Translate The Rhythm:Yves Bonnefoy And His Poetics Of Translation

Yves Bonnefoy,one of the greatest modern poets in France,is also a productive translator.As soon as his first poetry collection was published,his translation career commenced,firstly with his translation of Shakespeare's plays,then the masterpieces of Yeats,Keats,Leopardi and so on.His long-time practice in translation shaped his thoughts on poetics of translation,bequeathing us lots of works on poetry translation.Because of his role both as poet and translator who puts theory into practice,it might be illuminating to contemporary translation study if we focus our study on his works.After reading his works on translation,we find that the concept of rhythm plays a central role in understanding Bonnefoy's works as well as translation itself.Thus,this paper mainly discusses the concept of rhythm in his translation,then finds out the roots of the concept,and studies its effects on his translation practices and ideas.The thesis paper is divided into three chapters.The first chapter aims to trace the origins of the rhythm concept.It mainly interpretes several core concepts,and defines his thoughts as the poetics of presence,whose essence lies in restoring the unity of being and the world broken by conceptualized language.But the concept of rhythm happens to live inside the poetics of presence,and is the key to be present.Later by looking through the historical changes of the concept of rhythm,we can draw the conclusion that the concept of rhythm of his poetics ideas is multi-layered,including three intrinsically relevant characteristics,namely materialistic,colloquial and creative.The second chapter tries to study the concept of rhythm under the context of translation.Based on the conclusion from the previous chapter and riveted on the three characteristics,this chapter elaborates on the effects of the concept brought about to his translation by virtue of analyzing the changes he makes in his translation.Firstly,to keep the materialistics of rhythm,he employs different ways to render sounds and rhythms in order to present the work with its original musicality.Secondly,he values a lot on the colloquialness of rhythm.Take his translation of Hamlet for example,on one hand he translates the lines from Hamlet into verses,on the other hand he tries to achieve the effect of succinctness and popularity.Lastly,he also emphasizes the creativity of rhythm,fusing his own writing style into his translation.The third chapter evaluates the theoretical values of the concept of rhythm.Firstly,his concept of rhythm redefines the definition of traditional faithfulness,thus deconstructs the dichotomy of form and contents,which means that translators should conform to the rhythm concept in the light of Bonnefoy's understanding.Secondly,the concept of rhythm elicits dialogues and interactions between the translator and the author.The translator must listen meticulously to the original rhythm and make relevant response before he could render a new one.Lastly,he creates a"self-sufficient" circulation in which translation originates from poetry and dwells upon poetry in the end.In conclusion,the concept of rhythm is rooted in Bonnefoy's poetics and always directs his translation.Thus we are offered the fabulous translation works full of poetics by his stress on rhythm.Furthermore,his poetics of translation centering on rhythm is rich in theory value,and would be important references to future translation practices.