The Influence Of The Translation Of Tang Poems On The Formation And Development Of Vietnam’s New Poetry

Translation originated from the needs of human communication, with the aim of bridgeing the minds and souls between different language communities. Besides overcoming language barriers, translation has also being opened up an important communication channels throughout history so as to facilitate social progress and development for people from different ethnics and countries. Therefore, translated literature is a genre singled out from cross-border and cross-cultural perspectives.Vietnamese and Chinese cultures share special relations with close similarities that Vietnamese translated literature initially accepted Chinese influence in the most natural way. During the Chinese ruling period, Chinese classical literature, poetry and rhapsody were widely spreaded almost without language obstacles. After Nom words were invented, Vietnamese literati started to translate Tang Poems into Nom characters, by using its unique six-eight verse of poetry. This approach accelerated a continuous localization of Tang Poems into Viet Nam, and also served to perfect the Nom language system. During the modern Vietnamese language period, while Confucianism was receding gradually upon with the abolishment of the imperial examination system imposed by the French colonizers, the old intelligentsia in Viet Nam still strived to preserve the traditional literature by transforming the Chinese and Nom into modern Vietnamese characters, which built up the bridge between the traditional and modern literature in Viet Nam. Therefore, in terms of the nation’s historical development, translated Tang Poems contributed indelibly to the transformation as well as the improvement of the relevant language systems in Viet Nam.The formation and development of Vietnamese poetry is divided in this dissertation into three major stages, namely, the stage of poems in Chinese verses, the stage of poems in Nom verses and the stage of poems in Modern Vietnamese verses. Thanks to the wide spread of Chinese culture early in the history of Vietnaese poetry, it was easier for Vietnamese people to compose literature by using Chinese language and intimating the Chinese poems. Vietnamese poems were formulated and developed on the basis of Chinese Tang Poems. At that time, the main trend of creation was based on imitating Tang Poems to the fullest extent, so that there were lots of master pieces with the quality comparable with Tang Poems. At the second stage, Nom poetry was developed with its unique genre. It was on the basis of Tang Poems, through progressive innovation, as well as by means of absorbing the essence of local literature that the Nom poetry had been evolved to become an extraordinary poetry with Vietnamese ethnic characteristics. And later, the Modern Vietnaese poetry came into being with a rhythmic genre combining the characteristics of both Vietnamese and Chinese Tang Poems. Despite the fierce contention between traditional Tang and Vietnamese poetry, Modern Poems still exist and magnify its strength. Translated Tang Poems provided significant creation sources for Vietnamese literati who did not understand Chinese language, and added colorful elements to their composition.In order to serve for the development purpose at various periods, the creation of Modern Vietnamese Poetry rooted deeply in and absorbed a wealth of nutrients from the fertile soil of its local literature, especially by imitating, distilling and drawing reference from quintessence of the Tang Poems, via such "Vietnamese application on Chinese subjects", Modern Vietnamese Poetry achieved to maximize its localization with unique ethnic characteristics.