A Study Of Weng Xianliang's English Translation Of Ancient Chinese Poems From The Perspective Of Rewriting Theory

Professor Weng Xianliang is an eminent Chinese literary translator.Being exceptionally outstanding in poetry translation,he is recognized as the representative figure in the field of rewriting ancient Chinese poems.He has rich experience in translating ancient Chinese poems.After carefully searching,the author of this thesis has collected 165 translations of his,which span a range of literary styles such as Chu Poems,Han poems,Tang poems,Song poems,Yuan poems and Qing poems,dating back from Qu Yuan1 to Gong Zizhen2.Apart from achievements made in poetry translation practice,he also has made accomplishments in poetry translation theory by discussing profusely relevant issues about translating ancient Chinese poems into English.His understanding of the translation of ancient Chinese poems is insightful and enlightening.According to the relevant resources garnered by the author of this thesis,three limitations can be noticed about the current research into Weng Xianliang's art of translating.First,the urge to make a study of Weng Xianliang's translation is not strong.Up to now only 11 papers are dedicated to study Weng Xianliang's translation of ancient Chinese poems.Second,most of the studies focus on introducing and sorting out Weng Xianliang's views on translating ancient Chinese poems,hardly making any new findings.Third,the current studies are shallow.Current researches,more often than not,tell us Weng Xianliang rewrites in his translation,but fail to shed light on how Weng Xianliang rewrites.Weng Xianliang's translation of ancient Chinese poems is worth deeper and more creative research.Professor Weng Xianliang is the representative translator of the adaptation school,whose translations have striking features,namely the original poems and the translated poems differ in rhythm and imagery.Besides,the types of poems selected to be translated are special.With Rewriting Theory as the theoretical framework,this thesis will be dedicated to research Weng Xianliang's art of translating by means of qualitative study and descriptive study.According to Rewriting Theory,a translator's poetics and ideology prompt him to rewrite when translating and rewriting includes both the differences between the original poems and the translated poems and a translator's selection of poems to translate.The author of this thesis finds out that Weng Xianliang's ideology affects his selection of poems to translate while his poetics exerts important impact on rewriting rhythm and imagery.Therefore,the research objective of this study is to find out the types of poems selected to translate,the methods of rewriting rhythm and the methods of rewriting imagery.This study will be conducted as follows.First the author will discuss Weng Xianliang's ideology and strive to find out what types of poems he has selected to translate.Then the author will elaborate on Weng Xianliang's poetics on rhythm and endeavor to find out the methods of rewriting rhythm.At last,the author will discuss his poetics on imagery and work to discover his methods of rewriting imagery.After detailed research,the author of this thesis has made the following findings.Weng Xianliang mainly translates five types of poems.First,poems about patriotism and ambition;second,poems about disfavored talents;third,poems celebrating lofty ideas and deeds;forth,poems about missing or loneliness;fifth,poems about love for nature and time.It is evident that these types of poems are consistent with his ideology.Other common poetic themes such as idyllic life,reclusive life,and sympathy toward poor peasants are less translated.The three methods of rewriting rhythm are repetition,parallelism and punctuation.And the three methods of rewriting imagery are pointing out the hidden emotion of imagery,explaining image to create emotional atmosphere and revealing the logic between juxtaposed images.This study has significant meanings in both translation theory and practice.It has been proved in this study that the extraneous rhythm of poetry is untranslatable through scientific evidence,to some extent easing the dispute whether poetry is translatable or untranslatable.The understanding of Weng Xianliang's art of translating is enriched by penetrating into how he rewrites rhythm and imagery and this study can provide guidance for translation practice.