A Study On The Translation Of Poems In "Tagore Special Issue" Of Short Story Magazine

During May4th Period and the New Literature Movement, numerous western literary works were introduced into China for the purpose of promoting and innovating Chinese literature. Rabindranath Tagore, a poet from India, attracted the attention of Chinese intellectuals and translators. In1913, Tagore won the Nobel Prize for Literature for Gitanjali. Ever since, the fervor on Tagore and his works appeared in western nations. Gradually, the fervor was disseminated to Japan and China with a lot of translators joining in translating his works. Some influential magazines and newspaper issued those translation works,In the fervor of translating Tagore’s works came the publication of "Tagore Special Issue" in volume9and10of Short Story Magazine in1923. As an influential literary magazine, the special issue not only promoted the dissemination of Tagore’s works, but also pushed forward the innovation and development of Chinese poetry.The thesis attempts to investigate the source text selection and translation strategies of the special issue under the guidance of Andre Levefere’s theory of ideology, poetics and patronage.The publication of the special issue is based on the social background and the patron’s editing ideas. The thesis analyzes the process and reasons of the worldwide fervor on Tagore disseminating to China. The source text selection is closely related to the editing strategy of patrons. As the publisher, the Commercial Press exerts impact on the producing of the special issue via the management ideas, the tradition of translating foreign literature and the decision of innovating the magazine at the beginning of1920s. Meanwhile, as individual patrons, Zheng Zhenduo and Shen Yanbing affect the publishing of special issue through their personal ideology and editing strategy. Zheng Zhenduo assumes the chief editor of the magazine as well as a leader of Society for Literary Research, whose mixed identity helps blend the management ideas of Commercial Press with the poetics of Society for Literary Research. Besides, Zheng Zhenduo is also fond of Tagore’s poetry, which is one of the reasons of publishing the issue. Last but not least, Tagore’s visit to China in the next year is the direct reason for publishing the issue.Through analyzing the issue, it can be figured out that the source text selection is influenced by the social ideology, the editing strategy of the patrons, the social main poetics, and the personal poetics of the translators. The Europeanization, adopted in the special issue, is part of the effort to innovate the Chinese poetry. Meanwhile, the personal poetics and the translation notions of the translators are also the factors that influence translator’s choice on translation strategy. As to the selection on the verse style, all the translators adopted the prose verse style without rhymes rather than with rhymes. This is the result of main poetics during the period and translators’personal poetics.So far, according to the collected materials, no monographic study on the special issue has been found. The present study makes a detailed investigation through descriptive method and case study, which intends to further the study of translation of Tagore’s poems and promotes the study of its translation.