| Poetry is the condensed reflection of a nation’s cultural character and values.Translating and reading poems of different nationalities is undoubtedly an important way to understand the cultural character and value orientation of different nationalities.However,due to the “form” and “quality” characteristics of poetry which are different from those of other genres,it is difficult for translators to translate poems,and the quality of the “product” that is barely achieved is not satisfactory.Thus,can poetry really be translated? The academic circle pays most attention to the study of English translation of ancient Chinese poetry,while the study of English translation of modern Chinese poetry is less.Therefore,a comprehensive investigation into the current situation of English translation of modern Chinese poetry,analyzing the existing problems and their causes and summarizing the experience,will help to provide reference and inspiration for the English translation of modern Chinese poetry and even modern and contemporary Chinese literature in the future under the background that the “going out” effect of Chinese literature and culture is not good.This dissertation chooses the English translation of modern Chinese poetry in Renditions as the research object for three reasons: First,a magazine is characterized by diverse authors,different genres,rigorous editing,timely publication,and wide reading group.As a publication founded in Hong Kong,Renditions has a good Chinese-English bilingual cultural atmosphere.Secondly,Renditions has been widely recognized and praised by the international community for its high-quality translations.Thirdly,the translators who provide English version of modern Chinese poetry for Renditions are almost all professional translators at home and abroad,and the study of their English translation strategies and methods is helpful to create expectant translation norms.Specifically,this study mainly investigates three aspects:(1)What characters do these modern Chinese poems have in Renditions?(2)What characters do the translators have?(3)What strategies and methods do they adopt in English translation?What translation norms have been followed,broken or formed? To this end,this study builds a theoretical framework from two aspects: poetics analysis and translation norms.The construction of the theoretical framework of poetics analysis focuses on the Chinese and Western dimensions: it not only refers to the macroscopic path of analyzing poetry from Yan,Xiang to Yi under the discourse of Chinese literary criticism,but also combines with Ingarden’s analytical framework of language layer,image layer and implication layer of artistic works.It also draws on Aristotle’s discourse on the poetics including literary style,technique and theme,as well as the relevant poetic discourse of Russian formalism,aiming at a comprehensive poetic observation of modern Chinese poetry and its English versions in Renditions.The theoretical perspective of translation norms combines Lefevere’s discussion on the influence of translators’ poetics on translation and Chesterman’s views on the“accountability norms”,“relation norms” and “communication norms” involved in translation activities,with the aim of examining which norms influence translators’ selection of translation strategies and methods,as well as the effects of translation.Under this framework,this study first defines the concept of “modern Chinese poetry”,and then takes this as the standard to count 548 modern Chinese poems(involving 149 poets)and 552 poems translated from English in Renditions from 1973 to 2019.Then the poets were ranked according to the number of modern Chinese poems selected and translated into English,and combined with the length,capacity and rationality and science of this paper,the top 9 poets and their 208 poems(about38% of all modern Chinese poems)were selected,which are respectively: Bing Xin(65),Bei Dao(30),Shu Ting(24),Gu Cheng(22),Huang Guobin(20),Ye Si(14),Zhu Xiang(14),Yu Jian(11),and Zhou Mengdie(8).Then,the author makes statistics and sort out the translators involved in the English translation of these 208 poems,briefly summarizes their translation achievements,summarizes their translation views,and classifies the theme pattern of the English translation of modern Chinese poems in the Renditions,which constitutes the main content of the second chapter of this study and serves as the basis for the research content of the main part of this paper.The main part of this study consists of three chapters.From the perspective of relation norms,accountability norms and communication norms,this study explores the translation strategies and methods in the aspects of Yan,Xiang and Yi of the modern Chinese poems recorded in Renditions.In the third chapter,taking “Yan” as the observation point,the text analysis of different translators’ English translation of Gu Cheng’s fairy tale language,Bing Xin’s lyric language and Zhu Xiang’s metrical rhythm is carried out,and the corresponding translation strategies and methods are compared and summarized.The fourth chapter,taking “Xiang” as the observation point,analyzes the daily images in Bei Dao’s poems,intuitive images in Shu Ting’s poems and sensory images in Huang Guobin’s poems,and compares and summarizes the corresponding translation strategies and methods of different translators.The fifth chapter,taking “Yi” as the observation point,investigates different translators’ English translation of the multicultural integration in Ye Si’s poems,the pioneering spirit of Yu Jian’s poems,and the integration of poetry and Zen in Zhou Mengdie’s poems for text analysis,and summarizes the corresponding translation strategies and methods of translators.To be specific,each chapter studies the characteristics of poets and their poems,the introduction of poems selected by target poets in Renditions,the induction of strategies and methods for translators to translate corresponding poets’ poems into English,and the analysis path of following,breaking through,or constructing interpretation of corresponding translation norms.Among them,in the text analysis of different poets’ poems and corresponding English translated poems,in addition to the use of close-reading,comparison and induction,this study also adopts the method of returning to the original context,that is,to contextualize the original poems of the poets and the corresponding English versions of the translators,as well as the publication years of Renditions.Thus,a research context and framework of synchronic comparison and diachronic induction are formed,and micro analysis and macroscopical investigation are combined.Through investigating the English translation of modern Chinese poems of the above 9 representative poets by different translators selected from Renditions,this study has the following findings:First of all,in the more than 40 years since Renditions’ inception in 1973 to 2019,the selection and translation of modern and contemporary poets’ poems have reflected the strong artistic flavor of history(such as the selection and translation of Menglong poems in the 1980 s and vanguard poems in the new century),and adhere to the publication orientation of pure poetics and aesthetic character of works.And it also has a clear and fixed group of international readers.In the selection and translation of poets’ poems,the limits of rigid administrative and geographical space division were broken,and the scope of selection and translation included not only Chinese mainland,Hong Kong region and Taiwan region,but also overseas modern Chinese poetry writing groups,which reflected the broad poetic vision of Renditions.And most of the selected modern Chinese poems are representative works of poets,which have their own obvious and unique poetic characteristics and aesthetic value.Secondly,the English translation subjects of the modern Chinese poems selected from Renditions are composed of Hong Kong translators and overseas sinologists with bilingual cultural and educational background and strong bilingual understanding and expression ability.They are mainly independent translation,with a variety of co-translation and self-translation of poets,and sometimes the same translator translates different poets from Chinese to English.Thirdly,the translators of the modern Chinese poems selected in Renditions and their English translations are mainly composed of Hong Kong translators,overseas sinologists who are proficient in both Chinese and English languages,familiar with Chinese and English culture and have rich professional knowledge background.According to the characteristics of different poets’ poems,combined with their own poetics and translation concepts,they choose foreignization as the main strategy,domestication as the supplementary strategy,and adopt the flexible translation method of literal translation as the main and free translation.They pay attention to the excavation and reproduction of the character of modern Chinese poetry,pay attention to the translation of poets’ poetic style,and take into account the poetics ability and aesthetic level of the readers of the translated poems.Although the English translation subjects of modern Chinese poems in Renditions are professional translators such as local Hong Kong translators and overseas sinologists with Chinese-English bilingual cultural background and Chinese-English bilingual understanding and expression ability,their English translations of modern Chinese poems still have deficiencies or deficiencies in some aspects,especially in the English translation of the unique poetic value of the expression forms,such as different types of four-character phrases,repetitions of Chinese characters,ancient poems,etc.It seems that some people are out of their depth.The significance of this study is shown in the following three aspects: First,in theory,it tries to build a poetic analysis network based on ancient and modern poetics as classics and Chinese and western poetics as courses,and a theoretical framework of modern Chinese poetry translation supported by modern theory on translation norm,so as to provide theoretical reference and inspiration for the translation of Chinese poetry into English in the future and even the translation of English poetry into Chinese.Second,in terms of historical materials,this paper sorts out the selected modern Chinese poems and their English versions,and points out the differences in the selection of versions of the original poems based on the translators(especially the poems of poets in Hong Kong region and Taiwan region),the differences in the versions of English versions,the errors in editing and printing,as well as some factual errors in the current studies on Renditions,which are of correctional value and historical significance.Third,in practice,by comparing and appreciating the translated poems of professional translators and analyzing their translation strategies and methods,we can learn from each other and provide reference and inspiration for the current and future poetry translation practice and research on translated poetry.And the study of Renditions on the English translation and dissemination of modern Chinese poetry is of certain guiding significance to the current ideas and methods of similar publications,and also of certain practical significance to the exploration of the strategy and approach of “going out” of Chinese literature and culture. |
PDF Full Text Request