A Tentative Study Of Xu Yuanchong’s Subjectivity In Classical Chinese Poetry Translation

With the “Cultural Turn” in translation studies in the1990s, the perspectives of translationstudies have been broadened. Translation has shifted its focus from the text to the translator andthe translator’s subjectivity has been put in the spotlight. The translator’s subjectivity, which isan objective reality in literary translation, refers to “the translator’s initiative manifested intranslation activities on the basis of the original text and under the guidance of the translator’stranslating purpose” and “its basic features are the translator’s cultural consciousness,personality, and cultural and aesthetic creativity”(Zha Mingjian&Tian Yu,2003). Probing intotranslator’s subjectivity means studying translator’s initiative and creativity in translation and therelated factors influencing the display of the translator’s subjectivity, such as translator’spersonal experience, character, cultural and language competence.The translator’s subjectivity sheds new light on Xu Yuanchong and his poem translation.Based on specific exemplifications of Xu’s poem translation and detailed examination of relatedfactors, this thesis aims to make a tentative study of Xu’s subjectivity manifested in source textselection, translating strategy selection and textual operation, trying to explore why and how Xuadheres to the principle of “verse translation” and abides by the criterion of beauty in Sense,Sound and Style in poem translation. The analysis of Xu’s subjectivity reveals that Xu exerts hissubjectivity under the influence of his life experiences, educational background, character,language and culture proficiency and individual translation inclination.The tentative study of Xu’s subjectivity in classical Chinese poetry translation suggests thatreviews on Xu and his translation should be in a more objective way taking the comprehensivefactors into consideration, such as his personal experience, character, language and culturalcompetence, individual translation inclination. With regard to evaluation and criticism oftranslation, a positive and objective standard and the translator’s subjectivity should be taken intoaccount as it is of great significance in assisting scholar to make comprehensive comments on atranslator and his translation, in encouraging the translator to produce excellent translation, andin providing readers with a new respective to appreciate a translation.