Lyell’s Views of Translation in the Perspective of Thick Translation—Cat Country as an Example

Abstract

As China’s first science fiction novel, Lao She’s satirical novel Cat Country has been welcomed by readers as soon as it was released in its first English translation. The success of this novel’s foreign translation cannot be separated from the translator William Lyell’s “thick translation”. By describing the explicit and implicit thick translation methods of Lyell’s translation of Cat Country, analyzing the translator’s thick translation skills under the characterization of thick translation, the principle of truth-seeking in translating culture, and the translation guideline of serving the readers of the translated language, the article reveals the basic rationale of the successful translation of Lyell’s translation, which will serve as a reference for the foreign translation of Chinese literature, and better serve the translation practice and theoretical construction.