A WONDERFUL FLOWER MADE OF GOLD DUST: CHINESE TRANSLATIONS OF “THE GOLDEN ROSE”

Abstract

The paper summarizes the overall process of translating the story “The Golden Rose” of K. G. Paustovsky in China and comparing the style of its three Chinese translations. Since its first translation and publication in the 1950s, “The Golden Rose” has influenced several generations of readers and writers in China, followed by several different translations. In this paper, three Chinese translations (Li Shi’s translation, Dai Cong’s translation, and Zhang Tiefu’s translation) are comparatively analyzed in terms of translation style and reading comprehension. It is found that the translation of “The Golden Rose” in China was formed under the influence of many factors and went through three stages: from the slow beginning of “internal dissemination” to the smooth development of the return to aesthetics, and then to the re-translations of translations; in terms of translation style, the three translations respectively represent the styles of naturalness and simplicity, grace and elegance, and simplicity. All these have made “The Golden Rose” a real classical Chinese translated literature, and “The Golden Rose” has also become a beautiful metaphor in the field of Chinese literature.