A Study On Carolyn Kizer's Translation Of Shu Ting's Poems From The Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

Poetry,as a literary genre that has a long history,is an indispensable part of the cultural communication across cultures and languages.Compared with other kinds of literary works,poetry normally is written of concise language that emphasizes rhymes and rhythm and possesses strong emotions at the same time.These unique features make the translation of poetry a challenging practice for translators.The English translation of Chinese modern and contemporary poetry can be traced back to 1935.A great number of outstanding translators have translated numerous Chinese modern and contemporary poetry into English since then,including American poet Carolyn Kizer.Carolyn Kizer,as a prolific poet that has published eight personal anthologies,has been awarded with Pulitzer Prize for anthology Yin in 1985.As a translator,she has translated poetry written in several languages including Chinese,Urdu,and Japanese.Her translation of Chinese poetry has covered multiple genres including Yuefu poems,poems written in Tang dynasty,and modern poems.For the translation of Chinese modern poetry,Kizer focuses on Shu Ting's works particularly.The presentation of translator's subjectivity in her translation of Shu Ting's poems is obvious,which differentiated her translation from works of other translators.However,the study on Kizer's translation activity or the English translation of Shu Ting's works are still rare to see.Therefore,this research will take Kizer's translation of Shu Ting's poems as the case to study and hopefully can fill the gap.This study takes a descriptive study on Kizer's translation of Shu Ting's poems by employing the theoretical framework of the Manipulation theory proposed by Andre Lefevere.The study will analyze Kizer's translation activity from ideology,poetics,and patronage perspectives to explore the how the translator's subjectivity influences her translation.The findings of this study show that:first,ideological factors not only play as the main motivation in Kizer's choice of translating Shu Ting's work,but also impact Kizer's selection of poems to translate and her translation strategies.The strong feminist ideology showed in Shu Ting's poems echoes with Kizer's ideology as a feminist.In translation,she further strengthened the feminist ideology by rewriting the poems.When selecting poems to translate,Kizer controlled the choice to maintain Shu Ting's image comply with the mainstream understanding of "Misty poets" in western society.Secondly,the free and natural style of Kizer's translation is marked with Kizer's personal poetic concepts.In her translation of Shu Ting,Kizer took bold rewriting and reconstructing for some of the poems by changing the structure and perspective or using rendition.Her manipulation of the original poems,however,sometimes destroyed the unique style of Shu Ting's poems.Thirdly,patronage factor supports Kizer's translation activity.In summary,subjective initiative of Carolyn Kizer left great influence on her translation of Shu Ting's poems.The manipulation and rewriting of the poems impacted by Kizer's subjectivity make Kizer's translation unique and full of personal features compared with translation from other translators.