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A translator is at the same time social and individual. Which means he is constrained by social and cultural norms of the time, and at the same time, has his own specific individuality and agency. The translator's agency and the factors that constrain his agency exist side by side. On the one hand, the translator is bound to constraints by certain factors in his exercise of agency. Faced with many constraints, on the other hand, the translator still has room to exert his agency. Translation is a combination of universal constraints on translators as a group and the agency of translators as individuals. As Hermans (Hermans 1999b:74) put it, "translation decisions are neither fully predetermined nor totally idiosyncratic". Over-emphasis on social constraints and ignoring the translator's agency will result in the fall of the translator's status and responsibility as well as the quality of translations. And negligence of cultural norms might lead to random translation.

Translation, as a norms-governed creative work, requires the translator to follow his own inclinations, but within an acceptable range of norms. For this, the maximum use of the translator's agency is required. Norms ensure the suitability of the translation behavior, and the translator's agency is the source of creativity. Both the adherence to and loosening up of norms require the translator's agency. A dialectical rather than a mechanical view of their relationship is healthy for translation studies and practice.

REFERENCES

Cha, Mingjian (2003) On the Subjectivity of the Translator Chinese Translators Journal.Vol. 24, No. 1.

Chen, Fukang (1992) History of Chinese Translation Theories Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Languages Education Press.

Chesterman, Andrew (1997) Memes of Translation: The Spread of Ideas in Literary Translation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Hermans, Theo (1985) The Manipulation of Literature: Studies in Literary Translation. London and Sydney: Croom Helm Ltd.

Hermans, Theo (1999a) Translation and Normativity. In Schaffner, Christina (ed.) Translation and Norms. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Hermans, Theo (1999b) Translation in Systems Manchester, UK: St Jerome Publishing.

Lefevere, Andre (1990) Translation: Its Genealogy in the West in Susan Bassnett and Andre Lefevere (eds.) Translation, History and Culture. London and New York: Pinter.

Lefevere, Andre (1992) Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London and New York: Routledge.

Ma, Shikui (2003) Chinese Translation of Foreign Literature During 'The Cultural Revolution', Chinese Translators Journal, Vol. 24, No 3.

Tan, Zaixi (1991) Brief History of Western Translation Beijing: The Commercial Press.

Toury, Gideon (1995) Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Toury, Gideon (1998) A Handful of Paragraphs on Translation and Norms, Current Issues in Language & Society, Vol. 5, Nos. 1&2.

Wang, Kefei & Fan, Shouyi (1999) Translation in China: A Motivating Force Meta, XLIV, (1).

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