A Comparative Analysis On Five Chinese Versions Of I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud From The Perspective Of Metafunction

"Metafunction" is the universal features of language (Halliday,1967:243; 1973; 1985: xxxv,169), which is reflected in three aspects:"Ideational" function, including the experiential function and the logical function, "Interpersonal" function and "Textual" function.According to Halliday (1994/2000:179), any text is the construct of three metafunctions derived from ideational, interpersonal and textual functions realized simultaneously by three layers of meaning:ideational, int erpersonal and textual. A translation is involved in two different texts:source text and target text. In other words, actually a translation is, first of all, should undertake an exhaustive interpretation of the three metafunctions in the source text before the three metafunctions are reconstructed in a new text—the target text. Therefore, an ideal translation should be the corresponding transformation of the three functions from the source text into the target text, since "what translation deals with is a specific text which, as a text concerning language use, inevitably embodies the three functions. Therefore, to arrive at a complete translation of a text, it is naturally required that the three function meanings in the source text be equivalently transformed into the target text"(司显柱,2005:16-17). Accordingly, in a translation, whether the three layers of meaning could be correspondingly achieved and whether the three metafunctions could be equivalently corresponded in the two languages become important evaluation criteria for assessing the quality of the translation.Translation of poetry is also a process of dealing with a specific text, so it definitely needs a translator to maximize an equivalent and corresponding transformation of the three function meanings from the source text into the target text. Just as Huang Guowen(黄国文)puts it, a good poetry translation begins with a thorough understanding and exhaustive interpretation of the original poem, the figuring out of the poet's intention and the poem's imageries, based on which, a translator can decide his choice of particular forms of language to express the meanings in the original poem. What language forms the translator selects (including the macro-structure, clause, phrases and words) into the target text requires an equivalent transformation of the original semantic and imaginary meaning to the maximum. Particular language forms convey particular meaning. Form is the realization of meaning(黄国文,1999:106-115).William Wordsworth was the founder of English romantic movement in the 19th century and representative of lake poets. His poem I wondered lonely as a cloud (The Daffodils) is (?) one of his representative works. The poem is written in a rustic language—everyday language spoken by common people. Through the description of natural scenery, the poet overflows his strong feelings and emotions coming from the tranquil beauty in the nature. In terms of doing poetry translation, it is crucial whether the translator can successfully have a relatively equivalent transformation of the three layers of functional meaning so as to arrive at metafunctional correspondence between the source text and the target text. A comparative study on the metafunctions between the source language and the target language may provide us a way out. Due to limited space, this article discusses only ideational function and interpersonal function comparing with original and its five Chinese versions.Through the scrutiny of the ideational function and interpersonal function of the poem together with a comparative examination on the similarities and differences between the original poem and its five translation versions, the study finds that the more thorough of the translator grasping the metafunction in the original text, the more objective and accurate in the expression of the metafunction in the target text. This study shows that applying functional linguistics to translation study is of practical significance.