Translation And Re-creation-An Analysis Of Ezra Pound's Cathay From The Perspective Of Functionalist Approach To Translation

This thesis expounds Ezra Pound's creativeness in his translation Cathay of classical Chinese poems by an elaborated analysis from the perspective of functionalist approach.Under the great influence of classical Chinese poetry, Pound launches his career as a translator of Chinese poetry and publishes Cathay which has assumed a unique position in the history of English translation of classical Chinese poems. Although Cathay has enjoyed enormous popularity in the West, many Chinese scholars and translators can hardly believe that it deserves to be called a translation work due to its numerous inaccuracies and errors resulting from Pound's ignorance of the Chinese language and his free creations. Aiming at a better appreciation of Cathay, this thesis is neither to defend nor to refute Pound, but to investigate what factors have influenced Pound and how his creativeness in translating classical Chinese poetry has been fully manifested from a perspective of functionalist translation approach. And in doing so, this thesis attempts to give an objective appraisal of Cathay.This thesis consists of seven chapters:Chapter One is a brief introduction to the overall structure of this thesis. It briefs the motivation and objectives of the present study of the author.Chapter Two is literature review which gives some scholars'critics and comments upon Cathay.Chapter Three provides the theoretical framework of this thesis, and briefs the development of German Functionalist Translation School, its representatives and main principles.Chapter Four concentrates on Pound's life, his translation theory, and the development of Imagist Movement he advocates, and explores Pound's encounter with Chinese culture and how Cathay comes into being and its main content.Chapter Five is the main body of this thesis. Based on Functionalist Translation Theory, this part probes into Pound's translation techniques and how he creatively translates the small anthology. Though not a translation theorist, Pound has his own principle of translation. He once states:"My job here (refers to translation) was to bring a dead man to life, to present a living figure"(Nolde, 1999: 205). Therefore, when translating Cathay, he sets a definite translation brief, i.e., to find support for his Imagist Movement, to shatter the Victorian genteel tradition, and to transmit classical Chinese culture to the Western people shrouded in the shadow of the First World War. The translation of the 19 classical Chinese poems is just under the guidance of such a brief. Compared with other scholars'versions, Cathay demonstrates distinctive features of its own and teems with Poundian style. Some of the linguistic elements, such as the grammar and syntax, are brought into English, while the strict rhythm patterns are removed. As for the cultural elements, the Chinese allusions are omitted, the essence of classical culture, Taoist thoughts are well transmitted in Cathay. Meanwhile, Pound adopts vers liber in translating classical Chinese poems, even if it is not invented by Pound, and it has great influence upon the translators after Pound. In a word, the preservation and removal of certain elements of the original are all in line with Pound's translation brief.The reception and influence of Cathay are reviewed in Chapter Six. The immediate warm reception after its publication in 1915 leads to Westerners'enthusiastic study of Chinese literature. Cathay is generally regarded as the"pencil sketch"for The Cantos, and on a large scale, it exerts great influence on modern literature as a whole via its techniques, poetics and cultural values. Besides, translation theory and practice afterwards have all benefited from Pound's creative translation.Chapter Seven is the conclusion of this thesis. Judged in the framework of functional approaches to translation, its adequacy to Pound's translation brief, the warm reception by the Western readers and its influence on English literature all prove the success of Cathay. It is further drawn that poetry translation is, in the first place, a form of literary criticism. Since absolute translation is impossible, the translator, under the guidance of translation brief, will and should decide what to translate and how to translate, which elements to be preserved and which to be removed. Thus a translated text can be adequate to the translation brief. As to evaluating a translated text, linguistic"equivalence"is no longer the only yardstick. Its adequacy to translation brief, the fulfillment of the intended skopos, and its reception on a given culture should be all taken into translation. Translation criticism should extend its scope to cover more factors relevant to translation activity.