Formal Translation Of Tang Poetry: From The Perspective Of Domestication And Foreignization

Tang Dynasty is the heyday of classical Chinese poetry. Tang poetry represents the summit of Chinese poetry. Its beautiful conception, even antithesis, harmonious rhythm and sweet rhyme not only bring a spiritual feast for readers, but also make them intoxicated with the enjoyment of aesthetic. The beauty of Tang poetry is expressed in the combination of content and form. This thesis focuses on formal translation of Tang poetry, especially that of Jue ju and Lu shi.The form in this research refers to the peculiar and inherent elements which distinguish Tang poetry from other literary genres, including tonal pattern, line length, poetic type, rhyme, rhythm and meter. Poetry is a special literary genre, whose form is more important than that of prose. Zhu Guangqian(朱光潜)holds that the form should be considered as the soul of poetry. As far as the formal structure of Tang poetry is concerned, its inchoation(起),development(承),transition(转)and summarization(合)are different but strict. The space and time, feeling and setting, as well as reality and illusion are all embodied in the entity of the four or eight lines, with condensed content, beautiful form and profound connotation. In the translation process, the form should not be sacrificed for the content. Hence, the form is important and necessary in reproducing the charm of Tang poetry.This thesis first summarizes the elegant forms of Tang poetry and then explores how the translators have reproduced its forms in their translations to convey the charm of Tang poetry as much as possible. A comparative study of formal translation from the perspective of domestication and foreignization shows that such forms as line length, poetic type, rhyme and rhythm, shared by both Tang poetry and English poetry, can be reproduced to a great extent in the target text, but such forms as pun and intertextuality peculiar to Tang poetry are difficult to be reproduced or even untranslatable. The forms of Tang poetry can be better replanted and retained in the target text by means of foreignizing translation, while domesticating translation eliminates and rewrites the formal features of the source text to some degree.