A Study Of McDougall’s Translation Of Bei Dao Shi Xuan From The Perspective Of Aesthetics Of Translation

Bei Dao’s poetry creation, influenced by the western modernist poetry, bears characteristics of obscure, abstract language and elusive, dense images. Because of the artistic features in his works, Bei Dao was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He enjoys a wide reputation among the overseas English readers, which largely depends on the English translations of his works by Bonnie S. McDougall, an Australian translator. McDougall is regarded as one of the most influential translators of modern and contemporary Chinese literature in the English-speaking world. Since 1970s, she has rendered the works of many Chinese writers such as Mao Zedong, Lu Xun, He Qifang, Bei Dao, Zhu Guangqian and Ah Cheng.The traditional Chinese translation theories are closely related to aesthetics from proposition to methodology. The contemporary theoretical research on aesthetics of translation takes in the essence of previous studies and moves on. At present, the theory of aesthetics of translation suggests that on the basis of fully understanding the translation aesthetic object (the original text) and the translation aesthetic subject (the translator), scholars and researchers should analyze the constituents of the translation aesthetic object, explore the translation aesthetic subject’s subjective initiative and provide methods of representation in the process of translation to guide the translation practice.This paper intends to explore and analyze Bonnie S. McDougall’s translated work The August Sleepwalker from the perspective of aesthetics of translation, the three main components of which are the translation aesthetic object, the translation aesthetic subject and the translation aesthetic representation. This research suggests that there are three decisive aesthetic conditions affecting the exertion of the translation aesthetic subject’s subjective initiative:one is "aesthetic feeling", which means empathy of the aesthetic perception in Bei Dao’s poems by way of imagination; another is "knowledge", which indicates the correct recognition and understanding of the cultural images in Bei Dao’s poems; the other is "capability", which refers to the translator’s capability of translation. Under the exertion of the translation aesthetic subject’s subjective initiative, aesthetic constituents of the formal system (in regards of the constituents at the sound level, the lexical level and the stanza level) and non-formal system (in regards of the artistic conception and imagery) in Bei Dao’s poetry are represented in the English version of Bei Dao Shi Xuan by means of imitation or recast.In the previous studies, on the one hand, compared with the research on aesthetics of ancient Chinese poetry translation, the translation of modern and contemporary Chinese poetry attracted far less attention from translation scholars and researchers. On the other hand, the academic circles of translation paid more attention to the translation aesthetic object and translation aesthetic representation. The controller of the translation aesthetic representation, namely, the translation aesthetic subject, however, would be often neglected. This paper, therefore, enriches the previous studies and concentrates on the three aspects of aesthetics of translation, aiming to presenting a new perspective to study aesthetics of English translation of Chinese poetry.