A Study on Tenses in English Translation of Lu Xun’s Stories
—A Comparison between Translations by Yang Xianyi and Julia Lovell
ABSTRACT
Tenses have all along been a tricky part in English learning. They are far more flexible and complex than what grammar books claim, both in daily use and in translation practice. It’s not rare for two acclaimed translators to differ in tenses when translating the same Chinese passage. It may be due to their different understandings of the original text, especially when the tense in Chinese is already vague；or to their different approaches to translation, e.g. whether the historical present is adopted; or because the two translators live and translate in different eras in which people use tenses differently. By comparing two translated versions of five stories of Lu Xun, by the famous Chinese translator Yang Xianyi and British sinologist Julia Lovell, this paper discovers that one major cause of tense differences is the use of the historical present. In addition, by comparing the usage of “shall”, the subjunctive mood and the progressive aspect in the two translations, this paper proves that Lovell’s tense choices are more in trend to today’s audience. The backgrounds of the two translators, their approaches to translation and the histories of the two publishing houses they work with further explain how translator’s subjectivity and social and cultural factors lead to differences in tenses and language styles, and how these differences affect the translation works.
Keywords: tense, English translation, the historical present, translator’s subjectivity
Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction    1
Chapter 2 Literature Review    2
2.1 Current researches on tenses    2
2.2 Current researches on the English translation of Lu Xun’s works    3
Chapter 3 The Historical Present in Different Genres    4
3.1 The historical present in narration    4
3.2 The historical present in description    5
3.3 The historical present in authorial comment    6
Chapter 4 Translator’s Subjectivity Revealed in the Use of Tense    8
4.1 The use of “shall”, the subjunctive mood and the progressive aspect    8
4.1.1 “Shall”    8
4.1.2 The subjunctive mood    9
4.1.3 The progressive aspect    10
4.2 Further analysis based on the translator’s subjectivity and Andre Lefevere’s rewriting theory    11
4.2.1 Translator’s subjectivity and rewriting theory    11
4.2.2 Life and educational background of Yang Xianyi and Julia Lovell    12
4.2.3 The translators’ subjectivity    12
4.2.4 Patrons: Foreign Languages Press and Penguin Classics    12
Chapter 5 Conclusion    14