2013 9 41-65 2013 6 7 2013 7 29 2013 8 7 E-mail: chtung@dragon.nchu.edu.tw

Compilation and Translation Review Vol. 6, No. 2 (September 2013), 41-65 The Fidelity, Fluency and Felicity in Liang s Translation of Shakespeare s Plays Chung-hsuan Tung Despite its relatively small quantity, Liang Shih-chiu s academic discussion of translation reveals that he believes in fidelity and fluency as the first two requirements for translation and he does not regard elegance as a necessary requirement. Felicity may be his third requirement for translation in place of elegance. In translating Shakespeare s plays, he adopts certain strategies and methods to fulfill his assumed requirements, including the choice of a particular edition of Shakespeare for his translation, the adoption of a particular style including the use of punctuation, the consideration of taking a sentence as the unit for translation, and the prevention of literal translation as well as paragraph paraphrasing, and the thorough study of Shakespeare s verbal meanings. In addition to discussing Liang s ideas of translation, this paper examines the result of Liang s practical translation of Shakespeare s plays. The examination is focused on details of his translations for the titles of the plays, the dialogues and songs in the plays, and the names of persons and places therein. It also draws attention to his dealings with puns, ambiguity of words, allusions, and other subtle problems concerning the sound, shape, sense, and situation of the target texts. It is found that although Liang seems to follow the doctrine of mean in doing his translations, Liang often achieves fidelity at the cost of fluency and often fails to attain felicity, as he tries to translate Shakespeare s plays just for reading, not for acting, he uses Chinese prose to translate Shakespeare s English blank verse, and he overlooks some linguistic and cultural differences between Chinese and English in certain critical cases. As a master of translation, he certainly cannot avoid certain lapses which ordinary translators may have, although they should not seriously affect his fame as a translator. Keywords: Liang Shih-chiu, Shakespeare, drama, translation, the three requirements of translation (fidelity, fluency, elegance), felicity Received: June 7, 2013; Revised: July 29, 2013; Accepted: August 7, 2013 Chung-hsuan Tung, Professor Emeritus, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Chung-hsing University, E-mail: chtung@dragon.nchu.edu.tw

43 (shape, sound, sense, situation) (intertextual) (textual) (contextual) fidelity, fluency, felicity F S 2002 1 1 1970 16

44 2 1981 285 428 1. (1) (2) (3) 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 2 12

45 8. 9. 10. 1998 51 3 4 2008 50 3 543 4 14

46 5 2008 50 6 1. W. J. Craig 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 5 6 a passing while three inch fool 123

47 30 (Charles Lamb) 32 36 7 8 7 97 8 286

48 The Tragedy of Hamlet 9 The Tragedy of (Richard the Third, Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus ) Hamlet 10 Mr. Fisher 11 (Goneril) (Petruchio) (Moth) (Audrey) 12 Measure for Measure Elbow Angelo 9 Fortinbras Laertes Hamlet Laertes 10 Hamlet Hamlet (ham-let) Old Hamlet Claudius The Strange Eruption in Hamlet: Shakespeare s Psychoanalytic Vision 11 12 /i/ /ai/ Ulysses Menelaus Troy

49 Elbow is out at elbow (II, i) Richard II Gaunt gaunt Gaunt Gaunt Julius Caesar 88 1. Caesar Kaiser 2. Caesar King John Quince, Bottom, Snug, Flute, Snout, Starveling Cobweb, Moth, Pease-blossom, Mustard Bottom IV, i Bottom s dream...hath no bottom (Much Ado about Nothing) (Love s Labor s Lost) (The Merry Wives of Windsor) Measure for Measure Measure measure for measure Angelo

50 13 All s Well That Ends Well As You Like It (blank verse) 14 101 15 13 Measure for Measure 14 Blank verse (iambic pentameter) 15 blank verse

51 (couplet) (sonnet) (rhyme) Graves only be men s works and death their gain; / Sun, hide thy beams, Timon hath done his reign. / gain reign 16 abab cdcd efef gg Coriolanus Coriolanus Rather than fool it so, Let the high office and the honor go To one that would do thus. I am half through, The one part suffer d, the other will I do. 16 Romeo: If I profane with my unworthiest hand Romeo: Then move not, while my prayer s effect I take 53-54

52 17 Pericles Henry V Gower Chorus 18 (abab, cdcd, efef,...) Chorus Chorus...Yet sit and see,/minding true things by what their mock ries be / And down goes all before them. Still be kind./and eche out our performance with your mind. / / 17 18 Chorus

53 19 Amiens Under the greenwood tree,/who loves to lie with me,/and turn his merry note/unto the sweet bird s throat, aabb abab turn...unto... turn... into... 20 Tell me where is Fancy bred,/or in the heart, or in the head?/how begot, how nourished? It is engend red in the eyes,/with gazing fed, and Fancy dies/ In the cradle where it lies. / / / / aaa bbb 21 Ariel Full fadom five thy father lies;/of his bones are coral made;/those are pearls that were his eyes:/nothing of him that doth fade,/but doth suffer a sea-change/into something rich and strange. / / / / 19 139-140 55 20 21

54 / ababcc aaaabb thy father sea-change 22 427 Shylock Brutus Antony Julius Caesar Prospero I, thus neglecting...a confidence sans bound 22

55 -- 21 23 O! reason not the need; our basest beggars/are in the poorest thing superfluous:/allow not nature more than nature needs,/man s life is cheap as beast s. 85 slings and arrows 23 25

56 Coriolanus mountainous errors Clown but ignorance 24 Philo To cool a gipsy s lust 25 malapropism Bottom Old Gobbo Measure for Measure Elbow Elbow malefactors, profession protest benefactors, profanation detest 39-40 malapropism malapropism Bottom to the same effect to the same defect 24 93 83 129 25 13

57 77 Bottom (pun) 104 Desdemona suitor suitor Leontes neat neat not neat, but cleanly neat Nurse Romeo Mercutio Tybalt O, he is even in my mistress case,/just in her case.

58 Stand up, stand up. Stand, and you be a man./for Juliet s sake, for her sake, rise and stand./why should you fall into so deep an O? stand rise fall into so deep an O 26 Titus Andronicus Demetrius Though Bassianus be the emperor s brother,/better than he have worn Vulcan s badge. (Venus) Vulcan s badge cuckold s horn Asses are made to bear, and so are you. Women are made to bear, and so are you. bear 26 123 Friar Lawrence Nurse Fall into so deep an O O (=woe) (=orgasm) ovum womb I penis O! (Oh!) Ay! (Ai!)

59 bear bear Claudius my cousin Hamlet, and my son A little more than kin, and less than kind. kin kind All s Well That Ends Well Bertram I have wedded her, not bedded her, and sworn to make the not eternal. wedded/bedded (alliteration) Fair is foul, and foul is fair. fair foul f fair and foul

60 h Richard II Bolingbroke Duke of York My gracious uncle Tut, tut! Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle. we we Falstaff not to come near our person by ten mile as we hear you do reform yourselves... we will... give you advancement we our to hold as twere the mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. virtue scorn her the very age (= body of the time ) his

61 her Hotspur Send danger from the east unto the west,/so honor cross it from the north to south,/and let them grapple. it danger them danger honor 104 or sink, or swim make a heaven of hell abides and flies he speaks holiday lead thou first 27 Timon 27 (I, iii) 40 (II, i) 57 (I, iii) 32 (III, ii) 88 (V, i) 111

62 Who once a day with his embossed froth/the turbulent surge shall cover 140-141 Timon your liver you are pictures out o doors thy father bed-presser 28 Antony and Cleopatra a Roman thought struck him 21 I would I had thy inches, thou shouldst know/there were a heart in Egypt, 28 (III, ii) 84 (II, i) 48 (I, ii) 33 (II, iv) 75

63 108 29 29 -- 21

64 2000 457-476 1998 42-59 1989 1971-1977 40 1977 93-110 1981 1981 285-288 1981 427-429 1983 -- 2004 2002 2010 Intergrams, 10.2-11.1. http://benz. nchu.edu.tw/%7eintergrams/intergrams/102-111/102-111-tung.pdf 1997 2001 2008

65 Tung, C. -H. (2011). The strange eruption in Hamlet: Shakespeare s psychoanalytic vision. Rpt. in The Visionary Shakespeare. (pp. 119-152). Taipei: Showwe Information Co.

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