Aesthetic Experience In Poetry Translation-with Reference To The Two Versions Of Zang Hua Yin

In recent years,cultural opening up to the outside world and cultural exchanges have topped the agenda of the Chinese government.Due to the unprecedented support of the Chinese government for the “going global” of the national culture,the importance of cultural power in constructing the international image and the gain or loss of discourse power in actualizing national interests,researches on cultural translation has become a hot issue in translation studies and is demonstrating a vigorous trend.Classical works,as the most comprehensive cultural carriers,have become the vanguard in undertaking cultural exchanges.The project of translating classical books and records helps to introduce the Chinese culture to the world.Hong Lou Meng(HLM)marks the peak of the classical literary works in China with insurmountable achievements in artistic connotations and literary expressions.Zhang Hua Yin(ZHY),as one of the best known and the most representative HLM poems,is worthy of a deep study in both aesthetic value and literary expression.Hawkes' s and Yang Hisen-yi's versions,though widely known at home,have not obtained a reputation as they deserve in the Western world.This thesis analyzes the aesthetic experience in ZHY translation from the perspective of aesthetics,aiming to explore overall principles that are applicable to the translation of all HLM poems in the hope of providing references to the translation of other classical Chinese poems as well.This research mainly probes into three questions: 1)Judging from the two versions of ZHY,how does the aesthetic schema find expression in poetry translation? 2)What are the strong and weak points of the two versions in transferring images from the SL text? 3)By extending from case of ZHY translation,what should an aesthetically-minded translator consider in translating poetry? Three research methods are mainly applied in this thesis,namely documentary method,a descriptive method and a comparative method.Documentary method is adopted to review the previous studies on the related researches in order to find out the train of thought for the current research.A descriptive method is adopted to analyze the images and aesthetic implications in the original poem and their aesthetic representation in the TL poem.In a comparative method,a case study of the two versions is made to find an Archimedian point in Chinese and Western translators of different cultural backgrounds,with the ultimate goal of finding the translation strategies and methods that suit the aesthetic appeal and reception psychology of both Chinese and Western translators.Through a research on this topic,the thesis finally arrives at the following conclusions:1)Both of the two versions reflect the translators' mental activities in their aesthetic experience.The translators recaptures the most intuitive and superficial beauty of the original poem by looking through it,namely the formal beauty.ZHY adopts the style of the ancient Chinese poem,composed mainly in seven-character lines with three-character,five-character and ten-character lines among the verses,giving its structure a movement without compromising its formal neatness.Due to the differences between English and Chinese,the original form loses its shape in both versions.On a higher level,form is presented by rhythm.The unique stylistic format of poetry marks the rhythm for itself perfectly.When the rhythm of a poem is in tune with the natural rhythm of the aesthetic subject's body,the subject is enabled to be aware of the metrical beauty of the object,which leads the subject to respond sympathetically to the poem.In this stage,empathy comes into play,driving the translator to sense the imagery beauty of the original poem in a more profound way.Then,the translators gain a further comprehension of the ideological connotation of the original poem.With the understanding of the original's spirit,the translational product is ready to come about.As the aesthetic representation of the original poem,the translated version should grasp is spirit,representing the formal and the musical beauty of the original poem without compromising its beauty in sense.This is how the aesthetic schema finds expression in poetry translation.2)Yang's version retains the content of the original poem as much as possible.Therefore,it is more relevant to the SL author's purpose of creation and aesthetic intention.Utmost retaining of the aesthetic message maintains the integrity of the aesthetic experience and represents the cultural message as far as possible.However,it also increases the empathetic obstacles for the Western readers,which reduces their reading pleasure.Therefore,it is not beneficial to evoke the readers' interest in the SL culture.Hawkes' version has more modifications and recasting to the original poem,adapting the translated version to the readers' thinking pattern,which makes the version more pleasant and acceptable to the readers.However,it also leads to inadequacy in the aesthetic and cultural message of the original,which intrudes the integrity of the aesthetic experience and reduces the power of cultural exchanges.3)The main points of poetry translation that an aesthetically-minded translator should consider are drawn as follows: First,the sound of a poem.In view of the musical beauty of a poem,an aesthetically-minded translator should represent the factors that constitute the musical beauty of the original poem.The arrangement of these factors should also be taken into consideration.These factors should be arranged in such a way as to be able to represent the musical beauty of the original poem without being overused.Second,the form of a poem.Forms of certain poems have symbolic importance,but these forms are sometimes not reflected in the translation.Sometimes the structure of a poem is carefully arranged to convey the gist of it.Though sometimes it is impossible to represent the unique form of a poem,the translator should still take it into consideration if it does not harm the sense.Third,the sense of a poem,which is the most important dimensions among the three.Sense is the most important part for poetry translation.An aesthetically-minded translator should focus his or her attention on analyzing the original images.The analyses of the images includes both the perceptual and the rational,which means the translator should give full play to imagination as well as read the SL text carefully in order to set his or her empathy working.Due to the limitation of time and personal ability,this thesis only analyzes the aesthetic experience in the process of poetry translation and expounds it as a whole,but fails to analyze the composition of aesthetic experience one by one.From the point of view of this thesis,researchers can also discuss the influence of cultural factors on the aesthetic experience.Hopefully,the current study is able to provide the reference for the later researchers.