Translation And Creation

Kenneth Rexroth(1905-1982), a talented poet as well as a poetry translator from so many languages, exerts a profound impact on American literature and culture. At the same time, his addiction to Chinese culture and his uncanny translation of Chinese poetry, as well as his sacred contemplation and reminder of universal energy and incarnation, also provide us with a refreshed retrospect of our literature and special conception of poetry translation. This paper mainly focuses on the analysis of Kenneth Rexroth's translation poetics in the light of the modern theories of literature and art with his translation Li Ch'ing-chao Complete Poems as an example, to interpret the most outstanding characteristic of his translation poetics: creation.Modern theories of literature and art give a large enlightenment on translation. Especially the correlated theory series of Hermeneutics, defamiliarization and reader response criticism validate the creation in translation. Hermeneutics regards translation as an activity of interpretation. A translator's interpretation never copies the writer's meaning word by word. Pre-knowledge and prejudice control a translator's translation. Creation is always needed to complete the fusion of horizons. Overinterpretation is always inevitable.Reader response criticism suggests that a text gains meaning by a reader's reading and interpreting it with purpose. The translator's personal experience, social and educational background, artistic and literary attainment compose a screen from which the translator will accept the original work a translation material.The concept"defamiliarization"values"strangeness"and supports to retain"strangeness"in translation. Definitely,"defamiliarization"is a typical poetic feature and poets'aesthetic pursuit. The application of"defamiliarization"can faithfully comply with the artistic manner of the original poems and give their readers aesthetic enjoyment.On the other side, Rexroth also has his own translation poetics. He especially values the position of"jury"---reader. He notices the"diachronic"relation between original work and translation and translation's"temporality". He emphasizes"sympathy"and names his work"hot translation". He excavates his translation to be source of inspiration.The analysis on Li Ch'ing-chao Complete Poems serves evidence for Rexroth's translation poetics which emphasizes creation. The analysis is exerted on image and imagery, adding and omitting, creation by rhetoric, proper nouns and literary quotations, mistranslation,each detailed with explanation of creation and poem translation examples.