“A thousand years of Sichuan, a hundred years of Sichuan opera”. Sichuan opera is a bright pearl in the treasure house of Chinese opera, and a precious intangible cultural heritage. Sichuan operas have a wide range of repertoire, a realistic and delicate performance, a rich life atmosphere, and a script with high literary value. The Sichuan opera is one of the “winning cards” of Sichuan to the world, and more and more Sichuan operas are coming out of China to the international stage, conveying Sichuan culture and Chinese culture, and many foreign youths are coming to Sichuan to understand and learn Sichuan opera, so it is necessary to study the English translation of Sichuan opera.

The research on the English translation of Sichuan opera has been increasing year by year, which also shows that the translation field is concerned about the foreign communication of Sichuan opera culture, but it is still dominated by the research of domestic scholars in this field. The research on the English translation of Sichuan opera can be summarized into two categories: one is to study the translation of Sichuan opera as a whole; while the other is to study the translation of individual Sichuan opera plays as an entry point.

The study of the translation of Sichuan opera as a whole has a guiding effect on the translation of Sichuan opera in a general way. [1] guided by the culturalist view of theater translation, proposes the translating strategies of Sichuan opera as follows: selecting scripts based on the principle of “humanism”; combining Chinese and Western literary performance forms; adopting domestication and foreignization, comprehensively considering all elements of the cultural system, and achieving functional equivalence between the source text and the target text as much as possible at the cultural level. [2] discussed the translation of Sichuan opera and its going abroad from the perspective of communication science, mainly analyzing the selection of Sichuan opera scripts, the innovation of Sichuan opera performances, and the overseas audiences of Sichuan opera performances. [3] analyzed the role of translation in the dissemination of Sichuan opera and the ways of translation in the dissemination of Sichuan opera in foreign communication: such as the translation of Sichuan opera genres and the translation of Sichuan opera subtitles. [4] first analyzed the cultural significance and industrial value of Sichuan opera translation and dissemination in the context of globalization, and concluded that the challenges currently faced by the translation and dissemination of Sichuan opera include: the disparity in the strength of Chinese and foreign communication; the mode and method not in line with the times; and the relatively dull content, etc., and put forward the appropriate countermeasures: gathering the strength of all sectors and strengthening the management of the industry; and making full use of the advantages of old and new media. The following countermeasures are proposed: to gather the strength of all sectors and strengthen the management of the industry; to make full use of the advantages of old and new media; to form a diversified mode of communication and marketing; to conduct classification studies on the audience, etc. All these studies have made pertinent suggestions for the translation and foreign communication of Sichuan opera from an overall perspective.

Taking the translation of individual Sichuan opera scripts as the object of study, the translation and dissemination of the selected Sichuan opera scripts can be promoted in a more focused manner. [5] studied the strategy of English translation of Sichuan opera from a cultural perspective, taking the Sichuan opera Rolling Lantern as an example, analyzed the Sichuan dialect, Sichuan opera folklore features, and Sichuan opera humor and entertainment expressions appearing in this opera, proposed specific translation strategies, and concluded that the foreignization should be the first choice for English translation of Sichuan opera, and the domestication can be used as a supplement and aid [6]analyzed the creation characteristics of the Sichuan opera Love under the Willows and the period characteristics of Yang Xiangyi and Gladys Yang’s translation, and proposed specific strategies in terms of the translation of Chinese characteristic cultural words, singing and titles in the play. [7] studied the Sichuan opera Jinzi as a case study from the Skopos theory, and  analyzed the purpose of the English translation of Sichuan opera: to actively promote the transmission and dissemination of Chinese culture around the world and to achieve global cultural pluralism. Specific strategies are proposed for the translation of poetic language, characteristic dialects, and folklore allusions in Jinzi. The translation studies of these Sichuan opera cases can both promote the translation and dissemination of individual Sichuan opera scripts in a more targeted manner on the one hand, and make suggestions for the English translation of Sichuan opera as a whole to promote its foreign dissemination on the other.

The study of Lady Macbeth focuses more on the creation of the playwright Xu Fen. The current studies on the English translations of Sichuan opera mainly focus on the studies of the English translations of plays such as Jinzi, Love under the Willows and The Rolling Lantern, etc. Fewer studies have been conducted on the English translation of Xu Fen’s Lady Macbeth, and only [8] studied its creation and English translation, suggesting the characteristics of Xu Fen’s play from the creation aspect: simplifying the appearing characters, plot, and adding language expressions with the characteristics of traditional Chinese drama, etc., and suggesting that the translator consciously used domestication in the translation, with the purpose of making the play understandable to the Western audience. The purpose is to make the play understandable to Western audiences. It can be seen that studying the English translation of the play from different perspectives can further promote the dissemination of Lady Macbeth and Sichuan opera to foreign countries, and this is the gap that this thesis is trying to fill.

The Sichuan opera Lady Macbeth was adapted from the Shakespearean play Macbeth by Sichuan playwright Xu Fen, who was commissioned by Sichuan actress Tian Mansha to adapt the Shakespearean play Macbeth into the Sichuan opera Lady Macbeth in 1999, which was performed for the first time in the First Chinese Sichuan Opera Arts Festival. In 2020, Yuxi Yunnan Theatre also adapted Lady Macbeth into a Yunnan opera and performed it, which will further expand the influence of the play.

Xu Fen’s adaptation of the Sichuan opera Lady Macbeth has three features: First, it simplifies the characters who appear in the play. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, there are many other characters in addition to the Macbeth couple, while in Lady Macbeth, there are only the Macbeth couple and four maids, and from the beginning to the end of Macbeth has no lines. Second, the plot is simplified. Xu Fen’s play omits many scenes, such as the three witches, the assassination, the feast, etc., and focuses mainly on Lady Macbeth’s depiction. Third, the language features of traditional Chinese drama is used. In Zhu Shenghao’s translation of Macbeth, the translation strategy of foreignization was adopted, retaining “爵士”, “陛下” and “储君”, etc., while Xu Fen’s play adopts domestication the more. In contrast, Xu Fen’s play uses more culturally appropriate expressions such as “平西王”, “皇上” and “万岁爷” ^[Error! Bookmark not defined.^].

After numerous overseas performances, Liana Chen, a Chinese-American scholar, translated Lady Macbeth into English based on Tian Mansha’s performance. Born in California, Liana Chen studied in Taiwan and France before returning to California, where she received her Ph.D from Stanford University and is currently an assistant professor at George Washington University, focusing on traditional and contemporary Chinese fiction, opera, film, and women writers, with a special emphasis on traditional Chinese local opera^①. A study of the English version could facilitate the spread of Chinese Sichuan opera culture in the overseas world, and at the same time, since the original Chinese script is being adapted from Shakespeare, it would be more likely to resonate with overseas audiences.

Xu Yuanchong, who was born in 1921 and died on June 17, 2021, undoubtedly has a great influence in the world of poetry translation. He wrote a lot of books, especially poetry translations that caused a sensation at home and abroad, and his main translations include The Book of Songs, Song of the Immortals, 300 Song Lyrics and so on. On the basis of a large number of poetry translations, Xu Yuanchong proposed the “Three Beauties” translation theory.

The “Three Beauties” theory is based on the translation theories of his predecessors, especially on the “Three Beauties” principle of literary creation proposed by Lu Xun, which he borrowed for poetry translation. It is believed that the translation of poetry should realize the beauty of sound, sense and form.

Beauty in sense means that the translation of poetry should preserve the beauty of the mood or association produced by the original poem. Not only the surface meaning of the original text should be expressed, but also the deeper sense of the original text should be expressed^[1]

Beauty in sound means to keep the rhythm of the original poem as much as possible, so that the translation can be rhyming, catchy and smooth ^[Error! Bookmark not defined.^].

Beauty in form refers to making the lines well-arranged, with equivalent forms^[Error! Bookmark not defined.^].

Regarding the relationship between these three beauties, Xu Yuanchong believes that beauty in sense is the most important, followed by beauty in sound and beauty in form, and the best state is to achieve The best state is to achieve the three beauties^[10].

Sichuan opera lyrics are similar to poetry. The pursuit of the three beauties is what should be striven to achieve in the translation of Sichuan opera lyrics, but it is very difficult to fully realize the three beauties in the translation. In this thesis, four lyrics will be taken as an example to show how the translator tries to realize three beauties in this translation.

Example 1

ST：宫庭静静，宫帏深深。

    夜色黯黯，夜梦沉沉^[[i]]。

TT：The court is all quiet; the hidden quarter still.

    The night has fallen dark; the ladies are in deep dreams[4].

Table 1: Number of words per line and rhyming words in Example 1

Line     Characters in ST      Words in TT      Rhyming in ST     Rhyming in TT

Line 1           8                                9                          深                              /

Line 2             8                                11                         沉                              /

Beauty in sense. In just eighteen Chinese characters, there are four images:“宫庭” “宫帏” “夜色” and “夜梦”. In the translation, “宫庭” and “夜色”are each directly translated into one word “court” and “night”, while “宫帏” and “夜梦”  are treated as “hidden quarter” and “deep dreams”. The English translations of the four images are relatively straightforward and lack a certain literary artistry compared with the Chinese images in ST. In addition, the translator also added the image “ladies” in the last part to make the expression conform to the English language.

Beauty in sound. Table 1 shows that in ST the last characters of the two lines “深” and “沉” rhyme with the end rhyme “en”, while in the translation the lines are ended with “still” and “dream”, which cannot be rhymed. In addition, the original lyrics have a beautiful rhythm, which is also difficult to preserve in English.

Beauty in form. Both lines are composed of four-character expressions, and the overall structure is extremely neat, with the format “ABCC, ADEE” in both lines, and the first and second half of the lines having the same initial words “宫庭” ,“宫帷”, “夜色” and “夜梦”. Besides, the last two words in each half of the line are “静静”“深深”“黯黯”and “沉沉”, which are particularly neat in structure. Due to the difference between the Chinese and English languages, it is difficult to retain all the above features in the English translation, but the translator still tries to retain the meaning and expression of the original text as much as possible, but in general, the number of words is not completely consistent, and it is not as concise and catchy as ST.

Example 2

ST:看今朝，忆从前，有位佳人游花园。

登锦阁，放眼看，看见一个好儿男。

他行如玉树临风舞，站如泰山顶青天;.

他弯弓射落云里雁，徒手擒得林中獾。

佳人私奔随他去，皆因为早知夫君不平凡。

不平凡，非等闲，非等闲就该坐金銮。

再不受人来调遣，唯你独尊天地间^[i]。

TT: Once upon a time, a beautiful maid was wandering in the garden.

From the embroidered pavilion, she caught the sight of a handsome young man.

When he walked, he walked like a jade tree standing against the wind.

When he stood, he stood like Mount Tai holding up the sky.

Raising his bow to his shoulder, he shot the wild geese flying high in the sky.

With bare hands, he captured the wild boar hiding in the woods.

The maid eloped with the man--a great warrior with unusual talents.

A man of his caliber is destined to ascend to the throne.

From now on, he will serve the interest of no one 

But heaven and earth[11^]

Table 2: Number of words per line and rhyming words in Example 2

Line   Characters    Words                     Rhyming                               Rhyming 

                in ST              in TT                      in ST                                      in TT

Line 1     13                12                        园                                garden

Line 2     13                 13                       男                                man

Line 3     15                13+12                 天                               wind/sky

Line 4     15               16+12                  獾                               sky/woods

Line 5       17                 12                       凡                                talents

Line 6      14                 12                        銮                                throne

Line 7       14                15                         间                                one/earth

Beauty in sound. In this section of lyrics, ST adopts the rhyme “an” at the end of the lines, and the rhyming words are “前”, “园”, “看”, “男”, “天”, “雁”, “獾”, “凡”, “闲”, “銮”, “遣”and “间”. In the translation, the translator also tries to rhyme, such as “garden”, “pavilion” and “man” in the first and second lines; “walked”, “wind” and “stood” in the third and fourth lines; two “sky” at the end of the fourth and fifth lines; “hands”, “woods” and “talents” in the s9th and seventh lines; and “throne” and “one” in the eighth and ninth lines. The Chinese expressions “看今朝”, “忆从前”, “登锦阁” and “放眼看” all include three characters, while the following expressions are seven Chinese characters, neatly matched; in addition, “前”, “园”, “看” and “男” rhyme at the end “an”. In the translation, Liana Chen treats the first two phrases of each line as the gerund “Once upon a time” and “From the embroidered pavilion”, which is also matched. In addition, the last words “garden” and “man” in both lines have similar ending sounds.

Beauty in sense. The direct translation of the images of “锦阁”, “玉树”, “雁” and “獾” can make foreign readers understand the Chinese culture. However, the beautiful image in ST is obliterated when it is translated into English, for example, “雁” is a bird flying in the sky and “獾” is a beast running on the ground in Chinese culture, both of which echo each other and rhyme with “an” in Chinese pronunciation, but “geese” and “boar” cannot rhyme in the English translation. The characters “锦” and “玉” are symbols of beauty in Chinese, and their direct translation into English as “embroidered” and “jade” does not convey the cultural meaning contained in ST.

Beauty in form. In the third and fourth lines, the first and second half of the line are in perfect harmony, while in the translation, each line is split into two to maintain neatness. “When he walked” and “when he stood” correspond, and “he walked like...standing ...” and “he stood like...holding...” correspond, “against the wind “ and “up the sky” both take the form of prepositions plus nouns and faithfully convey the words “临风舞” and “顶青天” in ST. The latter two lines also adopt the same preposition-plus-noun form. The next two lines also take the same form of gerund plus main clause: “Raising his bow to his shoulder” and “With bare hands” to echo each other, and “he shot...flying” and “he captured...hiding”, and finally the neat use of “in the sky” and “in the woods”.

Example 3

ST: 快把计谋藏，速将笑脸装。

受宠的感激，要挂在眉梢眼角上;

报恩的殷勤，要手指脚尖都在忙。

阿谀的话儿，要口若悬河滔滔讲,

讲得他云里雾里不提防。

赞美的曲儿，要含情脉脉低低唱,

唱得他亦飘亦荡如痴狂。

只等那万籁俱寂三更后，

且看这血溅象牙床。

我为夫把钢刀磨亮磨亮再磨亮....

帮  恶女人丧尽天良^[i]。

TT: Let us quickly conceal the plot and put on a smile.

Faking sincerity, we express our gratitude of this unexpected imperial favor.

We are busy from head to toe in repaying the emperor’s kindness.

Flattery words flow out of our mouth like running rivers.

Let the sweet words flow until he relaxes his vigilance.

Songs of praise linger in the air of this palace,

We will sing until he is overwhelmed by the melody of appreciation.

When the night is dark and all quiet,

His blood will spill all over this ivory bed.

To this end, I am polishing, polishing, polishing this blade,

for my dear husband.

Chorus: This crazy woman has completely lost her conscience^[Error! Bookmark not defined.^].

Table 3: Number of words per line and rhyming words in Example 3

Line     Characters      Words   Rhyming         Rhyming 

in ST                 inTT        in ST                     in TT

Line 1    10                       11                   装                                               /

Line 2     13                      11                  上                                                 /

Line 3          13                 12                  忙                         kindness

Line 4          13                 10               讲                               rivers

Line 5          10                 10                  防                          vigilance

Line 6          13                 10                  唱                            palace

Line 7          10                  12                  狂                                                       /

Line 8          10                  8                     /                                   /

Line 9          8                     9                     床                                                       bed

Line 10      13                   10+4           亮                                blade/husband

Line 11      7                      8                     良                                conscience

Beauty in sense. The expressions “眉梢眼角” and “含情脉脉” have been omitted in the translation. The translation of “手指脚尖” is borrowed from the English expression “from head to toe”, which is similar to the original expression and is more conducive to the understanding of English readers. The translation of “口若悬河” adopts the literal translation, which retains the simile in ST. In the translation of “钢刀”, the modifier “刚” in ST is omitted, and the actual meaning contained in it is directly expressed as “blade”, which does not exactly correspond to the image in ST. This does not exactly correspond to the image in ST, but makes the Western audience to understand its meaning.

Beauty in sound. ST rhymes with “ang” in each line: “装”, “上”, “忙”, “讲”, “防”, “唱”, “狂”, “床”, “亮”and “良”. The translation also tries to rhyme the endings, such as “kindness”, “rivers”, “vigilance”, “palace” and “conscience”; and “bed”, “blade” and “husband”.

Beauty in form. In the first line, “快把计谋藏，速将笑脸装”, “快” and “速”，“把” and “将”，“计谋” and “笑脸”，“藏” and “装” correspond with each other. But in the translation, they are just literally translated into “Let us quickly conceal the plot and put on a smile”, not so neat as ST. It is also true of “阿谀的话儿，要口若悬河滔滔讲，讲得他云里雾里不提防。”and “赞美的曲儿，要含情脉脉低低唱，唱得他亦飘亦荡如痴狂”。It is difficult to keep this neatness, so just the literal meaning is conveyed.

Example 4

ST: 帮  金交椅，金銮殿.

夫人 （唱）金光四射目晕眩。

多少人为它苦征战， 

多少人为它赴黄泉。

多少人为它反目结仇怨，

多少人为它相残骨肉间。

天赐良机我遂愿

称王称后在今天。

哪怕双手鲜血染

帮 俯视苍生我掌权^[i]。

TT: Chorus: The golden throne in the golden palace.

Lady Macbeth: The glare of its light is making me dizzy.

How many people fought painstakingly for it?

How many lost their lives for it?

How many good friends became enemies for it?

How many killed their own brothers and sons because of it?

Heaven has bestowed upon us some good fortune,

Our dream fulfilled.

Today we will proclaim the throne.

Even if my hands are stained with blood,

Chorus: This pair of blood-stained hands will uphold the power of the kingdom^[Error! Bookmark not defined.^].

Table 4: Number of words per line and rhyming words in Example 4

Line   Characters in ST   Words in TT Rhyming in ST    Rhyming  in TT

Line 1            6                     7                                              殿                  /

Line 2            7                      9                                              眩                    /

Line 3            8                      7                                              战                   it     

Line 4            8                      7                                              泉                   it           

Line 5            10                  8                                              怨                   it       

Line 6            10                   11                                           间                   it       

Line 7            7                      8+3                                         愿            fortune/fulfilled

Line 8            7                      6                                              天                  throne

Line 9            7                      8                                              染                  blood

Line 10          7                      12                                           权                    /

Beauty in sense. In Chinese, “骨肉” usually refers to parents, siblings and other relatives, and there are many expressions related to flesh and bones, such as “至亲骨肉”, “骨肉分离” and “骨肉相残”.“骨肉” is translated into “their own brothers and sons”, which is more in line with the context, because in that era, the power struggle of flesh and blood was mainly refers to that between fathers and sons and brothers. The expressions “三更” and “黄泉” are also expressions with unique Chinese features, which are difficult for Western readers to understand if they are literally translated. For the translation of these two images, the translator has linked them together with other parts in the lines, translating them into “night” and “lost their lives”. In the last line, “俯视苍生我掌权”, the author adopts free translation, “俯视苍生” is omitted, and “我” is not directly translated as “I”. It is translated into “this pair of blood-stained hands”,which is a good follow-up to “my hands are stained with blood” in the previous line.

Beauty in sound. Table 4 shows that each line in ST rhymes with “an”, while the last word in the translation is “it” in Lines 3 to 6; “fortune” and “throne”, “fulfilled” and “blood” in lines 7 to 9. 

Beauty in form. In the first line, “金交椅” and “金銮殿” are separated by a comma, and the two expressions are translated in the same line “The golden throne in the golden palace”, which can be well understood by the target audience, but the form beauty in ST is lost. In general, the number of characters in ST and the number of words in TT are not too different from each other, and the meaning of the ST is expressed in TT with as few words as possible. ST uses the repetitive expression “多少人为它…” in the third, fourth, fifth and s9th lines, and this repetition is also used in English "how many...for/of it ", which retains the form beauty of ST to a large extent.

From the above examples, it can be seen that the translation of the lyrics in the Sichuan opera Lady Macbeth has achieved beauty in form and beauty in sound, but there is still a certain lack in beauty in sense. This is also due to the difference between the Chinese and Western cultures, and many cultural expressions with Chinese features are difficult to be fully reproduced in English. In future translations of Sichuan opera lyrics, the translators should continue to think about how to realize the beauty in sense so that the Western audiences can appreciate the beauty in the Chinese language and culture.

Acknowledgments

This paper is the result of the research on the English Translation of Lyrics in the Sichuan opera Lady Macbeth, a key project of Leshan Science and Technology Bureau in 2020, Project No. 20SZD161.

(基金项目：本文为2020年乐山市科技局重点项目“川剧《马克白夫人》中唱词英译研究”研究成果，项目编号为20SZD161。)

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest

No funding sources

The study was approved by the Leshan Normal University, China

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