A Schematic Approach To Compensation In The Translation Of Mao Tse-tung's Poetry

No country in the world have myriads of poems been more prodigally lavished than this of China. Insomuch as language of terseness and connotations of richness, poetry translation is as good as the everlasting pursuit of perfection out of imperfection. The consummate artistry of Mao Tse-tung's poetry is in every respect similar to that of the classical one yet unique in its combination of grand ideology with revolutionary spirit, adding much more difficulties to the translation.Its great popularity and the intent of introducing Chinese"flower of literature"to the world embrace the flourishing era of translation which serves as a complex communicative activity as old as the tower of Babel. Showers of translation loss of all kinds emerge from the cultural default, linguistic disparity and aesthetic difference. Under such circumstance, translation compensation, as a device to reduce the loss, is proved to be of vital importance. Though traditionally in a state of"invisibility", it now catches the attention of all enterprising scholars, for its significance is out of doubt. Its study is, nevertheless, sporadic and devoid of theoretical foundation.This thesis is a tentative attempt to apply schema theory into the field of translation compensation. On the strength of schema theory, translation is a process with comprehension and expression involved. In the comprehension of poetry, the good command of content schema is a big help and in expression stage, the translator is supposed to activate his own linguistic and formal schemata to have them reproduced in the target language. And it so happens that the translator needs to adjust or modify or create a schema for the target language reader in face of schema conflict or default. Hence, the usage of schema theory is the prevention and avoidance of translation loss.The thesis is the detailed illustration of translation compensation in Mao's poetry through the analysis of two versions, namely, Xu Yuanzhong's and Gu Zhengkun's. The content schema, the linguistic schema and the formal schema to be exact are the root of the thesis, which can be further explored from (1) image, allusion and tune names;( 2) sound, lexical and discourse; (3) rhetorical devices and poetic style respectively. In terms of compensation strategies, the author generalizes about three cases in line with the degree of informativity: preserving schema when schema is correspondent, adjusting schema at the time of schema conflict and creating the new schema in the moment of schema default, according to which five translation methods are elaborated, that is, word-for-word translation, substitution, free translation, omission and literal translation with annotation.It's quite natural to come to the conclusion that: (1) losses and compensation are inseparable from the translation activity; (2) poetry translation is accessible by means of compensation; (3) poetry compensation centers on the content schema, linguistic schema and formal one. It is hoped that this study will be of a little help to expand the scope of application of schema theory and provide a new perspective and practical translation methods for translation compensation of Mao's poetry.To put it in a nutshell, the mechanism of compensation of schema goes through three stages as following: in the first stage,"Westerly winds withered trees up last night. Climbing up the stairs and being lonely on the loft, I overlooked the endless distance"(昨夜西风凋碧树,独上高楼,望尽天涯路), that is to say, the translator is all alone by himself to analyze the original text so as to"overlooked the endless distance"to the extent of complete comprehension. The second stage is interpreted as"No regretful plying at all, I am rather for her only distressed as I did"(衣带渐宽终不悔,为伊消得人憔悴). The translator in this stage, after the comprehensive understanding of the text, manages to employ his linguistic and formal schema to achieve equivalent schema. And the final stage comes with"hundreds and thousands of times, for her I searched in chaos, suddenly, I turned by chance, to where the lights were waning, and there she stood!"(众里寻它千百度,蓦然回首,那人却在灯火阑珊处). The translator ponders and broods and muses and meditates, and finally comes out a final expression with the loss reduced to a minimal.