The Representation Of Defamiliarization In Poetry Translation

Since Victor Shklovsky put forward the concept of’defamiliarization’, making things strange, the idea has been applied to a lot of literary fields, including literary creation, poetry translation and so forth. The representation of defamiliarization through defamiliarized techniques in the process of translation has drawn more attention from scholars and translators.Li Qingzhao is the most distinguished poetess in Song Dynasty, whose Ci-poems are characterized by their novelty and originality, however, most discussions on the translation of her Ci-poems are related to artistic appreciation. The proposal of defamiliarization opens a new horizon in poetry translation, but few of her Ci-poems have been systematically analyzed from the perspective of defamiliarization until now. Therefore, to discuss Li Qingzhao’s Ci-poems from the perspective of defamiliarization is an attempt to clarify that defamiliarization is an important concept in poetry translation.Through the discussions and analysis on two translated versions of Li Qingzhao’s Ci-poems mainly by Xu Yuanchong and Mao Yumei from two aspects: macroscopic and microscopic, it can be found that how defamiliarization is represented through defamiliarized techniques and how to appreciate the defamiliarized effects in the source and target texts. Since defamiliarized effects are mainly realized by rhetorical devices, rhetorical devices are the primary methods in the paper to discuss defamiliarization. From the perspective of translation practice, the paper discusses in a microscopic way how the defamiliarized devices are presented and represented in the source and target texts in respect of phonetics, vocabulary and syntax. From the perspective of aesthetic appreciation, the paper tries to explain the representation of defamiliarization in a macroscopical way and analyze how the defamiliarized devices can be perceived in the source and target texts from the aspects of beauty of sense, beauty of sound and beauty of form.Through discussion and analysis, it is easily found that rhetorical devices help poets to present and represent defamiliarization. It is also concluded that it will be most favored if a translator can reproduce the same or similar defamiliarized techniques as the original; if a translator can substitute other defamiliarized techniques for the original defamiliarized device as a way of compensation, it is also acceptable. However, there are still some defects in the paper. For example, the paper only discusses the works of Li Qingzhao, whose Ci-poems are characterized by originality and novelty because of the employment of different rhetorical devices, and translators can easily find the presentation of defamiliarization in her works and naturally try to represent the defamiliarization in their translations, but it can not be sure whether defamiliarization can be adequate for works of other poets.This thesis is an attempt to probe into the defamiliarization through case studies of Li Qingzhao’s Ci-poems and their representation in translation both at macro and micro levels, which is a field scarcely dealt with in China today. It is hoped that this attempt can inspire more people’s valuable ideas on the criticism of poetry translation and promote poetry translation practice.