Transference Of Sound Effects In Translation Of Chinese And English Poetry

Being the most sublime and concentrated literary genre, poetry may be seen in terms of various elements working together towards an integral whole, and the beauty of poetry lies in sound, form and sense, with sound being one of the basic formal devices carrying aesthetic information and the main concern and focus in this thesis. In the thesis the author tries to probe into the innate musical properties of both English and Chinese poetry as well as the realization of musicality in the process of translation from a scientific and objective perspective.The thesis begins with a brief introduction to the definition, classification of poetry, as well as relationship between sound effects and poetry in order to ascertain the significance of the thesis. In chapter two, sound devices employed in both Chinese and English to achieve musicality are elaborated and analyzed respectively. Rhythm and rhyme are the two formal constituents that give poetry its sound features and to some extent shared by both languages. Therefore, it provides the theoretical basis to the feasibility of the transference of sound effects in poetry. The third chapter focuses on the principles based on Eugene A. Nida and Peter Newmark's theories, offering insights and suggestions to poetry translation, especially the realization of musicality, indicating some of the factors that have to be taken into account in solving the problems occurring in the process of translation. While methods concerning the transference of sound effects in the translation of both Chinese and English poetry are exemplified respectively in chapter four, such as imitation, reproduction, compensation, addition, form transplantation, etc. which guarantee the realization and appreciation of the original musicality and facilitate its evaluation. Furthermore, the fifth chapter is devoted to the discussion of translatability of poetry. Though the methods exemplified in chapter four are valuable and practical, there is universal agreement that certain limitation concerning the translatability of poetry do exist, with some of the musical devices being too attached to be realized and retained in other languages.In the end, the author presents a summary of the whole thesis together with the limitations of present study and suggestion for future research.