A Tentative Application Of Imagery Theory Of CL To The Translation Of Classical Chinese Poetry

Classical Chinese poetry is a great heritage of Chinese literature. But its unique forms, together with its packed images and rhymed sounds have caused great difficulties for translators. The evaluation work of its translations is even more frustrating, for there is no systemic analyzing system. That's why most of the judgments are spontaneous and impressionistic. However, cognitive grammar, which relates grammatical constructions to human cognitive mechanisms, provides a possible way to deal with this problem.In his cognitive grammar, Langacker uses the term image, or construal, to explain grammatical structures. He believes every verbalization is a specialized way to put a situation, or a particular image of the scene. He thinks four dimensions– selection, perspective, salience and abstraction in human cognition determine what a particular image looks like. In this paper, his thought is applied to the translation of classical Chinese poetry, so that a translator's specific rendition is related to his specific cognitive factors. Since classical Chinese poetry is usually full of fuzziness and can be interpreted in multiple ways, every Chinese poem can be deemed as a scene, to which different translators form different images, or different translated versions. These different images are reflected in the choice of words, grammatical forms, and sequential arrangements, etc. In this way, the original frail impressionistic judgment can find something solid to hold on; and the intangible motivations of the translator behind each choice also become tangible through the analysis.This paper set up a trial mode of evaluation for translations of classical Chinese poetry under the framework of cognitive grammar. It is hoped that the analysis will be enlightening to poem translators.