A Study Of Yang Deyu's Translation Poetics And His Poetry Translation

Mr. Yang Deyu, as a famous translator keen on translating English poetry into Chinese, has achieved abundant translation works as well as plenty of unique translation opinions on poetry translation. He has a passion for translating romantic metrical poems written by such romantic poets as Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge, as to express his inner romantic emotions through translating the romantic poetry. Yang Deyu passed away on Jan.23, 2013 in Wuhan. Under this special background, this thesis would probe into Yang's translation poetic views by studying his translation practice and translation strategies in order to cherish the memory of Mr. Yang Deyu. In his whole life, he has translated a series of celebrated poetry works, and harvested numerous prizes. However, Yang's translation works have never been the hot spot in the field of translation studies. This thesis would make a deep research in Yang Deyu's translation practice, and his poetic views based on the existing research foundation.Poetry translation is a kind of artistic representation, and in a fundamental sense it can be said that poetry translation is a poetically reconstruction of the original poem. Andre Lefevere, the representative figure of translation poetics, once commented on the controlling influence of patron and ideology on translation and suggested that the translators are impacted by the two kinds of poetic views: the dominant social poetics and the individual poetics. No matter which kind of poetics a translator applies, the poetic views could be reflected in the works translated. Besides, a translator's individual poetics plays a very important role in the process of his or her translation practice. This thesis chooses to analyze Yang Deyu's representative poetry translation from the perspective of translation poetics and sums up the characteristics of Yang Deyu's translation works. In addition, this thesis analyzes Yang's poetry translation based on his translation poetics with his translation practice as well as Yang's translation activities, insisting on translating English metrical poetry into the forms of modern Chinese metrical poems and developing the method of "translating English metrical poetry into Chinese metrical poetry", "replacing foot with dun", and "keeping the original rhyme scheme". Finally, this thesis would make a profound exploration in the value of Yang's poetry translations as well as the findings and losses about this research. In the field of English romantic poetry translation, Yang Deyu works hard and has especially formed his own characteristics and features in poetry translation. He develops his own unique translation opinions in the process of his poetry translation, combining poetry translation with researches: translating English metrical poems into the form of modern Chinese metrical poems; replacing foot with dun; keeping the original rhyme scheme; representing the original style and poetic world.The content of the thesis is mainly divided into three parts including the introduction, the main body and the conclusion. The introduction part presents the research background, purpose, difficulties, contents and intentions. The main body includes four chapters. The first chapter introduces the literature review which explains the current research situation of translation poetics and Yang's poetry translation aboard and at home. The second chapter presents the overview of Yang's poetry translation practice and his contribution to English poetry translation. The third chapter elaborates Yang Deyu's translation poetics. The fourth chapter would study Yang's poetry translation based on his translation poetics from several aspects: sound, form, meaning, and holism, which include the following aspects: "replacing foot with dun", "keeping the original rhyme scheme", and "translating English metrical poems into modern Chinese metrical forms". The conclusion part sums up the content of the research, analyzes the findings and losses in the research, and states the enlightenment. Through analyzing Yang's translation poetics and his translation practice, this part underlines that poetics provides a new angle for translation study, making more scholars not only pay great attention to the dominant social poetics, but also the impact of a translator's individual poetics on his or her translation practice which is the core of this research.