（英語語言文學專業(yè)論文）英譯中國古典詩詞中的意象翻譯研究.pdf

重慶大學碩士學位論文 中文摘要 i 摘 要 詩歌是語言的精華，而意象是詩歌的靈魂。意象的傳譯是古詩英譯中傳達“意 美”的關鍵。本論文立足中國傳統(tǒng)的意象理論，結(jié)合中外學者從意象角度研究詩 歌翻譯的成果， 對英譯中國古典詩詞中意象的可譯性, 翻譯原則和策略進行了初步 的系統(tǒng)研究。 第一章為引言。中國古典詩歌英譯已有百年以上的歷史，在此實踐基礎上詩 歌翻譯研究者們主要從三種途徑對詩歌翻譯進行了研究，即語言學途徑，文化途 徑和詩學途徑。本文立足詩學中的意象研究成果，結(jié)合語言和文化因素對中國古 典詩歌英譯中的意象翻譯進行研究。 第二章是文獻綜述。分別回顧了中國和西方傳統(tǒng)文論中對意象概念的闡釋和 論述，接著就中國學者對詩歌中的意象翻譯研究現(xiàn)狀進行了綜述。在此基礎上作 者分析了現(xiàn)有研究存在的有待解決的課題以及本文所采用的研究視角。 第三章全面描述中國古典詩歌中的意象。在總結(jié)中外學者有關意象概念的論 述的基礎上，作者對本文提到的意象概念進行了界定，強調(diào)本文主要討論的意象 概念是已經(jīng)物化成語言符號的飽含詩人思想感情的詩歌形象，而非詩人創(chuàng)作構(gòu)思 時出現(xiàn)在頭腦中的“意中之象” 。后者與詩人的形象思維密切相關，但只是作為本 研究立論的基礎，而非討論的重點所在。為使讀者對意象概念的理解更加全面和 深入，文章對其分類和功能進行了闡釋。 第四章討論意象的可譯性及其限度。意象從總體上說是可譯的，中英詩歌中 運用意象的共同傳統(tǒng)構(gòu)成了意象可譯性的實踐基礎。本文文獻綜述中所提雙方對 意象的重要論述則是其理論基礎。本世紀二十年代興起的英美意象派對中英詩人 產(chǎn)生的巨大影響同樣證明了雙方在意象層面上進行交流的可能性。但由于中英文 化差異，其可譯性又是具有一定限度的。文章從文化角度討論了難譯或不可譯的 意象。 第五章探討意象翻譯的原則和策略。許鈞教授提出了翻譯可以分為思維，語 義和審美三層次的觀點。詩人和讀者頭腦中形成的意象是詩歌創(chuàng)作和欣賞的思維 單位，而物化成語言符號的意象則是中國古典詩歌的意義單位和審美單位，在翻 譯意象應當遵循意義對等和意象審美功能對等的原則。原詩意象的意義主要由指 稱意義和聯(lián)想意義組成，翻譯時應將兩方面意義有機結(jié)合起來，特別是在翻譯聯(lián) 想意義時，應充分考慮譯入語文化的接受程度，在傳播中華文化與譯本的廣泛接 受之間找到最佳的平衡點。在上述原則的指導下，文章提出了相應的翻譯策略， 主要包括保留原有意象，替換成譯入語文化可以接受的意象以及省略意象三大類， 重慶大學碩士學位論文 中文摘要 ii 其中又可細分為一些小類，作者對每類方法均以例說明并指出其長處與不足。意 象翻譯的最高層次是審美層次。在此層次上須遵循審美功能對等的原則，努力傳 達意象及其組合的審美特征。意象的審美特征按其訴諸途徑體現(xiàn)在感官和情感兩 個層面。文章舉例闡述了這兩方面的審美特征，并通過對不同譯文的對比研究對 其傳譯策略進行了論證。 第六章為結(jié)論。總結(jié)本論文的主要內(nèi)容和觀點，提出本研究的局限及有待進 一步研究的課題。 關鍵詞：意象翻譯，古詩英譯，可譯性，翻譯原則，翻譯策略 重慶大學碩士學位論文 abstract iii abstract imagery is the soul of poetry. on the basis of the imagery theory in chinese conventional literary documents and the research findings on poetry translation from the aspect of imagery made by the previous scholars both at home and abroad, this dissertation makes a comparatively systematic study on the transference of imagery in c-e translation of chinese classical poetry from the angle of its translatability, translation principles and strategies. imagery is the key to conveying the beauty in sense in c-e translation of chinese classical poetry. by exploring the origin and development of the notion of “yi xiang” in china and its counterpart “imagery” in the west, the author summarizes the definition of imagery in the present study. after that the paper presents the categorization of imagery in chinese classical poetry and its multiple functions in order to make the notion more full-fledged. generally speaking, imagery is translatable. the factors that contribute to the translatability of imagery mainly include four aspects. first, thinking in terms of images is common in both western and chinese poetic composition. second, there is a common convention of adopting imagery in english and chinese poetry. the third is the common tradition of theoretical studies on imagery in english and chinese poetic circles. the fourth is the influence of imagism upon the western and chinese poetic circles. however, due to cultural difference between chinese and anglo-american nations, the translatability is limited to some extent. some examples are offered to show the limitation of translatability on account of cultural differences. professor xu jun has proposed three levels of translation, namely, the thinking level, semantic level and aesthetic level. the commonality between english and chinese poetry at the thinking level constitutes the basis for the translatability of imagery. imagery materialized in linguistic symbols can be regarded as the basic unit for both semantic level and aesthetic level. as for the translation of imagery at the two levels, there are different principles and strategies for each of them. at the semantic level, the translator should follow the principle of semantic equivalence and adopt such translation strategies as preserving, changing and omitting the images. these strategies can be subdivided into more specific ones and illustrated with examples. at the aesthetic level, the translator should try to achieve equivalence in aesthetic function of 重慶大學碩士學位論文 abstract iv imagery between sl and tl text. the aesthetic function of imagery in poetry mainly lies in two aspects, namely, it can give the tl readers aesthetic enjoyment at two levels, one being the sensuous level, the other the level of emotion. the dissertation analyzes the beauty of imagery at the two levels with examples selected from chinese classical poems and then explores corresponding translation strategies by making comparative studies on the different versions for those poems. key words: imagery transference, c-e translation of chinese classical poetry, translatability, translation principles, translation strategy 重慶大學碩士學位論文 chapter one introduction 1 chapter one introduction “difficult and complex as verse translation from chinese into english is, different versions began to appear as early as the 18th century.” (xu, 1992:1) till the mid 20th century, the participants of english translation of chinese classical poems were mainly native english speakers: james legge, herbert allen giles, arthur waley, etc. they paved the way for later poem translators. following them, some native chinese translators such as xu yuanzhong, weng xianliang, wang rongpei, wu juntao, gong jinghao, zhu chunshen, etc, began their english translation of chinese classical poems and this marked a new era. they translated chinese classical works in large quantities. on the basis of the practice, the translators or translation researchers have advanced theories from various approaches. these approaches can be roughly divided into three: linguistic approach, cultural approach and poetic approach. some researchers deal with the original work from the linguistic aspect. chinese classical poems are not quite grammatically composed. furthermore, chinese characters are basically hieroglyphic. in translation process, some translators make use of these characteristics of chinese poems to make the translation more vivid and concise. some translation researchers have also made detailed studies on these features and their translation. following the gradual awareness of the cultural difference in intercultural communication, the cultural gaps in poem translation draw more and more attention. translators began to discuss poem translation in the perspective of the cultural gaps in imagery, the cultural meaning of words and the allusion，etc. other translators find access to poem translation from the aspect of poetics. they begin from the traditional poetic registers: form, imagery, musicality, figure of speech, etc. all of these approaches are sure to help enrich the theories of poetry translation. imagery is the representation of sense experience through language. it plays an extremely important role in poetic composition and appreciation. it is also one of the commonalities shared between western and chinese poetic circles. with the flourish of english translation of chinese classical poems, the study of imagery transference has also aroused great interest from the academic circle. being aware of its importance, the author chooses the present topic and plans to make a tentative study on this issue. as the notion of imagery is a significant one in poetic study, especially in chinese conventional poetic study, this dissertation will mainly form its basis on the conventional chinese 重慶大學碩士學位論文 chapter one introduction 2 poetic study with relevant linguistic and cultural factors taken into consideration. thus its research approach is an organic integration of the three with the poetic approach playing the leading role. in order to make the readers have a clear clue of the whole dissertation, it is necessary to have a birds view first. besides introduction, there are five chapters. chapter two is literature review. after reviewing the current situation of studies on the transference of imagery in classical chinese poetry, the author analyzes the problems that remain to be solved and points out the research angle of this dissertation. chapter three gives a general account of imagery in classical chinese poetry, including its categorization, ways of combination and main functions in chinese classical poems. chapter four discusses the translatability of imagery in classical chinese poetry. chapter five elaborates on the principles and strategies for imagery translation at the semantic and aesthetic level respectively. chapter six concludes the whole dissertation. the author will summarize the main idea of the dissertation and point out its limitations as well as some relevant research topics for further study. 重慶大學碩士學位論文 chapter two literature review 3 chapter two literature review 2.1 the origin and development of imagery theory in china ever since the time of confucius, the concept of “yi xiang” ( “意象” in chinese , “imagery” in english) has been attached great importance by chinese theorists. the two characters “意”( “yi” ， meaning “idea”) and “象” ( “xiang” , “appearance, shape, image”) were originally used in separation in the book of changes (yi jing，易經(jīng)) ,which is thought to be a philosophical work reflecting early peoples mode of thinking in which different images were used to denote natural phenomena. some statements in the appended statements ( xi ci ,系辭) for the book of changes were frequently cited in literary thoughts: 子曰： “書不盡言，言不盡意。 ”然則圣人之意，其不可見乎？ 子曰： “圣人立象以盡意，設卦以盡情偽，系辭焉以盡其言。 ” he said, “what is written does not give the fullness of what is/was said (yen); what is/was said does not give the fullness of the concept in the mind (yi).” “if this is so, then does it mean that the concepts in the minds of the sages cannot be perceived?” he said, “the sages established the images (xiang) to give the fullness of the concepts in their minds, and they set up the hexagrams to give the fullness of what is true and false in a situation (qing); to these they appended statements (xi ci ) to give the fullness of what was said” (owen, 1992:31) this passage discloses the relation among “the concept in the mind”(yi), “images”(xiang) and “what is/was said”(yan). from the literary point of view, “images” are objects in nature or relating to human life which can be regarded as materials for thought; “the concept in the mind” (yi) is the content of thought; and “what is/was said” (yan) is the result of thought in written form. as we can see here, chinese people believe that the inner can indeed be known from the outer manifestation. liu xie (465-520), a noted chinese classical literary theorist, was the first person who used “yi” and “xiang” together and made the notion of “yi xiang” as a formal literary term in his famous monograph carving the dragon with literary mind（wen xin diao long; 文心雕龍 ）. the sentence which has mentioned “yi xiang” goes like 重慶大學碩士學位論文 chapter two literature review 4 this, “使玄解之宰，尋聲律而定墨；獨照之匠，窺意象而運斤”(qtd in chen，1986： 14)（only then can the butcher, who cut things apart mysteriously, set the pattern according to the rules of sound; and the uniquely discerning carpenter wield his ax with his eye to the concept-imagetr. by myself）liu compared literary composition , especially poetry writing to the job of the butcher or carpenter. there are always two most important aspects that a poet must bear in mind, one being mental image（意象）, and the other musicality（聲律）. later in tang dynasty, wang chang-ling (698-756) stated that imagery was the combination of the subjective and objective. in ming dynasty, hu ying-ling (1551-1602) believed that “the essence of the classic poetry lies in the arrangement of imagery(古詩 之妙，專求意象).” (commentaries on poetry) （zhu, 1996:3） wang fu-zhi, another influential scholar in ming dynasty, has made an in-depth and systematic analysis on the features of aesthetic imagery in poems. these features include the integrity, authenticity, ambiguity and originality. (ye, 1985:466-478) in modern times, some famous scholars like zhu guang-qian (1984), yuan xingpei(1996) have contributed some original and cogent arguments on imagery. zhu guangqian regards sentiment (情 趣) and imagery(意象) as two inseparable parts in constituting the artistic realm of poems. yuan xing-pei points out that although “yi xiang” is an aboriginal notion in chinese conventional literary theory, it has no definite connotation and unanimous usage. sometimes it refers to the mental image in the poets mind when he or she is conceiving a poem, which is represented by liu xies words as mentioned above. other commentators adopted this notion to give comments on various artistic forms like poetry, calligraphy and paintings. some scholars even mixed the two important notions “yi xiang (imagery)” and “yi jing (ideorealm)” together without distinguishing them clearly. in one word, the notion of “yi xiang” shares a common feature with other notions in conventional chinese literary theory, that is, few of them have exact definitions. professor yuan has analyzed the relationship between the notion of “yi xiang” and other relevant notions like “wu xiang” (objective image), “yi jing” (ideorealm), which is an effective attempt to clarify the notion in the context of chinese classical poetry. some other scholars like chen zhi-e (1986), wang chang-jun (2000) and yan yun-shou (2003) have wrote monographs to expound on imagery in chinese poetry. their analyses have dealt with such problems as its origin, definition, classification, ways of combining images, its aesthetic and cultural features, and so on. these contributions can give the present study a lot of inspirations on the understanding of imagery. another important 重慶大學碩士學位論文 chapter two literature review 5 reference book is zhu huis comparative studies on the art of chinese and english poetry (1996), which contributes the first chapter to make a comparative study on the imagery between chinese and english poetry. this study is more significant for our present study since translation always benefits a lot from comparative studies between the source language (sl) and target language (tl) text. 2.2 arguments on imagery in western poetic study in the west, there has also been a time-honored awareness of the significance of imagery in poetic creation. g. e. lessing (1729-1781) said that imagery was the sensuous impression produced in poetry (laocoon, qtd in zhu，1996：20). robert frost (1874-1963) suggested that “image and after-imagery are about all there is to poetry”. (jay, 1987:27) the school of imagism that appeared in america in the 1920s not only translated a large quantity of chinese classical poems, but also imitated the ways adopted by the chinese classical poets to compose new poems in english. the ways were mainly concerned with how to choose and arrange imagery in composing a poem. ezra pound and amy lowell were the most well-known imagists. ezra pound (1885-1973) defined imagery as “an intellectual and emotional complex” and emphasized it to such an extent that he claimed “it is better to present one image in a lifetime than to produce voluminous works.” (a retrospect, qtd in zhu, 1996: 20) another acknowledged leader of the new verse and criticism both in american and britain, t.s. eliot (1888-1965), developed this notion into his principle of “objective correlative”: the only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an objective correlative; in other words, a set of objects, a chain of events which, shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external acts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given the emotion is immediately evoked. (chang, 1990: 244) rene wellek (1903- ) in his theory of literature suggests that imagery is one componential structure of poem. (zhu, 1996:20) 2.3 current studies on the translation of imagery in poetry some famous poetry translators in china have pointed out the importance of imagery in poetry translation. xu yuanzhongs principle of “three-aspected beauty” puts the beauty in sense in the first place, which is mainly conveyed through imagery. weng 重慶大學碩士學位論文 chapter two literature review 6 xianliang stresses that the true coloring of poetry translation lies in imagery. (editorial department of chinese translators journal,1986：285-286) on some academic journals, there have appeared a number of articles which tackle the problem of imagery transference in poetry. zhang baohong （1994） discusses the reproduction of imagery in terms of its broad sense and narrow one. xin xianyun （2001）focuses on the adaptive methods for the translation of imagery in poetry by dividing them into figurative and non-figurative imagery. xi hualin （2001）examines the ways to mutual exchange and translation between chinese and english poems by applying some key concepts proposed by western imagists, such as image hosition, synaesthsia and image separation, into the poetry translation practice. wei jiahai (2002,2003) has published two articles centering on the translation of imagery in classical chinese poetry. one of them probes into the foregrounding of temporal imagery in c-e translation of classical chinese poetry. another article argues that image can be considered as the cardinal unit of translation and other units such as phonemes, words, sentences, paragraphs, texts and culture as the supplementary units of translation. in addition, some candidates for master or doctorial degree wholly or partially involve their dissertations with the notion of imagery in translation. liang yanhua (2002) studies color images in tang-song poetry and their translation. zhang ruguis dissertation (2003) argues that imagery can be the unit of translation in chinese classical poetry translation. the dissertation entitled a tentative probe into the transference of artistic ideorealm in the translation of classical chinese poetry written by chen yuehong(2002) partly involves itself with the translation of imagery. jiang qiuxias doctorial dissertation (2002) focuses its attention on