A Study On The Chinese Translation Of Tagore's English Poems From Polysystem Perspective

This paper sets out to make a diachronological survey of the Chinese translation of Tagore's English poems and its influence on the creation of China's new poetry. Unlike many other international literary giants, whose popularity is either permanent or temporary in China (so is the translation of their works), Tagore's works were prevalent during a certain period of time, and forgot for a short or long time, and then, remembered again by the translators and readers. The ups and downs of Tagore's popularity are in fact a very interesting phenomenon, which is rare in the history of modern literary translation. Therefore, it is worthwhile to look into the whole history of translating Tagore: who translated, how they translated and why they translated so. What makes Tagore so unique in the translation history? What's the social and historical background that affected the translation activity? What rules can be generated from this phenomenon? And what are the feedbacks of translating Tagore? To answer those questions, the translation activity is analyzed by observing the polysystem theory from Israeli scholar Itamar Even-Zohar and a new perspective on comparative literature by Professor Yue Daiyun.The three insights inferred from Even-Zohar's polysystem theory can be summarized briefly as follows: firstly, the specific translation phenomenon should be put into inter-systemic context, "allowing those features which are genuinely peculiar to translation to stand out against the backdrop of this wider context (Even-Zohar, 1990:73-74)." Secondly, the specific translation phenomenon should be treated as an independent issue, which is not so much connected with its source-text as with its target context; it is the features of the final product that matter. Thirdly, when examining the final product, the procedure that has made it so should be taken into consideration. Thereby, in examining the translation phenomenon, such as the case under discussion—the Chinese translation of Tagore's English poems, the research question mainly concerns who are translating (the status and ideologies of the translators), how the translation is, and why it is so translated (or what elements in the polysystem that help to form the present result of translation.).The investigation follows a chronological order. The whole history is divided into four periods, two of which are further cut into different stages. In each stage, three questions are studied in detail: who are translating, how they translate, and why theytranslate so. In answering the three questions, the research goes deep into the study oftranslators, the general features of translation and the social and literal background thataffect the translation. It is found in the paper that if the translator is a poet, the translationturns out to be more popular and more likely to pass on to the next generation, such asthe case of Bing Xin's and Zheng Zhenduo's translations. If the translator is a scholar, theworks are more meticulously done and therefore seem to be closer to the original text inthe language forms. It would provide much more information for literary research andpave the way for the professional translators. The research also shows a gradual changeof the status of the translators. In the first period, most of the translators are prominentpoets. Some of these translations have become classic among others. In the second period,while some of the poets continued to translate, most of the translation work was done byscholars who studied Bengali literature, such as Shi Zhen. After a period with nearly nonew translated works, the fourth period witnesses a blooming time for Tagore. Thetranslators in the last period are mainly little-known professional translators with a goodeducation of related foreign languages. This change reveals the fact that Tagore's Englishpoems are now spreading to common readers. With the changing status of translators, thefeatures of translation also underwent certain changes. The translated poems in the firstperiod are full of poetic flavor, with genius choice of words and phrases, while the worksof the second period become more close to the original and more accurate technically. Ifthe works of the second period still read like poems, the works done in the last periodread more like prose than poems. The translation style is more varied and the quality isuneven. Some works are good and others hardly readable. As to the reasons behind thesechanges, this paper suggests it corresponds with the ups and downs of China's newliterature and its social changes. The social environment determines the situation ofliterature. The development of China's new literature reflects the social changes. It isevident that Tagore's poems are more popular in times of peace when the translators andreaders are able to enjoy more leisure and are in better mood to appreciate Tagore'sphilosophy of love, realization of Brahma (梵). and dignity and self-respect. In a sense,Tagore's English poems are tender, pure and far away from the chaos of the world. Theyrepresent a very important part of beauty in literature. The gradual rise of Tagore's famein China is a reflection of the revival of China's literature. The second discussion is on the influence exerted by the Chinese translation of Tagore's English poems on China's new poetry. It focuses on two aspects of poetry: forms and contents. As far as forms are concerned, the Chinese translation of Tagore's English poems has introduced prose form and short free-verse into China's new poetry. At the same time, poetic words and syntactic variations in creating new poetry are also enriched by the translation. As to contents, in translating Tagore's English poems, the translators input many new images into China's new poetry. Meanwhile, Tagore's religious and philosophic thoughts have also inspired many great poets in China's new poetry.