Study On Recontextualization In Xu-Yuanchong’s Poetry Translation From Conceptual Integration Perspective

From the perspective of context, translation is the practice of recontextualization. Theproduction of a target text is actually the result of deconstructing original context of itssource text and reconstructing context in target text in the translating process. The thesisuses case study to analyze the process of recontextualization in classic Chinese poetrytranslation, that is, how the context of source text is reconstructed in target text.According to translators’ mental activity, this process can be divided into three phases,the understanding phase, the transferring phase and the reconstructing phase. In some sense,the reconstructing phase is contained in the transferring phase, but it is the critical session.The translator makes uses of the images to understand source text and master its context.And then he needs to transfer his understanding into target language. At the reconstructingphase the translator selects appropriate ways of expression to reconstruct context in targettext.The author utilizes the four mental spaces of Conceptural integration theory [CIT] toanalyze specific poems and lyrics from the aspects of context. Samples from XuYuanchong’s translation of The Book of Poetry, Tang Poetry and Song Lyrics are collectedand classified into four types according to the blending networks they belong to, including:Simplex network, Mirror network, Single-scope network, Double-scope network. Thesepoems and lyrics are analyzed to illustrate the reconstruction of context with the help ofthese networks.According to the above systematic and comprehensive analysis, the author comes tothe following findings: Poetry translation is not only the translation of its meaning but alsothat of its context; Context in target text is a new context constructed on the basis oftranslator’s understanding of source context in translating process; The translated contextmust keep maximal correspondence to the context in the source language text from theaspect of poetry translation; Translator has to take advantage of some specific translationstrategies to reconstruct the grace of original context. Recontexturalization encourages toadopting creative translation methods to reproduce equivalent context in target text to becorrespondent to that in source text. Due to the limitation of the author’s academic vision and the inadequacy of samples,the thesis absolutely has some limitations. Despite of the limitations of this study, it alsohas some values which might broaden the scope of the CIT and recontextualization inexplaining poetry translation work, and provide a new theoretical angle for poeticappreciation and translation criticism.