Abstract The Godfather is a popular novel written by Mario Puzo。 The most famous Chinese version of The Godfather is translated by Zhou Hanlin。 However, the version is under controversial circumstances because it doesn't reproduce the scenes of source-language text successfully。 This article studies the three main characters from chapter one in Zhou’s version, Johnny Fontane, Don Corleone and Hagen。 Examples are picked to check under the theories of equivalence of register。 The paper analyzes the typical dialogues from the perspective of mode, tenor and field and draws the conclusion, the version of Zhou Hanlin fails reproducing the discourse and cannot obtain the equivalence of register。88171

Key words: Translation; The Godfather; Register Analysis

Contents

1。 Introduction 4

2。 Literature Review  5

2。1 Research about the book 5

2。1。1 Oversea Researches  5

2。1。2 Domestic Researches 5

2。1。3 The study of Zhou Hanlin’s translation 6

2。2 Register theory in translation 源-于,优W尔Y论L文.网wwW.youeRw.com 原文+QQ75201,8766 area 7

3。 Register Analysis Applied to Zhou Hanlin’s translation of The Godfather 8

3。1 Johnny Fontane 9

3。2 Don Corleone 13

3。3 Hagen 18

4。 Conclusion 21

1。 Introduction

As soon as it was published in 1969, Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather has become one of the best-selling books ever and sold twenty million copies all over the world。 The book was so successful that Mario Puzo worked with Francis Coppola, wrote the scripts and then turned it to films。 The Godfather film is widely regarded as one of the greatest films in world cinema — and as one of the most influential, especially in the gangster genre。 It won three Oscars that year: for Best Picture, for Best Actor and in the category Best Adapted Screenplay for Puzo and Coppola。 What’s more, it ranked as the second greatest film in American cinema by the American Film Institute。

As for its Chinese version, it is first published in 1973 and has been retranslated many times after that time。 However, the version which is translated by Zhou Hanlin (1997, Yilin publisher) is the most popular one before the new version published in 2014。 At the late years in 20th century, it opened a door for Chinese readers to observe the lives of American immigrant families。 To some extent, it has become the book to research real American people’s lives, just like the translator Zhou said in the preface:

作者以艺术家的手法让我们看到的，不是美国社会生活中漂浮于表面的璀璨夺目的现From~优E尔L论E文W网wWw.YoUeRw.com 加QQ7520.18766

象，而是隐匿于深层的阴森恐怖的本质或本质的某些方面……就社会组织关系来说，美 国人大多有双重身份：一种是公开的社会成员身份，例如……这一面实在无可指责；另 一种是秘密成员的身份……对美国社会的本质进行如此入木三分的剖析，是美国文学史 上绝无仅有的。

人们在公开社会受到了委屈，往往得不到正义的保护。