On Translator’s Subjectivity Manifested In The Great Digest By Ezra Pound

Da Xue, as one of the most important Confucian works, hasaroused much interest of scholars both at home and abroad since the16th century, such as Michel Ruggieri, James Legge and Lin Yutang.Among all the translators, Ezra Pound is a distinctive one. He is thepioneer of Imagism as well as the “preacher” of Confucianism in theWest. Throughout his life, Pound translated Da Xue three times: in1928,he translated Guillaume Pauthier’s French version of Da Xue into English;in1942, he rendered the work into Italian; in1945, based on his Italianversion, he translated it into English again.This thesis intends to do a study on Pound’s final English version ofDa Xue, The Great Digest, from the perspective of translator’ssubjectivity. With the “cultural turn” in translation studies in the1980s,translators’ status is widely recognized. Translation studies began to payattention to aspects such as social background, translators’ identities,motivations and opinions on language. First, this thesis surveys previousstudies on Da Xue, Ezra Pound and his Confucian translations. Thelimitations of previous studies and the necessity of the study on TheGreat Digest by Pound are also mentioned. Next, this thesis elaboratesthe change of translators’ status in translation studies and thesignificance of the study on translator’s subjectivity. Then, after thedescription of the development, content, significance and majorEnglish versions of Da Xue, an exploration of Ezra Pound as a“Confucian” and a translator is conducted. Finally, it exploresmanifestations of Pound’s subjectivity in The Great Digest from fiveaspects by comparing it with versions by Robert Morrison, James Leggeand Lin Yutang.Since the late19th century, the Western world has suffered hugelosses in materials and spirit from two world wars and the economic crisis. Pound turned to Confucianism, hoping to provide a “blueprint for anew world order in the future” through Da Xue. Under the influence ofthis translation purpose, being an imagist and the unique ideogrammicmethod toward Chinese characters, The Great Digest differs from theother three scholars’ versions of Da Xue greatly, making Confucianism aunique landscape in the West.