A Study On Chinese Translation Of Psalms Of The Holy Bible By John C.H.Wu From The Perspective Of Lefevere's Translation Poetics

The Book of Psalms,abbre-viated as Psalms,is a masterpiece of Hebrew poetry,recording Jews' worship to God.The translation process of Psalms is simultaneous with the history of the Bible translation.The literary characteristic and language feature of Psalms attract scholars and translators.The version of the Book of Psalms translated by Chinese jurist and author John C.H.Wu in the form of classic Chinesepoetry reflects the era characteristics and literary flavor."Poetics",originated from the Poetics written by Aristotle,is a very vital concept in translation theory.Andre Lefevere,a representative of Cultural School,introduced the poetics to translation study and held that dominant poetics of the translator's time will inescapably manipulate his or her translation activity.An explicit definition of poetics was given in Lefevere's masterpiece Translating,Rewriting and Manipulation of Literary Fame:"A poetics can be said to consist of two components:one is an inventory of literary devices,genres,motifs,prototypical characters and situation,and symbols,the other concept what the role of literature is,or should be,in the social system as a whole"In the light of Lefevere's poetics of translation,the paper tries to analyze John C.H.Wu's version of the Psalms from two perspectives.On the macro level,how the historical and cultural background,how the translator's translation views and how the poetics of readership at that time manipulate the translation activity are discussed;on the micro level,the influence of poetics of translation is demonstrated from two micro perspectives of genre and language.According to John C.H.Wu's translation,the dominant poetics is not the sole factor having impact on the translation.Wu's translation is affected by the poetics of a smaller literary environment and the poetics of readership as well.Therefore,comparing with the fidelity to the literal meaning of the original text,the translator's life experience and the satisfaction of the target readers together with the historical and cultural background,which help to build the translator's unique view point on translation,should not be ignored.