A Study On Translator’s Subjectivity In Poetry Translation

All the time, traditional translation theories only emphasize the equivalence and faithfulness between source text and target text, which puts the analysis of language transference on a superior position. And it is believed that a good translation must be absolutely obedient to the original and the author with no trace of the translator, but this idea by no means ignored the translator’s subjectivity on purpose and made the translator marginal. Since the "cultural turn" in 1970s, with the development in translation field, the status of translators had been recognized and valued. Translation is never a process of mechanical transference or conveyance, and the rewriting and recoinage are inevitable according to translator’s own awareness, which thusly manifests the translator’s subjectivity.By studying Xu Zhimo’s translation of Thomas Hardy’s poetry, this thesis aims at exploring the translator’s subjectivity of poetry translation and its function with the accordance to Xu Yuanchong’s poetry translation theory and aesthetics reception theory. Xu Yuanchong’s poetry translation theory balances both the faithfulness and the translator’s subjectivity and mainly divides into three parts:"San Mei", "San Hua" and "San Zhi". Considering the translator’s experiences and feelings, the thesis gives a close analysis on Xu Zhimo’s poetry translation of Hardy’s, which thereby provides the necessity of the translator’s subjectivity and its positive effects.Theories and practices are synthesis of innovation. Through the whole paper, the thesis manifests the inevitability of translator’s subjectivity and also embodies the genius creativity of its function, meanwhile, translator’s subjectivity and its manipulation process are well proved and presented, which enlightens us some thinking on poetry translation. With the outcome of this thesis, it would be honored if this can be helpful to both the translator’s subjectivity study and the poetry translation study.