Abstract As the supreme pursuit of prose translation, “sublimitaion” has enjoyed high reputation in the translation field since it was put forward by Qian Zhongshu in 1964. Based on Qian Zhongshu’s “sublimitation”, this paper, through the analysis of the source text and the translated text in Zhang Peiji’s famous translation work Selected Modern Chinese Essays, investigates the aesthetic value——the beauty of “sublimitation” in prose translation by Professor Zhang. Argumentation will be made at the level of lexicon, syntax and rhetoric, and some typical examples will be picked directly out in this book, combining the prose instance with the theory analysis in a more visualized way and fully displaying the “sublimitation” beauty of the prose translation in great detail.60783

Key words: Zhang Peiji; Modern Chinese Prose; “sublimitation”; recreation of artistic conception

摘要“化境”作为翻译的较高标准，在翻译界一直享有盛誉，本文以钱钟书的化境论为基础，通过分析张培基《英译中国现代散文选》名篇佳作的原文和译文，探讨张培基散文翻译所体现的审美价值——化境之美。本文从词汇、句法、修辞等角度逐一展开论述，并直接选取该著作的一些典型例子，以直观再现的方法，将散文实例与原理分析相结合，在具体分析中再现散文翻译的“化境”之美 。

毕业论文关键词: 张培基；中国现代散文；化境；意境再现

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Definition of “Sublimitation” 2

2.2 Major Features of Prose 3

3. The Embodiment of “Sublimitation” in the Translation of the Selected Modern Chinese Essays 4

3.1 At the Level of Lexicon 5

3.2 At the Level of Syntax 8

3.3 At the Level of Rhetoric 11

3.4 The Creation of Artistic Conception in Prose 13

4. Conclusion 15

Works Cited 17

 1. Introduction

As a genre full of freedom and flexibility, essay, both at home and broad, plays an important role among all kinds of literary works. China, especially, is a country with profound prose tradition. Just as Lu Xun once said, “The success in essay, since the May Fourth Movement of 1919, has been in excess of that in novel, drama and poetry”. (Lu Xun, 1981:256) Essay in China is also a genre of native features and aesthetic value. Jia Pingwa once made an incisive summary that all articles with beautiful language can be called essays. But the debate on the aesthetic standard of prose translation and its value is still under discussion and may be an everlasting topic in the translation field. It is not until Qian Zhongshu proposed the “sublimitation” theory that a new criterion of prose translation on the aspect of aesthetics was set up, bringing about the heat wave in pursuit of aesthetic feelings and making the translation field reaching a brand-new high.

Nevertheless, problems always come with the advancements on the forward march.  As is known to all, one prominent feature of Chinese contemporary prose is the fastidious choice of words and phrases, free usage of sentence structure as well as the natural writing style, which is the so-called parataxis advocated by our Chinese scholars and literati. On the contrary, the writing of English prose should flow smoothly and coherently rather than looking like a list of loosely connected sentences. English prose is mostly decorated by beautiful words with fluent writing, and the compact structure. Likewise, such differences can be seen correspondingly at the level of language, where English-speaking people tend to act upon a rigorous and precious rule in the linguistic structure while our Chinese people, often laying emphasis on perception, are more willing to follow intuitively our own bent in accordance with the logical thinking and context regardless of rigid regulation. Therefore, Chinese prose is seen, more often than not, in its loose structure equipped with large quantities of short, run-on sentences. Nevertheless, English prose appears mostly in the form of complex sentences with one main clause and several subordinate clauses. Though the connotation and spirit that English prose trying to convey is much the same with that of Chinese prose, the huge distinction in literal organization between these two languages is a great obstacle to bridge over the gap and exchange ideas, which directly determines the quality of the prose translation. Therefore, to make a balance between the source language and the target language and eventually obtain the “sublimitaion” is a rather hard work and to make a profound study for it, apparently, is of great significance.