2。 Literature Review

Tan Xiang Xing, as a classic literature, has attracted a great number of readers all over the world and its English version Sandalwood Death is also a key research topic。 Former scholars have done many studies on its English version translated by Howard Goldblatt。 In this part, previous studies on the translation of Sandalwood Death and translation compensation in its English version are both presented。

2。1 Synopsis of Sandalwood Death   

An anti-colonial struggle took place in Shandong Peninsula during late Qing Dynasty。 The leader of this struggle against colonialism, a folk artisan named Sun Bing has been executed with the “sandalwood penalty”。 The book uses the “execution” as the main plot line and demonstrates several soul-stirring events as monarchy fell in China, including the Hundred Days of Reform, the Boxing Rebellion, the rapacity of foreign colonists etc。 The book circles around the execution of the sandalwood penalty and expressed the brutality and inhumanity of feudal monarchy and power struggle, and it also emphasizes how dictatorial powers enforced inpiduals throughout the history, and reflects the dark soil with which the dictatorial powers grew and their shady rules。 

The background of this book is set in Gaomi County, Shandong province, like most of Mo Yan’s works, presenting the life of the lower-class working people vividly。 The novel abounds with beauty of violence, the characters are bright vivid, the plots are all linked with one another, in the story people run round person in comfortable circumstances and flatter the powerful ones。 They act in collusion, but beware of each other constantly。 All around the story of Sandalwood Death, Mo Yan shows us three kinds of life consciousness from the folk, temple and audience。 It is a colorful and noisy text。

2。2 Theory of Translation Compensation 

Translation of literary works involves not only the transfer of language but also the transmission of culture。 And different cultures have considerably different customs, value orientation, aesthetic taste, national psychology, etc。 It is observed that translation compensation is very important for translating fluently and accurately。文献综述

Up to now, most researches on compensation in China and abroad lay particular stress on translation practice。 To be specific, researchers mainly discuss this question from translation program, strategies, methods and skill levels。 Existing compensation theories are often established within the general framework of translation, resulting in the neglect of the specialty of compensation problems。 To make up for the deficiency, Xia Tingde (2006) demonstrates the unavoidability of translation losses and the necessity of compensation。 He combs its potential value of building a theory。 He presents eight translation compensation strategies and six principles (principle of demand, relation, focus, minimal distance, the same function and consistency) from dimensions of time, space and means。 These all provide useful guidance to translation practice。 He also analyzes different compensation strategies from the linguistic level (lexical, grammar and discourse) and aesthetic level to receive a more specific knowledge。

For compensating the translation losses，a translator should know the linguistic and cultural differences clearly in the source text and the target text。 The author studies the researches in domestic and foreign, for the sake of a better understanding of translation compensation theory。

2。3 Application of translation compensation in China and abroad

Literary translation is the conversion of languages and cultures as well。 Cultural differences between the two texts determined the untranslatability of literary works。 Therefore compensation method is essential in the process of translation。 However, compensation should follow certain rules, the source author should be esteemed and not misunderstood and the source text shall be not increased or decreased。来,自,优.尔:论;文*网www.youerw.com +QQ752018766- 莫言小说《檀香刑》英译本中翻译补偿现象(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_87130.html