Translator's Subjectivity Reflected In Cathay In The Light Of Hermeneutics

The translator plays an essential role in the process of translation.The subjectivity of translator in the translation process ranges from the choice of the translation,the motives of translation,the style of language to the style of the translation.Nevertheless, the subjectivity is ignored in the long history of traditional translation studies,as attention is mostly paid to the linguistic competence and the translation techniques which are thought to have more influence on the translation effect.In recent years,especially since the time the "cultural turn" concept was brought forward,the translator's subjectivity has become the focus for more and more scholars and the related studies has become more and more important.Some scholars even pointed out that:"The translator plays a very important role in promoting culture exchange,and it can be said that the translator is also constructing the culture in his language context,just like the author" (屠国元,朱献珑2003:14).Mentioning Ezra Pound,people more often remember that he is an outstanding Imagist poet rather than a translator,and many translators in our country think it worthless to do any researches about his translation,for even though he translated many Chinese poems,he did not know any Chinese(祝朝伟2005:421).Until now,no unanimously-recognized evaluation has been reached home and broad concerning his translation practice and translation concepts.Pound in truth translated a large amount of literary works in his lifetime,which greatly influenced the literature and culture of his country and the country of the target language.In his early period,Pound showed great interests in Chinese classical poetry.Under the influence of Chinese classic poetry,Pound translated and published a poetry anthology in 1915(including 19 poems by Li Po,Du Fu and some other poets in the Tang Dynasty) based on the notes of the Orientalist Earnest Fenollosa as well as professors Mori and Ariga(as shown in the preface of the book).During the translation course,Pound largely applied creative translation techniques,which fully manifested his subjectivity as a translator.Hereon,this paper will research on Pound's subjectivity in the translation process of Cathay from the perspective of philosophical hermeneutics,to be more specific,mainly from the four motions of George Steiner—the hermeneutic translation theorist.Toward the end of the paper,some enlightenments about translation studies will also be offered.1) Pound accomplished his translation work Cathay on Earnest Fenollosa's manuscript as well as some explanations made by professors Ariga and Mori on some Chinese ancient poetry,thus his translation is so-called intertextuality translation.Then what is intertextuality translation? The essay here will make a general discussion on the topic.2) About poetry translation,different people have different translation standards, and then what standard should be followed in poetry translating:should we abide by "faithfulness" as the criteria or should we creatively reproduce the original—namely abide by "creative treason" as the criteria? At the end of the thesis attempts will be done to explore the topic.