The Canonization Of Gary Snyder’s Translation Of Han Shan’s Poems From The Perspective Of Rewriting Theory

Among the Mid-Tang dynasty poets, Han Shan was the one who lived the longest inthe Mount Tiantai and wrote the most about the scenery and landscapes there. As a hermitpoet, he created more than300poems that are distinctive in style and fresh in language.However, Han Shan and his pomes have long been ignored in China’s literary world. In the1950s, with the introduction of China’s Zen Buddhism by Japanese people Suzuki and the“Painting of Han Shan and Shih Te” by a Japanese painter, Han Shan and his poems wasintroduced to America. The famous American poet Gary Snyder learned about Han Shanjust through that painting in an art exhibition. Out of respect, love and appreciation for HanShan, he experienced the monastic way of life, studied the Zen Buddhist philosophy andfinally published the version of The24Poems of Han Shan. Once published, the poemswere widely read and shocked the American literary world, which made the unknown HanShan and his poetry get brilliant fame and become a classic case in the translation ofChinese culture. It also made Han Shan a spiritual idol for American young generation. There are various reasons for the wide spread of Han Shan’s poetry. The successfultranslation of Han Shan’s poems by Gary Snyder is not only due to the successful using ofequivalence between texts, but the result of common influence and control by the specifichistorical culture and ideology. His translation can not be appreciated simply from a singleaspect. Since1970s to1980s, the prominence of translation studies has been transferredfrom a language to culture, that was the so called “Cultural Turn”. This change provided anew approach for solving translation problems, paved new path for translation studies andopened new perspectives for the scholars who study Han Shan’s poems. With AndreLefevere’s rewriting theory as the basis, the thesis attempts to study the manipulation onpoetics, ideology and patronage of Snyder’s translation of Han Shan’s poems, to furtheranalyze the process and reason of the canonized position of Snyder’s translation, so as tohave profound interpretation about how the position of Han Shan’s Poems developed from“Marginalization” to “Canonization”.This thesis is composed of six chapters. The first chapter gives a brief introductionto the research background, research significance and the basic structure of the thesis.Chapter two is the literature review part, which gives a review on Snyder’s translation ofHan Shan’s poems, and then analyzes the application of Lefevere’s rewriting theory bothin chine and abroad, Chapter three briefly introduces the theoretical basis of rewritingtheory. Chapter four gives further interpretation about the establishment and developmentof Gary Snyder’s translation of Han Shan’s poems, thoroughly discusses the evidence ofits canonization and the great influence it exerts on American and Chinese literature.Chapter five serves as the key part of the thesis, with Andre Lefevere’s rewriting theoryas the basis, which attempts to study the manipulation on poetics, ideology and patronageof Snyder’s translation of Han Shan’s poems, to further analyze the reason and process ofthe canonized position of Snyder’s translation. Chapter six is the conclusion part, whichmakes a summary of this thesis and draws a conclusion that it is the influence andmanipulation on factors in terms of poetics, ideology and patronage that make Snyder’stranslation of Han Shan’s poems a cannon in American literature. The translation work isactually a kind of rewriting, and the rewriting under the context of culture, in turnpromotes the mutual influence and integration of culture, thus revealing the profound connotation and close relationship between translation and culture. Through thesystematic way of analysis, this thesis aims to study the possibility, and the reasons of thecanonization of Han Shan’s poems so as to deeply interpret its canonization process.Through translation and cultural exchange, the literary stature of Han Shan’s poetry inChina has been improved, which in turn highlights the importance of cultural factors intranslation process.