A Study Of Imagery Translation In Poetry From The Perspective Of Memetics

Guo Moruo(1892-1978),a great litterateur and historian of China,is one of the founders of new Chinese poetry.He has translated a large number of foreign poems,novels,dramas and other non-literary works,contributing a lot to China’s new culture and new literature.Although he is a prolific translator with many types of works,his poetry translation is the most popular among readers.He has translated couples of poetry collections including Rubaiyat,Collection of German Poetry,Collection of Shelley’s Poems,Translation Manuscript of English Poetry,Collection of Russian Poetry,Faust and Collection of Poetry Translation by Guo Moruo.Therefore,he has formed his own translation principles such as “Translation is creation”,“To translate the charm of the original” and “Translation is resonance”.Although the aforesaid translation principles derive from traditional translation theories of ancient China,they are summarized,utilized and refined by Guo who then transforms them into his own translation system.Regretfully,though Guo’s poetry translation has been extensively studied in China,many researches are textual analyses in the light of his translation principles and some are comparative researches.In a word,few systematic theories are applied to the study of Guo’s poetry translation.This research aims to conduct a study of the translation of poetic imagery of Guo’s poetry translation in the light of memetics in order to explain the transmission process of poetic imagery meme and to discover the art and defects in Guo’s poetry translation.Imagery is the essential component of poetry,the combination of subjective feelings and objective things and the direct and most effective method to express the poet’s emotion.Poetic imagery exists in poetry in three forms,i.e.a single image,a combination of images and a system of images.Each image is not isolated but integrates with other images to form a combination.Combinations of images eventually produce a system of images.Memetics is a theory of cultural evolution and transmission,which helps us to understand features,transmission process and transmission effect of memes.Translation is a special method of transmitting memes.A meme is transmitted from different language systems by means of translation,which is a process of cross-culture communication.Combining memetics and poetry translation,the author adopts Heylighen’s replication and transmission model and Dawkins’ three qualities of successful memes,based on the situation of poetry translation,to analyze the transmission process of poetic imagery meme and to appreciate the poetic and artistic features of Guo’s translation.Through analyses,the author believes that memetics can explain the translation process of poetic imagery and reveal the artistic features and defects of Guo’s translation.The translator transmits the poetic imagery meme(the PIM)to target readers through translation.Similar to other memes,the PIM is replicated through assimilation,retention,expression and transmission.However,it has its special replication mode.In assimilation,background information of poets and poems,single image and combination of images are absorbed and accepted by the translator.Then system of images is reinforced in the translator’s mind in retention.The translator expresses the PIM in the target language with his translation principles and strategies.Finally,the translated PIM is loaded on carriers for transmission.Meanwhile,the author adjusts Dawkins’ three qualities of successful memes(longevity,fecundity and copying-fidelity)as the appreciation standards for Guo’s renderings,i.e.poetic longevity,concerning aesthetic and poetic values of translated PIM,poetic fecundity,comparing Guo’s renderings with other translators’,and copying-fidelity,discussing the gains and losses in terms of faithfulness of translation.The author finds that Guo maintains the original poetic artistic conception in most cases but makes deviation in a few cases due to over creation.His translation principles,i.e.“Translation is creation” and “To translate the charm of the original”,are embodied in his renderings.All in all,memetics provides a theoretical angle for studying poetic imagery translation.Taking up a neutral stance,this research intends to study the translation of poetic imagery from the perspective of memetics in order to better reveal Guo’s translation principles and provide readers with implication for the practice of poetry translation.