The E-C Reproduction Of Classical Chinese Poetry Imagery Under The Guidance Of Reception Aesthetics

Classical Chinese poetry is a brilliant gem in the treasure-house of Chinesetraditional literature. And the true coloring of it lies in its imagery. Therefore, when aclassical Chinese poem is to be rendered into English, its artistic imagery should beregarded as the most important aesthetic element to be transferred. Imagery is thevisualization of pictures by the way of rebuilding the prototype of substantial objectsin the readers'mind through language. It is a combination of subjectiveness andobjectiveness. Through certain structural techniques, imagery achieves specialaestheticeffect.Although the importance of imagery has been generally acknowledged bypoetry translators, researches on this subject are neither systematic nor completeexcept for some perceptual knowledge obtained bysome translators from their poetrytranslation practice. The traditional study of imagery reproduction in China mainlyfocusesonthepoetandthepoetrytext.Mostofthestudyisaboutthestandardsofthereproduction of the three beauties; others are about the transference of the spirit, orabout the translatability of the imagery. The traditional study puts great emphasis onthecomparison ofthesourcepoetryimageryandthereproducedversion,puttinglittleattentiontotheactiverolesofthereaders.Thus,therearestillthreedifficultproblemsthat are not settled in the reproduction. They are: the dilemma of choosing betweenimage and its associated meaning; the selectivity between cultural domestication andcultural foreignization of images; the inconsistency between poetic form and beautyinimagery.The author of this paper attempts to tackle these problems in light of theReceptionTheory.Then,howdoestheReceptionAestheticstheorybridgethegapandinterpret the reproduction of the imagery? James Holmes (1988) divided thetranslationprocessintotwophases:receptionandreproduction. Inthereceptionphase,the translator is the reader of the original text, trying to understand it through thefusion of expectations; then, in the reproduction phase, he is a writer for targetlanguagereaders, reproducinganewtext onthebasis ofthemental conceptionhehas got from the source text. When it comes to establishing a successful relationshipbetweenthetranslatorandhisreaders,thetranslatorshouldhavesufficient knowledgeof the horizon of his readers, showing consideration for the appropriate languagevarieties,thereader'sculturalknowledge,thinkingmodesandaestheticpreferences.Based on the Reception Aesthetics, this thesis held a paper questionnaire on theEnglish readers'pre-knowledge of the classical Chinese poetry imagery. It aims tofind out roughly the English readers'pre-knowledge and response to the differentclassical Chinese poetry images. This paper questionnaire was given to 26 targetpopulation from English speaking countries, who are studying in Beijing Languageand Culture University. To make the study systematic, the questionnaire divided theimages in classical Chinese poetry into seven broad categories: literal images, simileimages, metaphoric images, hyperbolic images, personification images, symbolicimages and cultural images. The interviewees were required to reveal their actualpre-knowledge of the classical Chinese poetry imagery, choosing from thequestionnairetheirmostpossibleanswers.From the questionnaire, it is clear that the English readers can understand andappreciatemanyoftheclassicalChinesepoetryimages.Yetthedegrees towhichtheyare familiar with vary greatly with different classes of imagery. So, the translatorshould take corresponding measures to reproduce the images. For the literal imagesand simile images, he may transfer literally. Yet for the metaphorical images, toreproduce literally is usually misleading, this thesis proposes that it is better toreproduce by explaining the original sense, by simplifying the original images, or bytransferring the original metaphors. As for the symbolic images, they should befaithfully retained in the translation because the symbolic meaning of them hasgenerally been stereotyped after repeated uses, English readers are supposed tounderstandthesymbolicmeaningoftheimagestheyfrequentlycomeacross.Withthedevelopment of cultural communication between China and other countries, Englishreaders'pre-knowledge about Chinese culture has been greatly enriched. That's whythisthesisencouragestheforeignizationoftheculturalimagesinthereproduction.Onthe other hand, domestication still plays an important role because not all English readers have the same level of pre-knowledge of Chinese culture. It is necessary tomake the source image easier to understand by domestication for the part of readerswhomaylackthepre-knowledgeofChineseculture.The findings of the survey also explain why we need to transfer the variousimagesindifferentwaysfromthereaders'pointofview.