A Comparative Study Of The Translations Of Metaphors In Su Shi’s Poems From The Perspective Of Cognitive Poetics

Su Shi,the great Song dynasty poet,contributed enormously to the development of Chinese poems.His works,which are well-known for his philosophical thoughts,have been translated into many languages.The poet,who would express his feelings through conceptual metaphors,could often trigger the reader’s thoughts about the world.The proper understanding of conceptual metaphors is essential to the appreciation of the poems,so the translation of metaphors needs to be paid particular attention.Researches on metaphor translation have centred around strategies and process of translation,but rarely probed into the transference of cognitive or poetic effects.Cognitive Poetics Theory,a combination of cognitive science and poetics,is of significance to the study of essential theoretical issues of literature especially philosophical one.In recent years,cognitive poetics has been frequently applied into studies of other disciplines,for example,study of translation.Translation is often regarded as an activity about conveying effects.From the perspective of cognitive poetics,such effects are cognitive effects,which can be assumed as poetic effects in literary texts.The theory helps to identify and analyze the poetic effects of both source text and target text so that makes it accessible to compare differences of their poetic effects.In addition,metaphor is one of the core research categories in cognitive poetics,whose theoretical foundation is Conceptual Metaphor Theory.Hence,the theory is not only helpful to evaluate the translation quality with regard to its transference of poetic effects,but also applicable to the study of metaphor translation.As a result,the thesis adopts three recognized translators’(Xu Yuanchong,Ren Zhiji,and Burton Watson)English versions of Su Shi’s poems as the sources of data and uses a qualitative and comparable study as the research method.Guided by cognitive poetics,there are three types of metaphors in Su Shi’s poems,classified by their poetic effects-metaphorsarousing immediate feelings,metaphors generating search of meaning and metaphors bringing change to knowledge.Hence,this thesis first describes and compares how different translators transfer the corresponding poetic effect of these metaphors;then summarizes features of the methods adopted;lastly probes into the reasons behind translators’ choices so as to conclude the possible factors affecting the transference of those effects.This research finds that firstly,while translating metaphors in Su Shi’s poems,the translators have adopted different strategies-omission of poetic effects,weakening poetic effects,corresponding transferring the poetic effect and strengthening poetic effects.Each strategy includes various specific translation methods,which are also concluded in the thesis.In addition,these translation methods have three salient features,some of which have been interpreted in the thesis.Lastly,the research finds out that a translator’s personal understanding of metaphors,reproduction of end rhymes and translators’ opinions on annotations affect the transference of metaphors’ poetic effects,which to a certain extent explains the limitation of metaphor translation.In conclusion,the thesis provides some references for the translation practice of Su Shi’s poems.It highlights two translation methods that are helpful to reproduce metaphors’ poetic effects while different from those concluded via the traditional research approaches-adding another metaphor from target language to reinforce the presentation of a certain feeling,and adopting a polysemy from target language as a clue to multiple interpretations of metaphors.In addition,the thesis is a supplement to the study of metaphor translation in the light of cognitive poetics,which extends the application of cognitive poetics to a certain extent.