中国古诗词翻译方法研究A Tentative Study on the Strategies Used in Translating Chinese Ancient Poems.doc

中国古诗词翻译方法研究a tentative study on the strategies used in translating chinese ancient poemssubmitted by wang ruihuastudent id number 072011010182supervised by xie dengpana paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of bachelor of artstable of contentspage1.introduction -1.1 research background -1.2 research objective- 1.3 paper organization -2. rationale- 2.1 definition of poem-2.2 difficulties of ancient poem translation- 2.3 the standard of c-e translation of ancient poems-3. data description-4. data analysis- 4.1 three methods - 4.2 three beauties -4.2.1 the beauty in sense -4.2.2 the beauty in sound -4.2.3 the beauty in form -4.2.4 the beauty in sense always first - -4.3 strategies applied in translation-4.3.1 metaphrase or paraphrase? -4.3.2 choosing best word -4.3.3 adding words to save rhyme -4.3.4 breaking in form, continuing in form -4.3.5 calling expression -4.3.6 numbers in chinese poems -4.3.7 places in chinese poems - metaphrase and imitation with annotation - metaphrase and inversion - adaptation - omission -5. results and suggestions- 5.1 results - 5.2 suggestions on the use of translating strategies -6. conclusion -bibliography-appendix: source poems (sp) and target poems (tp)-1. directions for learners1) analyze the data in no less than 1,000 words by using one or some of the methods recommended in step 2 and step 3 of stage 7 in writing your ba paper through practical translation project design. the analysis should be based on the examples from the data, or no less than 3 samples from each category of the data.2) the heading for this section has been given. you may decide on your own subheadings if there are any.3) insert your analysis of the data in paragraphs, tables, diagrams or listings in the space below.4. data analysis 4.1 three methodsthere are generally three methods for verse translation: metaphrase (or literal translation) (直译), paraphrase (free or liberal translation) (意译) and imitation (音译) or adaptation (改编). metaphrase is trying to preserve the original form to make it smooth and fluent under the precondition of being faithful to the original. paraphrase is not tied to the original form to make it smooth and fluent under the precondition of being faithful to the original. translators either use alone or concurrently with these two methods according to the original contents and forms based on tl expressive custom. imitation or adaptation is rather more applied on names of people or place. 4.2 three beautiesthe above three methods can be all manipulated to meet professor xu yuanchongs three-beauty principle, which is nowadays accepted by majority in the field: beauty in sense (意美), beauty in sound (音美) and beauty in form (形美). xu firmly believes that translated verse should be and can be beautiful, like sl, in three aspects: in sense appealing to the heart, in sound appealing to the ear, and in form appealing to the eye. to achieve the three-beauty, professor xu suggests that the method of paraphrase may be employed to preserve the beauty in sense; the method of imitation or adaptation may be applied to preserve the beauty in sound; the method of metaphrase may be used to preserve the beauty in form. in the following part of this thesis, examples and their analysis will be studied to discover that how translators achieve the three beauties with different strategies under different circumstances.4.2.1 the beauty in sensetranslators should strive to detect the real meanings of chinese ancient poems; without this prior work, faithful translation will be difficult to attain.sp1 登鹳雀楼“白日依山尽，黄河入海流。欲穷千里目，更上一层楼。” is a well known ancient poem written by famous high tang poet wang zhihuan (王之涣). the yellow river coming from the north passed by the tower and abruptly turned to the east. what a grand view the tower commanded! the poet described such grandeur only in ten words as if he knew the magic of shortening a thousand miles into a foot. professor xu renders the beauty in sense in tp1.1 as “the sun beyond the mountains glows / the yellow river seawards flows / you can enjoy a grander sight / by climbing to a greater height”. when tl readers read this rendering poem, they can enjoy the same picture that revealed in sl. another criterion to verify if the rendering is good or not we can, as mentioned in the part of “2.3 criteria of c-e translation of ancient poems”, translate it back into chinese literally： “太阳的光辉照在山的尽头，黄河(汹涌)流向大海。你可以享受到更广阔的视野，通过登上更高的高度。” while reading these chinese sentences, it is easy for the readers to link them with the sl poem, which shows that the rendering is faithful to the sl. therefore this rendering is a good example of achieving the beauty in sense.4.2.2 the beauty in sound poetry sounds beautiful because of its rhyme. in chinese it refers to putting characters with the same simple or compound vowels in the same place, mostly at the end of lines. the rhyming word that ends a line of verse is called foot. in sp2 “床前明月光，疑是地上霜。举头望明月，低头思故乡。” has the foot “ang” which makes the poem sound much rhyming and easy to be learned by heart. it is customary and convenient to denote patterns of rhyme (commonly called “rhyme scheme”) briefly by using letters of the alphabet; thus the above example may be described as “aaba”, “a” indicating the foot “ang”. in tp2.1, xu renders this rhyme scheme into “abab” like “before my bed a pool of light / is it hoarfrost upon the ground? / eyes raised, i see the moon so bright / head bent, in homesickness im drowned.” with the “abab” rhyme, the rendering sounds beautiful as the same as the sl, so it achieves the beauty in sound.while translating chinese ancient poems, translator should try to keep or reproduce the rhyme in their renderings to make equivalence with the original, i.e. if the rl is a rhyming poem, its rendering tl should be a rhyming poem too so that tl readers can enjoy the beauty in sound as sl readers do.4.2.3 the beauty in formthere are only 20 chinese characters in sp2静夜思which expressed thoroughly of the poets homesickness. the form in sl is very neat with five characters in each line. gong, in tp2.2, renders it quite tidily with 28 words as below:the bright moonlight near my cot,seemed to me like white ground frost.i looked up to gaze at the moon;i looked down to think of home.this rendering reads comfortable for the eye as it possesses terseness and tonal pattern. it has four lines and each line contains 7 vowels which is quite neat in the style. therefore it is a good example to achieve the beauty in form.4.2.4 the beauty in sense always firstfor sp2 静夜思zhaos rendering in tp2.3 has only 21 words: “moonlight before my bed / could it be frost instead? / head up, i watch the moon / head down, i think of home”. this rendering achieves both beauty in sound (aabb) and beauty in form. it is almost to a perfect rendering except that unfortunately, the rendering of the second sentence “could it be frost instead?” needs re-consideration. the subjective mood (虚拟语气) is employed here, which if we translate this sentence back into chinese, it is “床前的月光可能是霜而不是月光吗？” its connotation is that “如果是霜而不是月光，那就好了！” so we can tell that this meaning is too far away with the rl. it violates the beauty in sense. “就译诗而言，形美和音美是首先应该具备的，但具备了并不一定就是好诗，只有在具备了三美之后，才是好诗。换言之，音美和形美是必须条件，而意美却是必须条件，又是充分条件。”（zhang, 2006: 58）to follow this guideline, the author modifies the tp2.3 as “moonlight before my bed / looks like frost instead / head up, i watch the moon / head down, i think of home”. after the modification, the rendering has 20 words as the same as sl. it now can be regarded as the perfect example to have achieved the three beauties: beauty in sense, beauty in sound and beauty in form.4.3 strategies applied in translation4.3.1 metaphrase or paraphrase?sp3春晓 is a very popular tang poem in china written by meng haoran. this quatrain shows the poets love of nature. the first two sentences “春眠不觉晓，处处闻啼鸟” is a narrative couplet to show that the poet is intoxicated in the blooming spring so that he will not wake up. professor xu applies metaphrase to translate it into “this morn of spring in bed im lying / not to awake till birds are crying” in tp3.1. another translator, robert payne also uses metaphrase to translate the couplet into “i slept in spring not conscious of the dawn / but heard the gay birds chattering all around.” these two renderings are both satisfied for their faithfulness to the original because if the renderings are translated back into chinese, they have the similar meaning as the rl. however for this same couplet, gong, in tp3.3, applies paraphrase to translate it into “spring slumber goes on and on / everywhere you hear birds song”. “goes on and on” here is very vivid to arouse readers sense of sleepiness without awaking in the comfortable spring morning. gong applies the method of paraphrase here also achieves the beauty in sense and is more creative and impressive.through the upper analysis it reveals that different translators may have different preference to use different methods for same rl to achieve the beauty in sense. as long as the renderings are close enough to the rl, they are all satisfactory translations. besides, paraphrase is liable to make the tl creative and vivid if it is well applied.4.3.2 choosing best word (绝妙好词)in sp4春夜喜雨, the poet tells us what he hears, sees and thinks on a rainy night. when translating “好雨知时节”, gong, in tp4.1 applies paraphrase to translate it into “propitious rain is timely rain” while in tp4.2 yang uses metaphrase to translate it into “a good rain knows its season” and in tp4.3 xu also uses metaphrase to translate it into “good rain knows its time right.” these renderings are all faithful to the rl content, which shows that both methods (paraphrase and metaphrase) are applicable in translating the same rl as analyzed in the above. however, in translating “随风潜入夜” , gong (in tp4.1) chooses the verb “sneaks” as “borne on the wind, it sneaks in by night” and xu (in tp4.3) picks the verb “steal” as “with wind it steals in night”, which needs re-consideration. as we know, in the poem the spring rain personified gladdens the poet for it knows the right time to fall, moistens everything and lasts long. the whole poem is full of happiness and love to nature by the poet, so there is nothing derogatory in the chinese characters. however, “sneak” and “steal” are not commendatory words in english. their appearance in the renderings damages the happy tune of the poem, which makes a crack to the beauty of sense. therefore, yangs choice of “slips secretly” is much better in his rendering “on the heels of the wind it slips secretly into the night.”therefore, translators should pay more attention when choose words, especially verbs, in verse translating practice to maintain the beauty in sense. choosing the “best” word means the closest in meaning, in sound and in form that is harmonious with poets mood. the consideration of commendatory word or derogatory term in order to choose a best word is also a strategy to produce a good verse translation. a good example of choosing the best word is in tp4.1 “spring slumber goes on and on / everywhere you hear birds song / last night there was wind and rain / how many flowers in mud have lain!” “lain” is the best word in this rendering to have achieved the beauty in sense, beauty in sound and beauty in form.4.3.3 adding words to save rhyme (添词救韵)sp5望岳is written by du fu at the age of twenty-four when he traveled in modern shandong provine. the last couplet in this poem is very popular in china: “会当凌绝顶，一览众山小”. xu renders the whole poem with “ababcdcd” rhyme scheme by the last word in each line: “stands-states-hands-dominates-breast-fleet-crest-feet”, so the whole rendering is very musical when reading. it well matches the beauty in sound. whats more, when translating the famous couplet “会当凌绝顶，一览众山小” xu adds “under my feet”, which is not appeared in rl, as “i must ascend the mountains crest / it dwarfs all peaks under my feet”. adding “under my feet” not only enhances the meaning that all mountains look small but also save the rhyme to meet with the foot “fleet”. this strategy is called “adding words to save rhyme”. of course the words added should be the connotation in the poem rather than a casual one.4.3.4 breaking in form, continuing in sense (形断意连)for sp6悯农professor xu manipulatively reproduces the rendering into “abab” rhyme as below:at noon they weed with hoes;their sweat drips on the soil.each bowl of rice, who knows?is the fruit of hard toil.this rendering is beautiful in sound due to the rhyme scheme. whats more, the form in the rendering is also very beautiful for its every 6 words in one line and a single vowel in one word. how did xu do well not only to reach the beauty in sound but also the beauty in form at the same time in tp6.1? the strategy “breaking in form, continuing in sense” has contributed to it. the last couplet “谁知盘中餐，粒粒皆辛苦” is broken by xu in his rendering like “each bowl of rice, who know? / is the fruit of hard toil”. the form is broken grammatically by changing lines after “who know?” but the whole meaning is continued. this strategy is very helpful for translators in verse translation to achieve three beauties. xu also applies this strategy in the first couplet of sp3.1春晓to translate “春眠不觉晓，处处闻啼鸟” into “this morn of spring in bed im lying / not to awake till birds are crying”4.3.5 calling expression (使用呼语)calling expression is commonly employed in english poetry rather than chinese ancient poems. professor xu sometimes adds calling expression in his verse translation from chinese into english in order to grant the rendering with a kind of kindness and vivid feeling. besides, this strategy can also contribute to make the rendering meet the beauty in form. sp7赠汪伦is famous poet li bais most popular farewell song in tang dynasty. wang lun was a friend who got to know with the poet at the lake of peach blossoms. the last couplet “桃花潭水深千尺，不及汪伦送我情” is well known in china. xu applies the strategy of calling expression to achieve the beauty in form as below:i, li bai, sit in a boat about to go,when suddenly on shore your farewell songs overflow.however deep the lake of peach blossoms may be,its not so deep, o wang lun, as your love for me.another example with applying the strategy of calling expression to verse translation by xu is in tp8.1 for sp8 回乡偶书as below:old, i return to the homeland i left while young,thinner has grown my hair, though i speak the same tongue.my children, whom i meet, do not know who am i.“where are you from, dear sir?” they ask with beaming eye.4.3.6 numbers in chinese poemssp9 “千山鸟飞绝，万径人踪灭。孤舟蓑笠翁，独钓寒江雪” was written when the poet was exiled to the southwest. although it has only twenty words, but every word is concrete and makes an image. the first couplet begins with “a thousand mountains” and “ten thousand paths” which form a contrast not only with the bird and the footprint but also with the single boat and the lonely fisherman so that the solitude is accentuated. when translating the first couplet of this poem, zhang (in tp9.2) translated it into “over a thousand mountains the winging birds have disappeared / through ten thousand paths, no trace of humankind.” this rendering may read very weird for tl readers because who can account a thousand mountains or ten thousand paths? chinese cultural background is very different from western. the poet here merely employs an exaggerated device to express the sense of quiet and calm artistic conception. the method of metaphrase to translate the sentence here is not applicable because the numbers in this poem is not real numbers anymore. hence, the application of paraphrase is a much better choice as rendering in tp9.1 “from hill to hill no bird in flight / from path to path no man in sight.” analyzing the upper example, we have learned that numerics in chinese poetry do not always expres