A Study Of The Poetic Variances In The Translation Of Children's Literature

Poetic variance is defined as changes taking place in the target text in the aspects of language, structure, culture-specific elements and rhetoric devices of the original text by means of translation strategies used by translators.From the perspective of poetic theory, this thesis examines poetic variances in the translation of children's literature by means of comparison and analysis, which are made on the different translations of classical children's literature, such as Tales from Shakespeare, The Wind in the Willows, Anderson s Fairy Tales and Happy Prince and Other Tales. The topic is approached from three respects:the forms of poetic variances, translation strategies of poetic variances and the effects of poetic variances on the quality of translated children's literature.The results of this study are as follows:First, poetic variance in the translation of children's literature manifests itself in aspects of language, structure, cultural-specific elements, rhetoric devices and so on. At the same time, the author found that poetic variances can be categorized as positive and negative ones. Second, translation strategies or methods, such as addition, deletion, adaptation, annotation and footnote, using words of childlike tone and changing sentence patterns may, to some extent, bring about poetic variances in the translation of children's literature. Third, poetic variances in the translation of children's literature may produce positive or negative effects on the quality of translated children's literature, which is closely related with the form of poetic variances (positive or negative). When positive variances appear in the translation of children's literature, positive effects will be brought. That is, positive poetic variances may retain or even improve readability, children's delight and literariness in the target text. If poetic variances are negative, they will produce negative effects, undermining or damaging the reproduction of readability, children's delight and literariness of the original text in the target text.The findings of this research are of both theoretical and practical significance to studies of the translation of children's literature. Theoretically, poetic variances investigated in this thesis may arouse researchers' interests in and awareness of this issue in the translating for children, call their attention to poetic theory manifested through the translation practice of children's literature, and thus provide case studies for broadening the research scope of poetic theory. In practice, results of this study may shed some light on the translation of children's literature, informing translators of how to use translation strategies or methods to yield poetic variances to retain or improve readability, children's delight and literariness of translated children's literature. This study may also provide reference in linguistic poetics for cross-cultural communication and acceptance of children's literature works.