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1、A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TWO CHINESE VERSIONS OF BACONS OF STUDIESbyTu XiumeiJune, 2007Xiaogan UniversityAbstractFrancis Bacon was a famous philosopher and essayist during the English Renaissance. His best work named Essays is a collection of 58 essays, all of which are valuable and useful, especially
2、 for young people. Of Studies, one of these famous essays, is a short article which has only about 500 words. However, it reveals the true meanings of the purpose, method and function of study. It is quite significant for people to read it even today. Therefore, in China many experts have translated
3、 it into Chinese. In the paper, I will make a comparison between the two Chinese versions translated by Liao Yunfan and Wang Zuoliang respectively, and the comparison will go on in aspects as follows: the usage of words, the mode of sentences, the style of language, the method of translation and the
4、 strategy of translation.Key Words: Francis Bacon; Of Studies; translator; comparison 谈读书的两种汉译本比较摘 要弗朗西斯.培根是英国文艺复兴时期著名的哲学家和散文家。其代表作为论说文集，其中包括58篇散文，篇篇意义深远，特别是对现代的年轻人，极具有教育和启迪意义。谈读书是其中的一篇。谈读书一文短小，全文仅500个词，但却把读书的妙用和读书的方法两个问题谈得透彻。即使在今天，仍值得一读。在中国已有很多翻译家对此文进行过翻译。在我的这篇论文中，我选取了廖运范和王佐良的两种汉语译本进行比较，具体从以下几个方面着手
5、：词汇，句式，修辞，翻译方法及翻译策略。关键词：弗朗西斯.培根；谈读书；翻译家；比较Contents1. A brief introduction about Francis Bacon and Of Studies12. A brief introduction about the two translators23. A comparison of the two versions3 3.1 A comparison of the usage of words3 3.2 A comparison of sentence structure4 3.2.1 Hammer words and p
6、ractical sentences4 3.2.2 Coordinate sentences5 3.2.3 Elliptical sentences6 3.2.4 Compound sentences6 3.3 A comparison of the figures of speech7 3.3.1 Parallelism7 3.3.2 Simile and metaphor83.4 A comparison of the translating methods83.5 A comparison of the translating strategy94. Conclusion10Biblio
7、graphy A Comparative Study of Two Chinese Versions of BaconsOf Studies1. A brief introduction about Francis Bacon and Of StudiesFrancis Bacon (1561-1626) and Shakespeare (1564-1616) were of the same generation, to some extent. They were the most important representatives in the Renaissance Period in
8、 English Literature. Shakespeare used his drama to narrate the happy and sad life of the world, while Francis Bacon used his philosophy to pursuit the mystery of life. In 1597, Francis Bacon published a collection named Essays, which was an imitation of the publication Essais written by Montage in 1
9、580. The collected Essays contained 10 short reports, and after two subsequent expanded editions, it was added up to 58 in all. Of Studies is one of them.Francis Bacon had much experience in all of his life ,and his essays were not only the reflection of a philosopher ,but also the conclusion of his
10、 own life experience ,which mainly involved the relationship between man and world, between man and man ,between man and God. The essays focused on an issue respectively, and they were original ideas.Essays contained narrative and argumentative articles, which were stated from one incident as a star
11、ting point and extended, then brought out a widespread problem, or seized some issues from the common concern, launched to explore solutions and finally enlightened the people. Bacons creation, whatever, it is due to the historical background of the Renaissance. During that time, scholars began to e
12、mphasize the capacities of human mind and the achievements of human culture at the same time. They regarded themselves as their ideals and idols. In order to cure and civilize the ordinary people who have weakness and shortcomings, the writings are always kind of moral purposes. Such incisive exposi
13、tion which implied so much philosophy originated from British as early as Bacon and his essays, so some people say “not only he reopened the British essay writing style, but also his prose set a model for the later people.”10, (p1)The article Of Studies is short but tidy. The full text has only503 w
14、ords. However, the two questions, the magic of reading and method of reading are interpreted thoroughly. The original adopts more formal and elegant words; it is also full of big words and ancient words, which reflects the authors calm, rational, and insightful emotions. In terms of sentences struct
15、ure, the sentences are parallel and rich in rhythm, which are easy for people to read out, and the parallel structure also balances the speech and semantics. Bacon is good at using parallelisms and metaphors to tell the truth deeply, but from a simple perspective. There are many prudent maxims and a
16、phorisms in this article. In addition to connecting sentences, many sentences are aphorisms, concise, and persuasive.2. A brief introduction about the two translators Essays has had quite a number of translations in China since 20th century. Some are entire versions, some are selected versions. Howe
17、ver, whenever translators choose from Essays as their will, Of Studies will not be missed. There are some famous translators who have translated Of Studies, such as Wang Zuoliang, Shun Tiantong, He Xin, Wang Ji, Liao Yunfan, and so on. This article holds that these translated version can be, to some
18、 extent, equivalent to the original version on the body, words meaning, aesthetics, and language structures. The more equivalent the translated version is to the original one, the better the version is. Among these experts, Wang Zuoliangs version has a broader influence than any others. In order to
19、make an objective and clear evaluation, I will compare Liao Yunfans version with Wang Zuoliangs version. And the comparison will go on in aspects as follows: the usage of words, the mode of sentences, the style of language, the methods of translation and the strategy of translation.Wang Zuoliang is
20、an expert in the study of English literature and English philology, and he not only has obtained extraordinary achievements in his domain, but also made significant contributions to our translation career. He was born on February 12, 1916 in Zhejiang Province, and entered Qinghua University after th
21、e middle school. In 1947, Wang went abroad to study English literature in Oxford University. In September in 1949, he moved back to his motherland and was employed as the professor of the Beijing Foreign Languages University till now. Now, he is the consultant of Beijing Foreign Language University
22、and director of the Institute of Foreign Literature, the vice president of the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Institute, and the vice chairman of the Shakespeare Research Society of China. His translated works cover not only poems and prose , but also novels and plays. He brought in some Eng
23、lish works, meanwhile exported some Chinese works. In the fundamental research of translation aspect, Mr. Wang also has composed many papers, such as Studies in Literature and Translation. Therefore, he is both the theoretician and practical expert in the area of translation, and his thoughts and pr
24、actice are worth studying and discussing.Liao Yunfan is a famous doctor and a translator, who is still alive and who has translated quite a number of English works into Chinese. He liked reading Chinese classical novels and literary masterpieces since from childhood. In the middle school he read alm
25、ost all of YuJuns articles published in Neonatal Daily News, whose arguments are incisive. During the maniac year, all the young artists were reading the masterpieces of Nietzsche and Saudi Arabia, the famous philosophers then, he was not missing. He made a wide reading, which opened his horizon. Li
26、ao Yunfans mind swelled with the intense desire to create, and later he thought that many translated works from Western books are not perfect and accurate. So he decided to translate some books on his own, such as Freud, semantic, and the version of Of Studies is one of them that he translated. 3. A
27、 comparison of the two versionsGenerally speaking, Wang Zuoliangs version is quite concise, fluent and full of literary talent. Moreover, Wang mixed some colloquial language some formal language, which keeps the same style of the original. Mr. Wang, during the process of translation, successfully he
28、ld the original style, his personal style and the time style, and merged them into a whole, 17, (p27) so we could read the whole version without any letup. However, Liaos version retained the original style to a large extent, yet it was not pithy enough, and it lacked simplicity and conciseness whic
29、h belonged to Francis Bacon.3.1 A comparison of the usage of wordsThe original essay is full of archaic words and big words, which gives people the feeling of solemnity and grandeur, and also makes the language more elegant and majestic. In addition, there are some Latin words in this article, for i
30、nstance, “Cymini sectores =hair splitter”8,(p66),in Chinese “过分讲究细节，条分缕析的人” 14,(p53). Bacon likes to use Latin words, which also make the style corresponding to the time. In the translation of this work, the translators also adopt different style words, especially Mr. Wang.例1: Their chief use for de
31、light is in privateness and retiring, for ornament, is in discourse, and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. 9廖：人们独居或退隐的时候,最能体会到读书的乐趣;谈话的时候,最能表现出读书的文雅;判断和处理事物的时候,最能发挥由读书而获得的能力。18王:其怡情也,最见于独处幽居之时;其传彩也,最见于高谈阔论之中;其长才也,最见于处世判事之际。9 The first example is the second sentence of the
32、original edition. In this sentence, the three preposition phrases “for delight, for ornament, for ability” belong to the old information because they have appeared in the first sentence. Instead, the preposition phrases after the link verb “is” are new information, which should be regarded as the fo
33、cus of attention of the readers. According to the English principle the last counts, the components after the link verb should also be the focus of this sentence, on which the author wants to emphasize. In addition, in order to make the original edition more succinct, the phrase “their chief use” in
34、 the first clause of the sentence is omitted in the later two clauses. In the course of translation of this sentence, the two translators adopted a number of common techniques. In accordance with the expression used in Chinese translation, we should complete the sentence. It is clear that the two ex
35、perts have completed the subject of the second and third clauses with corresponding translation. They also used the speech conversion techniques: They both translated the noun phrase “their chief use” as“最(能)+ verb”. However, Liaos version was stuck to the superficial form because he mixed the noun
36、phrase with the old information. It is a sharp contrast that Mr. Wang did not pursue the surface form of correspondence blindly, for he had sharp eyes and seized the focus of the original quickly and exactly, and he adopted different collocation flexibly. 12That is, he mixed“最见于”with the new informa
37、tion, which can highlight the latter. For the sake of keeping with Chinese customary expression, Wang Zuoliang translated it cleverly with classical form“其-也”，which also made the old information thematic. This kind of authentic expression is not only faithful but also appropriate. 12 例2 : for natura
38、l abilities are like natural plants ,that need pruning by study ; 9廖:天生的植物需要人工修剪,人类的本性也需要学问诱导。18王:盖天生才干犹如自然花草,读书然后知如何修剪移接。9 From the information provided in this example, we can judge that Mr. Liaos translation of the words in the way of the understanding of clipping is not good enough. He translate
39、d the phrase “natural abilities” as“人类的本性”, which is obvious inconsistent with the original semantics. Natural abilities should be referred as the innate abilities. Moreover, he interpreted “pruning” as“诱导”,which is also not accurate. In contrast, Mr. Wangs translation was not limited to the origina
40、l surface structure, but complemented the use of semantics timely, and then the exact significance of the original was expressed clearly and logically. In addition, the translator added a word “知”and a conjunction “然后”to study for a link. According to the usage of Chinese language and customs, reade
41、rs will clearly determine the implementation of these two motions subject bookworm, which is omitted in the original.3.2 A comparison of sentences structure 3.2.1 Hammer words and practical sentences例3 :To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament , is affection; to
42、make judgments wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. 9 廖:耗费过多的时间去读便是迟滞,过分用学问自炫便是矫揉造作,而全凭学理判一切,则是书呆子的癖好。18 王:读书费时过多易惰,文采藻饰太盛则矫,全凭条文断事乃学究故态。9In the third example, the original sentence is constituted by three triple parallelisms. Of all the three clauses, the components after the link verb
43、 are far shorter than the components before. This kind of arrangements has two effects: first, short message is placed at the end of the sentence, which will help highlight, and which is in a more striking contrast with the long message. Second, when the clauses are arranged in a parallel way, the l
44、ength of the sentence staggers in arrangement, which is easy to create a distinct rhythm up and down. Furthermore, the predicative of the first two clauses is a single noun, while the predictive of the last clause is a noun phrase. This arrangement is not only neat but also changeable. There is also
45、 something worth mentioning; that is, most of the original sentences are either noun phrases or ancient and abstract words, especially the predicative, which are full of gravity and sobriety. Now, we can analyze the versions in some details. Liaos version was written in modern vernacular language. T
46、his kind of sentence structure is loose and lackadaisical; much worse, some written words were intermingled with some spoken words, which is inconsistent with the original style. However, Mr. Wang can choose accurate and refined phrases to reproduce the original features and syntax style. This can b
47、e seen through illustrating the translation of three predicative nouns in this example:Sloth affection the humor of a scholar廖: 迟滞 矫揉造作 书呆子的癖好王: 惰 矫 学究故态It is a classic example of hammer words that Wang translated the words “sloth” and “affection” as the single words“惰”and“矫”. First, a single word i
48、s sharp, vigorous and concise, which makes their features more conspicuous and prominent in their respective clauses of the whole sentence. Second, a single words is more formal and elegant than the two syllables or four-syllables Chinese phrase. Third, the two single syllable words with the natural beauty of the previous seven-syllable can form self-assured rhythm. Mr. Wangs translated the two words without using four charact
