Mrs. Dalloway.
The poetic effect in Mrs. Dalloway is mainly reflected in the writing style and continuous rhythm of stream of consciousness.
(A) the poetic effect of stream-of-consciousness translation
The heroine's consciousness in the novel transcends the boundaries between time and plot, and poetic and rhythmic language runs through the whole work. The style of stream of consciousness is closely related to the rhythm of the tune to some extent. The consciousness between different characters is also changeable, which makes the work have a strong sense of poetic rhythm and beauty.
Example 1: ... in victory, jingle and strange climax.
Singing ...
The joyful atmosphere, jingling bells, strange screams from planes overhead-all these are what she loves: life ... (Sun, page 2)
She likes the sound of celebration, the bell and the strange whistle of the plane in the sky. (Wang, page 2)
There are a series of phrases here: in triumph; A jingle; Strange high singing, the author uses vertical transformation to make the description of consciousness smoother.
According to readers' expectation, what they expect to see is a sort of poetic rhythm consciousness in a disorderly state. Sun Liang's translation is far from Wang Jiaxiang's in comprehensive structure, lacking clarity and conciseness. Wang's translation of The Celebration Banquet, The Ring of Bells and The Strange Whistle of Planes in the Sky meet readers' expectations in terms of words and rhythm, showing an increasing trend. Sun's translation of beaming, ringing bells is long and messy.
Example 2:
... so, septimus looked up and thought, they are sending me a signal. (Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf 1925: 22)
Septimus looked up and thought, so they are sending me a signal. (Sun, p 19)
In this way, septimus looked up at the sky and thought, they are gesturing to me. (Wang, p 19)
In the example, the first sentence is described from the wife's point of view, and then turned to septimus. Before the angle conversion, Woolf divided a sentence into "so", "separation of thoughts" and "separation of seeing and thinking, they are sending a signal to me" to remind readers that there is angle conversion here. Implicit readers believe that only by translating this poetic pause, transformation and substitution in the original text can we truly understand septimus's inner struggle.
And Mr. Gu Qinan's translation is more in line with readers' expectations:
So, septimus thought about it and looked up at the sky-they were giving me instructions. (Valley, page 26)
(B) the poetic effect of the translation of rhythm features
In different scenes, Woolf describes the changeable state of consciousness of the characters with different activities. Broadly speaking, the author uses different rhythms to produce a strong contrast effect on the soothing, relaxed and smooth tone of the whole novel. Barton said: The first strategy of translation is that when both languages are fluent, you must use the writing style of the original text.
Example 3:
... cautious old ladies driving out on mysterious missions ... (Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf 1925: 8)
... those cautious old widows with inheritance ... (Sun, p3)
... cautious aristocratic widow ... (Wang, p3)
If auxiliary words, prepositions and articles are removed from this quotation, it is a combination of verbs and noun phrases. This kind of wording does not exist in China language system. Therefore, in order to meet the expectations of readers in China, it can only be counted as the number of words. The modifier "owning/inheriting/being cautious/-old widow" in Sun's translation has the same number of words, all of which are 3, which has a continuous effect; Mr. Gu Qinan's versions include "cautious", "elderly" and "rich woman", and there is an increasing trend: 3-5-6; The words "cautious" and "noble widow" in Wang's translation are the same, both of which are 5. From the perspective of marching melody, the former is more in line with the expected vision of implied readers.
Look at another example (same as Example 2):
It implies that what readers expect to see is a sad and pitiful artistic image that was destroyed by the war and wanted to throw into the arms of God in order to end the pain with death. Then, the poetic effect can only be expressed through the cadence of the original text. Therefore, from the perspective of reception aesthetics, the latter can better show solemn, passionate and tragic scenes to narrow the aesthetic distance.
Third, the conclusion
In my opinion, Wesley Wang's wording, syntax and rhythm are more in line with the expectations of readers in China, and we can see many wonderful and beautiful translations. Sun's translation is more expressive and sentence cohesion is smoother. From the perspective of reception aesthetics, the translator, as the first reader, must put himself in the text, start from the expectations of the target readers, deeply consider the thinking mode and cultural differences of the implied readers, and try his best to narrow the aesthetic distance.
The translation process of literary works can also be said to be a process of cross-cultural communication. As a translator, under the guidance of reception aesthetics, it is of great significance to adopt literal translation, literal translation annotation, omitted translation and substitution to reduce cultural differences and meet readers' expectation.
References:
[1] R.L. Chambers, Virginia Woolf's Novels [M], Stanford University Press, 199 1.
[2] Wang. A Study on the Language Rhythm Translation of Mrs. Dalloway [J]. Journal of East China Normal University, 2007.
[3] Charles Barto, Principles of Literature (translated by Lefevere) [M], Chinese translation, 17 13- 1780.