Deciphering The Unorthodoxies In The Translations Of Yan Fu And Ezra Pound-A Cultural Perspective Based On Lefevere's Theory

Yan Fu and Ezra Pound are two illustrious personages in the translation history in the East and the West respectively. And, at all times, scholars have riveted their attention on the translations of the two masters in particular, because here lies a paradox. On one hand, their translations are incorporated with a considerable number of improvisations; hence the deviations, which make it difficult to define them as translation or recreation. On the other hand, their translations, regarded as literary excellence in other tremendous translations, have exerted a far-reaching influence on the society.The traditional prescriptive approach used to pass judgment on Yan's and Pound's translations by a series of linguistic rules, which, more often than not, merely bears out the conclusion that their translations are inaccurate. However, it is of little help to explain the paradox above. In the 1990s, the rise of the cultural school in translation studies brings in new perspective to resolve the issue. Based on Lefevere's theory, the thesis, attempts to describe the deviations in Yan's and Pound's translations, in the hope that a relatively comprehensive understanding of their translation products can be obtained.The first chapter is mainly a review of the previous studies on Yan's and Pound's translations, plus the theoretical basis, methods and significance of the thesis. Chapter two describes the production of Yan's and Pound's translations with focus on the attraction and the motivation of their undertakings, then goes further to discuss the influence they have on translation practice, attempting to analyze, from a macroscopic point of view, the relationship between the historical-cultural context and their translation activities. Chapter three enlists Lefevere's theory in describing the deviations in Yan's and Pound's translations from two concrete aspects: ideology and poetics. The last chapter comes to the conclusion that the dominant ideology and poetics in Yan's and Pound's times dictate the selection of subject matter of their translation and their translation strategies, and that the two control factors do manipulate the translation activities of the two masters.