Tibetan Narrative in Howard Goldblatt’s Translation: From The Dust Settles to Red Poppies

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Dust Settles, a masterpiece of the famous Tibetan author Alai, has won the influential Mao Dun Literature Award in China. This work of fiction has also attracted overseas scholars and in 2002 even the well-known translators Howard Goldblatt and his wife Sylvia Li-chun Lin translated this work into English with the title Red Poppies. Rewriting of the title indicated Goldblatt’s domestication translation strategy with the purpose to entertain his readers and to follow American ideology. This translation strategy improved the popularity and circulation of the English version, leaving sufficient room for imagination for the readers. On the other hand, this translation strategy diminished the Tibetan historical narrative, changed ideological discourses such as relationships between Tibetan and Han nationalities and created a gulf between different Tibetan classes and abandoned some Han and Tibetan qualities of the fiction. This interpretation led some readers to overstate the identity anxiety of the Tibetan authors and the conflict between Tibetan and Han culture.