A Study Of Bian Zhilin As A Translator

This thesis intends to focus on a study of Bian Zhilin as a translator out of the following considerations. Bian zhilin was a famous poet and poetry translator. After 1949, he devoted most of his time to the literary study, becoming an important scholar in Shakespeare study and theorist in poetry study. Though Bian was an important translator, he was once little-known and even after the foundation of the People's Republic of China. He did not get people's attention until late 1970s. However, the studies of Bian are more concentrated on his poetry creation. And the studies on his translation theory and practice are mostly trivial comments and remarks. As far as I know, only a few people have carried on systematic studies of Bian's creation and translation. Zhang Manyi is one of them, but Bian's translation theory has not got explained systematically in her book. In the translation field, formal similarity is still a headache for translators. As a representative of "keeping the original form and achieving similarity", Bian's translation is more of practical value for both the construction of translation theories in China and the development of translation practice. Therefore, I choose Bian as my study, attempting to make a more systematic study of his translation on the basis of his being a poet and scholar.This thesis focuses on Bian's translation theory and practice, pointing out his overall and scientific perception of translation, his four characteristics of translation practice-affinity in the poetry style of his poetry creation and poetry translation, playing more emphasis on the representation of the feeling, translating poetry into poetic form, and employing mostly the literal translation, which together show his "translating poetry into poetry as a poet" and "translating as a scholar". The author holds that Bian's success in translation is the result of many factors. First, Bian is a poet-translator; his sharp perception of poetic language and poetry creation all contribute to his translation. Second, Bian is a scholar-translator; his studies on the poetics and Shakespeare are beneficial to his translation. Besides, this thesis emphasizes that the process in which Bian made success is a process he underwent in practice-theory-practice. His efforts in seeking after formal similarity are instructive for both translation theory and practice.This thesis consists of four chapters besides the introduction and the conclusion.The introduction generalizes the theme and the basic structure of the thesis.The thesis starts with a survey of Bian's career, especially his translating career in Chapter One. Chapter Two systematically introduces Bian's translation theory from three aspects, i.e. principles of translation: "faithfulness", "similarity", and "translation"; translation strategy: "replacing an English foot with a Chinese pause"; and the requirements of a translator. Further elaborations on the theory are given to this chapter, including the background and connotations of the theory. Chapter Three is an analysis of Bian's translation practice, including poetry translation and translation of Shakespeare's dramas. The author points out four characteristics of Bian's translation practice, showing his translating poetry into poetry as a poet and translating as a scholar. Examples will be analyzed in order to display Bian's translating as a poet-translator as well as a scholar-translator. Chapter Four is a tentative exploration of the significance of Bian's translation theory and practice.Conclusion sums up the whole thesis.