On The English Translation Of Tibetan Oral Poetry

The “Literariness” of literary works is one of the focuses of translation studies. As one of the core issues of poetics of translation the integration of poetic sensitivity and its skillful usage of language suggests another grammar, the so called “grammar of poetry”, which leads to the nature of the poetic language and its translation.The main focus of comparative poetics has long been on the “literariness” which exists inherently in different literary traditions. Since the essence of comparative studies is only a means by which the real meanings of the same or different literary phenomena, the human’s common poetic sense, and the essence and basic laws of arts can all be revealed, this kind of common poetic sense or basic laws concluded from the comparative perspective surely should be admitted into the focus of translation studies. And the usual methods of comparative poetics should be adopted to study the translation of oral poetry as well.For epics, ballads and other poetries inherited with certain oral traditions, the oral formulas are the basic units in terms of the so called “poetic grammars” of oral poetry. They are usually incarnated in groups of singing and chanting units in ways of repeating and juxtaposing and also usually organized by key words which bridge the meanings and sounds in formulas, so they can be defined as a mode of singing in manifestations of sounds, forms and meanings. And the translation studies of oral formulas thus should be focused on the rhyming aesthetics and mechanisms of meaning expression.This research reveals that the oral formulas are actually signifying the poetic features of both the Tibetan and English oral literatures, and also clarifies the translation process and its oral poetic backgrounds by translating and analyzing the typical lines of Milarepa’s songs. The further purpose of this research is to evaluate the general poetic grammars and their expressional mechanisms in translating process. Thus this research argues that if an ideal translation is to be based on some common poetic features, this kind of translation to a certain extent can response naturally to the poetic norms of the source and target languages. With such a premise this research is endeavoring to promote a certain translation with the corresponding expressions to the poetic norms of the source and target languages.The following is the studying process:Firstly, since the poetic nature of translation requires a balance of translation strategies and a unification of the traditional sources in both languages, this research hence aims to present the consistency in two oral traditions, Tibetan and English, following which comes such a conclusion: they are both naturally versed in beautiful and formulaic singing.Secondly, this research starts from the structures of oral formulas, and investigates more into the corresponding backgrounds of three types of paralleled structures by textual analysis. Thus there comes another conclusion: an internal consistency of formula structures exists both in Tibetan and English oral traditions.Finally, according to the different expressional mechanisms of oral formulas, this research divides all types of themes into different groups of keywords: for example, the words with rhetorical images and those with hidden themes, and expounds the symbolic rhetoric images by clarifying their similarities and differences respectively in their poetic and cultural backgrounds. This research finds that the same mechanisms of “epic metaphors” and “conventional expressions” are the shared basis for both oral traditions to build their formulas.In such respects of poetics the significance of this research can also be estimated by studying the translation of Tibetan poetry in following steps:(1) This research summarizes the oral poetics theories and their application in translation for finding out a suitable and specific theory-guidance;(2) Guided into such a poetic direction this research redefines the translation units which should most possibly be the oral formulas in a comparative view of the two oral traditions.(3) Resorting to translation practice and textual analysis this research presents the oral-tradition aesthetics, formula structures and their ways of expression. Thus, the appropriate interpretations and translation strategies can be expected to emerge from the induction of language material and case studies.