Imageries As Intermediary Agents In Translating Aesthetic Qualities And Linguistic Style

This thesis tentatively probes into the mental operations of a translator, namely aesthetic imagery andcognitive imagery/construal, attempting to discover how these two kinds of mental imageries serving asintermediary agents to help the translator make the original aesthetic qualities and linguistic style reappearin the target text.When the translator as an appreciator is closely reading the original text, a kind of pictorial mentalimagery, i.e. aesthetic imagery would emerge in his mind. At first the aesthetic imagery is vague, but alongwith the translator interacting with the original text dynamically and continuously, it becomes clearer andclearer. When the aesthetic imagery is finally realized, it would be reconstructed by the translator into thetarget text with possible linguistic means.Since its realization is characterized by the translator’s aesthetic progression, aesthetic imagery plays avital part in translating the original aesthetic qualities into the target text. When it is finally realized in thetranslator’s mind, the aesthetic qualities related to it would also be actualized.The actualized aesthetic qualities not only rest with the content but also the fabric of the aestheticimagery. However, many a translator always sticks to translating the content at the price of neglectingfabric of the original aesthetic imagery (aesthetic imagery of the author in composing the original text).Consequently the original aesthetic qualities may be distorted in translation. Therefore, it is safe to statethat when a translator wants to successfully make the original aesthetic qualities reappear into the targettext, the fabric of his aesthetic imagery should be maximally similar to that of his author’s.In this thesis, cognitive imagery which is also termed “imagery” or “construal”(汪泳2008:110-111;王寅2005:24)) refers to the mental imagery in Cognitive Grammar. From the perspective of CognitiveGrammar, linguistic expressions are onstage representations of the complex backstage non-verbal cognitiveoperations.In producing linguistic expressions of the original text, the author should firstly conceive a cognitivescene and then construe it. Then in translation, production of the target linguistic expressions should bebased on construing the cognitive scene activated by the original text. Moreover, because the construal manner of a language user (either the translator or his author) is the cognitive basis of the style of hislinguistic expressions, so we venture to claim that if a translator wants to successfully translate the originallinguistic style into the target text, his construal manner should be maximally similar to that of his author.Finally, when our attention is turned to the translation of classical Chinese poetry, we find that when aclassical Chinese poet is composing a poem, the fabric of his aesthetic imagery is generally characterizedby “revolving perspective”(or “uncertain viewing point”,“uncertain viewing route” and “no vanishingpoint”), and his construal manner by “uncertain vantage point”,“high degree of subjectivity”,“low degreeof empathy” and “summary scanning”(谭业升2004:153). In light of the above defining characters of aclassical Chinese poet’s imageries, five translated versions of Su Jiande Jiang (《宿建德江》) are comparedwith the original poem, and finally we discover that among the five translators, only Wai-lim Yip hassuccessfully translated the original aesthetic qualities and linguistic style into target version.