Translation of Lu Xun’s Essays — between Fidelity and Freedom

Abstract This paper aims to examine the perspective of fidelity vs. freedom, from the study of the Portuguese translation of Lu Xun’s essays, produced by third year students of the Portuguese-Chinese Translation and Interpreting course of the Leiria Polytechnic Institute, Portugal, during their study in 2014 at the School of Languages and Translation of the Macao Polytechnic Institute. Their translations were published in Estudio dos Três Sabores.During the whole translation process, the inexperienced young translators tried to put into practice translation techniques – considering various possibilities, making revisions and writing self-reflections, while confronting fidelity to the source text with the freedom afforded by cultural and linguistic differences. By analysing the various solutions found by these translators, this paper attempts to point out the dilemma of translation and to bring a new perspective in terms of fidelity and freedom in translation.