On the Cultural Empathy in Literary Translation

Literary translation not only needs the technological change in its external form from one language to another, but also requires the translator's profound understanding of the creative process of the author through the tool of the original language. During the process of translation, through cultural empathy, the translator can consciously surpass the framework of his native culture and thoroughly comprehend the culture of the target language in order to experience the psychological process of the original culture and reason out the closest equivalents in his own ideas about life and life examples. Then, through the use of another literary language, he can properly reproduce the artistic images and writing styles of the original works and provides the readers of the translated works with the same enlightenment, touch and aesthetic enjoyment of the readers of the original works.