A Study Of Wen Yiduo’s Poetry Translation

Wen Yiduo is not only a poet, scholar and democratic soldier, but also a great translator. The thesis "A study of Wen Yiduo’s poetry translation " tries to make a research based on his poetry translation from the perspective of comparative literature translation studies.During the period of May4th when China has been deeply influenced by the foreign free poetry, Wen Yiduo advocated that translation should choose the classics and therefore the translator should have a high sense of responsibility to distinguish and select the original ones. The translator’s duties are to absorb foreign poetry’s strength, to be able to use the language of poetry to translate the poem and to show the spirit and style of the original by using the poetry’s rhyme. It imposed a very high requirement on the translator’s language ability for he has to translate the poems from native language to another language, what’s more is that he should keep the original artistic effect, therefore it requires the translator should also be a poet as well. Translation must go beyond the gap of language, besides that, the translation of poem has to achieve the beauty of art. The translator of poetry must be able to "dance" freely within the limitation of original work and to reshape a new life for the poem in a new language. When translating, the translator should also make the right choice of translation form, which is also Wen Yiduo’s advocation. Translators can choose different forms according to the original emotional content and form in the translation of foreign poetry, though they should not necessarily stick rigidly to the Chinese ancient poetry’s fixed pattern, they should be aware that their new forms of poetry should not abolish the rhyme.Translating the classic, translating poetry into poetry, artistic creation freedom, pay attention to rhyme, all of these are collectively reflected on his fervent pursuit of "Three Beauties" in his translation practice. The "Beauty of Music" constituted by rhythm and rhyme can make readers feel the emotional change of the poetry through the sensation of hearing. The ups and downs of melody formed by the division of the rhyme and the level and oblique tones can facilitate readers to understand the original content and obtain the overall beauty of art. Chinese poetry exquisite tonal rhyme and foreign "sonnet" very mellow syllables and harmonious rhyme constitute the main factors which influenced Wen Yiduo’s pursuit of " the beauty of music"."Painting beauty" constituted with words and color can make the original content in fine words, and make the original style into a colorful picture. Wen Yiduo’s pursuit of "painting beauty", on one hand, comes from his early years’learning of painting and the specialized study in art in United States for three years. On the other hand, it comes from the absorption and creation of Chinese poetic view and American imagism poetic view. Verse symmetry and sentence uniformity are two aspects of Wen Yiduo’s translation pursuit of "architectual beauty". Wen Yiduo pays attention to the homogeneous form of poetry. Based on keeping the characteristics of the original peoms, he tries to incorporate the Chinese Metrical Poetry into poetry translation. Lines and stanzas of the homogeneous poems can reconcile the syllable and poetry rhyme, and enhance the overall aesthetic beauty of the poetry. The traditional homogeneous aesthetic consciousness and "sonnet" neat format are important factors which promote Wen Yiduo’s pursuit of "architectural beauty" in poemsWen Yiduo’s poetry translation and poetry composition are hand by hand. The translation of foreign poems formed Wen Yiduo’s unique pursuit of poetry creation. At the beginning of the poetry translation with vernacular language, Wen Yiduo was fully aware of the limitation of the old poetry form, therefore, in order to break the shackle, he steered to translate the poem with vernacular language. In his continuous exploration of vernacular poems’ translation and compostion, Wen Yiduo found the shortage of vernacular poetry, hence, he advocated that that poetry composition should not give up the pursuit of rhyme. To sum it up, Wen Yiduo’s theory of poetry translation and poetry composition imposed a great influence on modern poetry creation, in the vernacular movement and its caused enthusiasm of the poetry reform, Wen Yiduo’s exploration in the translation of poetic rhyme, language and form had stridden a crucial step for Chinese new poetry development.