On The Affect Of The English Translation Of Tang Poetry From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

Tang poetry,as one of the most exquisite form of Chinese traditional literature,occupies an important position in Chinese traditional culture.The current research on the translation of Tang poetry covers divers topics.Various researchers have devoted in the project and have contributed to the transmission of Tang poetry to alien cultures.Poetry is the carrier for human feelings;The affect is the soul to poetry composing.The translation of the affect of Tang poetry,however,still provides us with great potential to explore.The existing research on the translation of the affect in Tang poetry mainly pays attention to the images or figures and tries to figure out what kind of feelings are conveyed,which usually applies subjective approach and still calls for further and more objective investigation.This research commits in the representation of affect of Tang poetry in Chinese Literature(1951-1966)through the application of Appraisal Theory of Martin,providing a possible and more objective research method in the translation of the affect in pomes;and devotes in the investigation of the of the theme and diction of the original poems,the diction,sentence pattern and organization of the translated poems to explore how the affect in the original Tang poetry is transformed and the possible factors that may influence this translation practice.The research findings are as follows: about half of the poems chosen in Chinese Literature(1951-1966)show a negative affect,which is in accordance with the previous research,and the other half are mainly about scenery which shows no obvious affect factor.Items identified based on Appraisal Theory mostly present negative affect;the translation basically faithfully recreated the affect with a slight tendency of explicitation of affect expression;the degree of affect in translation is mainly faithful to the original works and cases are more when affect is weakened than that it is strengthened;translated words and expressions that contain affect show less diversity compared to the Chinese ones,which might cause the impairing of affect;on the sentence level,the translators of Chinese Literature processed some lines with special mood into plain ones,reducing the affect in the original poems;the absent attention on the rhyme problem in the translation also leads to the abating of affect.The representation situation of the affect of Tang poetry in Chinese Literature might be the result of the specific cultural and translating context then combining with the major translators' style in charge.As the indispensable part of Chinese culture,Tang poetry will definitely attract more attention when we trying to broadcast Chinese culture to the world.This thesis manages to expose how the affect rooted in the words and expressions is represented in translation,and is expected to call for more researchers interests on this very aspect of poetry translation and research.