-
Reading report : the border
town
During
this
winter
vacation
,I
read
an
English
rendering
of
an
famous
Chinese literary work Bian Cheng , and
its translated name is The Border Town . I
have already read the original work in
Chinese when I was in the high school and in
my view, it is an story full of
esthetic feeling and it shows us how tranquil and
simple life in the border town is . As
the closest literary work to the Nobel Prize in
Literature in the mainland ,Bian Cheng
is not only a
splendid novella, but
also a
comely
,elegant
and
woeful
pastoral
which
expresses
the
writer's
deep
affection
about
his
hometown
—
Feng
Huang
，
a
small
frontier
county
in
west
Hunan
Province
．
So when I found this version in the
school library , I borrowed it without any
hesitation , I was so curious that l
really can't believe how could such an typical
Chinese novella being rendered into
another language ? And how could the foreign
translator
grasp
the
essence
of
it
and
whether
she can
represent
successfully
the
original aesthetic value in the work or
even reproduce the tranquility and pathos
are all great challenges
for the translator
．
But
after reading a few chapters , I had to say this
is a very good translation .
The
translator Gladys Yang (Dai NaiDie) reproduced the
aesthetic connotations in
the novel in
terms of the beauty in the regional flavor and in
the artistic conception
as
proposed
by
the
translation
aesthetics.
Her
successful
work
shows
that
in
literature
translation
it
is
advisable
to
follow
the
principle
of
common
ground
while
reserving
small
differences
functional
equivalence
conveying
the
aesthetic
connotations
.
Although
l
no
little
about
literary
translation
or
aesthetics
,I
can
sense
the
rhyme
that
Shen
CongWen
wanted
to
express
in
the
version of
Yang .
This
kind
of
rhyme not
only
add
some aesthetic
feeling to the original work but make
the translated one closer to the connotations in
the original . Shen Congwen presents
the rhyme in the book mainly by using ballad
or
folk
songs
and
proverbs
,
then
how
to
reproduce
the
musical
beauty
in
the
translation
is
a
challenging
task
．
For
example
,in
one
chapter
,
Emerald
(the
translated name of the
leading character CuiCui) sang a song to herself :
* Original work
：
“且轻轻的无所谓的唱着：白鸡关出老虎咬人，不咬别人，团总的小
姐派第一
......
大姐戴副
金譬子，二姐戴副银钏王，只有我三妹没得什
么戴，耳朵上长年戴条豆芽菜。
”
*
Translation
：
：
The
tiger eats the captain's daughter first
[
f
?
:st
]
；
Most girls have gold and silver for
their hair
[
h
??
]
Poor
Emerald is the one who comes off worst
[
w
?
:st
]
No trinkets,nothing but
bean-sprouts to wear
[
w
??
]
!
In this
version ,the first line and the third line are
rhymed
[
?
:st
]
,and the second and
the
last
line
are
rhymed
[
??
].
The
rhythm
is
closely
related
to
the
speaker's
mood
．
Because of
Emerald's embarrassing condition in her
family
，
she has no chance
to
wear
those
beautiml
clothes
，
but
to
admire
the
dress
of
the
daughter
of
the