A Study Of Stephen Owen’s Translation Of Tang Poetry

With the development of overseas Sinology research in China,the reflective value of Sinologist research achievements is increasingly emphasized.The Sinologists’ translated Chinese literary works,including Tang poetry,have promoted the dissemination and acceptance of Chinese literature abroad,widening the international impact of Chinese culture.Stephen Owen’s poetry research has been highly assessed,but the research of his Tang poetry translation needs to be deepened and broadened.Based on the translated texts,this dissertation investigates the history of Owen’s Tang poetry translation,enriching the new contents of translation history study and literary criticism study,introducing new resources to the Chinese cultural translation.Through the summarization of the methods,thoughts,spreading and acceptance of his translation,this study will provide reference for the translation of Chinese classics,the seeking of the spokesmen of Chinese literature "going global",the cultivation of the well-qualified Chinese-English translators,the making of the appropriate policies and plans of Chinese book internationalization.This will contribute to advancing the translation,the publication,the circulation and the overseas dissemination of Chinese culture.All these will accordingly strengthen China’s "soft power",widening the influence power of key value of Chinese literature and culture,enabling the American society to understand the Sino-American literary,cultural relationship.In addition,this study will help re-recognizing the value of the Tang Poetry research overseas,which offers inspiration for the research of Tang poetry in ChinaThe innovation of this dissertation is of its significance to the cultural history of translation due to its derivation from the translated versions of Tang poetry in Owen’s Tang poetry study monographs and anthology of Chinese literature,in which we not only conclude the differences and similarities of Tang poetry translation features in the different stage of his study,but also explores the impact of the poetic thoughts,the cultural trends and the philosophical views between China and the WestUnder the guidance of the Sino-Western poetics,rhetorics,linguistics,reception aesthetics and communication theory,this dissertation mainly applies the theories and the close reading according to the mainline of Owen’s Tang poetry translation in combination of academic characteristics with literariness,describing and analyzing at macro level the host culture and literary context of his books,comparing and interpreting at micro level the style between the source texts and the translated texts.It also compares Owen’s Tang poetry translation with other Sinologists’Tang poetry translation,aiming at searching for the aesthetic value,cultural value and translation thoughts for the reference of Chinese literature "going global".The main ideas of the study are given as follows.Owen’s experimental translation in his monograph The Poetry of Meng Chiao and Han Yu is on consistence with Jacques Lacan’s mirror image theory.His translation is characterized by the"readability" as well as "faithfulness" from his early translation practice accompanied by the experimental translation illustrated from the case study of his translation of poems by Han Yu and Meng Chiao.Although his translation quality is highly commented by some Western Sinologists,there exist rigidity,misunderstanding and over-interpretation in his translation due to such restrictions as insufficient materials.The mistranslation is caused by Owen’s own limitations,his translation purpose or the social,cultural actors.In a word,his translations at this stage reflect the feature of his translation ideas during his early academic research period.The Poetry of the Early Tang is the turning point of Owen’s research on Tang poetry from case study to systemic study,which starts the new stage of his Tang poetry translation.Owen’s Tang poetry translation changes the context as he changes into a professional sinologist from the doctorate graduate from Yale University.He is strongly influenced by such theories as the scholars’ in Yale University and by the traditional Chinese poetics and philosophy.The theories are not only the theoretical resources for Tang poetry research,but also as the implied theoretical pillar for Tang poetry translation research.The differentiated reading in translation and the rhetoric of translation serve as the basic features in this stage.His Tang poetry translation interpretation is interwoven into the humanistic tradition.His translated versions are predominantly idiomatic and acceptable though there is something inaccurate and loose-structured.In the process of Tang poetry research based on The Great Age of Chinese Poetry:The High Tang,Owen places more emphasis on the comprehensive application of comparison,exegesis,illustration,having some effect on his translation practice.The "canon" in his translation poetics has,on the one hand,the ancient Chinese literary thoughts such as "literature as the vehicle of ideas","poetry expressing aspirations" and "poetry springing from emotions",and on the other,Harold Bloom’s ideas of new aesthetic criticism from which the views of aesthetic autonomy,defamiliarity and non-popularity are somewhat shown in Owen’s translation.Owen is,however,not only the consumer of theories in his research somehow influencing his tranlslation,but also the producer of"nonfictional" poetics for the non-metaphor and the manifestation of meaning in Tang poetry translation.The methodology in the Sino-Western poetry writing is not only the important constituent of poetics,but might be also borrowed into the process of translation study.The Chinese schools of the"groaning poetics" and the "implied poetics" and the Western school of minimalist poetics,refined from the experience of poetic or artistic creation,are used as the observation,the comment and the interpretation of the linguistic-cultural value in Owen’s Tang poetry translation,which is characterized by the "groaning poetics".In addition,his translation is influenced by the minimalist poetics in some respect,which is applied in his simplified translation of some complicated image and archaic words."Remembrance" as one of Owen’s methodology of literary study is available in the interpretation of Owen’s linguistic-cultural translation of the late Tang poetry.An Anthology of Chinese Literature,Beginnings to 1911 is the symbol of canonization of Owen’s Tang poetry translation as general knowledge course of Chinese literature for American college students who select to know the overview of the Chinese literature including the Tang poetry.Compared with other sinologists’translation of Tang poetry,we discover Owen’s choice criteria,tendency,content and layout of translated Tang poetry,and his reconstruction intent of Tang poetry for transmission.In the choice of linguistic form,he does not consider the rhythm effect as the key factor,but represent some sound musicality by means of compensation.In the translation of image translation,he mainly represents them and seldom reproduces them.In the paratext,he supplements and extends the context of translated text,which is of great help to the textbook reading.The findings of the study show that his Chinese poetry translations are of far-spreading capacity,highly evaluated by the Western critics and readers.Owen’s translation thoughts are dispersed in his translation notes,introduction,poetic study books,articles and interviews.His recognition of literary translation functions and his "moderation"of the "Chineseness" and the "worldness" in translation accords with the "harmonization" in Chinese philosophy.His translation thoughts also involve the ideas of the combination of naturalization with barbarization,the reconstruction of Chinese poetry history,the translatability of national culture,the translators’ roles,the interpretation of translation strategies in the different registers,and the cultural spokesmen of translators.We will be beneficial to reflect the Chinese culture translation based on his translation scale,methods,patronage and effect.His translation modes of distinguished translator,translation strategies,translation dissemination,and translation "spokensman" will work as significant reference to Chinese culture to "go global" and the Chinese shcolars’comment and research on Chinese poetry.Owen’s Tang poetry translation is charaterized by academic translation as well as literary translation.His Tang poetry translation in his research books targets at his academic research.His translation is regarded as scholarly as well as literary and readable for his strong faithfulness with numerous exegesis and supplemented contexts of cultural classics in the wide scope of paratext.