Sur la retraduction littéraire actuelle en Chine

Re-translation is an inevitable phenomenon in the process of translation practice. As early as the fifth-century B C., China had had the first re-translation of Buddhism. In some sense good re-translation contributes not only to the spread of the original text and the former translations, but also to the promotion of the translation practice of a nation. Recently re-translating foreign literary masterpieces has become a fad in Chinese literary circles. There even appeared more than ten different translations of one work within a short span of several years. A questionnaire research involving readers of diverse levels was sponsored by the Translation Study Centre of Nanjing University and the prestigious Reader Weekly of Shanghai, aiming at gathering opinions on many fundamental problems in translation exemplified by the fifteen Chinese translations of Le Rouge et le Noir. A good number of readers hold that the fad of re-translating masterpieces is encouraged by the double factors of the internal and external, that the translator's recreation is unavoidable but should he limited, that the translation which is strictly faithful to the original text in content and form (the version that retains the exotic sentiments in particular) is more welcome to the Chinese readers than the completely Sino-centered one, and that the translation criticism should, according to the principle of multi-standards, facilitate readers of different levels to choose their favourite version.