A Comparative Appreciation of the Original Text and Different Translations of “<i>The Good Earth</i><i>”</i> from the Perspective of Adaptation Theory

《大地》(The Good Earth)，这部由赛珍珠(Pearl S. Buck或Pearl Buck)于1931年推出的第二本小说，具有深远的影响力。它曾连续两年雄踞畅销书榜首之位，1938年更是摘得诺贝尔文学奖的桂冠。本研究聚焦于赛珍珠以中国为题材的英文小说《大地》，以及胡仲持、王逢振、王晋华三位译者的中文译本。基于耶夫·维索尔伦(Jef. Verschueren)的顺应论框架，从剖析小说原文和三个译本中所塑造的中国形象出发，对比分析源文本与目标文本，深入探讨译者所处的社会历史和文化语境对其翻译策略的深刻影响。通过对多个译本的深入考察，发现译者通常会采用归化翻译策略，以此灵活、动态地顺应汉语读者的交际语境与社会环境。在翻译过程中，译者表现出较强的社会意识参与度，具有显著的主体性。“The Good Earth”, the second novel by Pearl S. Buck, published in 1931, had a profound impact. It was a bestseller for two consecutive years, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. This study takes Pearl S. Buck’s Chinese-themed English novel “The Good Earth” and its three Chinese translations (Hu Zhongchi’s translation, Wang Fengzhen’s translation, and Wang Jinhua’s translation) as the object of study, applies Jef. Verschueren’s theoretical framework of adaptation, and starts from analyzing the image of China as portrayed in the original text of the novel and the three translations, and then compares and analyzes the source text and the target text to explore the profound impact of the social-historical and cultural contexts of the translator on his translation strategies. Through analyzing the source text and the target texts, and discussing the profound influence of the translator’s socio-historical and cultural contexts on his translation strategies. Through an in-depth examination of several translated texts, it is found that the translators usually adopt the strategy of naturalized translation, which dynamically conforms to the communicative context and social environment of Chinese readers. The translators show strong participation in social consciousness and have significant subjectivity in the process of translation.