On The Two English Versions Of Mao Zedong's Poems From The Perspective Of Lefevere's Manipulation Theory

Mao Zedong was a great leader, a statesman, a military strategist and an accomplished poet in the Chinese history. His poetry, in the history of Chinese poetry, has occupied an important position, recording the history of the modern Chinese revolution. Therefore, the translation of Mao Zedong's poems has been publicly concerned around the world; even the English versions are more than a dozen. Although there are lots of excellent researches on Mao Zedong's poems from many aspects, studies on the English versions of Mao Zedong's poems are seldom from the perspective of factors outside the text itself. This thesis selects the Barnstone's version and the official version as research texts for their significant characteristics of the historical background and cultural differences and makes a comparison of the two English versions from the perspective of Lefevere's manipulation theory to explore mainly the applicability of three manipulative factors in affecting the literature translation.Andre Lefevere is a representative of the researchers who study translation from the perspective of culture. Lefevere's manipulation theory has gained wide attention from translation researchers in China. He pointed out that there were mainly three social and cultural factors that influence translation, that is, ideology, dominant poetics and patronage. The two of factors operate inside the literary system, namely, the dominant poetics and ideology in a given society. Another comes from outside the literary system, namely, the power of patronage. Apart from this, he stated that translation was a kind of rewriting of the original. Translators from different social-historical backgrounds are manipulated by different ideology, poetics and patronage, and rewrite the original to different degrees to meet the target readers'demands in different times and cultures.This thesis firstly introduces Mao Zedong's poems and their English versions especially the official version and Barnstone's version. Secondly, it presents Lefevere's manipulation theory as theoretical base for this study and introduces the three manipulative factors of patronage, ideology and poetics. Thirdly it makes a comparison of the two English versions under the influence of patronage, ideology and poetics respectively. Finally, it compares the translation strategies and translation features of the two English versions manipulated by three manipulative factors from Lefevere's manipulation theory.It is concluded that through the comparative study of the two English versions of Mao Zedong's poems we can achieve how the three manipulative factors manipulate the translation process, translator's selection of translation strategies, and translation features, and we find that Lefevere's manipulation theory presents a significant perspective for the study of the translation of Mao Zedong's poems and that the social and cultural factors do have influence on different stages of translation. It is hoped that the comparison of the two English versions is instructive to the study of the translation of Mao's poetry, literature translation, especially poetry translation, and the application of Lefevere's manipulation theory.