A Study On The English Translation Of Gnomic Verses About Water And Tree In Light Of Reception Aesthetics

Gnomic Verses about Water and Tree is a complete collection of Tibetan philosophic gnomic verses.The author Gungthang Tenpai Dronme is a famous writer in the Qing Dynasty,a senior monk of the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism,and the Third Gungthang Rinpoche of Labrang Monastery.The book consists of 245 gnomic verses,of which 106 verses uses analogies about tree and 139 verses uses analogies about water.Since its publication,it has been widely circulated in the vast Tibetan areas and becomes well-known to Tibetans.The analogies of the Gnomic Verses about Water and Tree utilize the common phenomenon of people's daily life to explicate how to conduct in society and how to behave as a follower of Buddhism.It is tinted with strong ideological and religious color.As a bright pearl in the history of Tibetan literature,Gnomic Verses about Water and Tree is of great literary and artistic value as well as academic value,thus getting the attention of translation field.As a new literary theory,reception aesthetics which became flourishing in the 1960 s emphasizes the reader's active role in the creation of literary works,thus overturning the previous author-centered and text-centered theories.Drawing on hermeneutics and phenomenology,it proposes a series of important concepts including “horizon of expectations”,“fusion of horizons”,“response-inviting structures” and so forth which has many implications on the study of literary translation.According to the reception aesthetics,the translator,being the creator of the target text,should take into account the reader's receptive ability and aesthetic needs in an attempt to satisfy their horizon of expectations and strive for the fusions of horizons of target reader and that of text.On the other hand,it is necessary to retain the exotic and cultural atmosphere in the target text,therefore the translator should recreate the original response-inviting structure in the target text which helps to increase the strangeness and freshness of the target text in order to arouse target readers' imagination and enthusiasm of participation as well as continuously broaden their horizons.This thesis analyzes the English translation of Li Zhengshuan 's Gnomic Verses about Water and Tree by using the method of exemplification in the framework of reception aesthetics.The thesis is divided into five parts.Introduction briefly expounds the life and main works of Gungthang Tenpai Dronme,the literature review of Gnomic Verses about Water and Tree,the brief introduction of reception aesthetics theory and its major concepts.Chapter One explores whether the translation satisfies target readers' expectation horizons through the analysis of the rhetoric devices,idiomatic expressions and reduplicated words in the English translation,with the aim to reproduce the idea of the original text to the target reader;Chapter Two explores whether the translation achieves the fusions of horizons of target readers and that of source text from the aspects of poetic form and ryhme scheme,so that the original beauty of form can be reproduced to target readers;Chapter Three explores whether the response-inviting structure is recreated in the target text through the discussion of culture-loaded words,allusions and choice of words,so as to provide exotic culture and aesthetic experience for target readers and help them feel the charm of Tibetan culture.In the Conclusion,the thesis points out that in the practice of literary translation,the translator should have the reader in mind and adopt translation strategies to adapt to reader's aesthetic needs so that the translation can be well-received by target readers.