American International Journal of Social Science

Seeing Elegance in Literary Translation from Translation Aesthetics--after Reading Translated Text of Vanity Fair by Yang Bi
Lin Yang

Abstract
“Elegance”, one criterion of Yan Fu’s triple translation criteria, requires a translation to be aesthetically pleasing. “Elegance” is to relay the style of the original text. Literary translation is a unique art and it emphasizes on aesthetic effect. Theses on science and technology, articles on social science and literary works all have their cognitive values. But, being different from the former ones, literary works possess aesthetic values. Reading literary works make readers mainly arouse strong emotional activities and gain aesthetic enjoyment. The excellent translation of Vanity Fair by Yang Bi recreates the original one through bringing Chinese language into play and reappears the romantic charm of the original text perfectly because the translator holds “moderation” well and does not rigidly adhere to forms and grammar of the original text. It sets a good example for us. This paper mainly talks about the realization of elegance in literary translation from aesthetic aspect and cites and analyzes some classical examples illustrated in Vanity Fair translated by Yang Bi to show that literary translation emphasizing on aesthetic effect and its good results.

Full Text: PDF