Limitations And Potentials For Poetry Translation Examined In The Functionalist Perspective

The debate over translatability/untranslatability has always been one of the focal points in the translation field, especially in translating poetry. Therefore, it is an urgent need to review it dialectically. With its unique features, poetry translatability has been taken as the point at issue by the translatability school and the untranslatability school. Robert Frost has even asserted that, "Poetry is what gets lost in translation". His remarks on poetry untranslatability caused heated discussion about this question. The nature and characteristics of poetry predetermine the fact that there do exist limitations in the process of poetry translation. The aim of this paper is to research the limitations of poetry translatability and make a descriptive analysis of these limitations. At the same time, it also intends to suggest some possible ways for reducing limitations in poetry translation. The author of this paper generalizes a dialectical view on (un) translatability. That is, untranslatability proposition includes a twofold meaning. One is the "untranslatability"at the theoretical level; the other is "untranslatable elements"at the realistic level. In this paper, concerning poetry translation, the author will try to identify and analyze limitations in poetry translation rather than enter into the hypothesis-ridden argument whether or not poetry translation is possible. In order to study poetry translation, it is necessary to know the characteristics of the text type that poetry belongs to. Approaching the theory of text typology from the functionalist perspective, the author develops the theoretical framework specific to poetry translation. According to Reiss, poetry is a source-text-oriented text type in translation in the sense that the translation of a poem is primarily determined by the formal features and esthetic effects of the specific original. Therefore, the translator should focus on transferring formal elements so as to achieve a similar esthetic effect contained in the original poem. Based on this framework and Liu Miqing's stylistic markers classification, the author makes a descriptive analysis of limitations in translating poetry and then introduces some possible ways for reducing those limitations. The author concludes: there exist limitations of poetry translatability. From the functionalist perspective we can get a better understanding of the characteristics of the text type and its expressive function. The systematic analysis of limitations and functionalist research on ways to reduce limitations in poetry translation will effectively improve the quality of poetry translation.