On Prescription Of The Translator's Poetics For Poetry Translation

Traditional translation theory, which holds that the translator should cast off the yoke of the tyranny of subjectivity and represent the source text objectively and faithfully, has perceived the source text as the"absolute criterion"of the target text. Traditional translation studies have thus focused chiefly on the comparison between the source text and the target text, taking"faithfulness"as the highest criterion. The positive aspect of the traditional theory lies in that it attaches importance to the objectivity of translation. However, because translation does not take place in a vacuum, translators are inevitably influenced by extra-textual factors in the course of translation. It is highly unlikely for them to achieve absolute or complete faithfulness to the source text. The proposal of the"cultural turn"in the translation field has enforced recognition of this issue. Translation scholars start to direct their attention to broader realm connected intimately with translation. Extra-textual influences such as cultural and historical influences on the translator during the course of translation is put emphasis on. Andre Lefevere, one representative of the cultural theorists, had discussed exhaustively poetological influences on the translator. He points out that during translation the translator is impacted by two kinds of poetics, namely, the translator's poetics and the dominant poetics in the society. No matter what kind of poetics is given priority to, it inscribes its influence obviously in the translated text. Even-Zohar and Gideon Toury outline Poly-system, which has proved particularly helpful to translation scholars in their attempt to analyse the influence of extra-literary factors on the poetic decisions of the...