李　超

Abstract: Outlaws of the Marsh is one of four major masterpieces of Chinese classical literature. When creating the artistic images and describing their typical personality, the author uses the antithesis sentence in a large amount. This makes it rather difficult to translate Outlaws of the Marsh into English. When translating antithesis, the author adopts the literal translation and free translation in accordance with different culture and expression between Chinese and English. He expresses the Chinese original meaning of antithesis faithfully and accurately.

Keywords: antithesis sentences；literal translation；free translation

中图分类号： H315.9文献标识码: A文章编号：1672-1578（2009)5-0006-02

Outlaws of the Marsh written by Shi Naian and Luo Guanzhong,.is best known as one of the four major masterpieces of Chinese classical literature which has come down through the ages and its English translation by Sidney Shapiro. Thus it is absolutely not an easy task to translate such an outstanding novel into English. After all, there exist tremendous differences between the syntax of English and that of Chinese. Since many antithetic expressions are found in the source text, this paper mainly comments on its translation of antitheses. When translating these antitheses, the author of English translation Sidney Shapiro adopts mainly two methods of translating: literal translation and free translation.

Literal translation is to translate according to both the sense and the way the language is phrased. By the effects of translation, three categories can be found in the literal translation of antithetic sentences in Outlaws of the Marsh.

The first category is the translation with both the sentence structure and word meaning in accord with those of source text. In this category, the translated antithetic sentences not only keep the original form but also accurately convey the idea of the Chinese sentences. In Chapter twenty, “水来土掩，兵到将迎”（施耐庵263）is translated as “Earth can stop the flow of water, general can cope with enemy troops”(Shpiro,399), in which the English verbs “stop” and “cope with” are in accord with the Chinese verbs 掩and 迎，and also, the two clauses are parallel just as the Chinese form. A similar example is “Distant friends grow ever distant, friends at hand grow closer still ” (Shapiro,22) for “日远日疏，日亲日近”（施耐庵 19）。To keep the original taste, the word “distant” is repeatedly used just as “日”is in Chinese sentence. Still another two examples are:“When enemies meet, their eyes blaze” (Shapiro,59) for“仇人相见，分外眼明”（施耐庵 41）；and “In a shiny new hat, tonight youll be a bridegroom. In a well –fitting clothes, tonight youll be a son-in -law”.( Shapiro,112) for“帽儿光光，今夜做个新郞。衣衫窄窄，今夜做个娇客”。（施耐庵 79）

Actually, it is rather difficult to keep the exact alike structure when literally translating a Chinese antithesis, because after all, Chinese and English languages are seldom the same in their ways of expression. As a result, most of the literal translations on the antitheses attach more importance on faithfully conveying the ideas of the source text, but alter the original sentences structure. For instance, “上合天心，下合地理，中合人合”（施耐庵 2）is translated as “ This is in accord with the will of Heaven above, the laws of Earth below, and the hearts of men between. ”(Shapiro,2) The Chinese sentence has three parallel verbs, while the English translation uses one verb and three parallel noun phrases to express the same meaning.

Compared with the above example, this one shows a bigger change in sentence structure. For the Chinese sentence“天有不测风云，人有旦夕祸福”（施耐庵 359） the English translation changes the subjects “sky” and “people” into the “the winds and clouds” and “a mans luck”, and the two sentences are not of the similar forms: “The winds and clouds in the sky are unfathomable, a mans luck changes in an instant ” (Shapiro,544). Similarly, the English translation of “柔软是立身之本，刚强是惹祸之胎（施耐庵 388）”is not strictly limited by the two words “本”and“胎”，but the meaning is conveyed: “The pliant rise in the world, the hard invite disaster.” (Shapiro,510) Another example is the translation of “好事不出门，恶事传千里”。（施耐庵 342）The English sentence shows the translational meaning indicated in the source sentence: “News of good behavior never gets past the door, but a scandal is heard of a thousand li away”. (Shapiro,516) some other examples are: “Fear not officials——except those who officiate over you!” (Shapiro,30) for “不怕官，只怕管” （施耐庵, 23）； “Praising other peoples courage pull down your own.” (Shapiro, 46) for “长别人志气，灭自己威风” （施耐庵,32）；and “Theres safety only in a stiff backbone” (Shapiro,480) for “人无刚骨，安身不牢”。（施耐庵,317）

The third category of literal translation used for the antitheses dose keep the literal meaning of Chinese words, but the translated sentences cannot accurately or fully convey the original meaning. It says “三魂荡荡，七魂悠悠”（施耐庵,317）in Chinese, so the corresponding English translation in “Three souls drifted and his seven spirits departed” (Shapiro,9--10). In fact, the Chinese figures “三”and“七”here dose not refer to an accurate amount, only emphasizing how horrified somebody is. If they are literally translated as “three souls” and “seven spirits”, the English expression sounds somewhat awkward and dose not convey the Chinese meaning very well. So literal translation dose not fit this sentence, maybe it would sound more reasonable when freely translated.

The other example of literal translation dose not keep the antithetic structure, but the sentence meaning is neither fully conveyed. “萤火之光，照人不亮”（施耐庵,18）in the source text means“I myself is not capable enough to benefit you.” Shapiro translates it literally as “The light of my household is too feeble.” (Shapiro,21) If no explanation is made for it, this English sentence can hardly convey the Chinese meaning clearly. So, literal translation sometimes is not expressive enough to show the more confound meaning of the source text, and in this case, it is necessary to replace it with free translation.

Free translation is required when the meaning of a source text cannot be fully conveyed without giving up the original style or changing the way the words are phased. Shapiro makes use of free translation in mainly three ways when translating the antithetic sentences.

In the first three category, no sign of Chinese word choice can be seen in the translated English sentence, but the English sentence is of just the right meaning of the Chinese one. The translation of“一不做，二不休”（施耐庵,350）in this category. Shapiro translates it in this way:“well do it! All or nothing!” (Shapiro,527) It is an informal colloquial expression but shows somebodys strong determination to do something, exactly as what the Chinese sentences indicate. The English sentences would make sense to the English readers just as the Chinese expression dose to the Chinese readers.

The second way of free translation of antitheses is to generalize the Chinese meaning of the source text. When translating “往日无仇，近日无冤”（施耐庵,122），shapiro only uses one English word “enmity” to translate the two Chinese characters “冤” and“仇”, and one word “never” to generalize the meaning of “往日”and“近日”：“Theres never been any enmity between us.” (Shapiro,182) The other example is the translation of“人无千日好，花无摘下红”（施耐庵,299），which means friendship dose not last for long time. The English sentence is simply “Friends dont last for ever”. (Shapiro,455) The words like “good”, “flower ” or “red” do not appear, but it directly express the core idea. Similarly, in the phrase“仁义礼智，信行忠良”，（施耐庵,17）each word represents a virtue. If every Chinese word is translated literally, the English expression would be too lengthy. For this reason, the translator generalizes the literal meaning into a phrase: “virtue and proper behavior”. (Shapiro,20)

Besides the two ways of free translation mentioned above, a third way can be found in the book, that is, to make necessary explanation. For instance, to make the meaning more clear, two words are added when translating “身如五鼓衔山月，命似三更油灯尽”。（施耐庵,354） One word is “waning”, and the other is “flicker”. These two words are used to explain how the moon and the lamp look like : “His body was like the waning moon being devoured by the mountains at the fifth watch, his life flickered like dying lamp at midnight”. (Shapiro,535)

Antithetic structure is a typical way of expression in Chinese literary works. For its strict form, antithetic structure adds a sense of rhythm to the writing and so makes the writing more graceful. Furthermore, many Chinese antitheses have profound implied meaning. All these make it really difficult to both keep a perfect structure and effectively convey the Chinese idea. No matter literal or free translation is used, all the well-translated antithetic sentences in Outlaws of the Marsh faithfully and accurately convey the Chinese meaning. All the example sentences show that what the most important in antitheses translation is to convey the ideas effectively. To achieve this purpose, a strict structure in English is given up if it is necessary.

References:

[1]Sidney， Shapiro.Outlaws of the Marsh[M]. Beijing Foreign Language Press,1993.

[2]施耐庵，罗贯中.水浒传[M].北京：金盾出版社，2002.