The translator as a writer is different from the writer of an original work. He has another angle of thinking, ideation, aesthetic apperception and so on in composition. The translator must have enough writing and expressive competence, literary attainments and competence for manipulation of languages, logic thinking and imagination. All of these are the basic conditions of a writer. The following translated text is a good example:
The source text:
The evening wind made such disturbance just now, among some tall old elm 2 trees at the bottom of the garden, that neither my mother nor Miss Betsey could forbear glancing that way. As the elms lent to one another like giants who were whispering secrets, and after a few seconds of such repose, fell into a violent flurry, tossing their wild arms about, as if their late confidences were really too wicked for then peace mind, some weather 2 beaten ragged old rooks nests burdening their higher branches, swung like wrecks upon a stormy seas. (David Copperfied)
The target text:
恰恰在那时候, 晚风吹过, 在庭园尽头几棵高大的老槐树中间引起了一阵骚动, 让我母亲和贝萃小姐, 都不禁不由地往那儿瞧去。只见那几棵槐树，起先枝柯低弯俯接， 好像巨人低头接耳, 低声密谈一样，这样安静了几秒钟以后，枝柯又乱摇起来。好像它们刚才谈的话题太坏了，使它们觉得于心难安，因而手臂狂挥；在这几棵树乱摇狂摆的时候，筑在树顶上那几棵饱经风霜，残破零落的乌鸦旧巢，就像在惊涛骇浪里的破船一样，掀簸折腾起来。（张谷若译）
If we just read the target text, apart from the source text, we must praise how better the text and the writing competence are. It’s not like the translated text, but an original text. The translator will not write so excellent target text without a writer’s literary culture and writing competence. Without life experience, better aesthetic tendencies and visual ideation, the target text can not be produced. The translator carefully researches and studies two languages and manipulates them well. And he involves his mental conception of the source text into his composition, at the same time, he takes the target language culture fully into account. So that the translated text isn’t with a little foreign works’ shadow. English and Chinese are different in language features, Chinese prefers to use four-letter phrases. We can see many these words in the target text, such as, “低头接耳”, “饱经风霜”, “残破零落”and so on. To express more agreeably, the translator adjusts and alters the source text in constructing the target text in many places. To conclude, the translator fully integrates the two languages and cultures into one. It’s apparent that the translator takes the role as a writer in the process of translation, whose subjective agency and creativity is exhibited.
3. 3 Translator as a creator
As we have discussed above, at both stages of decoding and encoding, the translator has double identity as a reader and a writer. He should deepen his comprehension of the source text and re-write a target text to serve the target language readers. When the translator takes the role as a reader and a writer in translation, correspondingly, he acts as a creator. As the translator doesn’t only dance to the author’s tune, but contributes his own subjective judgment and creativity into translation.
And owing to the differences between languages and cultures, the limitations of translation and the instability of meanings, it impels the translator to apply creative treason in translation, not to be honest completely to the source text. The creative treason of literary translation is affected by the readers and reception contexts. Unavoidably, the translator distorts the original in his reading, and the translator’s creative treason has large impacts on the linguistic and cultural construction of the target language. In a word, the translator is not only to represent echo of the original, but also to transfer languages and cultures, in which the translator’s subjectivity initiative and creativity is involved.
In language level, translation is a transmission of two languages even more. Because of different languages, the expressions and styles are various. Also the translator cannot but use the pure mother tongue to deal with the special expressions in the source text. After all, the translator can’t depart from the target language readers, he ought to make the readers understand what he has conveyed. It needs creation. No one can transform one language to another literally or one-to-one translation. That is to say, the translator should destroy the order or construct of the original language, and transfer it more suitable for the target language. Moreover, different translators in different cultural backgrounds will translate one work or text into various versions, since they have different understanding of the original and satisfy the different target readers. For example:
The source text:
She was a striking looking woman, a little short and thick for symmetry, but with a beautiful olive complexion, large dark Italian eyes, and a wealth of deep black hair.—“The Adventure of the Naval Treaty”
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