Title: The “Untimely” Sentimental Education: On Liang Shiqiu’s Translation of The Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise

Abstract: The Chinese version of The Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise was Liang Shiqiu’s first literary translation to be published in Crescent Moon. This paper examines the translator’s textual strategies and literary attitudes in this work. Dissatisfied with the subjective writing since the May Fourth period and the new trend of revolutionary literature, Liang Shiqiu proposed the idea of “subjecting emotions to reason” in his translation in order to restore the healthy and harmonious state to literature and society. It is found that Liang Shiqiu’s rationalist thinking greatly influenced his translational strategies regarding the shaping of characters, organization of the plot and his aesthetic pursuit in general. With this case study, this paper aims to shed new light on a Crescent Moon translator and his “untimely” remedies for the tremendously changing literature and society.

Keywords: The Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise, Liang Shiqiu, sentiment, translation studies

Author: Ruoze Huang, Assistant Professor, College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, China.