A Cognitive Approach To Wang Wei’s "Painting-in-poetry" And Its Translation

The great artistic charm of Wang Wei’s poetry attracts many tra nslators both abroad and at home.Naturally,the translation of Wang Wei’s poetry has been thriving and prosperous.However,the research on the translation of Wang Wei’s poetry is rare by contrast.As is well-known,Wang Wei is featured by his “Painting-in-Poetry” which contributes a great deal to the whole texture and aesthetics o f his poems.Thus the transmission of it is key to the translation of Wang Wei’s poetry.Given this,the thesis tries to make a systematic study of Wang Wei’s poetry translation by examining “Painting-in-Poetry” and its transmission in terms of cognitive construal.This thesis firstly reviews Yuan Xingpei’s arguments on “Painting-in-Poetry” and points out that “Painting-in-Poetry” is cognitively-based.Then,based on Yuan’s insightful arguments on “Painting-in-Poetry”,by conducting a close analysis of some representative extracts taken from Wang Wei’s several typical poems and their translations in terms of cognitive construal,it proposes the cognitive features of “Painting-in-Poetry”,that is,three construal patterns or operations that underlie the effect of “Painting-in-Poetry”: profiling of colour,light,and shape domains with special salience in terms of scope selection;selective alignment of figure and background in terms of prominence;empathy construal in terms of perspective.And it argues that these three construal patterns or operations can be assumed as the cognitive basis of the “Painting-in-Poetry” effect on which we can convey the effect in translation.Finally,through an fine-grained investigation of Wang Wei’s five representative poems and Yip’s translation of them still on the basis of construal,this thesis verifies the three cognitive features of the “Painting-in-Poetry” effect,testifies to Yip’s success in conveying the “Painting-in-Poetry” effect of Wang Wei’s poems,exploring the strategies and means he employs,and further puts forward that the preservation,by various linguistic devices,of the construal patterns underlying the "Painting-in-Poetry" effect,is essential to its translation,hoping to shed light on the study of Wang Wei’s poetry translation or,extendedly,Chinese poetry translation.