Purposeful Selection Of Translation Strategy

Both Ezra Pound and Xu Yuanzhong (许渊冲), as worldwide famous translators of classical Chinese poetry evoke much criticism among scholars. However, the two great translators differ from each other a lot especially in their selection of translation strategies. And although some scholars notice that Xu and Pound have different translation purposes, few systematic studies about the two brilliant translators' selection of translation strategies from the perspective of translation purpose are made. Fortunately, the skopos theory provides for us a new perspective in translation criticism. Therefore, within the framework of the skopos theory, the present study seeks to find out through a comparison of Xu's and Pound's classical Chinese poetry translation strategies how their different translation purposes interact with their selection of translation strategies.Altogether, the present thesis consists of six parts. In chapter one, a brief introduction of the content is given; the significance is explained, and the structure is described. Chapter two is the literature review of Pound's and Xu's translation theories and their practices of classical Chinese poetry translation. In the third chapter, a review about the development of the German Functionalist Translation Theory and the skopos theory, the theory framework of the present study, is made; the key terms are defined. Chapter four, which is the most important part and in which the research questions are introduced, is a comparative study of Pound's and Xu's translation strategies in their translation of classical Chinese poetry with respect to their translation purposes. Chapter five is the conclusion part. The last part is the bibliography.Within the framework of the skopos theory and referring to Venuti's definitions of domestication and foriegnization, the comparative studies of the translation strategies employed by Xu Yuanzhong (许渊冲) and Ezra Pound in their translations of the eight classical Chinese poems, namely, "Song Youren" (《送友人》), "Deng Jingling Fenghuangtai" (《邓金陵凤凰台》), "Qingqing Hepancao" (《青青河畔草》),"Cai Wei"(《采薇》), "Yujie Yuan" (《玉阶怨》), "Huanghelou Song Menghaoran Zhi Guangling" (《黄鹤楼送孟浩然之广陵), "Weicheng Qu"/ "Song Yuan'er Shi Anxi" (《渭城曲》/《送元二使安西》), "Changgan Xing" (《长干行》), of which both the original and translated versions are representative in some ways, show that Xu and Pound select translation strategies in accordance with their respective translation purposes, and that guided by different translation purposes, Xu shows the tendency of foreignization in translating classical Chinese poetry, while Pound shows a tendency of domestication. Xu always tries to achieve resemblance and beauty in three aspects and then "comprehension, appreciation and admiration" in translating classical Chinese poetry, one of the greatest achievements made by Chinese people to the world, as he basically aims at a more brilliant world culture. Specifically, he manages to keep in his translations as much as possible the effects of the juxtaposed images, the antitheses, the rule for line arrangement, the irony, the line length, and approximates the repetition, the reduplicated characters (叠音词), the tone pattern, the foot pattern, and the end rhyme, yet in dealing with the beauty in sense, he translates the proper nouns and the allusions flexibly and sometimes sacrifices them for beauty in sound and sense. He thus tends mainly to foreignize classical Chinese poetry. Comparatively, Pound as the leader of Imagism holds fighting against the pressure of the British cultural tradition and the conservatism of British poetry and modernization and nationalization of American poetry as the basic goal in translating classical Chinese poetry. In turn, in order to promote the development of his Imagism by translation, Pound tries to appropriate with his imagists principles classical Chinese poetry and experiment with his imagist principles in classical Chinese poetry translation. He translates the juxtaposition of images in classical Chinese poetry in his imagist way of juxtaposition, transmits the ironical play by employing his imagist graphic principles, converts the rhythm into free verse in "absolute rhyme", and suppresses the proper nouns and illusions, etc., so as to transmit the "indestructible" part, ignoring characteristics resulting in beauty in sense, sound and form of classical Chinese poetry. He apparently tends to domesticate classical Chinese poetry with his imagist principles.Consequently, the present study makes contribution in three aspects. Firstly, it may provide a relatively detailed investigation of Xu's and Pound's translation strategies in their classical Chinese poetry translation. Secondly, it tries to examine the two brilliant translators' translation strategies from a new perspective, i.e., the perspective of translation purpose. Besides, it may contribute a little to the all-roundness of the criticism of the two great translators' poetry translation.