Three Turns In Tsemou Hsu's Poetry Translation

Tsemou Hsu, as one of the representatives in Chinese modern poetry, played an essential role in "May Fourth" New Cultural Movement. Hsu's life was short but out of the common; and he was remembered and criticized by later generations with his unique style in poetry writing, which brought rich materials in Chinese new poetry. Meanwhile, Tsemou Hsu was wild about translating English literary works with rich translating experience and original translation theory. However, compared with his poetry creation, his contribution to translation has not attracted much attention. Taking the researches on Tsemou Hsu in the domestic and abroad under consideration, it can be found that most of them are focusing on his literary creation while the study on his translation is relatively less. Some monographs discussing the history of Chinese modern literary translation and those concerning about the translation practice and theories in the period of "May Fourth" Movement appreciably mentioned Hsu's contribution to translation; some researchers briefly introduced Hsu's translation work when they were summarizing the achievements of Chinese modern literary schools, while others did some investments on the value judgment on his poetry translation.As a talented poet, Tsemou Hsu's engaging into poetry translation should be regarded as a typical model for such kind of translator—poet translator. He was edified by two entirely different cultures—Western and Eastern cultures, with rich life experience and particular life background. Hsu had done a lot of translation practice, making great contribution to Chinese New Cultural Movement and Western-Eastern communication as well, on which his voluminous works of poetry translation has the greatest influence. This thesis attempts to discuss the three turns in Hsu's poetry translation and figure out its different features under different specific circumstances by comparing his translated poems vertically according to poetic theory and translation theory of the cultural school. Through carrying out the descriptive research on Hsu's poetry translation and combining it with the socio-cultural context and the individual life background, the relationship between Hsu's poetry translation practice and the specific context will also be analyzed to make out the factors influencing such three turns in Hsu' poetry translation.Tsemou Hsu's translation practice began in 1921 and lasted for nearly ten years until he died in 1931, having the same life cycle as his literary creation. Tsemou Hsu's life and his translation practice will be introduced briefly first in the thesis, followed by the comparative analysis of his poetry translation in three aspects: linguistic aspect, changes in the external form of Hsu's poetry translation; materials choosing, changes in the style of the original works he chose; and aesthetic aspect—the changes in the aesthetic features of his poetry translation. Assisted by the results of analysis, the thesis discusses socio-cultural and individual living background to gain the factors influencing these three turns and the elements affecting translation process of the poet translator, from which the advantages and disadvantages of a poet translator doing poetry translation can be drawn out. It is expected to get the conclusion that poetry translation is a kind of bidirectional communicative activity containing two directions: poet translator adapts his experience in poetry creation for poetry translation, vice versa; and the subjectivity of a poet translator will lead to the merits and demerits of his translation as well. There is also an attempt to offer a new research angle and provide some new research evidence for modern Chinese poetry translation, enriching the corpus of research on Tsemou Hsu's poetry translation.