On the Cultural Translation of Chinese Poetry From the Perspective of Peter Newmark’s Theory [4]
论文作者:佚名论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2009-04-15编辑:黄丽樱点击率:8523
论文字数:2328论文编号:org200904152237049441语种:英语 English地区:中国价格:免费论文
关键词:Peter Newmarkcommunicative translationsemantic translationpoem translationtheory
t Chinese invent their own special methods to express time. Using lunar calendar to calculate months is a good case in point. That is to divide a year according to the twenty-four solar terms. In this way, people can easily depict what the climate or scenery is like during a period of time.
E.g.6 烟花三月下扬州
Yang Xianyi &Gladys Yang: In the mist and flowers of spring,
He goes down to Yangzhou.
Sun Dayu: In this flowery April clime,
For thickly peopled Yangzhou.
Xu Yuanchong: For Yangzhou in spring green with willows and red with flowers.
According to Best-Known Tang and Song Four-Line Poems,“烟花” is a phrase to depict the spring that is filled with the mist-like willow catkin and the brocade-like flowers, that is to describe a splendid spring. Here in the verse, it is used to modify “三月”. “三月”in the lunar calendar refers to the third month, the period almost from the pure Brightness till soon after Grain Rain. This period of time is nearly equal to the fourth month of the year,April. During this time, flowers blossom and the trees begin to put forth new leaves.”
Against such a background, starting from the TL culture, Mr. Sun Dayu communicatively translates it into “flowery April”. Thus, the TL readers can easily imagine the flowery scenery. The same
strategy has been adopted in the others. From the readers’ angle, the other two translators have succeeded in avoiding confusion to the TL readers by omitting “三月”. Otherwise the TL readers will wonder why it says it is spring and flowery since it is obviously cold in March? By omission of “三月”, the two versions appear clearer in meaning and easier to understand.
From the above several examples, we may draw a conclusion that communicative translation is mainly adopted to transfer the culture, especially in appellation culture and culture about weights and measures, while semantic translation is added to render some culture in Chinese poetry. But no matter which method a translator adopts, he must render the original accurately and accurately convey the true information to the TL readers.
All in all, Peter Newmark’s translation theory applies successfully to the English versions of ancient Chinese poems. It proves that all translations must be in some degree both communicative and semantic. Both semantic translation and communicative translation are necessary in translation. The theory plays a key role in the English translation of Chinese poems.
【References】
[1] Graham. A.C. Poems of The Late T’ang [M]. Britain: Penguin Books Ltd, 1965.
[2] Steiner, George. After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1998.
[3] Liu, James. J.Y. Art of Chinese Poetry [M]. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1970.
[4] Newmark, Peter. Approaches to Translation [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language
Education Press. 2001.
[5] 丛滋杭. 中国古典诗歌英译理论研究[M].北京:国防工业出版社.2007.
[6] 吕叔湘. 英译唐人绝句百首[M]. 湖南:湖南人民出版社.1980.
[7] 孙大雨.古诗文英译集[M]. 上海:上海外语教育出版社.1996.
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