A Study Of Lu Zhiwei's Translation Of English Poems From The Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

Traditional translation standards always evaluate a translator's works by word-for-word and sentence-for-sentence comparison, that is to say, the translator should try to keep his/her translation equivalent with the original both in content and in style. But sometimes it is hard to fully and fairly assess a translator's work by traditional translation standards, especially when the translation is done in a special given society and culture because the translator is always embodied with certain historical and cultural marks of his or her time. In the 1970s, cultural turn in translation studies took place in the west. And Andre Lefevere's Manipulation Theory then brought a breath of fresh air for the equivalent translation and provided a new cultural reference for the research of various translational phenomena. The Manipulation School holds that translation is a kind of rewriting of the source text, and a kind of manipulation activities. All translation is manipulated by three elements which are ideology, poetics and patronage. Ideology would seem to be a series of form, convention and belief in a certain society which determine the selection of themes to be translated and translator's strategies. Poetics, as a whole of the social literary standards, plays a vital important in the use of language in translation. Patronage can be exerted by a political party, a social class, a royal court, a religious body, publishers and the media. It can further or hinder the reading, writing and rewriting of literature.Lu Zhiwei (1894-1970) is well-known as a poet, a psychologist, a linguist and an educationist. He has translated six English poems in his college days (1913-1914), which was important in the early translation activities and to the society. In his translation practice, there are some alterations to the source texts such as deletions, additions and rewritings to the language, style and rhyme of the source texts. This kind of alterations is unfaithful to the original according to traditional translation standards. But, according to Lefevere's Manipulation Theory, faithfulness is just a relatively complicated concept because translation is a kind of rewriting. As long as there exists translation, there will be manipulation phenomena. Therefore, with the rationale of Manipulation Theory, this thesis makes a tentative attempt to explore how Lu Zhiwei's translations of these English poems are manipulated by ideology, poetics and patronage.This dissertation adopts the method of combining theory with practice. It first introduces the structure, subject and methodologies of this thesis and makes a literature review to the current studies on this subject. Then it explores the Manipulation Theory promoted by Andre Lefevere and three manipulating elements: ideology, poetics and patronage. And then the thesis tries to prove the existence of manipulation phenomena in Lu Zhiwei's translation by analyzing examples extracted from his translations of these English poems. In the part of ideology, it analyzes the translated texts from the aspects of the dominant social ideologies at that time and Lu Zhiwei's personal ideology. Social ideologies, including political ideology and cultural ideology, manipulate the selection of theme and the application of translation strategies. In the selection of theme, Lu Zhiwei tended to choose those poems which can reflect the poor life of the low class in other countries like William Wordsworth's Alice Fell, and those express the uprising of the oppressed nation like Alfred Tennyson's Poland. These themes were in compliance with the mainstream of ideology at that time. In the application of translation strategies, Lu Zhiwei gave some rcwritings to the originals such as deletions, additions, and rewritings to the titles, to make his translation reach the purpose of serving the ideologies of the receiving society. In the part of poetics, it analyzes Lu Zhiwei's rewritings to the originals from the aspects of language, style, rhythm and rhyme and points out the reasons why he rewrote the originals, that is, to make his translation be in line with the poetics of the target culture and be accepted by target readers. In the part of patronage, it points out the patron which manipulated Lu Zhiwei's translation, which was the journal of Soochow University, Xuefu. To make sure his translation was published and accepted by target readers, Lu Zhiwei had to rewrite the originals according to the need of his patron. Finally, it comes to the conclusion. The conclusion is that manipulation phenomena do exist in Lu Zhiwei's translations of these English poems. Meanwhile, there is an important enlightenment acquired after the study. That is, translation is a kind of rewriting by the translator to serve power to his/her society. The selection of source texts and the adoption of translation strategies are inevitable outcomes of the combination of ideology, poetics and patronage. We can not evaluate a translator's translation just by equivalence or not. In order to give a translator a much more comprehensive and fairer appraisal, we should evaluate his/her translation from the historical perspective. That is, we should take into consideration the historical and social background of the translator's time, especially the influence of the ideology, poetics and patronage on the translator.