Freedom Of Translators: A Case Study Of Ezra Pound’s Cathay From The Perspective Of Deconstruction

Ezra Pound,as the most influential figure in the United States and even in the world in the 20 th century,and he is a poet,scholar and translator.Although his translation of the classical Chinese poetry Cathay has made him famous,there are some different voices about it.Some scholars highly praise his translation achievements,while others hold that Ezra Pound’s Sinology background and knowledge are insufficient to support his perfect interpretation of Cathay(at least in the early Chinese classical poetry).They criticize the arbitrariness deconstruction of the image of Chinese classical poetry in his translation creation,and consider it is unfaithful to the original work.In the face of these disputes,this paper attempts to re-examine Ezra Pound’s translation methods and means in the framework of deconstructive translation theory and from the perspective of translators’ freedom.By exploring and sorting out the development of Ezra Pound’s deconstructive translation thoughts through the translation of specific poems,this paper explores the practical track of Ezra Pound’s deconstructive translation thoughts.This thesis analyzes Ezra Pound’s Cathay within the framework of deconstructive translation theory,such as “differance”,“trace”,“dissemination” and “anti-logocentrism”,from the perspective of translators’ freedom by means of text close reading methods.After analysis,this paper comes to the following conclusions: although Ezra Pound’s translation has been criticized by many domestic scholars,who accuse Ezra Pound’s translation of “disloyalty”,but after analyzing it in the framework of deconstructive translation theory from the perspective of the translator’s freedom,the translation of Cathay is successful.It can be said that Ezra Pound’s pursuit and practice of “equal status with the original author” had a significant impact on the target language and culture,and also endowed Chinese poetry with new vitality.This thesis further points out that under the framework of deconstructive translation theory,translators have the right and freedom to choose their own translation methods.Of course,this “right” and “freedom” are not arbitrary translation or mistranslation in the name of “deconstruction”.