Deconstruction And Literary Translation

Poetry translation is one of the most difficult jobs in the field of translation, especially the classical poetry translation from Chinese to English. Because poetry is the soul of the language. With a highly condensed form, it intends to provide readers with great space of association and express most in the fewest words. Therefore, it attracts the interests of the translators both at home and abroad. As for the translation in contemporary China, Xu Yuanzhong is definitely the most influential one, whose excellent versions of the classical Chinese poetry are well accepted by readers both in China and overseas, and whose criteria of verse translation--"beauty in sense, beauty in sound and beauty in form"have been widely recognized and appreciated.Xu has summarized his poetic translation theories as"art of beautifulization and creation of the best as in rivalry"of which the theory of art, the principle of three beauties and the concept of creativity are found as the core. Some scholars say that Xu lays equal stress on translation theories and practice; and his achievements and new theories appear one after another. As he always emphasizes that poetic translation is an art rather than a science, the traditional criterion like"faithfulness"or"equivalence"is never thought to be geared to poetic translation. For him, poetic translation is both a creative art and a process of seeking beauty of original poems on the part of translators. Thus the freedom of translators'subjectivity and creativity has to be encouraged. In essence, Xu's viewpoints on poetic translation are closely related to deconstruction's emphasis on the openness of a text and translators'creativity.Deconstruction is a post-structuralism trend of thought which began in the 1960s in France. It originates in philosophy but penetrates into every aspect of social life. Deconstruction claims that an open pluralistic and tolerant system should be established. Deconstruction summons to break the authority of the author as well as versions of translation source text and emphasizes that there should be many versions of translation. The translator should try to show his creative ability. Deconstructive translation opens up a new perspective to translation studies and providing a theoretical basis for some effective translations that are against the loyalty principle. Deconstructive translation challenges loyalty-characterized traditional translation, the focus of which is literal translation and free translation, translatability and untranslatability, and loyalty or equivalence principle that is always emphasized in traditional translation.In light of this, the discussion will be focused on Xu Yuanchong's poetic translation theory and practice from the perspective of deconstruction, the author draw a conclusion that deconstruction has a has a guiding role in the process of translation.