On Style Reproduction In Poetry Translation

Poetry is a special literary genre, which has its own poetic theory and translation theory. As it is an art of language, whether the translation is good or not will depend on the performance of the target language. Transplanting the original style into the target language is really an indispensable aspect in poetry translation.Style can be studied from both a literary point of view and a linguistic point of view. literary stylistics, which studies the relation between linguistic form and literary significance, paves a comparatively solid and objective way to explore poetic texts. This thesis adopts the relevant theories of literary stylistics as the theoretical premise of analysis in poetry translation. Thus stylistic analysis from the linguistic angle can provide the translator with a less personal, less impressionistic and much more objective guiding principle.In order to combine the advantages of both literary model and linguistic model, we are to introduce the application of "stylistic markers (风格标记)" proposed by Mr. Liu Miqing (刘宓庆). Under this theory, not only the style expression of source language is concerned, but also the appropriateness between the source language and the target language in style correspondence is stressed.China is a nation of poetry which has ever been considered China's most important traditional literary form. Tang poetry is generally acknowledged as the peak of classical poetry in both quantity and quality. It reflects the brilliant Chinese traditional culture and plays an indispensable part in world's literary treasure house. Representative of that age, Li Bai (李白) is universally acknowledged as one of the most excellent poets in the prosperous and flourishing time of the Tang Dynasty.Translating Li Bai's poetry is a highly demanding job of artistic nature, addressing translator's aesthetic talent to perceive, reproduce and re-create the interwoven artistic elements. Mr. Xu Yuanchong (许渊冲) is acknowledged as one of the most outstanding translators for Li Bai's poems in China. His translation can not only successfully reflect the mood of the original poem, but reproduce the style as well.Poetry translation is generally held to be the most difficult, demanding and possibly rewarding form of literary translation due to the subtlety and delicacy in the language of poetry and the differences between the source language and the target language. This thesis attempts to conduct a systematic stylistic study which heavily involves modern linguistics and literary criticism to study poetry translation with the major concern focused on style reproduction. Formal markers and non-formal markers of style will be discussed based on the related linguistic theories and the literary criticism theories. Li Bai's poems will be touched upon to illustrate the necessity and importance to retain the original style in poetry translation, the methods to analyze the original style in the source text and to reproduce it in the target language, and the strategies of style reproduction involved in poetry translation. Through all these efforts, the author hopes to provide a more systematic and scientific approach to the poetry translation for translators and critics.