Sound Pattern, Form And Meaning

Tang poetry has achieved an unprecedented greatness. Tang poets are known for exploring their language to its utmost limits resulting in a poetry with a delicacy, a complexity and allusiveness unknown and foreign to Western readers. Many translators home and abroad have practiced Tang poetry translation. And most of them have established their own approaches, which, however, seem a far cry one from the other. There appears to be a lack of consistency in theory and practice. Hence the necessity for further study of the problem. This essay attempts to explore the key issues of Tang poetry translation in terms of sound pattern, form and meaning on the theoretical basis of Nida's "Dynamic Equivalence" and Xu Yuanchong's criterion of "Three Beauties". Other theories or principles relevant to the question will also be discussed in brief when and where necessary, along with a detailed analysis of the major factors affecting the translation process. Five poems have been selected and analysed for justification of the feasibility of these theories and principles for the translation of Tang poetry and evaluation of such.The key issue involved in Tang poetry translation include the handling of sound pattern, verse form or structure and meaning. As for the problem of sound pattern, some translation theorists like Weng Xianliang proposes to put emphasis on the meaning of a poem rather than bound by the sound and form for ideal rendering as a whole while Xu Yuanchong advocates reproducing rhyme schemes in verse translation. Though maintaining rhyme and metrical system poses its problem due to the great differences between sound patterns in Chinese and English poetry, it is not altogether impossible to recreate in the English version sound pattern features of the Tang original. it is not advisable to disregard the sound pattern totally because, if there were no rhyme, not only much of the beauty of Tang poetry would get lost, but even the meaning itself would be undermined; just as music does by sound, Tang poetry conveys at least much, if not all, of the poet's meanings and emotions. Mr. Xu Yuanchong who has put forward the criterion of "three similarities"—meaning similarity, sound similarity and form similarity, has been a consistant advocator and sucessful practioneer of the rhyming school.This tentative study aims at sifting out of the many principles most clearcut and followable approach for the improvement of Tang poetry translation. The author presumes that, should the dynamic equivalence of three beauties or three similarities be stuck to, Tang poetry translation in particular, and classical poetry translation in general, would possibly see a brighter future.