Afterlife In Translation: Research Into Three Cultural Communicative Cases In Poetry Translation

This paper, based on the comparative literary theory and the Functional Translating Theory, makes research into three cultural communicative cases in poetry translation: (i) Influence of the classical Chinese poetry on the Japanese Haiku. Chinese poetry helps Japan establish poetic form and helps it develop all the way. Haiku inherits Chinese poetic tradition but has its uniqueness: condensed form (3 lines with 17 syllables); narrow subjects (description of natural scenes to express emotion); slender aesthetics (the beauty of "sadness and circumbendibus"), (ii) Influence of Japanese Haiku and Chinese classical poetry on the Western Imagist Poetry Movement. Haiku plays the role of bridge between the western poetry and Chinese poetry. The Imagism finds support in the oriental poetry for its poetic theory. The biggest influence of the oriental translation on the Imagism lies in the usage of image, space and juxtaposition of syntax. This influence helps extend the expressive capacity of English language and widens the horizon of the western aesthetics: English breaks the conventional linear syntax, which is good at elaboration and classification, and the traditional aesthetics, the sentimentalism and rationalism, it begins to accommodate the oriental expression: brevity and implicity, and the oriental aesthetics: "to view objects as the objects watch themselves" and " loss of self in nature to which man is united", etc. The Imagist Poetry Movement opens the door to the Western Modern Poetry, (iii) Influence of the western poetry on the Vernacular Language Reformation and the New Poetry Movement in China. The Imagist principles help Hu Shih form his poetic idea, which leads to the revolution in language and poetry. The transmission of the western poetry helps to establish and develop Chinese New Poetry, which is made very prosperous: vernacular language, free form, humane subjects, various writings and diverse aesthetics, etc. The poetry reformation raises a larger scale of cultural and social revolution. Byanalyzing the three cases, the paper discusses that translation plays a role in poetry reformation by changing the language medium from the source-poetry into the target-poetry, and therefore realizes the trans-cultural communication. It further discusses some dynamic cultural elements that causes the poetry reformation during the translating process: the translatability of poetry determines the quantity of information transferred from the source-poetry into the target-poetry; the interior requirement of a culture determines the translator's manipulation in intelligent reading, fixing purpose and selecting methods in their translation; the receptor's tendency determines the blending degree of the source-poetry into the target-poetry, and decides the developing way of the target-poetry, etc. From the discussions above, a conclusion is drawn: the poetry realizes its afterlife in translation through some dynamic cultural elements. The paper uses the analysis in poetry to promote work in the whole cultural area, to prove that translation plays an important role in trans-cultural communication and development.The creativity of this paper lies in exploring translating theory by using literary comparative method to analyze three cultural communicative cases in translation, from which a conclusion is drawn. There are two chapters altogether, as well as the Introduction and the Conclusiono The first chapter deals with three case studies, and the second chapter deals with reflection on translation.