Reshaping The "Banished Immortal": A Study On Rewi Alley’s Translation Of Li Bai’s Poems

Rewi Alley was an educator,social activist,and renowned foreign friend of China.He spent nearly 60 years in China after he first arrived in Shanghai in 1927,and made remarkable contribution to the liberation and development of modern China.In 2009,along with such household names as Norman Bethune,Edgar Snow and Joseph Needham,Alley was posthumously awarded "Top Ten International Friends" by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.Alley was also a passionate and prolific translator of Chinese poetry.He published a dozen of translations of Chinese poetry,including both ancient and modern ones.Different from most Western translators,Alley had first-hand experience of China,Chinese culture,and Chinese poetry;compared with Chinese translators,as a native English speaker,Alley had advantages in language proficiency.All this makes Alley’s case an interesting and unique one.However,by far Alley and his translation of Chinese poetry have not attracted enough academic attention.Therefore,the present author devotes this research to studying Alley’s translation of Li Bai’s poems,hoping it can,to some extent,fill the research gap,and provide useful insights into relevant studies on English translation of Chinese poetry and modern Chinese translation history.The present author conducts a case study of Alley’s translation of Li Bai’s poems by combining historical analysis,textual analysis and para-textual analysis,using Lefevere’s theory of rewriting as a theoretical framework.The findings are as follows:1)Ideological factors set the tone for Alley ’s translations.His early translations of Li Bai’s poems are collected in Peace through the Ages published in 1954,and all the selected pieces are about wars and people’s revolt.Alley made many omissions and adaptations in his translations,and by using annotations,he associated some poems to modern China and its revolutionary cause.After the Cultural Revolution(1966-1976),Alley published Li Pai:200 Selected Poems,in which revisions were made to earlier translations and contents were enriched.Still,by employing such para-textual measures as preface and footnotes,Alley endeavored to re-construct Li Bai’s image and reverse his traditional image as a "Banished Immortal".2)Patronage factors are at work throughout Alley’s translation activities.Since Alley came to Beijing in 1952,an office was arranged for him,in which full-time Chinese secretaries helped him with his writings and translations.When translating Li Pai:200 Selected Poems,Alley received assistance from Bi Shuowang,a Chinese expert,and when the translation is finished,Zhao Puchu,a prestigious Chinese scholar,wrote a preface to it and recommended it on a famous art magazine.3)Poetic factors equip Alley’s translations with strong personal marks.In his memoir,prefaces to translations,and an article published on Chinese Translators Journal,Alley repeatedly articulated his own poetic concept,that is,abandoning rhyme in poetry translation and focusing on conveying the "spirit".In practice,he used modern verse style with plenty of line-breaks to translate ancient Chinese poetry,and was criticized by some scholars and experts for doing so.Generally speaking,Alley reversed and re-constructed Li Bai’s image through his translation,turning Li Bai from a romantic poet into a realistic one,and imprinted Li Bai’s poems with his own strong personal marks.However,both among common readers and in the academia,the reception of his translation is far from satisfying.Some lessons could be learned from Alley’s case when we promote Chinese literature globally today.This research also reflects on Lefevere’s theory of rewriting.Hermans criticizes Lefevere for failing to elaborate on the latter’s own argument on translator’s personal initiative.Alley’s case can serve as a supporting example to Lefevere’s argument.