A Deconstructive Translative Perspective Bodied Forth In Pound’s Secondary Translation

Translation and translator have always been thrown on the mercy of the original andthe author. The “inferiority complex” developed from within makes in a sense the authorityof the original and the author even more threatening, which is clearly exposed by theconfusion caused by an assortment of ideas raised by translative theorists to replace thetime-honoured term “translation” and the fetters imposed on the translator by the so-calledstandard of “fidelity.” Given the facts, the thesis proposes a tentative discussion of“secondary translation” in an attempt to clear the disorder, and examine this commonpraxis from a deconstructive translative perspective. In this process, the radicality ofdeconstruction is modulated when taking Pound’s secondary translation as example toillustrate this whole idea, with an eye to achieving a better combination between translativepraxis and its theoretical development, rather than simply weigh the original-translationrelationship in terms of fidelity, thus facilitating the construction and development oftranslatology.Deconstructive translative theory that flourished in the1970s unfetters translation andthe translator from the authority of the original and the author, which was actually inspiredby Benjamin’s1923publication “The Task of the Translator,” in which he claimed thattranslation marks the stage of continued life of the original. Derrida develops his idea inwielding translation to deconstruct the logocentric Western metaphysics, and at the sametime expands the space of translative research. And this new perspective is perfectlyillustrated by Pound’s secondary translation, in which the engrained hierarchy is exposedwhen translation performs as a means of ensuring the survival of the original. Meanwhile,the thesis proposes a “discreet deconstruction” in an attempt to “soften away” the radicalpart of deconstruction. Thus a revised deconstructive translative theory, when sheddinglight on itself, will enlighten translative praxis, for such a special phenomenon (translation,unlike literature, is rather a strange case in which theory and practice cannot be clearlydistinguished) could finally get a deserved scrutiny in the horizon of translatologicalconstruction.