A Study Of Xu Zhimo As A Translator

Xu Zhimo (1897-1931) was one of the pioneering figures during the May Fourth Cultural Movement. Though his life was short, he not only made great achievements in literary creation, but also made great contributions to Chinese translation cause. As an excellent writer, his works were widely accepted by readers and critics, and many favorable comments were made upon his writings. Some of his poems even enjoy world reputation nowadays, such as Farewell to Cambridge, By Chance, etc. In addition, his romantic life experience also drew the attention of many critics. However, his another role as a translator has long been ignored, and this has something to do with the neglect of translators in the translation studies in the past.In the past two or three decades, with the cultural turn of translation studies, translators drew more and more attention in translation studies. Many of Xu Zhimo's contemporary translators have got systematic studies, including Lu Xun, Hu Shi, etc. But Xu Zhimo's translation activities have not draw much attention due to some reasons.In fact, he began his literary career with translation in 1921, and from then on, he never ceased his efforts in translating and introducing Western works to Chinese people until his sudden death in an airplane accident in 1931. In this process, he not only introduced many Western literary giants to China and broadened the visions of Chinese people, but also formed his own theoretical thoughts on translation on the basis of his rich translation practice. What's more, he made great contributions to the emergence and development of new style poetry in China through his translation practice during the May Fourth Cultural Movement. However, compared with his literary creation, his contributions to translation had drawn little attention from the critics. What's worse, the relatively few comments on his translations are mainly negative, regardless of the specific social and cultural circumstances he lived in, that is, the turning point of China-May Fourth Cultural Movement. The author of this thesis, on the basis of the polysystem theory and manipulation theory and taking the specific socio-cultural circumstances he lived in into consideration, tends to conduct a descriptive study on Xu Zhimo's translation activities and translation thoughts in order to make a relatively fair evaluation of his role as a translator.This thesis mainly consists of five chapters besides the introduction and conclusion:The introduction is about the research background, research objective, theoretical framework and the layout of the whole thesis. Chapter one is literature review, in which the author makes a survey on the fruits of the studies of Xu Zhimo as a translator up to now. Chapter two introduces Xu Zhimo's life experience and analyzes his potentials to be a translator. Chapter three introduces his translation activities, furnishing readers with an essential understanding of Xu Zhimo as a translator. Chapter four discusses Xu Zhimo's theoretical thoughts on poetry translation in detail from the following perspectives:his view on the criterion of poetry translation, his translation method, his choice of vernacular Chinese as the target language and his view on retranslationi(复译).The author here focuses on his thoughts on poetry translation because poetry translation made up a great proportion in his translation activities, and his typical identity was a poet. Chapter five analyzes the influence of Xu Zhimo's translation activities on his own literary creation and the development of new style poetry in China. Conclusion summarizes the whole thesis and gives a relatively fair evaluation of Xu Zhimo's role as a translator on the basis of the whole thesis.