Creative Interpretation-A Case Study On Ezra Pound's Cathay

Cathay is Ezra Pound's most influential translated poetic collection which has been gone down in Anglo-American literary history as his splendid poetic achievement. It is in Cathay that Pound first points out that Chinese is endowed with unique aesthetic quality, establishing a translation paradigm influencing all posthumous translators. Publication of Cathay subverted the traditional translation philosophy which regarded faithfulness as the first essentials of translation, triggering the great controversy lasing nearly a century among western and Chinese scholars and the nature of literary translation was once brought into focus of discussion by translation circle. Compared with its brilliant accomplishment, research on Cathay is put in the shade, lack of theoretical depth and systematicity. In light of this situation, this thesis takes the Cathay as the subject of the study and bases its theoretical foundation on philosophical hermeneutics to explore the subjectivity and creativity of the translator, aimed to reveal that Cathay is Pound's creative interpretation of classical Chinese poetry by using the descriptive method.According to modern philosophical hermeneutics, translation is, in essence, a kind of interpretation. All translation begins with the translator's understanding and interpretation of the original text. Interpretation runs throughout the whole translation process from the reception to the release of information. Translator's understanding and interpretation of the original text is by no means a process of reproduction of the original but a creative one. It is because of the creative interpretation that the original work gains a new life in a new language, nation, society and historical environment. Translator is no longer"an invisible man","slave of the original author"but"an interpreter","creator of textual meaning". Hermeneutics affirms translator's subjective position and creativity in the translation activity and to some extent reveals the nature of literary translation, especially the poetic translation.Pound's Cathay is a special translation case in Western and Chinese translating history, reflected in special translation method, special mediated text and huge influence. Special translation calls on special explanation. This thesis, resorting to the prejudice and fusion of horizon of philosophical hermeneutics, starts with examination of the peculiarity of Cathay as well as the historical and cultural setting of translating Cathay, then tracing Pound's poetics and translation philosophy to reveal Pound's creative translation of the classical Chinese poems from the following four aspects: choice of the Ernest Fenollosa's notes, theme of the Cathay poems, translation style and the translation strategy on the basis of the comparison among the original Chinese poems, some of Ernest Fenollosa's notes and Cathay. It examines Pound's translation in a broader context, hoping to reach a more objective explanation of Cathay from the nature of translator's understanding. Through the careful analysis of Cathay, we can draw the conclusion:First, absolute faithful translation is impossible because the subjectivity of the translator always works, influencing the understanding and interpretation of the original which, eventually, influence the end-product of translation. Second, translation is, in essence, a creative interpretation of the original text. Different interpretations result in different translations. Third, translation is closely related to the recreation. Translation is a kind of"re-creation"based on the original text.Considered Cathay as a creative interpretation of the classical Chinese poems, this thesis may be helpful to understand the nature of translation and role of the translator, to make a more scientific and objective explanation of Cathay and to have a deeper insight into Pound and his translations as a whole.