Translator Xia Yan's "Translation of Words and Deeds"

Looking at the development process of Chinese translation literature, it is not difficult to find the contributions of Zhejiang translation artists. As the capital city of Zhejiang, Hangzhou is the center of dissemination and exchange of new culture, new knowledge and new ideas, and a large number of excellent translators have emerged, such as Li Zhizao, Xia Yan, Feng Yidai, Zhou Qixun and Sun Yong. They love Han mo, work tirelessly, and dedicate their lives to the cause of translation, so that Zhejiang translation literature continues to make new achievements, and add a strong and colorful stroke to Chinese translation literature.

　　Xia Yan, formerly known as Shen Naixi, is a famous writer, translator, filmmaker, dramatist and social activist, and one of the pioneers, organizers and leaders of the left-wing film movement in China. Xia Yan spent a long time in the Upper Ocean Field, getting along with the people every day, walking the streets and alleys, and was familiar with all aspects of the people's lives. It is precisely because of his meticulous observation that as a writer, his creation can always create differences in the ordinary, which also lays the groundwork for him to use "small people" as the creative center in the future. As a translator, while breathing with the motherland and sharing a common destiny, he also pays close attention to the world situation. As an interpretation and dissemination of culture, translation is inseparable from the political economy of the times. If Lu Xun abandons medicine and follows Literature, then Xia Yan is abandoning work and following Wen. The similarity of the situation made the two feel sorry for each other, and Xia Yan's translation of Gorky's works was highly recognized by Lu Xun. In the chaotic world, they realized the invisibility of industry to save the country, so they found another way to try to awaken the compatriots of the motherland spiritually.

　　Translation also opened a door for Xia Yan to turn to literature and art. His translation career began during his study in Japan, and japanese novelist and dramatist Kikuchi Hiroshi's treatise on drama theory, Studies in Drama, was his first officially published translation. Different from the observation of people's lives in Shanghai, during his study abroad in Japan, Xia Yan frequently went to the theater with his love of theater to discuss and learn the basic theoretical knowledge of drama with local directors, screenwriters and actors, starting from translating drama-related translations and then adapting scripts, thus laying the foundation for his subsequent theatrical development direction. Xia Yan hoped that through the translation of literary and artistic works, the people would be called upon to see the power of literature and art, and to display art in a way that the people liked to hear, so as to inspire the people and enhance the confidence of the revolution.

　　It is worth mentioning that Xia Yan attaches particular importance to women's issues in her translation practice. This can be seen in Xia Yan's translation and publication of the theoretical translation of the early German Marxist Bebel," Women and Socialism, which is the earliest classic work on women's issues using Marxist theory. At that time, in China, social contradictions were sharp and complex, and at the time of internal and external troubles, literary creations that attached importance to women's issues were extremely rare, and Xia Yan's translation had a deep impact on the early Chinese women's movement. Thinking about women's issues then led xia Yan to explore gender relations and marriage issues, which was considered avant-garde at the time.

　　Xia Yan's translation path has been tossed, and he has been controversial for translating "The Road to Love". This is the work of the Soviet female writer Kollontai, although the reader needs to look at it dialectically in terms of content, but Xia Yan's translation allows the Chinese people to see the progress of the new country and new regime after the revolution. In the face of the shortcomings in translation, Xia Yan can always summarize and reflect to a certain extent, he dares to face the problems existing in the translation process, but he is not arrogant, blindly denying and abandoning his own attempts. At the time of the creation of the play, Xia Yan can fully absorb the experience in translation, focus the center of creation on social contradictions, and at the same time, portray the image of women with distinct personalities, such as Zhang Manman and Shi Xiaobao. Perhaps because of his identity as a social activist, Xia Yan pays attention to the people's feelings and perceives the people's hearts, and his portrayal of "little people" in his pen is always three points into the wood, which resonates with readers.

　　Xia Yan's screenplay "Sai Jinhua" also benefited from his earlier attention to women's issues, and the script was still female-centered. In addition, Xia Yan dared to be the first, and the play boldly involved the issue of emotional marriage. Different from the audience's perspective, Xia Yan treats his characters equally, without the slightest moral kidnapping, and it can be said that Xia Yan is a "fair and just" creator.

　　At that time, the Chinese literary circles lacked translations that introduced the modern European literary and artistic trends, and Xia Yan translated the Japanese version of the book "On the Ideological Trends of Modern European Literature and Art" under the recommendation of Xia Junzun. With a length of 200,000 to 300,000 words, this book provides a comprehensive and systematic introduction to the main literary and artistic trends and evolutions that emerged in European countries from the Renaissance to the beginning of the 20th century, various literary genres, and various writers and their representative works. Xia Yan was an extremely efficient and responsible translator, and it took only three or four months to complete the translation of "The Theory of Modern European Literary and Artistic Thought". Through Xia Yan's translation, Chinese readers slowly came into contact with and became familiar with the outlines of Western literature, thus gaining ideological enlightenment. The success of "TheOry of Modern European Literary and Art Thought" also strengthened Xia Yan's determination to engage in translation.

　　The translation of different national literatures shows the growth of Xia Yan's cultural view of translation, and his translation of Gorky's "Mother" is a classic. Xia Yan was the first translator to bring Mother to China. Because of the translation of "Mother", thousands of Chinese were deeply moved and embarked on the road of revolution. Nowadays, the popular translation of "Mother" in China is still the Xia translation, which shows that its translation is easy to understand and widely popular. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Xia Yan still insisted on translating works to serve the revolution and give a strong spiritual pillar to the broad masses of the people, whether it was "Three Brothers" or "The Quarrel of Two Ivans", which made people have a deeper understanding of war and strengthened their determination to defeat imperialism. The translation of the script "Three Brothers" reflects the turn of Xia Yan's playmaking from history to reality, and the insistence on realism also continues to the translation of the script "The Quarrel of Two Ivan". In the rear of the enemy, in conjunction with the "Drama Season" and other related activities, Xia Yan translated and adapted the six-act play "Resurrection" by the Russian writer Tolstoy. Unlike simple literary translation, which often requires a large re-creation of scripts, Xia Yan retains the main line of human resurrection in the original work, and deletes the utopian and religious ideas in combination with the weakening of the national conditions at that time, which also reflects that his translation and creation are born for the times. After the founding of New China, Xia Yan did not give up his translation work, but continued to continue to contribute to the motherland's literary and artistic undertakings with his own perception of aesthetics.

　　In addition to his outstanding contributions to the literary world and theater, Xia Yan's influence on the film world should not be underestimated. He studied chinese and Western, worked tirelessly, and knocked on the door of the Chinese film industry as a translator. Xia Yan and Zheng Boqi collaborated on the translation of the works of the Soviet film master Pudovkin, "On Film Directors" and "On Film Scripts". Xia Yan can be described as a timely rain in the literary and art circles, not only translating "Theory of Modern European Literary and Art Thought", filling the gap in the translation of modern European literary and artistic thought in the Chinese literary circles, but also translating Pudovkin's film theory works, changing the backward appearance of Chinese film scripts and film scripts. Before Xia Yanyijie's "Theory of Film Directors" and "The Theory of Film Script" came out, most of the introductions of foreign film theories in the Chinese film industry were one-sided and subjective, and the objectivity was not strong, so it lacked the practicality of guidance, which was not conducive to the study and reference of the majority of filmmakers and enthusiasts. When this translation began to be serialized in The Morning Post Daily Movie, the response was unprecedentedly enthusiastic. Since then, the development of Chinese cinema has taken on a new look, and the vast number of filmmakers have begun to show their fists in the production of stage books in fully absorbing the best experience of foreign film art. Not only that, the study of "montage" by film workers is also more in-depth and transparent, film criticism has also become flesh and blood, and Chinese films have continued to grow on the road of taking its essence and removing its dross, so that excellent works such as "Road Angel" have emerged in the Chinese film industry. Xia Yan's translation and the efforts of a generation of Chinese filmmakers have given the Chinese film industry a new look.

　　Looking back at Xia Yan's translation process, his translation works conform to the reader's reading habits and highly meet the standards of "naturalized" translation, which use some Chinese allusions to increase the readability and appreciation of the article. It is precisely because Xia Yan always emphasizes the need to translate with easy-to-understand phrases on the basis of strengthening the understanding of the original work, that his readers will be so large that the translation will be widely circulated. In the process of translating and adapting the drama, Xia Yan fully considered the aesthetics of Chinese audiences, for example, when dealing with "Resurrection", the original work used flashbacks in order to show more tension and conflict, but Xia Yan used a sequential narrative technique when processing, arranging the development of the plot in chronological order, telling the story, and strengthening everyone's belief in the victory of the war.

　　According to statistics, Xia Yan's translated works involve many countries, including 14 translations of Japanese literature, 7 translations of Soviet literature, 2 translations of Russian literature, and 2 translations of German literature. His monographs and essays include 16 pieces of Japanese literature, 8 pieces of Soviet literature, 3 pieces of Russian literature, 3 pieces of German literature, 1 piece of Hungarian literature and 1 piece of American literature.

　　(Author Affilications:Qianjiang College, Hangzhou Normal University; College of Foreign Chinese, Shanghai University)

　Source: China Social Science Network - China Social Science Daily Author: Guo Cong, Yan Chengji