A Study Of English Versions Of Tao’s Poems From The Perspective Of Figure-ground Theory

Tao Yuanming (365~427) had the distinction of being one of the greatest poets in China’sliterary history. His poetry is immensely popular and has attracted many readers both at homeand abroad. Up to now, a large number of English versions of Tao Yuanming’s works havebeen published in and outside our country which have played a positive role in disseminationof his poems. As a consequence, there are more and more comparative researches on differentrenderings of Tao’s works from aesthetics and translation perspective. However, few of themmake a comparative study in terms of cognitive linguistics, especially from the perspective ofFigure-Ground theory.“Cognitive linguistics is an approach to language that is based on our experience of theworld and the way we perceive and conceptualize it.”(Ungerer&Schmid,2001:36)According to cognitive linguistic view on translation,“translation is a cognitive activity inwhich one language is projected and re-expressed into the target language by the cognitivesubjects with differently embodied backgrounds.”(Wang Yin,2005:15) Being one of themost important parts of cognitive linguistics, Figure-Ground theory is based on theprominence principle. Figure is regarded as the focus of attention and the more prominent partof our cognition, whereas Ground is the cognitive reference as well as the less prominent part.Talmy (2000) is the first person who brings Figure-Ground theory into linguistic study. Hetakes the Figure-Ground segregation as a basic cognitive principle of language organization.Langacker adopts “trajector” and “landmark” instead of “Figure” and “Ground” in linguisticstudy.Employing comparative analysis methods, this thesis applies Figure-Ground theory toanalyze different English versions of three types of Tao’s poems which are pastoral poetry, drinking poems and chanting poems. The conclusion is that in the process of translation,translators should first award the status of the Figure and the Ground in the original poem,and then choose proper target language to convey the artistic conception to produce a faithfultranslation. Otherwise, the meaning of the original poem may change in the target language.Figure-Ground theory can help the translators to get a better understanding of Tao’s poemsand instruct the translators to better convey the original meaning and artistic conception ofpoems. Accordingly, Chinese literature can be widely spread.However, in the practice of translation, the status of the Figure and Ground in translatedversions may not identical to those in the original poems. The most noticeable two factors aretranslators’ different embodied backgrounds and translators’ creativity.This thesis attempts to study English versions of Tao’s poems from a new perspective,that is, Figure-Ground theory. Such an analysis not only helps the translators gaincomprehensive understanding of the original poems and produce appropriate renderings in thetarget language, but also makes some improvements to their translations and translation skills.