The Study On Chinese Translation Of Modern Poetry From Democratic People’s Republic Of Korea Since 1949

Statistics show that there are 453 contemporary poems translated from DPRK to China since 1949.The study,in terms of time,author,translator,the publishing house and the publishing media,will investigate the distribution and characteristics of the works,the reason of selecting these works and their influence upon China’s literature.Since the founding of the people’s Republic of China the translation of poems from DPRK can be divided into three periods,1949-1966,1966-1976,1976 till now.1949-1966 can be termed as the "boom" of the Korean poetry translation.China-DPRK relation has become closer and closer since "the war to resist U.S.aggression and aid Korea" and the friendship lasted for a long time.Therefore the scale of Korean poetry translation was extremely large and the speed of translation development was also unusually quick.The translation of Korean poetry bore as much influence as that of other Chinese cultural activities from the Cultural Revolution in 1966-1976.During this period the translators’ subjectivity was extremely depressed and concealed.After 1976 the translation of Korean poetry recovered and developed gradually.Compared to previous stages,the translation after 1976 became freer and opener.However,as China-DPRK relation turned cold,the translation of poetry from DPRK became less accordingly.The number of poets from DPRK was surprisingly large,among them Jo Gicheon was the most remarkable one.The poets from DPRK who were introduced into China were critics,soldiers,and diplomats generally.The translators can be divided in terms of three criteria.The first one is based on the country and the nation.The majority of translators are Chinese.Korean friends who participated in the national liberation movement in China also joined poetry translation.Among Chinese translators,typical translators learned Korean in Beijing University like Zhang Lin.The second classification is according to the the source language.Korean translation is the mainstream,but there were also part of the translators using a third language to translate,such as Lou Shiyi,Bing Xin.Thirdly,they can be divided into individual translators and collective translators.Among the translation and publication of Korean poetry,the People’s Literature Publishing House is one of the major publishing houses.Among newspapers and magazines,the most translated Korean poetry was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China,or the People’s Daily.It can be said that the "institutionalization" of translation activities had a great influence on the translation of Korean poetry.The Korean poetry translation into China since 1949 had a broad impact on both leaders in literary and art circles like Guo Moruo and popular readers who had read and joined the promotion of Korean poetry.The classics of poetry in DPRK and Anthology of poems written by influential poets were translated in an organized manner.We should acknowledge their positive effects.However,the Korean poetry translation "boom" was filled with foam.The most serious problem of Korean poetry translation activities since 1949 is the subjectivity of the subject involved in the translation activities was severely suppressed,the translation became monotonous and therefore Chinese readers formed "stereotypes" of Korean poetry.Even reading market of China ushered in an era of openness,the readers were indifferent to Korean poetry.Translation activities started from the political situation and finally ends with political activities.