On The Translatability Of Poetry From The Perspective Of Language Function

Poetry is the supreme form of literature,and also the most difficult genre in literary translation.Throughout the history of translation in the West and China,the controversy over the translatability and untranslatability of poetry has been debated for thousands of years.Although translation scholars have different views on the translatability of poetry,all their arguments promote the development of the theory of poetry translation to some extent.The Canterbury Tales is an encyclopedic literary work that epitomizes the great achievements of medieval literature.It lays the foundation for the development of English poetry.Researches on its translation are limited in China,and few people study its translatability from the perspective of language function.Therefore,this thesis will provide a new angle for the study of the Chinese translations of The Canterbury Tales,further the research of its translation in China and demonstrate the translatability of poetry.The present author tries to use Liu Chuanzhu's language functions,Catford's linguistic and cultural untranslatability,as well as Liu Miqing's theory in translatability as the theoretical basis to discuss the limits of the translatability of poetry.Chapter One introduces the research background,research significance,research methodology,research questions and thesis structure.Chapter Two makes a review of the studies on the translatability of poetry at home and abroad,and studies on The Canterbury Tales and its translation.Chapter Three provides the theoretical framework for this research.Chapter Four is the main part of this thesis.It provides a brief introduction to The Canterbury Tales and its two Chinese versions,and it also conducts a comparative analysis on the two Chinese versions of The Canterbury Tales mainly from the perspective of the cultural function and aesthetic function of language.The analysis shows that in terms of the cultural and aesthetic functions of language,there are some obstructions in poetrytranslation in some cases.Through the case study of the two Chinese versions of The Canterbury Tales,it is found that Huang Gaoxin's version is closer to the original version than Fang Chong's version and better than Fang Chong's version in the methods of coping with the obstruction of translatability.