The Display Of Translator Subjectivity And Su Manshu's Verse Translation

Su Manshu has been considered as a pioneer in verse translation in modern times. His verse translation has drawn increasing attention from scholars. The present study examines his subjectivity displayed in verse translation based on the theory of translator subjectivity. It is demonstrated that the success of Su's translation can be ascribed to his literary aesthetics, translation ethics, and literary creativity. First of all, despite the political utility in relation to text choosing at that time, Su insists on translating poems with themes of love, liberty and nature. His verse translation, as a matter of fact, represents the transition of modern verse translation from purpose orientation to literary orientation. Moreover, with adherence to translation fidelity both in sense and form, he aims at the stylistic equivalence. His pursuit in fidelity marks the turn in the function of verse translation from political utility to aesthetic purity. Finally, Su represents the musical, visual, and intellectual qualities of source poems through his creative treason, visualization, and use of plain or obscure words. Thanks to its distinctive poetic qualities, his verse translation grows an immense fond of Byron's poems in the late Qing Dynasty and resultant facilitation of the modernization of Chinese verse translation.Su's display of translator subjectivity in verse translation distinguishes himself as a remarkable translator in modern translation history in China. And this does not imply that a translator can abuse his power in manipulating the translation to the extent that an unfaithful translation or an awkward translation is resulted in. Instead, a translator should display his unique translator subjectivity in order to render a verse translation which does not bear a unity of form and sense, but also carries qualities of poetic artistry.