On The Reproduction Of The Musicality In Translating Classical Chinese Poetry

Robert Payne praised classical Chinese poetry as "the most beautiful flower in Chinese culture". That may explain why so many poetry translators, both domestic and abroad, have endeavored to put Chinese poetry into English, in the hope of presenting this beautiful flower to the whole world. Classical Chinese poetry has its special musical beauty, however, due to the phonemic differences, it is very difficult to reproduce this musical beauty in English translation. This thesis aims both theoretically and pragmatically at the reproduction of the musicality in translating classical Chinese poetry. A theoretical question on the translatability of the musicality of a poem still exists the field of translation. Some issues, such as "whether to use rhyme in translating classical Chinese poetry " and "sacrificing sense to sound", have aroused hot disputes in recent years. Yet, discussions of the actual process of translating and attempts to define the particular problems involved and the strategies of dealing with these are relatively few. Furthermore, the standard of judging the translation of musicality overemphasizes the success of the translation of rhyme, while neglecting the other constituents of musicality such as rhythm, sound and structure to some degree. In order to find some approaches to the above problems, first of all, the author makes a comparative study of the main constitutional elements in both Chinese and English poetry, trying to find out the differences and similarities. This thesis especially focuses on the similarities, such as common poetic tradition, metrical similarity, and phonemic similarity, to substantiate the premises that the musicality of a poem can be translated. Basing on the previous practices in this field and the characteristics of poetry translation, the author puts forward two principles that may guide the process of translating. Furthermore, many successful examples done by translators are analyzed and commented, for discovering some rules or strategies to be used in the translating process. The whole thesis is comprised of five parts. The first part--introduction-- presents the theme and the main structure of this paper. The second part deals with the basic concepts such as the relationship between music and poetry, the function of musicality in poetry, and the trinity of sound, sense, and form in poetry; furthermore, the main constitutional elements of musicality:rhythm, rhyme, sound, and structure both in Chinese and English poetry are presented with definitions and examples, offering a basis for the discussion of translation strategies. The third part examines the theoretical issues in translating musicality. The author discusses the translatability of musicality from three aspects: common poetic tradition, metrical similarity, and phonemic similarity. Based on the previous practices and the characteristics of poetry translation, two principles are put forward: the translator has the right to recreate, and the general aesthetic effect of the original poem should be reproduced in the translation. Also, the most controversial issue currently in the field of translation in China, that is, "sacrificing meaning to rhyme", is viewed and commented. The fourth part discusses the translation strategies. The translation of rhythm, rhyme, sound, and structure are analyzed, with specific examples given by the scholars home and abroad. Through the analyses and comments, some translation rules or strategies are presented. The fifth part--concluding part--gives a retrospection of the whole thesis and summarizes the main ideas discussed in the previous parts. In addition, the author puts forward some problems that are to be solved for future studies.