English Translation Of Tang Poetry From The Perspective Of Deconstruction

Over the past half century,deconstruction has long been a controversial topic.There also have been extremely different views on translation studies from deconstruction perspective.The criticisms for deconstruction translation theory include being object to fidelity,leading to nihilism,resulting in abusive and irresponsible translation,etc.However,there are some misunderstandings.Therefore,after the basic introduction to deconstruction,deconstruction translation theory and the three important essays,the thesis also tries to clear up these misunderstandings.According to Benjamin and Derrida,translation should transmit not only the information for communication but also what is more than the transmittable.Therefore,literary translation is the common object of translation studies from deconstruction perspective.Although Ezra Pound started his translation before the emergence of deconstruction,his translation strategy is,to some extent,in sync with that of deconstruction translation theory.Therefore,the thesis takes Pound’s translation of Tang poetry in Cathay as the case to analyze Tang poetry translation from deconstruction perspective.The main purpose of the thesis is to demonstrate the value of deconstruction translation theory to poetry translation and its guiding role in literary translation.Through the interpretation of the three major essays and the case study of Pound’s translation,the thesis concluded that there are three major points of deconstruction translation theory which are helpful in Tang poetry translation and the whole literary translation,namely the deconstruction of the absolute fidelity to the source text,translator’s subjectivity as the unity of subjective initiative and passivity and the relationship of co-existence between source texts and their translations.In addition,from deconstruction perspective,the thesis points out both the success and failure of Ezra Pound in his translation of Tang poems.In fact,this is exactly what deconstruction highlights – to see the world in a critical way but not on the basis of a binary opposition.