A Comparative Study Of Text Blank Based On Reception Theory

As one of the aesthetic categories of literature and arts, poem serves for readers’ the aesthetic enjoyment. So the richness and beauty of lines in a poem determines its literariness of text. What a poem presents is an aesthetic world with language as its media. And the aesthetic image is the most important element among the aesthetic world. From the viewpoint of Reception Theory, the aesthetic world of images presented by translators actually shares the same story as the readers during the reading appreciation process. And such aesthetic world of images is a mixture of the translator’ horizon, the text horizon and the poet’s horizon. That is to say, the most important task for the translator in the translation process is to make the translated text become another new successful English poem by presenting the aesthetic world of images again and again. The text of poem advocates defamiliarization of its language. It seeks for leaving readers’imaginative space and enough text blank between images. The ways of subject omission and flexible use of words are frequently regarded as two important components of defamiliarization. Symbol and allusion are two frequent figures of speech. In addition, a poem seems like the music existing in the characters. The rhythm "ping" and "ze", together with end rhymes in a poem, makes the language read like a charming melody. Perhaps the lines of a poem seem like broken sentences on surface but they are linkable through the continuous melody. Meanwhile, the notion of "text blank" is indispensable in Reception Theory. Here we mainly focus on a series of translation ways surrounding with "text blank" from perspective of Reception Theory. Iser points out that the text blank functions as the switch which activates the readers to fulfill the text intention by using their own ideas. And it is considered as the basis of a textual structure and it has already incorporated the reader’s pan.This thesis will mainly focus on the translation of text blanks in poetry. The author puts forward directorial rule:the translated text should resemble the original first in spirit and then in form. That is to say, the spirit resemblance is an overall condition and the form resemblance is a practical condition in a poem translation. Both the spirit resemblance and form resemblance serve the representation of aesthetic world of images in the translated poem.There are five chapters in this thesis. Chapter One mainly involves the research background, research aim, research content, research methods and main framework, etc. From the perspective of Reception Theory, such prominent problems can be concluded into the translation of text blanks in poem translation. In general, three kinds of translation of text blanks will be discussed in this thesis, that is, the translation of text blanks from syntax, words’meanings, rhyme and rhyme.Chapter Two is the literature review and the introduction of Reception Theory, text blanks, and aesthetic world of images. The author analyzes "aesthetic world of images" from two angles:the poet’s creation and the reader’s appreciation. What is more, text blanks are closely related to the aesthetic world of images.Chapter Three illustrates the three levels of text blank in poetry and the representation of aesthetic world of images. Firstly, the author talks about the origin, development, and the features of poetry. Then the author puts forward the translation rule:the translated text should make sure to resemble the original first in spirit and then in form. That is to say, the spirit resemblance is something of representing the aesthetic world of images while form resemblance is something of transferring the form beauty. As for the translation of text blank from syntax, the author focuses on two parts:the flexible use of words and the subject omission. As for the translation of text blank from the words’meanings, the author mainly focuses on the symbolic meaning and al lusion meaning. As for the translation of text blank from rhyme and rhyme, we have two views: translating poems into rhyming verse or free verse. The rhyming verse is elegant in its sound pattern, but sometimes it also has its drawbacks:it is inevitable that the translation will lose some meanings existing in its original text so as to meet the rhyming scheme. From another angle of the poem, is it proper to translate poem into free verse, for example, translating the poem into prose? Poem is different from Ci poetry. As we know, Ci poetry seeks for different sentences in length while poem seeks the same length. Many scholars think that free verse is much more proper to represent feature in Ci poetry. Does it mean poem also shares the same story? There has no definite answer by scholars. Free verse is suspected of creative treasure while rhyming verse has the drawback of losing meaning.Chapter Four is the case study of five English versions of Tian Jin Sha and the analysis of text blanks from three levels. Firstly, it makes a comparison in structure between Tian Jin Sha and its five versions from parts level and whole level. Secondly; it makes an analysis in syntax from the flexible use of words, subject omissions in sentences and manifesting some changes of Tian Jin Sha in translation and its versions. Thirdly, it mainly focuses on three changes in translation of text blanks from words’ meanings and the representation of aesthetic world of images. These three changes are separately semantic level, semantic function and language style. Fourthly, it talks about translation of text blanks from rhythm and rhyme. It is represented by four embodiments in English versions of Tian Jin Sha. They are separately the end rhyme level, internal rhyme level, alliteration level and phonaesthesia level. Last but not the least; a survey is made focusing on reader’s personal expectation horizon.Chapter Five is the conclusions and suggestions about poem translation. At last, the author states the limitation in the research. Many other text blanks in poem translation have not been discussed in this thesis, for examples, there are text blanks about the omitted functional words from the syntax level; the text blanks about the rhythm of alliteration so on. These limitations are also the further studies for the author. She will do more researches on poem translation, making poem translation step into a broader and deeper extent in the future.