The Study On Rhythm And Rhyme Of Selected Poems Of George Byron Translated By Yang Deyu

In translation, meaning is often given priority over form for effective communication. Therefore, Nida's formal equivalence has long been neglected compared with his dynamic equivalence. But the sounds and the forms of poems are fundamental elements in poetry. In some cases, the sound and form of a poem even express certain meanings. A translation of a poem can barely reveal the beauty of the original in its sound and structure without reproducing the form of the poem. Since sound has less to do with the verbal meaning, the formal equivalence can be possibly applied to the translation practice of the rhythm and rhyme in poetry.Former practice and studies on translation of the rhythm and rhyme of poetry would rely more on translators' knowledge of English and Chinese versification, and on the basis of summing up and drawing from predecessors' studies. But studies from the perspective of formal equivalence can rarely be found. This thesis then makes a comparative analysis of the rhythm and rhyme of Selected Poems of George Byron translated by Yang Deyu to demonstrate the feasibility of formal equivalence in poetry translation. It also tries to clarify how to attain the equivalence of form as much as possible on the condition that the equivalence of meaning is guaranteed so that it can be beneficial to the solutions to the contradiction between meaning and form, and give some suggestions for the later translation practice and studies.The thesis consists of five chapters. The introductory part states the contradiction between meaning and form. It points out that the core of this study is not to discuss the priority of meaning and form, but how to reproduce as much as possible the beauty in sound of poems in the translation. Chapter two makes a survey of the studies on the ways of dealing with the rhythm and rhyme in E-C poetry translation, Chinese translation of Byron's poems and researches of Yang Deyu's translation. Chapter three makes a brief introduction of the prosody of English poetry for the following analysis. Chapter four is the essence of this thesis, which makes a relatively comprehensive analysis and draws a comparison of the rhythm and rhyme between the translation and the original. The result of the study shows that Yang's translation has reproduced the majority of the rhythm and rhyme of Byron's poems. Its flaws as well as achievements are summarized in the end. Conclusion based on this study is that the theory of formal equivalence can be applied to inspect and evaluate that, to what extent, the rhythm and rhyme of the translation is faithful to that of the original provided that the original meaning is preserved; and this theory is also beneficial to the improvement of E-C poetry translation.