Methodology On Translating Classical Chinese Poetry

Classical Chinese poetry is a treasure in the world art field but as the result of the limited popularity of the Chinese language across the world, few western readers could enjoy its profound literary artistry before 20^th century. Very few English readers know that they are misreading classical Chinese poetry as a result of different versions. As a matter of fact, Chinese poetry has been shining throughout Chinese literary history for 2000 years but kept away from its should-be position in world literature only because of language barrier. How can an English reader feel the true essence of Chinese poetry just as a Chinese reader does? If it an impossible mission, in where does the problem lie? It involves culture, history, thinking ways and so on. However all these factors bring us a new subject----the translatability of Chinese poetry.The translatability of Chinese poetry has long been a hot subject in comments of literary translation but most articles tend to evaluate it by the same standard. According to some critical papers, the translation of poetry can only go by the criteria of "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance". As a matter of fact, these principals were proposed from the translator's point of view and only serve as an ideal object in the field of translation. Furthermore, this sort of translation is only suitable to bilingual (Chinese and English) readers. The translation of Chinese poetry in reality aims initially at English readers who know almost nothing about the Chinese language and Chinese culture. However, different translators have different evaluating standards with regard to different readers at different times for different purposes; hence their translation works highlight different aspects in both the source language (Chinese) and the target language (English). Consequently, judging a version good or bad simply with identical standards easily falls into confusion. That is the reason why a totally new reclassification of Chinese translation is absolutely needed.This dissertation is to classify Chinese poetry into three categories. The first kind is the traditional way. in which faithfulness to the original meaning is stressed andEnglish writing is required. Translators confined to this way, despite their debates on form, meaning and sound, share a common notion that a compromise should be made to balance the loss and gain through translation. 1 present many arguments, including a case analysis and my own trial of a poem, to demonstrate that versions translated in the traditional way are popular among Chinese readers but usually do not raise the same effect on the English audience.Since the traditional way often fails to translate the authentic Chinese poetry, there should be some new method helping the English readers access the essence of Chinese poetry. Hence here comes the second kind of translation—the literal way. in which the delicate beauties of the original are highlighted and English grammar is not taken into account. Versions produced in this way usually are mistaken as word-to-word rendering, but they are really needed when translation involves the most economic and delicate Chinese nature poetry. The foreign students who are leaning Chinese literature usually find such versions retain most of the original flavor. Compared with those versions translated in the traditional way, they lose the chance to be independent literary works on the one hand, and become better materials for academics research of Chinese literature on the other.The third kind it the adaptive way, whose representative is Ezra Pound, and in which the literal meaning of the original is altered at random so as to meet the translator's demands, the adaptive way goes extremely opposite to the literal way. It is a complete accommodation of Chinese culture into English literature, versions of this kind intend to reflect some characteristics of the original instead of totality and they are usually good poetry in English literary sense. Take Pound's works as an example, his versions push the conventional translation to a new stage on which poetry translation is no longer reproduction but re-creation. Though quite often he provided his audience with a false Chinese poetry, translation in this way up to now has produced versions that win the most common English readers.As time goes by, the reader of Chinese poetry translation is changing, so is its translating methodology. Due to requirements of different readers, the translation of Chinese poetry is by no means commented in terms of the above three ways with thedevelopment of translation studies; the issue of how we shall translated Chinese poetry should extend to a broader cultural approach rather than restrict itself to literary debates.