Comparison Between The Three Chinese Versions Of Gitanjali From The Perspective Of Domestication And Foreignization

In the practice of translation in China for nearly a century,domestication and foreignization strategies have always had a place.The application of domestication strategy could make the translation conform to the reading habits of the target language reader.The choice and application of domestication and foreignization strategies has a long history in guiding the practice of poetry translation.This thesis discusses the domestication and foreignization in the three translated versions of Gitanjali from the aspects of language and culture.The thesis is divided into five chapters.Chapter One introduces the research background,aims and methods of poetry translation.Chapter Two serves as the literature review,introducing Gitanjali as well as the three translated versions.The third chapter is the structure of the present study.It introduces the forming and development of domestication and foreignization strategies.The comparison of the three translated version based on domestication and foreignization is discussed in Chapter Four.The author chooses Gitanjali,one of Tagore’s most classic poetry collections as an example,and combines its three Chinese translated versions to make a comparative analysis from the linguistic level and cultural level,trying to find the most appropriate way to deal with the application of domestication and foreignization strategies in poetry translation through the comparison of the translation of words,sentences,religious thoughts and aesthetic styles by the three translators.Chapter Five concluded the thesis,summarizes the shortcomings of the thesis and gives suggestions for future work.The research finds that translation is a very complex process and factors like language,culture,context and person all affect the process of translation.In Gitanjali,elements like words,sentences,religious thoughts and aesthetic style including repeated sentences,syllables and rhythms all influence the translation of poetry.Therefore,the choice of domestication and foreignization in poetry translation should not be single but complementary.The flexible adoption of domestication and foreignization strategies could make the translation conform to the Chinese expression habits while preserving the unique exotic style.