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1、On Drama Translation from the Prospective of Skopos TheoryComment on Ying Ruochengs Translation of Teahouse Abstract: Drama is a special linguistic art targeting the stage and imbedded with cultural peculiarity. Consequently drama translation is expected to take both sides into consideration: ensuri
2、ng the perform ability in target culture and transmitting properties of source culture. To fulfill these two functions, there appears a contradiction in adaptation and transmission. Only by determining the skopos of the translation of a drama can a translator skillfully solve the contradiction and a
3、pproach the play with appropriate strategies. To illustrate the validity and exemplify the applicability of the skopos theory, the present paper gives an analysis of Ying Ruochengs translation of Teahouse within the framework of the theory, in the hope of finding some insights into the practice and
4、the theoretical study of drama translation.Structurally, the paper consists of three chapters. Chapter One gives a general introduction to drama translation, including definition of drama, features of drama language, the contradiction in drama translation and a brief introduction of the skopos theor
5、y, Chapter Two provides information about the drama Teahouse, its the translator Ying Ruocheng and his translation. Chapter Three offers a tentative analysis of the translation of Teahouse under the guidance of the skopos theory. Then the last part draws a conclusion from the drama translation.Key w
6、ords: drama translation; the skopos theory; Teahouse摘 要:戏剧是一门独特的语言艺术，以舞台演出为目的，同时蕴含着文化特质。因而戏剧翻译也应将这两方面考虑在内：既要保证译语文化环境中的可表演性，也要传递源语文化的典型矛盾。作者认为，只有对翻译目的进行准确界定，译者才能更好的应对这一矛盾，并采取适当的策略和方法进行剧本翻译。为了验证目的论在戏剧翻译的可行性和适应性，本文运用该理论对英若成的话剧茶馆进行了透彻的分析，以期从其成功的翻译实践中找到有益启示。本文由三个章节构成。第一章对戏剧翻译进行概述，介绍了戏剧的定义，总结戏剧语言的特征，指出戏剧翻
7、译中的矛盾，并简要介绍目的论。第二章介绍话剧茶馆译者英若成的译文及相关信息。第三章在目的论的框架内，运用五个具体的“翻译要求”对茶馆译文进行了详尽的分析。最后一部分总结了基于目的论的戏剧翻译。关键词: 戏剧翻译，目的论，茶馆IntroductionThe study of drama translation is a comparatively less explored area characterized by a serious lack of theory to account for dramas special properties: a contradiction between
8、 adaptation and cultural transmission. Only through a careful investigation can some valuable suggestions be worked out to guide drama translation practice and study. Due to the difficulty in getting first-hand materials about drama translation study made by western researchers, some enlightening id
9、eas listed below are adopted from the collection and summary already made by other scholars. In this way, the author hopes to trace the main achievements of the study. In the west, drama translation started only in the 1970s, and is still being explored at present. Some scholars do offer some talks
10、on the topic. But scholars, observing drama as being designed for the stage, have long been discussing the “perform ability” of drama in translation. George Mounin notes that“effectiveness as a stage production is more important for the translation than concerns for particular poetic or literary qua
11、lities”(Reiss 2004:45).Griffiths argues that “language is only one of the semiotic codes that constitute a theatrical performance” (Marco 2003:53). Therefore, just as has been advocated, the translator of a play should possess both “linguistic skills” and “a sense of drama” (Marco 2003:53). However,
12、 under the influence of “cultural turn” in translation studies, some scholars began their observation from the perspective of culture. From the point of view of Poly system, the position a translated drama takes up in target language is discussed (Baker 1985:72). Bassnett, although has frequently ch
13、allenged the rationality of perform ability and held that “to render the text performable is not the responsibility of the translator”(Bassnett & Lefevere 2001:105), widens the horizon of drama translation study by putting forward the concept of “acculturating” (Bassnett & Lefevere 2001: 92), which
14、makes the study open to a new stage. Thus, adaptation for perform ability and cultural transmission have finally merged together in drama translation study, and it is high time that due attention should be given to the conflict in drama translation. However, up till now, there have rarely been any m
15、aterials further devoted to the study concerning the resolution to the contradiction.In China, translation of western dramas started as early as the late 19th century and has been undertaken continuously for more than a hundred years. It is under the influence of drama translation that Chinese moder
16、n drama made its appearance. However, in spite of the large-scaled translation practice, study of drama translation has long been ignored. Only a few translators have offered some insights according to their personal practice. Bian Zhilin（卞之琳） explains several demands made on language in the preface
17、 to his translation of Hamlet. Among them, terseness and colloquialism are of great significance. By terseness, he means the avoidance of much annotation. And while colloquial modern Chinese is utilized, some Europeanized sentence patterns are maintained. Xu Yuanchong（许渊冲） once states that “plays ar
18、e not only to be read, but also to be performed”(1986:717), and aims at stage performance.Apart from these unsystematic pieces of talks about experience without any theoretical guidance, few monographs have been produced on the problems of inter lingual translation of plays, except some short articl
19、es devoted to the discussion. In the face of the controversies, the present thesis aims at examining drama translation from a functional perspective, viewing the two aspects of the conflict with reference to the purpose of the translation.Chapter 1Drama Translation and the Skopos Theory1.1Features o
20、f Drama TranslationAs a genre of literature, drama appears as a special and distinctive branch which has been defined by different scholars. More than an arrangement of words on pages,“it is an audiovisual presentation of time and space, involving music, dance, fine arts and literary language, with
21、the simultaneous presence of actors and audience” (林克欢 1993:4). It is “the genre of literature represented by works intended for the stage or a literary work performed by actors and actresses on stage, radio or television” (萧立明2002:280). Therefore, drama is a comprehensive performing art which needs
22、 the interactions of movement, speech, scenery costume and music, and it is a literature whose impact depends on a collective endeavor of the playwright, directors and actors, and whose appreciation must be spontaneous and immediate. It is obvious that the commonly adopted medium in the two channels
23、 is language: dramatic text and speech. Generally speaking, dramatic text mainly consists of two basic parts: stage direction and dramatic dialogue. Stage direction refers to the stretches of description intended to give an overall introduction of the visual and audio aspects on stage and to direct
24、actors physical action. It ought to be formal in style and concise in language. Dramatic dialogue, the main body of a dramatic text, occupies the most part of a drama. It is usually through verbal interactions between characters that the plot gets advanced and the characterization gets realized. Tak
25、ing all these requirements into account and especially considering stage performance, the most conspicuous features of dramatic dialogue can be summarized into speak ability and individuality. As a literary form designed for stage performance, one of the fundamental problems in drama translation is
26、how to adjust the source dramatic text to a foreign stage, that is, to ensure the “perform ability”. According to Backer (1985:51-52), perform ability means that theatrical needs are satisfied, and emotion is conveyed to audience within a certain time indirectly by actors rather than directly by the
27、 playwright himself. As to the dramatic text, its speak ability and individuality are the characteristics most contributing to the successful stage performance. As is widely known, due to different conventions of stage and of language especially, to ensure perform ability a translator is supposed to
28、 make necessary adaptations to the target culture so as to make his translation also a “drama” in target language. Although an art for stage, drama, like every literary form, is unexceptionally endowed with the specificity of the culture it originates from. The development of drama is closely relate
29、d to the development of a certain society. In other words, drama reflects within hours of performance the quintessence accumulated in a culture. Taking the above two demands into consideration, there emerges in drama translation a contradiction: Given different conventions, to ensure the perform abi
30、lity requires the adaptation to a new culture, which inevitably results in the loss of source culture to some extent; however, maintaining the original culture-bond elements is required in the meantime. In a word, it is the contradiction between adaptation to stage performance and transmission of cu
31、ltural features that always traps a translator in the dilemma when translating a dramatic text.1.2The Skopos Theory in Drama TranslationWith “skopos” as the determining element in translating action, and “adequacy” as the criterion of translation, the conflict in drama translation between adaptation
32、 to stage performance and cultural transmission can be observed rationally and solved justifiably. Initially, as every action is out of some purpose, in drama translation, the two points in the conflict are both resulted from different purposes to be servedeither to guarantee the perform ability or
33、to introduce culture. In other words, it is the matter of “adherence to source norms” or of “subscription to target norms” (Toury 2001:57).The relationship between them is in fact a reflection of the relationship between different purposes. It is indicated in skopos theory that every translating act
34、ion has its particular skopos. Observing the conflict in drama translation, it can be viewed that the two points do not always keep a balance: It is either to obtain cultural properties, to make it played on the stage, or, to be so ambitious as to capture both cultural features and perform ability.
35、In other words, each of the above actions has different skopos. So drama translation can be classified into three types according to the functions it will play: translation for cultural introduction which emphasizes cultural features, translation for the stage which emphasizes performability, and tr
36、anslation for both cultural introduction and performance which is to coordinate both cultural features and perform ability. It is obvious that the last type is the most difficult to achieve, but it is meanwhile the most convincing one to illustrate how skopos theory works in the complicated case of
37、drama translation. And the translation of Lao Shes drama Teahouse by Ying Ruocheng is the very work representing the third type. Chapter 2Teahouse for Sample AnalysisUp to the present, the specificity of drama and its translation has been expounded at the beginning, and a brief introduction to the s
38、kopos theory has been provided afterwards. In this chapter, relevant information will be offered about the object of sample analysisTeahouse chosen for its representative uniqueness in the case of drama translation.2.1 Background of TeahouseThe three-act play Teahouse, written in 1957, is Lao Shes f
39、irst play having been put on stage and introduced abroad. It is regarded as the best work of Lao She and is respected as the summit of realism in Chinese drama history. Through the events taking place in Yu Tai Teahouse, he describes directly and indirectly the changes of the fate of people from the
40、 upper class to the lower class, such as the teahouse manager Wang Lifa(王利发), the enthusiastic advocator of national industrialization Qin Zhongyi(秦仲义), the upright Bannerman Master Chang(常四爷), the poor peasant Kang Shunzi(康顺子) and other social dregs like the fortune-teller, the flesh merchant and t
41、he agents, so as to reveal the social and historical trends in the first half of the 20th century in China. The play begins in 1898 just after the failure of the Reform Movement led by Kang Youwei(康有为) and Liang Qichao(梁启超), proceeds through the early Republican period after the death of Yuan Shikai
42、(袁世凯), and ends in the period of KMT domination after the victory of Anti-Japanese War. During the darkest fifty years in the history of modern China, people from all walks of life wander in and out of the teahouse-a microcosm of society, bringing with them their accounts of what is happening to the
43、m and their opinions of the happenings. Although the play is only made up of thirty thousand words, it depicts more than fifty characters and records the social changes in the fifty-year history, which exposes social evils to the utmost, and points out the definite dying out of the old world. Theref
44、ore, it is called the work aiming at “burying three times”. This work, due to the strong and condense sense of history, the vividness and amiability of characters, and the clarity and individuality of conversations between characters, ever since its emergence, has not only been greatly honored by Ch
45、inese literary and art circles, and welcome by Chinese audience, but also gained international reputation through translation and performance.2.2 Ying Ruocheng and His Translation of TeahouseIn 1980, Beijing Peoples Artistic Theatrical Group was invited to some western countries to give a tour-perfo
46、rmance of Lao Shes drama Teahouse and achieved great success, which supplied foreign audience with the chance to “have some understanding of an absolutely strange nation and its history”. It is therefore renowned as “a mystery of the oriental theatre”. It should be noted that apart from the support
47、at home and abroad as well as the effort of the crew, another factor accounting for the success is the successful translation of the drama, which broke the language barrier of communication. Ying Ruocheng, an outstanding drama translator as well as a famous actor and director, is just the translator
48、 who shouldered the heavy responsibility. As is claimed, “the translator of a play would need to have, in addition to his linguistics skills and his ability to gauge what is familiar or unfamiliar to his audience, a sense of drama” (Marco 2003:53), Ying Ruocheng proves to be the one fairly suitable
49、to the task. He captured the “sense of drama”-he had been involved in the performance of Teahouse for hundreds of times. Being an experienced actor and translator, Ying Ruocheng understood the drama Teahouse more thoroughly than common readers, and got the acquisition of the genre of drama more profound than common translators. All these advantages equipped him with precious experience.
