On The Formation And Realization Of Chinese And Western Translators' Poetic Concerns In Translating Chinese Poems Into English

Thanks to both Chinese and overseas translators' great endeavors,English translation of ancient Chinese poetry has been refreshed into a new look and bestowed to the West.Up to now,a great number of Chinese classical poems and remarkable poets have been particularly sorted out from many in the Tang and the Song Dynasties,with an assumption of being the outstanding representatives of Chinese poetry.Contrary to this expectation,they fail to gain universal applause from western readers.A noteless poet,however,who is not widely renowned at home and far incomparable to other great Chinese poets,say Li Bai,Du Fu and Wang Wei,has incredibly won big fame far abroad.This legendary poet does not even have a real name but merely a legendary one,that is,Han Shan or Cold Mountain,which,nevertheless,does not barricade his overseas popularity with assistance of just a few translated verses.Han Shan and his poems ever aroused profound social reaction in the West called "Craze for Han Shan".The youth in many countries even divinized Han Shan to be an idol.This extraordinary phenomenon deserves our deep concern and analysis in the perspectives of cultural comparison and literary translating studies.We must be particular about the modes,methods and process of translating Chinese poems,focusing our attention on the cultural essence of Chinese poetry.A feasible and functional translating ought to be done will full consideration of the author,poem,translator, version and reader.Principal achievements in poetic studies that have been made by far are generally in the form of quality evaluation,cultural contrast and translating review on a certain poem or a serial of works by one or more poets or translators.Comparatively,research into the interaction between the subject and the object tied by the translator's concerns with poetic art is yet quite limited.There is still a huge room for studying the poetic translation in terms of the translator's poetic equipment including his knowledge of poetry,translating aptitudes, cultural psychology,mission-awareness and aesthetic performance.Apart from that,it appears that systematic research with regard to contrastive studies of Chinese and English poetic cultures and the translating subject's poetic concerns is largely wanting.In the light of the exemplary cultural export of Han Shan,this research presents a finding that successful translating of Chinese poetry,to a large extent,depends on the translator's poetic accomplishment,i.e.knowledge and interpretation of Chinese poetic culture,art and the poet's spirit.The translator's accomplishment consists of cultural attainment,aesthetic contemplation in verse,strategic application of the combination of arts of both versifying and translating.Accordingly,the discussion within this paper is based on a specific academic kernel:translator's poetic concerns.The disquisition can be generalized into two parts:The first part shows "the Way of translating",which originates from comprehensive traits of poetic translating and extends to the multi-attributes of translator's poetic concerns.The second is about "the Technique of translating".Through demonstration of translation practice,approaches shaped from the combination of poetic and translating arts are carefully examined;furthermore,the author puts forward some pragmatic strategies for poetic translation and introduction.By theoretical analysis and practical demonstration,a conclusion has been drawn that the quality and the effect of translating Chinese poems are tightly related to the translator's poetic concerns and capabilities.Hopefully the treatise can open a new field for the study of translating ancient Chinese poetry,urging a good use of interactions among the translating subject's aesthetic characters, the objective features and the artistic origins of poems,and finally,with the guidance of a more reliable ideology,finding a way to vield ideal versions of Chinese poems.