Journal of Contemporary Educational Research Research Article On Features of Fu Lei’s Translation from the Perspective of the Conquest of Happiness Yinghua Niu Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, Gansu Provinces, China Abstract: Under the background of globalization, attention. The translator is simply regarded as the “tool” translation is not only an academic activity, but also of translation, which is only the “bridge” between the has far-reaching influence on cultural exchanges. author and the reader, and can not be compared with As a world-renowned translator, Fu Lei has played a the creation. Therefore, this paper takes translator Fu leading role in today’s translation field. Therefore, the Lei as the main line to elaborate on the enlightenment paper firstly talks about Fu Lei’s life experience and of his translation strategies by introducing his life his thought of resemblance. It is his life experience experiences, translation thoughts and so on. that makes him have his own unique understanding The Conquest of Happiness is a masterpiece of of translation art. Secondly, the thesis analyses Fu Russell’s prose, which explores the root of people’s Lei’s translation thoughts through his broad interest, unhappiness and provides guidance for people’s pursuit rigorous attitude and emphasis on the art of writing. of happiness. It is listed as one of the best books in Finally, the paper combines his translation strategies human history. Fu Lei, a great translator, is famous with the Conquest of Happiness to illustrate how it can for his rich and excellent translation achievements. be more easily understood and accepted by the target He devoted his whole life to translation and made language readers through the processing of sentence outstanding contributions to the dissemination of patterns and the use of Chinese allusions. It comes to east and west cultures. Looking at the 34 literary the conclusion that Fu Lei’s unique life experience, rich masterpieces translated in his lifetime, except for two artistic accomplishment and rigorous academic attitude English works, the rest are French literary masterpieces. are of great benefit to his translation. Thus it can be Therefore, Fu Lei’s translation of French literary works said that Fu Lei’s translation thoughts and strategies are has been studied by the academic circles, while English enlightenment to all aspects of translation studies. works such as The Conquest of Happiness have seldom been touched upon. Keywords: Spiritual Resemblance; Translation The paper falls into five chapters. Chapter one is the Strategies; The Conquest of Happiness introduction. It introduces Fu Lei’s translation thought Publication date: February, 2020 and its application in The Conquest of Happiness and Publication online: 29 February 2020 then, it discusses the main idea of this thesis. *Corresponding author: Yinghua Niu, 1050231546@ Chapter two introduces Fu Lei’s life experience and qq.com his spiritual resemblance. Chapter three expounds Fu Lei’s translation thoughts through his broad interest, 1 Introduction rigorous attitude and emphasis on the art of writing. Language is the cornerstone of people’s communication. Chapter four combines his translation strategies Through translation, the transformation and with the Conquest of Happiness to illustrate how it can communication of different languages can be realized. be more easily understood and accepted by the target Therefore, the importance of translation is self is that language readers. evident. For a long time, the most important factor in Chapter five is the conclusion, which emphasizes Fu translation activities-translator has not been given due Lei’s translation thoughts are of great significance in the Distributed under creative commons license 4.0 Volume 4; Issue 2 21 field of translation. At the same time, the deficiencies of 2.1.2 Fu Lei’s Spiritual Resemblance this study are summarized. Fu Lei is a famous translator who has been engaged in Therefore, this paper studies the translation of The literary translation all his life. He regards literary work Conquest of Happiness to understand his English as a noble and sacred cause. He always holds a rigorous translation characteristics and strategies, with a view and responsible attitude towards translation. He takes to providing guidance for the future field of English his large number of translations as a proof, and sets translation. up a school of his own, and puts forward the “spiritual 2 An Introduction to Fu Lei resemblance”, which can be regarded as a major breakthrough in the field of translation theory in China. 2.1 Fu Lei’s Life Experience and Thoughts Fu Lei’s thought of resemblance includes two aspects: form resemblance and spiritual resemblance. The literal 2.1.1 Fu Lei’s Life Experience pursuit of the equivalence between the translated text and the original text is called form resemblance, and On April 7, 1908, Fu Lei was born in Shanghai. At the the connotative pursuit of the equivalence between the age of four, his father died of illness and he was raised translated text and the original text is called spiritual by his mother. The younger brothers died in the same resemblance. As far as Fu Lei’s translation experience year that their father died, so Fu Lei had a hard life with is concerned, he pays great attention to the words and his mother since childhood. His mother placed all her sentences in the original text and tries to retain them hopes on Fu Lei, which was quite strict. Fu Lei worked in the translation so as to preserve the charm of the very hard at an early age, and developed the habit of original. Fu Lei pays more attention to the similarity doing things rigorously. At the age of seven, Fu Lei’s of spirit than the similarity of forms. The main feature mother invited teachers to teach him the Four Books of the theory “spiritual resemblance” lies in the fact and the Five Classics, and hired teachers to teach him that translation should be included in the category of English and arithmetic. At the age of ten, Fu Lei began aesthetics. The spiritual resemblance presents that to study French. When he was nineteen, he went to translation is not a rigid word-by-word way to express France to study at his own expense, which made his life [1] the original text, but a multi-level transmission of ideas. start a new journey . This is especially true in literary translation. During his study in France, while studying French Fu Lei points out the key point of literary translation at the Faculty of Literature of the University of Paris, and puts the deliberation of words and sentences onto Fu Lei attended Sorbonne Art Seminar and the Faculty the artistic level. What is more valuable is that he of Art History of Louvre. In addition, he often goes to introduced the important viewpoint of “vividness” in major art museums to study the masterpieces of artists, Chinese traditional aesthetics into translation theory, which greatly improves his appreciation of art and the thus broadening the research field of translation theory realm of art criticism. These experiences have greatly and laying a foundation for the later establishment benefited his ability to translate French literature. of translation aesthetics. Therefore, the concept of Therefore, Fu Lei’s approach to translation can be “resemblance” marks the great progress of translation attributed to two factors: on the one hand, during his in China. Translation theory has changed from study in France, in order to strengthen his language generalization and abstraction to specialization and ability, he tried to translate French literary works which concretization. was a good exercise for his translation ability; on the other hand, Fu Lei’s artistic attainment is very profound. 2.2 The Main Foreign Works Translated by Fu He studied art theory in France in his youth. Since Lei returning home, he had been engaged in art archaeology and art teaching, but he was always incompatible with In Fu Lei’s translation career, he left many well-known the society and could not work with others. So he translations, such as Biography of Celebrities and Jean- finally chose a career of translation for himself. Fu Lei Christophe, which are still the preferred translations for has accomplished his life through continuous struggle, many readers. It can be said that Fu Lei is a well-known and made great contributions to the development of translator of French literary works and a bridge between translation in China. Chinese and French cultural exchanges. Therefore, 22 Distributed under creative commons license 4.0 Volume 4; Issue 2 Fu Lei’s translation of French literary works such as better understand foreign literature. Balzac’s famous works Father Griot and The Abbot of Dur have been warmly studied by the academic 3 Fu Lei’s Main Translation Strategies circles, while English works such as The Conquest of Happiness have seldom been mentioned. 3.1 Paying Attention to the Spiritual The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell, a Resemblance famous British philosopher, was written in 1930. In Fu Lei’s achievements in translation literature are 1920, Russell was invited to give lectures in China, not only manifested in a large number of translated bringing a fresh atmosphere to Chinese society, which works, but also in unique theories he puts forward on was greatly sought after by the Chinese people, and translation. Yan Fu put forward in the 19th century that even set off a “Russell fever” in China at that time. translation literature should meet the criteria of “xin, Such a popular enthusiasm laid a broad foundation for da, ya”, which has been accepted and used by later the translation and dissemination of Russell’s works in generations.