Title: On Liu Shicong’s Self-revision in His English Translation of Chinese Prose

Abstract: Liu Shicong, a renowned prose translator in China, places great emphasis on revising his translations, and thus this paper investigates the self-revision in his English translation of Chinese prose exemplified by two different versions of 16 pieces. It is found that his revision mainly deals with such aspects as errors in expression, specific words and phrases, sentence construction, cohesion in and between sentences, tense and aspect, personal pronouns and so on, in order to reproduce the flavor of the originals by rewriting good sentences with improved rhythm. Liu Shicong’s self-revision embodies a kind of translation spirit by pursuing quality translation through constant efforts in refining, revising, and recreating one’s translation.      

Keywords: Liu Shicong, Chinese prose, self-revision, translation spirit  

Authors: Quangong Feng, Associate Professor, School of International Studies, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China; Xiaonan Chen, School of Communication and Design, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.