On Ezra Pound's Translations: A Skopostheoretic Perspective

The dissertation studies Ezra Pound's translations from the perspective of Skopostheorie in line with the culture-oriented trend of translation study. Ezra Pound is one of the most influential literary figures in the20th century as the founder of imagist poetry, the trail blazer of the American modernist poetry and the prolific translator of many classic works ranging from Anglo-Saxon poetry, Italian poetry, French poetry, Japanese Haiku, ancient Chinese poetry, Chinese Confucian works and Greek dramas. Pound is unique in his approach of creative translation, or as it is called sometimes, adaptive translation. For a long time, the translation scholars have been divided in the study of Ezra Pound, either lauding his poetic achievements or challenging his mistranslation. The emergence of polysystem study in translation in the past few decades has shed new light on the many controversial translations. Translation scholars have shifted their perspectives from the micro perspective of mere faithfulness of the translated version towards the perception of translations as part of the literary system, or in turn, of the greater social system. The Skopos theory, as one of the major theories among such modern theories, is advanced and developed by Katharina Reiss, Hans J. Vermeer, Justa Holz-Manttari and Christiane Nord, who conceive of translation purposes as the yardstick in translation evaluation and posit that the prime principle determining the translation process is the purpose, that is, the Skopos of the overall translational action. The Skopos theory lends a fresh perspective to the translation study. It is a powerful theory capable of revealing Pound's motivations behind his creative translations, which interlinks his translation practices with the larger social and cultural environment and then serves as justifiable explanations to his creative approach. This dissertation, from the perspective of the Skopos theory and on the basis of the discoveries and methods in Chinese-English comparative study, aims at the in-depth study of Pound's subjectivity as a translator in his creative translation strategy, and probes into the adaptive strategy and explores the cultural, ethical and realistic value of his translation, in the hope of presenting an unabridged and integral image of Pound as a translator as well as of offering constructive approaches to translation criticism.The major achievements of the study are as follows. Firstly, the study extends the scope of translation study from the mere analysis of the translated versions to the integration of the translator's ideology, the social and cultural circumstances and his translation strategies. The Skopos theory sheds new light on various ingredients in translation such as the role of the translator, the function of the receivers and the status of the original text and the target text, incorporating the individual translation with the macro-environment for enlightenment. The dissertation studies Pound's translation from his Skopos of promoting imagism with his prominence on "luminous detail","permanent metaphor","absolute rhythm" and "ideogrammic method" in the translations, from his Skopos of promoting modernist poetry represented in the intentional ego decentralization and the highlight on individual consciousness in the translations, and also from his Skopos of preserving good traditional values and innovating on ossified traditions revealed in his translation strategy.Secondly, the dissertation presents a comprehensive and in-depth study of Pound's translation. The study follows the steps of empirical observation to hypotheses and to text comparison and analysis and testing, covering Pound's wide range of translations as the basis of solid evidence, focusing both on theoretical probing and on evidence analysis, on the result of translation and on the process itself, on the descriptive study and on analysis of cause and effect. It is an overall investigation of the background of the translator's action, the motivations behind the action, the effect of the motivation on his strategies and the significance of his Skopos-oriented translation.Thirdly, the dissertation incorporates the synchronic study and the diachronic study in the translation study. The former is represented in the systematic exploration of Pound's poetics and his translational ideology in line with his translation strategies. The latter is conducted in the text comparison and analysis. Since different translations emerge in different times as a reflection of the prevailing trend, the study makes meticulous comparison of Pound's translation version with those of other translators in different times, elucidating the correlation of the translation with the social and cultural environment and the prevailing poetics.The study also suggests possible directions of further study, such as the comprehensive study in literature translation involving social and cultural factors, the diversified criteria to examine and judge poetic translation. It would be rewarding if this study would contribute, as desired, to the diversification of translation study and at the same time to further advances in understanding Pound's achievements.