Rewriting Under The Influence Of Ideology And Poetics-a Study On Ezra Pound's Two English Versions Of Daxue

The “cultural turn” of translation studies in the 1970 s has shifted the focus of translation studies from semantic level to the social and cultural context beyond and behind the translated texts.Since then,social,political,historical as well as other cultural factors have been incorporated into a much greater level,during which the “rewriting theory” proposed by Andre Lefevere's is one of the representative achievements of this movement.From his point of view,he pointed out that translation is rewriting,all rewritings,no matter what its intention is,are the result of certain ideological or poetological influence.Daxue,one of the magnum opuses of the Confucian classics,was translated by the American poet Ezra Pound into English in both the 1920 s and 1940 s.Taking the rewriting theory as its theoretical framework,this paper firstly analyzes the dominant and personal ideology of the times,as well as its poetics,as they appear,in Pound's two versions of Daxue respectively.According to the analysis,it is found out that the two English versions of Pound's Daxue are two rewritings under the influence of ideology and poetics.In the 1920 s,Pound's Ta Hio was generated in the context of World War I when people lost their way and longed for spiritual support.The purpose of Pound's translation of the Ta Hio was that he wanted to bring new order and harmony to the west.In this version,he rewrote the title,proper nouns as well as the sentences of the original text.Otherwise,poetic factors exerted little influence on this version.However,in the 1940 s,after the Great Depression and World War II,people began to attach more importance to human nature.In this period of time,Pound used the ideogrammic method throughout his translation process,and adopted Imagist poetics to translate The Great Digest,resulting in a shift of focus from collectivism to individualism.In the second version of Daxue,he rewrote the key words in Daxue under the influence of ideology.The concrete images and musical rhythm were Pound's poetological rewriting.Ideology and poetics are two key factors leading the same translator to produce two different versions.This study endeavors to reveal the foundational influence ideology and poetics exert on translation activities,thus provides a reference for the study of different translations of the same text by the same translator.