A Study On Ezra Pound’s Cathay From The Perspective Of Deconstructionist Translation Theory

Ezra Pound is one of the most influential poets in America in the20thcentury. His contribution to literary world contains not only the poems,but also the numerous translated works. Cathay is his most typical andrepresentative translated work. It has aroused a fierce debate since it waspublished; some critics praise highly of the creativity of his translationand the strong flavor of Chinese culture in Cathay; however, others blamehim severely for the grammatical and language errors. They think thatPound adds too much of his understanding in translation, and that histranslation is not faithful to the original one. On one hand, Poundemphasizes the preservation of poems’ essential meaning and poeticeffect in the target culture. On the other hand, deconstruction theorypromotes to break down the logocentrism in the traditional translationtheory, and emphasizes the importance of translator’s subjectivity. Thepurpose of translation is to transmit the essence of poem to the targetreaders and contribute to the afterlife of poems in the target readers.Therefore, the deconstructionist translation theory is similar to Pound’stranslation theory to some extent, and this thesis will make an analysis ofCathay from the angle of deconstructionist translation theory.In terms of research methodology, this thesis adopts a comparative and descriptive method to analyze the original poems and Pound’stranslations from the perspective of deconstructionist translation theory.First of all, this thesis presents a brief introduction to the deconstructiontheory’s origin and development, and makes an illustration ofdeconstruction theory’s influence on the translation theory and practice.And then the thesis makes a deconstructionist analysis on Cathay fromthe aspects of linguistics and non-linguistics.Based on the deconstructionist analysis on Cathay, this thesis comesto the conclusion that if the selection of translation strategy is reasonable,Pound’s works are not mistranslations. Although it has limitations,Cathay is a successful translation in general, because Pound brings newlife to Chinese classic poetry in the target culture, and exerts a greatinfluence on western poetry movement. It proves the explanation andguidance of deconstructionist translation theory on literary translation; asa result, translators should break down the traditional monism andcentrism in translation, emphasize the subjectivity of translator, and takethe target culture into consideration. At the same time, it also provides anew research angle to the scholars of Pound and lovers of literature in ourcountry.