On The Reception And Deviation Of Hanshan’s Poems In America

As a hermitic poet in Tang Dynasty with his own distinct poetic characteristics. Hanshan and his poems have been ignored and marginalized for centuries in history of Chinese literature. However, after a thousand years’ silence. Hanshan and his poems have won uncountable favorable comments as well as a great reputation when traveling to Japan. America and many European countries. More importantly, there appeared an all-pervasive "Hanshan Phenomenon" in America from 1950s to 1970s. Undoubtedly. Gary Snyder has played a significant role in initiating this phenomenon. After the publication of Gary Snyder’s translation of 24 Hanshan’s poems in 1958. Hanshan transformed from a marginalized poet in China into the spiritual leader worshiped by the "Beat Generation" in a foreign land. Since then, studies on Hanshan’s poems have been springing up like mushrooms, which gradually drew Hanshan’s poems out of the embarrassing marginalized situation in China and considerably contributed to the canonization of Hanshan’s poems in American translated literature.This unusual literary phenomenon aroused the author’s interest. According to "Traveling Theory" by Edward Said (1982), ideas and theories can travel from one person, country, situation and period to another. After the travel finishes, the transversed idea or theory, in order to adapt itself to the new environment in a foreign land, might be a hundred percent copy of the original one, a partly deviated one keeping some old characteristics, or a completely transformed new one. Therefore, focused on Snyder’s translation of Hanshan’s poems, the author carries out a study on the reception and deviation of Hanshan’s poems in America from the perspective of Traveling Theory.This paper includes five chapters altogether. Chapter One briefly introduces the research background, research objectives as well as the basic structure of the present study. Chapter Two mainly elaborates on the previous studies on Hanshan. Hanshan’s poems, and on Snyder’s translation of Hanshan’s poems. Chapter Three briefs the connotation of Traveling Theory and previous research on it home and abroad while expounding the research findings on the relevance between Traveling Theory and translation studies. Chapter Four, as the core part of the whole thesis, manifests the profound incorporation of Traveling Theory and Snyder’s translation of Hanshan’s poems. In this chapter, the author discusses the traveling background, traveling process and traveling outcome of Hanshan’s poems:The author first explores the specific social background of the United States from 1950s to 1970s and analyses the underlying reasons for Snyder’s selective translation of Hanshan’s poems. In the following text, the author unfolds a comparative analysis between Snyder’s translation and the original poems, and pinpoints the translation strategies employed by Snyder in order to find the inner correlation between translation activity and the reception and deviation of a certain traveling text. Finally in the chapter, the author points out the specific circumstances of the reception and deviation of Hanshan’s poems in the America. Chapter Five is the conclusion part. Through the analysis of Snyder’s translation of Hanshan’s poems, the author finds that the text will naturally undergo certain reception and deviation during its travel from one culture and language to another. It’s understandable, inevitable, and instructive. However, due to the limitation of the present study, research on the reception and deviation of Hanshan’s poems remains to be amended and supplemented in the future.