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It is commonly acknowledged that a literary work is a creative art of language. Without the inherent elements of aesthetic values the literary work cannot be termed as an art. Lu Xun, a great Chinese writer, says that literature is an art of beauty with three beautiful features, i.e., beautiful thought that appeals to the heart, beautiful sound that pleases the ear, and beautiful form that attracts the eye (Xu 1989: i). Leech and Short (1981: 23-24) present an equation to illustrate the crucial role of stylistic values in literary work:

Sense here refers to “the basic logical, conceptual, paraphrasable meaning”; significance refers to “the total of what is communicated to the world by a given sentence or text,” and stylistic value is “a writer’s choice to express his sense in this rather than that way” (Leech and Short 1981: 23-24). According to Leech and Short, it is stylistic value that distinguishes the uniqueness of a literary work. To illustrate this point, let us see a much-quoted sentence by the Founding Father Thomas Paine, and its four paraphrases by the American writer E. B. White:

These are the times that try men’s souls

Paine 2006

  1. Times like these try men’s souls.

  2. How trying it is to live in these times!

  3. These are trying times for men’s souls.

  4. Soulwise, these are trying times.

Strunk and White 1972: 60

The four paraphrases (1-4) are grammatically perfect statements, expressing the basic idea of Paine’s sentence. However, each of the four versions proposed for comparison is, as White puts it, “marked for oblivion,” while the original has been quoted and requoted for over two hundred years and is now well along into its third century (Strunk and White 1972: 60). The success of Paine’s writing is due to its stylistic value, i.e., the proper arrangement of words and its sound effects. Similarly, if a translated literary work possesses no aesthetic value, it would read dull and tasteless, and be doomed to oblivion. Let us look at two examples:

V1 merely translates the sense of the original text, but fails to express the feeling of the character. In comparison, V2 successfully conveys the character’s deep hatred. By putting the original emphatic sentence this was the man who…who…who… into parallel structure 杀…的,是这家伙;一夜之间毁灭了…的,杀害了…的,也是这家伙;践踏了…,夷平了…的,也是这家伙呀!, the translator of V2 highlights the hero’s indignation at the atrocity of the enemy. In addition, V2 satisfactorily represents the rhythm of the original text (Zhang 1987: 127).

At the Jia family get-together on the day of the Lantern Festival, Bao-yu dared not to talk and laugh as he pleased, overwhelmed by the presence of his severe father Jia Zheng. The moment his father was dismissed by Grandmother, Bao-yu jumped out of his seat and began to air his views about the riddles. Although both versions convey the metaphor 如同开了锁的猴子一般 (The Yangs put it as prancing about like a monkey freed from its chain, and Hawkes renders it as capering about for all the world like a captive monkey that had just been let off its chain), the Yangs’ version, to my mind, is not as vivid as Hawkes’, for Bao-yu’s actions 指手画脚, 满口批评, 这个这一句不好, 那一个破的不恰当 are rendered merely into pulling different riddles to pieces, without preserving the original imagery; whereas Hawkes’ translation, began criticizing the riddles on it – this one had a line wrong here – that one’s words didn’t suit the subject – pointing with his finger, successfully represents Bao-yu’s great rejoicing in his father’s absence.

The two examples above strongly indicate that the quality of literary translation depends on the successful representation of aesthetic values. Only when aesthetic values of the original text are satisfactorily conveyed in the receptor language can the reader of the translated text have similar response as the original reader. Liu Shicong (2000: 73) says that literary translation requires “not only linguistic correctness, but also aesthetic appeal.” Zhang also claims that in literary translation, many factors that have to be considered

fall in with aesthetics and art. In a word, to neglect the artistic nature of literary translation is to neglect its social function and, if that is the case, it is bound to end up in formalism of translation, thus reproducing works that are linguistically correct but artistically pale and weak.

Zhang 1987: 16; translated by Liu Shicong

There is no exaggeration to say that the success of literary translation depends to a large extent on the successful representation of aesthetic values, and transference of aesthetic elements is the prerequisite of a literary translation.

As early as the seventeenth century, John Dryden stated that the translator should make his translation graceful “by the spirit which animates the whole” (Kelly 1979: 206-209). C. W. Orr likened translating to painting, and claimed that the painter did not reproduce every detail of the landscape, but selected what seemed best to him. Likewise, the translator sought to embody in his own version “the spirit, not only the letter” (Nida 1964: 162). However, up to now, there are few systematic or satisfactory discussions about the transference of stylistic values in the west (Snell-Hornby 1988: 119-120).

By comparison, in the field of traditional Chinese translation theory there have been abundant discussions about transference of aesthetic values or spirit. From Yan Fu’s faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance through Lin Yutang’s fidelity, smoothness and beauty to Zhu Shenghao and Fu Lei’s spirit resemblance and Qian Zhongshu’s sublimation, all emphasized the importance of transference of spirit in translating. In a sense, the focus of Chinese traditional translation theories is on the successful representation of the spirit or aesthetic values of literary text. Regrettably, most discussions about spirit transference have not gone beyond the sphere of the translator’s subjective perception and appreciation. Such terms as 雅, 意境, 神韵, 神似, 化境, borrowed from Chinese classic literary criticism and painting criticism, are characterized by fuzziness and do not provide any practical approach as to how to reach for the objective of spirit resemblance.

There is no denying that it is not an easy task for the translator to convey the aesthetic values of literary work. Sidney Shapiro, the translator of Outlaws of the Marsh, says, when talking about the difficulty of literary translation, that what common readers want from a translation of a foreign classic, “in addition to the story itself, is the ‘feel’ of an ancient people in a distant land, a sense of the style of the original. That, for the translator, is infinitely more difficult than a mere accurate rendition of plot-line” (Shapiro 1993: viii). Difficult as it is, this does not mean that it is not possible to represent aesthetic values. As V2 in the examples above illustrate, the competent translators have done it very well and produced a number of excellent literary works for us. In the following section, we will examine how aesthetic values of literary works can be transferred in another language.

Liu Miqing has classified aesthetic values into formal aesthetic constituents and non-formal aesthetic constituents. Formal constituents are visible and audible; while non-formal constituents are “of a non-material nature that cannot be felt by intuitive association (直觉联想) alone but by intuitive imagination (直觉想象) – the upgraded intuitive association” (Liu Miqing 1995: 7). Liu’s classification is insightful, pointing the way to the objective analysis of aesthetic elements of literary work in a scientific manner. Based on his classification, the transference of aesthetic values can be dealt with from two aspects, i.e., formal aesthetic markers and non-formal aesthetic markers. Formal markers are perceptible aesthetic features, which can be identified by salient formal features such as choice of words, syntactical structures and textual construction, etc. The translator can make every effort to produce a functional equivalent translation in terms of aesthetic effect of formal markers. Non-formal markers are intangible aesthetic features that the reader can feel, but find it difficult to pinpoint where the beauty resides in a text. Such terms as 风骨,气质,精神,神韵 in traditional Chinese classical aesthetics are the most appropriate expressions in describing these features. These remarks 不着一字, 尽得风流 (The spirit flows without expressions of words), 羚羊挂角, 无迹可求 (The reader cannot trace the word for the spirit of a literary text) actually refer to non-formal aesthetic elements in literary work. A great work of art possesses these two kinds of aesthetic markers, hence the quality of literary translations depends in large measure on the successful representation of these aesthetic markers. In the following section, we will deal with at length how these features can be satisfactorily transferred into another language.

1. Transferring formal aesthetic markers

As artistic beauty of a literary work is achieved through language, the translator can give an objective analysis of detailed working of its stylistic effects by means of linguistic description, and recognize where the beauty resides in the text. Liu Xie, an ancient Chinese philologist, states that the spirit of a text can never go without language:

Sentences are made up of words, paragraphs of sentences and a whole article of paragraphs. That an article is excellent is due to its flawless paragraphs, that a paragraph is fine is due to its blemishless sentences and that a sentence is good is due to proper words.

Liu Zhongde 1991: 123; translated by Liu Zhongde

Formal aesthetic markers are perceptible through choice of words, syntactical structures, rhetorical devices and texture of a text. In my view, the translator can convey aesthetic values by means of formal makers at five levels, namely, phonological, lexical, syntactical, rhetorical, and textual level.

1.1 Phonological level

Phonological beauty is one of the important elements that contribute to the artistic quality of literary work. The British writer W. Somerset Maugham states, “words have weight, sound and appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to” (Wu, Ding et al. 1980: 78). Zhu Guangqian (1984: 356) also says that the spirit of language depends largely on sound and rhythm, which are the most direct means to convey the feelings of the writer and the flavor of the text. If a translator wants to achieve an equivalent effect at the phonological level, he should strive for the representation of sound effect and rhythm of the original in his work. Let us look at some examples:

There are three types of prose: prose of feeling, of sound and of shape. The excerpt from Mao Dun’s Dusk belongs to the type of sound. When reading it, one can hear various sounds in the sea before a heavy storm. By reproducing the correspondent onomatopoeia (such as splash for 啵澌, rumble-rumble for 空隆空隆, and boom-lum-lum, boom-lum-lum for 勃仑仑,勃仑仑”), the translators of V2 strive for an equivalence of sound effect. By comparison, V1 fails to convey the sound effect of the original, for it does not reproduce the original onomatopoeia.

The gentleman Zhen Shiying invites his poor friend Jia Yucun to have a drink on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Chinese sentence reads pleasant to the ear, and its rhythm is like flowing water, which is at first slow and then grows gradually rapid, vividly depicting the scene of their drink. By using stressed and unstressed syllables alternatively and adopting such sentence pattern as “At first…rather slow and ceremonious” and “but gradually…more reckless and uninhibited,” the translator succeeds in reproducing the rhythm of the original, reflecting the phonological beauty of the Chinese sentence.

1.2 Lexical level

Words play a significant role in transferring the spirit of a literary text. In order to convey the spirit, the writer usually selects the most appropriate words to express his meaning. The ancient Chinese writer attaches great importance to wording; and the Western writer also suggests “every word tells” (Strunk and White 1972: ix-x). Therefore, in translating literary works, the translator should pay special attention to the diction of the writer, especially words which have special aesthetic effect. The following two examples illustrate how the translators successfully represent the spirit of the words with special aesthetic effects:

The empty words 者, 也, 之, 乎 are only used in classic Chinese language. It seems impossible to produce a rendering that has an equivalent effect in another language. Lin’s version is a success, because he adopts the archaic English words thou, thee and wherefore and habitual expression is it not so to depict the two pedantic scholars. It can be clearly noted that Lin’s rendering has retained the spirit of the original at the lexical level.

Jia Yun is annoyed with his uncle’s refusal to lend him money when he runs into his neighbor the drunken Ni Er. After Jia tells Ni he has been unfairly treated, Ni promises to get revenge on the man who has wronged him. Hawkes vividly reproduces the drunkenness of Ni Er by using such irregular words as Nemmind, Mist, jus’, Dime, and ungrammatical sentences as Anyone been bothering you. It is safe for us to say that Hawkes’ version achieves the objective of equivalent effect.

1.3 Syntactical level

The writer resorts to various syntactical structures for artistic effects. In translating, one should first analyze how the literary writer arranges his sentences, and why he expresses his idea in this way rather than that way, then he may choose to follow closely the original syntactical structure, or make some readjustments to convey the artistic effect that the writer intends to accomplish.

Cao compares the dragon to the heroes of his age. The first sentence narrates the dragon’s four capabilities: to enlarge, diminish, surge aloft and lie beneath. The following clauses specifically describe the capabilities in parallel structures. The translator succeeds in representing the balancing beauty of the original by following closely the Chinese syntactical structures and putting the expressions of the four capabilities at the beginning of each clause, as the underlined words or phrases show.

The meaning of each version is more or less the same as the original, but, by comparison, V1 is a more satisfactory rendering. Although V2 and V3 adhere closely to the English syntactical structure, they are not so forceful as the original. The translator of V1 highlights the emphasis of the original by using a rhetorical question 是什么左右着英国人的言行举止？是他内心的情绪, 是他灵魂里的气候, thus achieving an equivalent effect in terms of the force of the writer’s language.

1.4 Rhetorical level

Rhetorical devices are deviations of normal expressions, with the intent to create an impact upon the reader by foregrounding. It is advisable for the translator to replace rhetorical devices with their functional equivalents in another language. Otherwise, the forcefulness of the original rhetorical devices will be impaired. For example:

This paragraph consists of four sentences. In the second sentence, The mind is not to be enriched as a coal barge is loaded is a basic metaphor. The third and fourth are metaphorical descriptions of the means by which knowledge is acquired. In V1, the metaphorical image is kept in the third sentence but lost in the fourth. In terms of the overall effect of the metaphor, V1 fails to represent the rhetorical force. In contrast, V2 more satisfactorily conveys the metaphorical images and retains the wholeness of the metaphor in the original.

When Qin Keqing, the favorite daughter-in-law of Jia Zhen, passed away, the whole family was busy preparing for her funeral. Metaphor and hyperbole are employed in this simple sentence. By putting the metaphorical expression 两边灯笼照如白昼 as lanterns on either side turning the night into noonday, and the hyperbolic expression 哭声摇山震岳 as a sound of lamentation that seemed to shake the very buildings to their foundations, Hawkes succeeds in rendering these two rhetorical devices in his English version.

1.5 Textual level

At textual level, we are mainly concerned with cohesiveness and coherence. Since Chinese and English belong to different language families, the links between sentences in a Chinese text and in an English text are quite different. Nida rightly points out:

For Chinese and English, perhaps one of the most important linguistic distinctions is the contrast between the hypotaxis and parataxis. In English and in most Indo-European languages, a great deal of subordination is clearly marked by conjunctions such as, if, although, because, when, in order to, so and so that. One may, however, communicate essentially the same concepts by means of parataxis; that is to say, placing two propositions together without marking the relationship but indicating by content what is the evident relationship.

Nida 1982: 23

Due to these differences between English and Chinese, the translator could add connectives when translating from Chinese into English, or omit unnecessary connectives when going the other way round. Besides conjunctions, other cohesive devices (such as reference, substitution, ellipsis and lexical cohesion) also play a decisive role in constructing a text. In order to produce a translation with good texture, the translator should pay special attention to the problem of cohesive devices and coherence in translating. Here we will take a Chinese passage and its English rendering as an illustration:

Rong Hong is the first Chinese ever to have graduated from an American university. After graduating from Yale, he returns to China and devotes himself to the prosperity of his motherland. The paragraphs above describe Rong’s major contributions to China, i.e., to introduce advanced technology and train talents. Though the Chinese text employs few connectives, it is well constructed with lexical cohesiveness and coherence as the underlined phrases show. The translator reconstructs the texture according to English textual convention (see the underlined words or phrases of the English version). And paragraph transition markers are appropriately rendered into English: 1) 容闳回国后,看到了… If this sentence was translated as After he returned to China, Rong Hong witnessed …, it would be all right. But when we take account of the last sentence in the previous paragraph, namely, 离开耶鲁后, 容闳……回到了祖国的怀抱, such rendering is quite redundant. Liu’s translation But Rong Hong returned only to witness…avoids redundancy, and makes a natural transition between paragraphs. 2) 到安庆后, 容闳向曾国藩提出了… Liu’s translation omits 到安庆后, but such omission is justified, because the last sentence in the previous paragraph (1863年9月, 容闳应邀到达安庆, 入曾国藩大营) has mentioned Rong’s arrival at Anqing. Suppose “到安庆后” was rendered, it would sound unnecessary. 3) 除了兴办近代工业企业,容闳还十分注重… This sentence could be rendered as Besides establishment of modern industries, Rong…. However, since paragraph (2) has elaborated on Rong’s contribution to the establishment of modern industry in China, such rendering is inappropriate. Liu’s translation Besides, Rong… is really a natural paragraph transition. To a certain degree, it is owing to the successful translation of transition markers that the English version has a good texture.

2. Transferring Non-formal Aesthetic Markers

The beauty of a literary work is not merely restricted to formal aesthetic markers. Non-formal makers also contribute to the aesthetic appeal. For instance, when reading Su Shi’s poem “大江东去,浪淘尽千古风流人物”(苏轼《念奴娇·赤壁怀古》), one feels the beauty of the line, though the beauty is not in the individual words, but in the overall power and appeal which arouse the reader’s thoughts on remote things (Liu Miqing 1995). This aesthetic appeal can be explained with the concept of yijing (意境), which in traditional Chinese aesthetics and literary criticism refers to a harmonious relationship between the writer’s personal feeling and the outside world. The above-mentioned line does not simply describe an image, but embodies the feeling and thought of the writer.

In fact, the writer’s feeling and thought play a significant role in non-formal aesthetic markers. According to Liu Xie (2008: 232), “Languages are like leaves of a tree, but the soul of a literary text is the writer’s feeling and thought” (辞为肤叶, 志实骨髓《体性》). Liu Shicong also points out:

The weightiness of a writing, however, is determined first and foremost by the profundity of the thought and the loftiness of the moral character on the part of the author, and its elegance and strength by the brevity, clarity and the appropriateness of syntactic structure.

Liu Shicong 2000: 70

Although non-formal markers are characterized by fuzziness, they are not something mysterious that cannot be analyzed. In a sense, non-formal aesthetic markers rely in large measure on the writer’s personality. Hence before translating, the translator should try to familiarize himself with the writer, and feel the way the writer feels about what he writes. Only when the translator finds himself on the same wavelength as the writer can he understand the particular attitude of the writer and grasp the overall effect of the work, and reproduce non-formal aesthetic markers in another language. It is a demanding job for the translator to do so, but this does not mean that non-formal aesthetic markers cannot be translated. I will, in what follows, concentrate on the transference of imagery, of feeling and of tone to illustrate how competent translators successfully represent the non-formal aesthetic markers. (Nevertheless, non-formal aesthetic markers are not confined to these three aspects, but involve many other aspects, such as feel and flavor of the literary text. Here I only go into detail about the three important aspects.)

2.1 Translating imagery

Before our discussion about the transference of imagery, it is necessary for us to make clear what is imagery. Briefly, imagery is an aesthetic object created by the writer. It is not simply an image (either an object or a person), but is an artistic one that combines an objective image with the subjective feeling of the writer (“意象”是经过艺术构思后形成的审美对象,寄托着作者的思想感情。它并不等同于简单的物象(人或物),而是融合主观的意(情思)和客观的象(景物)为一体的艺术形象). In a literary work, it is the imagery that attracts readers’ attention and gives them aesthetic pleasure. In translating, it is essential for the translator to reproduce the original imagery, for its representation ensures the transference of artistic values of the original text. The Chinese literary translator Mao Dun says:

Literary translation is to reproduce the artistic imagery of the original in another language so that the reader of the translation may be inspired, moved and aesthetically entertained in the same way as they read the original (Liu Zhongde 1991: 104; with my revision of Liu’s translation).

The importance of imagery transference can be illustrated by the following example:

The writer employs the symbolic imagery of darkness to describe Lucrezia’s loneliness. She feels lonely because her husband is mad and yet she has no friends to talk to. The imagery of darkness appropriately reflects her feeling of loneliness and helplessness. In V1, this symbolic imagery is not satisfactorily rendered, for except the image of darkness there appears also the image of light (当曙光洗净四壁的黑暗, 照出每个窗户, 驱散田野上的薄雾, 照见那些棕红色奶牛在安详地吃草, 一切事物重又整整齐齐地呈现于眼前, 恢复了生存。), which strikes a discordant note in the overall imagery. In V2, the image of light is put in brackets, indicating it is not the focus of this paragraph and meanwhile the image of darkness is highlighted. The translator Gu Qinan explains:

If this paragraph is viewed in context, the writer’s focus is on creating an atmosphere of darkness. Though light is depicted in the original, it is not the focus of this paragraph, but the character’s casual association, for it is a part of an adverbial clause that modifies an attributive clause. In order to ensure the transference of the imagery of “darkness” as the focus, the description of light is put in brackets in my translation, with the result that the shift of focus is avoided and the imagery of “darkness” is highlighted.

Gu Qinan 1998: 3[1]

This example demonstrates the fact that the successful representation of imagery depends largely on the translator’s sensitivity to the feeling that the writer intends to convey through the imagery.

2.2 Translating feeling

The beauty of a literary work not only lies in the language of the text, but also in the writer’s feeling expressed through language. In a sense, any work of art is an expression of feeling. The French sculptor Rodin says that “art is feeling.” Liu Xie even advocates “writing for feeling” (“为情而造文”《情采》), taking feeling as the fundamental basis of beauty in an article. Since the writer’s feeling is an essential component of a literary work, it is very necessary for the translator to convey the writer’s feeling. Let us look at an example:

This paragraph was the author’s narrative after Xue Pan ordered his servants to seize the girl Ying Lian and kill Feng Yuan, who had bought the girl as his wife from a man-trader, who sold the girl again to Xue Pan. After Feng was beaten to death, Xue departed for the capital according to original schedule as if nothing had happened. When reading such phrases as 竟视为儿戏, 几个臭钱, 没有不了的, we can feel the writer’s indignation. By using such expressions as a mere bagatelle, a certain amount of coin and confidently be expected to resolve, the translator appropriately conveys the writer’s condemnation of such scandal characteristic of the feudal society.

2.3 Translating tone

It is difficult to transfer the content of a literary text, but it is even more difficult to translate the tone, because it is beyond the surface meaning of words. Nevertheless, it is of great necessity to produce the tone in literary translation. Mao Dun says:

If a translator cannot produce ‘the tone of sentence’ in the original, the spirit of the text cannot be fully conveyed in his translation […] Therefore, I think the literary translator should pay more attention to the preservation of ‘the tone of sentence’.

Mao 1984: 97

Huang Yushi (1988: 279) expresses a similar view in stating that if the translator uses the same tone to render the speeches of different characters in a novel, his rendering will end in failure even if the meaning of each sentence is “correctly” rendered. Take two Chinese renderings of the same paragraph from Huckleberry Finn for example:

Because Jim touches a snake-skin, he has been ill for four days. So Finn decides to take Jim’s advice not to touch a snake-skin. Though V1 conveys the basic sense of the original, it does not preserve the tone of the sentences. For instance, the tone between the two sentences 他说他宁可… and 我自己也渐渐地以为如此了 is unclear. 在一个人所作所为的当中 does not articulate appropriately the tone of Finn as a child (Huang 1988: 293). By contrast, V2 is a successful attempt, as the underlined words illustrate.

So far we have discussed transference of aesthetic values in terms of formal markers and non-formal markers respectively. However, in a literary work formal markers and non-formal markers are really inseparable. Robert J. Waller (1992: 47) in his The Bridges of Madison County says, “Analysis destroys wholes. Some things, magic things, are meant to stay whole. If you look at their pieces, they go away.” Waller’s assertion shows that it is of great importance to appreciate the beauty of a literary work as a whole. To illustrate the transference of aesthetic values of a literary text in terms of formal markers and non-formal markers, we may look at an essay A Watering Place and its Chinese rendering:

This English essay describes a beautiful scenic spot, the so-called watering place, to which various notorious persons such as gamesters, pick-pockets, harlots resort. The writer shows his disgust at this place with biting sarcasm. The translator succeeds in conveying the ironical tone of the original text. For instance, in sentence (8) Memorandum: he was a member for Oxford when he said this!, Memorandum is a formal expression used in international affairs. By putting it as 查此人作此语时, which is an equivalent Chinese official rhetoric, the translator reproduces the spirit of the original text at lexical level. If it was rendered as 备忘录, its ironical spirit could not be kept in Chinese, and the whole translation would lose too much flavor (Yuan 1990: 359). 所谓温泉胜地是也 for what they call a ‘watering place,’ and 这等地方 for a place like this and To places like this represent vividly the writer’s disgusting feeling toward this notorious watering place. In terms of rhetorical devices, the hyperbolic expression To places like this come all that is knavish and all that is foolish and all that is base is satisfactorily rendered as 来这等地方的都是最恶劣、最愚蠢、最下流的人 with a similar emphasis upon the three types of persons. The succinct parallelism young wife-hunters in search of rich and ugly and old women, and young husband-hunters in search of rich and wrinkled or half-rotten men is also appropriately put as the Chinese parallel structures 一心想娶有钱的丑老婆子的年轻男子,一心想嫁有钱的满脸皱纹、半身入土的老头子的年轻女人. Long sentences are skillfully handled as well. Take the English sentence (3) for example. It contains ninety words, but the translator replaces it with four short Chinese sentences [(4), (5), (6) in the Chinese version], which ensure the readability and naturalness of the Chinese version. By adding necessary conjunctions and repetitions (such as 但是… and 原来… in sentence (4), and 这地方 and 他们 in sentence (5), the translator makes his version cohesive and coherent. As Yuan Jinxiang (1990: 358) rightly remarks, Wang’s handling of long sentences avoids stylistically awkwardness, and allows the Chinese reader to understand the meaning with ease and efficiency. In terms of the transference of non-formal markers, the translation successfully represents the ironic tone which pervades the original text. The translator grasps the spirit of the original, and conveys it in every word and every sentence. The success of this Chinese rendering can be best explained in the translator’s own words,

When the translator grasps the imagery, mood or effect of a literary text as a whole, he will find that some minor alterations of individual details do not affect the transference of the overall effect of his translation.

Wang Zuoliang 1989: 74

Nevertheless, the emphasis on wholeness does not necessarily mean that the translator need not pay due attention to details. Rather, the successful representation of the overall artistic effect of the text in a literary translation consists in transferring accurately the details, such as words, syntactical structures and rhetorical devices. As the example above proves, the proper combination of the two can provide a satisfactory solution to the successful representation of aesthetic values in literary translation.