On The Variance Of Tang Poems In Italian Translations

This paper focuses on the variances of Tang poems in Italian translations.Through texual comparison,it tries to highlight the variances on images and language structures carried out by different translators on the same Tang poem and to analyze their causes and effects.By doing so,this paper will provide an important contribution and a valuable support to the spreading of Tang poetry translations in Italy and to the teaching of Chinese language and literature at high levels.The significance of this paper stems from four points.First of all,as an outstanding literary heritage of China,Tang poetry has a long tradition in Italian sinological studies,and is also one of the research topics that have received great attention from Western sinology circles.Secondly,the teaching of poetry is an effective medium for the teaching of foreign languages at advanced levels.Therefore,the issues of translating Tang poetry tend to be highly inspirational to the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language in Italy.Thirdly,the studies of translating Tang poetry into Italian have been a research field which remains fragile despite the fact that the field of international communication has attached great importance to it,thus,the remaining gap is likely to be partially filled by this research.Fourthly,as translation could serve as one of the most effectively ways to promote Chinese culture abroad,this study has a strong practical significance in the export and reception of Chinese culture.The theoretical framework of this thesis mainly comes from Comparative Translation Studies.With the comparative method,a thesis may investigate the methods of translation,qualities and errors in two(or more)different translations of the same poem,or discuss the different translation styles and the influence on the translation results.It may also explore different translation methods,arrangement of words,expression of symbols and images used by different translators,as well as the causes and effects of translation mistakes and losses.The focus of this thesis is on the variances of Tang poetry,the causes and effects,and the methods and significance.Under the framework of Comparative Translation Studies,the author used three different methods,that is,the documentary research method,case studies and the method of comparing materials of the same kind and quality.Firstly the basic literary sources and documents were collected with the documentary research method,then the sources and documents were screened and classified for the exploration of research gaps,typical texts,and the most common and typical types of variations and cases.Then with the method of case studies,25 representative poems were selected from the Three Hundred Tang Poems as cases for comparison.Finally,the comparative method was employed in the comparison of two translations of every selected poem,in order to analyze the variances,causes and effects of images and language forms of Tang poems in translation and finally draw some conclusions.The thesis is divided into four chapters.The first chapter introduces the research background,objectives,significance,literature review,methodology,as well as the theoretical underpinning and framework.The second chapter discusses the variances of Chinese images in Italian translations and is divided into three sections:the variances of music images,the variances of organs images and toponyms.The third chapter deals with the variances of language forms,including the variances of word formation,the variances of adjectives and rhetorical forms.The fourth chapter concludes the research findings,values and shortcomings of this thesis.There are some new findings in this research.First of all,in the process of translating Tang poetry in Italy,the translators often change the language forms or images of Tang poetry.However,different translators use different forms.Second,when the Italian translators translate Tang poetry,they often use six translation methods,namely,addition,deletion,substitution,transliteration,domestication and foreignization.These methods reflect the translators’ tendencies and aestethic attitudes towards language and culture.Third,the reasons that lead to the Italian translators’ changes when translating Tang poetry are closely related with the differences between Chinese and Italian languages and their aestethic values.Fourth,the effects of these variances not only affect language,aestethics and the dissemination of culture,but also lead to the visibility or invisibility of different cultures.This value of this study has three aspects:first of all,to some extent,it clarifies the importance of using Tang poetry in the process of teaching Chinese as a second language in Italy,as it could offer examples about how to effectively compare the similarities and differences between the two languages,and serves to design a reasonable teaching program that can inspire future teachers.Furthermore,it has a concrete reference value for the theory and practice of Chinese-Italian translations,and it can fill in the research gaps that still exist in the field of Italian translations of Tang poetry.In addition,it can provide us with a practical model from Italy,which is useful for the international transmission and acceptance of Chinese literature and culture.Due to the limits of space and time,the case studies presented and analysed in this paper only refer to the most representative examples and could not investigate every single case in the Three Hundred Tang Poems.This paper focuses on case study of Tang poems in Italian translations and the research result is not necessarily applicable to the translations of Tang poems into other languages.Therefore,there is still a lot of available space that could be expanded on the topic of Tang poetry translations.