Relevance Theory And Poetry Translation--A Comparative Study Of The Chinese Versions Of Ode To The West Wind

Relevance theory, proposed as a foundation for cognitive science, is mainly concerned with communication and cognition. It recently been applied to translation. According to relevance theory, translation, as one form of communication, is primarily an ostensive-inferential cognitive process; the ultimate goal for translation is its optimal relevance to the source text. The rule of optimal relevance is believed to be able to match the ST communicator's intention with the target text audience's expectation.Poetry, as one unique form of literary work, has indeed posed a lot of obstacles in translation. After a detailed study of the differences between Chinese and English poetry, the author argues that relevance theory can be applied to poetry translation so as to transfer the author's intention. Translation success is made only when one achieves the convergence or closeness to the original work. The translator must strive for the faithfulness in artistic conception, content, style and its form as well. If artistic conception and content are in contradiction with form, the latter one should succumb.The first chapter gives a brief introduction of relevance theory, which is put forward by Sperbe & Wilson and developed in interpreting translation by Gutt. Chapter two deals with the difficulties in poetry translation and then applies the relevance theory to interpreting translation, which considers transference of the author's intension as basis in translation. Chapter three puts forward a strategy that can be used in poetry translation, which is first of all to convey the author's intention, and then to achieve aesthetic effect, namely, beauty in content, form and sound. Moreover, the author argues that the best faithfulness in poetry translation is to retain the artistic conception of the original. Chapter four starts with the introduction of P.B. Shelly and his poem Ode to the West Wind. What is next is the detailed comparison between the two Chinese versions by Wang Zuoliang and Jiang Feng.According to the analysis above, the author concludes that transferring the original author's intention is the basis of poetry translation, and aesthetic effect is another essential aspect to consider. In poetry translation, the best faithfulness is toachieve closeness first in artistic conception and content, and then in poetic form.