The Translator's Adaptation and Choice: A Study of the English Translation of To Live from an Eco-Translatology Perspective
Abstract
Based on ecological translation, this article examines Michael Berry's English translation of Yu Hua's novel "Living". Ecological translation was proposed by Hu Gengshen in 2001. It places translation in a dynamic ecological environment and emphasizes the multi-dimensional adaptive decision-making of translators. Translators are neither passive transmitters nor unrestrained re-creators, but active actors, choosing from various feasible options to maximize the ecological adaptability of the translation. Through a typical bilingual translation, this article analyzes Berry's translation choice from the three dimensions of language, culture and communication. At the language level, translators have made flexible adjustments in vocabulary conversion, syntactic reconstruction and discourse connection. At the cultural level, he dealt with Chinese images, folklore and value systems through precise alienation and naturalization and selective annotations. In terms of communication, he uses the reader-centered strategy to meet the cognitive needs of the target readers and realize the author's communication intention. The results of the study confirm that ecological translation is an effective framework for literary translation criticism, and show that Berry's translation constitutes a coherent adaptive selection practice. The study also provides practical guidance for translators engaged in cross-cultural literary exchanges.
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