Literary Translation 1. Definition of Style. a. the revised Edition of A Dictionary of Literary Terms (J.A. Cuddon, 1979): Style is “the characteristic manner of expression in prose or verse; how a particular writer says things. The analysis and assessment of style involves examination of a writer’s choice of words, his figures of speech, the devices (rhetorical and otherwise), the shape of his sentences (whether they be loose or periodic), the shape of paragraphs --- indeed, of every conceivable aspect of his language and the way in which he uses it.” b. Theodore Savory: Style is the essential characteristics of every piece of writing, the outcome of the writer’s personality and his emotions at the moment, and no single paragrraph can be put together withour revealing in some degree the nature of its author. c. de Buffon: style is the man 2. Translatability of style Theodore Savory: some people say “A translationshould reflect the style of the original” and others say “a tranlation should possess the style of the translator.” Alexander F. Tytler Nida Mao Dun: the original literary style is translatable. “Literary translation is to reproduce the oriiginal artistic images in another language so that the reader of the translation may be inspired, moved and aesthetically entertained in the same way as one reads the original” . The arguments for the opinion that the style of the original work is untranslatable: Different language can’t express the same style. Puns, poem and other things are difficult to translate. (but a qualified translator is usually possessed of some appropriate ways of cracking his hard nuts in translation once he is determined to translate a work. E.g. This paper...
