Translating Fuzziness In Context

As a significant nature of language, fuzziness widely exists in language use,either in writing or speaking. Because the Chinese language is an implicated andparatactic language, fuzzy expressions are quite prevalent, especially in classicalChinese poetry. Fuzzy expressions not only carry profound connotations, but alsoconvey particular fuzzy beauty, which is exactly the aesthetic value of classical Chinesepoetry. Hence translation studies of classical Chinese poems, especially about renderingthe fuzzy expressions with appropriate translation, have become a worthy topic to studyabout.Due to the inadequate general standards of interpreting the fuzzy language, thereare always different interpretations of fuzzy language in translation practice. However,the meaning of language is relatively fuzzy but could ultimately be defined, and onlywhen the general meaning of the fuzzy language is obtained could translation of fuzzyexpressions become possible. As a communicative activity, translation has been closelyrelated to language and culture; therefore, it is necessary and also feasible to apply thecontext theory to analyze the meaning of fuzzy expressions. In view of the inadequateresearch in this field, the author employs in this dissertation the context theory toanalyze the fuzzy language in classical Chinese poems.The author firstly reviews the development of contexts in translation, and thenprovides the classifications of context in translating: linguistic context, cultural contextand situational context. The body part of the dissertation elaborates the fuzziness inChinese poetry and illustrates the main kinds of fuzzy expressions in poetry language.Then, Li Shangyin, a brilliant Tang poet whose works is considered difficult to get aclear idea for his exceptional fuzzy expressions, has been taken as an example in thisdissertation, and detailed analysis of his poems in certain kind of contexts has beenproceeded. In the last part, a conclusion is drawn, which contains the significance of thecontext theory study in translation and inspirations from the thesis.From the study in this dissertation, the author holds that there are mainly four typesof fuzzy expressions in Li’s works: fuzzy themes, fuzzy symbols, fuzzy emotions andfuzzy imageries, and the linguistic context, cultural context and situational contextshould be considered as crucial factors in comprehending the meanings of Li’s fuzzy poems. In a word, this dissertation expounds that applying the context theory intranslation of fuzzy language could be very instructive.The enlightenment is as follows:While making research into translation studies of classical Chinese poems, it isfeasible to adopt context analysis to explore the most apposite meaning for fuzzylanguage expressions. And translators should always take context into considerationwhile conducting translation studies of classical Chinese poetry, also, the meaning of theoriginal text should be largely grasped and rendered into target language with feasibletranslation strategies. The significance of such work is that, we should be open-mindedand willing to explore new theory and methodology into poetry translation, and throughsuch work, we can build a bridge between the Chinese culture and foreign mind, and thesplendid Chinese classical literature is therefore being further enhanced in the world.