An Iconic Approach To Poetry Translation

Iconicity, as an essential part of cognitive linguistics, is a challenge and a complement to Saussure's arbitrariness of linguistic sign. The theory of iconicity argues that linguistic forms are iconically related to reality, experiential structure, cognitive ways, or what is expressed in many ways. Iconicity occurs in both ordinary language and literary texts. It is believed that in term of literary genres, poetry has the richest presence of iconicity, for it allows the most complex and innovative use of language. The application of iconicity in poetry is to improve the natural and authentic ways of expression. Hence, this paper holds the view that an iconic approach to poetry translation is helpful for the transference of formal meaning, representation of the formal beauty and realization of communicative intention and rhetorical effect of the original poem. What's more, it is helpful in the translator's comprehension of the texts and choices of translation strategies.This thesis studies iconicity in poetry and its translation. It applies the theory of iconicity to analyze the way of poetry translation, and tries to present the relationship between form and meaning in poetry. It is hoped that such an analysis can shed new light on poetry translation. The thesis, besides introduction and conclusion, consists of four chapters.Chapter One is an overview of language iconicity. Iconicity is defined and classified. The term"iconicity"refers to the natural relationship between the signifier and the signified or the natural relationship between form and content. When it comes to the classification of iconicity, there are also supposed to be three kinds: imagic iconicity, diagrammatic iconicity and metaphorical iconicity. Also, this part presents a brief review of previous studies of iconicity.Chapter Two is bout the iconicity in poetry. According to Peirce and Haiman's subdivision of iconic signs, this part gives six subclasses of iconicity: the sound iconicity, the distance iconicity, the order iconicity, the quantitative iconicity, the graph iconicity and the Symmetry iconicity. This chapter will analyze the six iconicity principles in poetry from the phonological and Syntactic and textual level with examples.Chapter Three aims to discuss some of the fundamental questions in the study of poetry translation. The first section tries to define what poetry is. As a highly condensed form of literature, usually expresses profuse feelings and artistic features in the fewest words. Poetry is an art for the unity of form and content. It employs various rhetorical means to convey human feelings about the world. Poetry is, in essence, aesthetic. Regarding the translation of poems, there has been a long controversy over translatability or untranslatability. Robert Frost, an American poet and critic. Once said,"Poetry is what gets lost in translation."Indeed, it is hard to reproduce perfectly the unity of form and content of the original poem. But the translator can possibly find in the target language the equivalent expression of the iconic characteristics present in the original poem, thus being faithful to the original in both form and content in the process of translation. The paper holds a positive view on the translatability of poetry. It goes on with the introduction to the researches on poetry translation in the west and in china, where the researches on iconicity in poetry translation are briefly reviewed. Chapter Four is the focus of this paper. It attempts to prove that an iconic approach to poetry translation helps to realize the ideal effect of both spiritual and formal resemblance. As a theoretical device, language iconicity is found in every aspect of poetry, helping to create images and bring about the harmony of form and content. Under the guidance of the theory of iconicity, the translator should preserve the iconic features of the original poem and try to represent its formal beauty while transferring the meaning and spirit of the original. This part explores iconicity of sound, sequence, shape, quantity, distance, symmetry and the translation practice. Last, it also touches on the significance, necessary and difficulties of translating poems in an iconic approach. The iconic features in poetry as a whole can be translatable. In most cases, reproduction of these features in the target language is possible.