A Translator as a Subject of Ecotranslatology

The article attempts to establish the connection between Russian-language and Chinese-language concepts that define the modern interdisciplinary ecological paradigm in approaching language, culture, text, discourse, and their interlingual and intercultural interaction in the process of translation. The research is based on the concepts of ecotranslatology developed by Chinese scholars and translation ecology presented in the works of Russian authors. Both concepts form the methodological basis of the research. Within the scope of translation ecology, the concept of translation space developed by L. V. Kushnina is examined, with cognition, synergy, and harmony being its key notions. The ecological approach has expanded the understanding of the fields within the translation space where synergies of meanings occur, leading to harmony, and introduced the notion of an ecofield that deals with eco-senses and eco-concepts. In the realm of ecotranslatology, Hu Genshen, a well-known figure not only in China but also in the West, introduces ideas of ecological balance, multidimensional transformation of text, adaptation to the eco-environment, which determines the ecological nature of translated text and leads to semantic proportionality. The present study deals with texts in three languages – Russian, French, and Chinese. Poetic texts by S. Yesenin and prose texts by V. Bianki were used as originals. Their translations into French and Chinese were analyzed, allowing the authors to perceive an expanded panorama of eco-translation discourse. As a result of the research, the importance of the eco-translation approach to the analysis of translation processes in terms of language-meaning perception and language-meaning generation is demonstrated, leading to the conclusion about the possibility of integrating these two scientific schools to cognize the underlying principles of the translation process and enhance its quality.