Exotic Beauty: On Translational Aesthetics-A Solution To Poetry Translation

In recent years, it has been a popular trend that translation theory has become an interdisciplinary study. Disciplines like psychology, sociology, anthropology, and linguistics are being brought into the academic range of translation study gradually. Translational aesthetics-the new combination of translation and aesthetics has aroused increasing attentions of translators and scholars, and many works are published on translational aesthetics. In both Chinese and Western translation history, their relationship has a deep origin. Aesthetics, which is a branch of philosophy, with fully-fledged theory and experience foundation will be well supportive to the study of literary translation. As the requirements of artistic quality of translation are growing higher, aesthetics needs being applied to translation both theoretically and practically. The development of translational aesthetics represents that literary translation has grown from a skill or communicative level to an art realm.Poetry has been a forbidden field for countless translators. Its high demand in word-choice, ordered but exquisite rhyming scheme, and imaginative rhetorical devices greatly tests the translator's language ability, cultural knowledge and sensitivity and perception of literature and art. Some scholars even put it passively that poetry is untranslatable, since poetry, once being translated will lose its original flavor, especially for classic Chinese poems. However, since the turn of last century, translators from both China and Western countries still work hard on translating Chinese poetry into English, thus arguments come out, mainly focus on the debating of form or spirit, foreignization or domestication, and free verse or rhymed verse, etc. These arguments confine poetry translation to the either-or situation and limit its development to a large extent. With the introduction of aesthetics, translation is no longer merely a technical transformation, or a bridge for communication, but becomes a form of artistic creation, meanwhile translation process becomes an aesthetic activity that the aesthetic subject (translator) transfers an aesthetic object (the original text) to another aesthetic object (translation) through aesthetic medium (the aesthetic consciousness of the translator). Aesthetic theories could be used in guiding the study of translation theory and activity, also it serves as an aesthetic yardstick by which to measure whether a translation is excellent or not. In Chinese traditional culture, poetry together with calligraphy and painting are of the same root. The rich and expressive words, musical sounds, and far-reaching artistic concepts all endow it with great aesthetic value. More importantly, every detail in classical Chinese poetry reflects Chinese traditional values and tastes: the balanced, harmonious, natural and fuzzy beauty. All these are values that must be reflected in the translation of a poem, so translator should change poetry translation into an activity of aesthetic reproduction.The author of this thesis aims to break the deadlock of poetry translation by introducing the theory of translational aesthetics. Translational aesthetics will bring the revival of poetry translation, for its new idea and way of thought break many years of silence in poetry translation, and relight people's passion to it. On the basis of traditional dynamic equivalence and functional equivalence proposed by Nida, the author puts forward the concept of aesthetic equivalence, and uses exotic beauty to make up the deficiency brought by cultural blanks in practice. Thus the translators could be free from the linguistic or cultural bondage in poetry translation, and try to give prominence to the antique and exotic flavor of the poetry. At this point, foreignization will not hinder cross-cultural communication; instead, it will attract foreign readers and retain our national features at the same time. Only with TA could poetry translation continue its artistic life, retain its nature of beauty and rejuvenate our traditional poetry-like culture. Though TA is a new subject, it has aroused more and more attention in the field and has shown its vigorous vitality and bright future.This thesis does not provide a specific aesthetic standard. Since as an art, one of poetry's functions is to stimulate different imaginations and emotions of different readers. So does its translation. There is no "standard" translation of a poem, especially for the aesthetic standard. So what we hope to see is to "let a hundred flowers bloom and let the arts have free expressions". This thesis aims to find a way for classical Chinese poetry translation, which concerns the renaissance of our traditional culture and classical literature.Today, the economic globalization impels the progress of cultural globalization, and cross-cultural communication becomes frequently day by day. These provide a free and active environment for readers to enlarge their horizons, and facilitate further communication among different cultures. On the other hand, China is playing a more and more important role in international affairs, and will host the Olympic Games in 2008; the international community starts to pay more attention to Chinese culture. So it is the best opportunity to carry forward traditional Chinese culture and the classical literature. We need to be confident and proud of our culture and meanwhile seize the opportunity to introduce Chinese literature and culture into the world. As Professor Xu Yuanchong says that the responsibility of Chinese literary translation workers is to infuse part of the world culture into Chinese culture, and also introduce Chinese culture to the world, thus the world culture will be enriched and become more and more glorious and effulgent.This thesis will first introduce the concept of translational aesthetics, and then review several debates concerning poetry translation, restudy them from the aesthetic perspective, and try to integrate them and. propose guidance for translating poetry aesthetically. Then we will select some poems to illustrate the way to find the aesthetic properties in poems and translate them. Finally the thesis will end with a conclusion and the purpose of the thesis will be pointed out again.