Strategies in Translating Tang Poems from Chinese to Eng

1、strategies in translating tang poems from chinese to english submitted by liu gui-zhistudent id number w2005b1001b0069supervised by wang shi-yua paper submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of bachelor of artsthe institute of online educationbeijing foreign studies universitymarc

2、h, 2008北京外國語大學網(wǎng)絡(luò)教育學院學士學位論文誠信聲明本人鄭重聲明： 所呈交的學士學位論文，是本人在導師的指導下，獨立進行研究工作所取得的成果。論文所涉及的項目為本人親自負責或者參與實施的項目。除文中已經(jīng)注明引用的內(nèi)容外，本論文不含任何其他個人或集體已經(jīng)發(fā)表或撰寫過的作品成果。本人完全了解本聲明的法律結(jié)果由本人承擔。學士學位論文作者簽名： 日期：2008 年 3 月 27 日論文摘要論文中文摘要應(yīng)包括以下內(nèi)容：概述研究背景、目標、語料類型、語料分析方法、結(jié)論和意義。字數(shù)要求：300字至500字。唐詩是中國古典文學寶庫中的瑰寶，是高超的漢語語言藝術(shù)的集中體現(xiàn)，唐詩的英譯更是文學翻譯中體現(xiàn)最

3、高翻譯水平的語言轉(zhuǎn)換藝術(shù)之一。因中英文語言文化上的巨大差異，唐詩的英譯會涉及到很多語言現(xiàn)象的處理，因本文篇幅有限，所以只討論唐詩英譯中專有名詞的翻譯。唐詩所描寫的內(nèi)容多是詩人身處某地時對某一景物或人物的所思所感，因此，唐詩中有很多涉及包括人名、地名、節(jié)日名詞和文化名詞等專有名詞的現(xiàn)象出現(xiàn)，并且具有影響整個詩篇的效果。在不同的英譯本中，對它們的處理可謂是仁者見仁，智者見智。本文作者選擇12首不同體裁的唐詩和它們的多種英譯本，根據(jù)英國語言學家紐馬克(peter newmark)和許淵沖的翻譯理論, 就不同譯文在專有名詞翻譯中使用的策略進行了比較性分析。結(jié)論：本文通過對部分唐詩英譯作品的分析，揭示了

4、一個事實, 即對唐詩英譯作品中專有名詞翻譯的評定是沒有唯一衡量標準的，不同的譯本體現(xiàn)了不同的風格，并受到不同類型讀者的喜愛。同時，作者亦希望通過此研究讓更多的中外翻譯工作者和翻譯愛好者以及英文讀者，對唐詩的英譯有進一步的了解，并對他們的實際翻譯工作產(chǎn)生一定的指導作用。關(guān)鍵詞：唐詩英譯 翻譯策略 專有名詞 衡量標準abstract the abstract should include the following information: research background, objective(s), data type(s), data analysis method(s), resul

5、t(s) and significance of the research.suggest length: 300-500 words. poetry translation is one of the most difficult forms in literature translation, especially between different language families. with highly extracted lexicons and popular styles, tang poems (tang poems will be referred to as tp in

6、 the following context) has been translated into english by many english and chinese translators in the past hundred of years. the first english publication of tp is made by giles in the early of 19th century that is lately followed by a number of other english collections of tp in colorful forms an

7、d styles during the 20th and 21st centuries. proper name is a language element which frequently happens in tp. it is an illustration of the feelings of the poet about someone or some object that causes special effects on the whole discourse of tp. therefore, a discussion on the translation of proper

8、 names has an important meaning for the translation of tp.the research here is to discuss the strategies employed in transmitting the proper names from chinese to english including persons names, geographic names and cultural terms. by comparing different english versions of tp, the author tries to

9、work out the different factors such as linguistic characters and different cultural connotations that affect the translators decision-making. the data is consisted of 12 tp in sl and several english versions of their translation. the data in tl are selected from different english anthologies publish

10、ed from 19th to the 21st century. since the language character of tp which are written in ancient chinese, each poem in sl will be firstly explained, and then several versions of english translation are provided so that a comparative analysis of st and tt will be carried out based on peter newmarks

11、translation theories on proper names and xu yuanchongs translation theories of beautifulization.conclusion: this research tries to prove that, in proper names translation, a diversity of translation strategies and techniques will be put into practice. and different english versions in unique styles

12、will cause assorted effect on both translators and readers. therefore, no general theory of poetic translation is possible to direct all the practice. in addition, the author hopes that the research will provide both chinese and english translators some useful experiences in translating ancient chin

13、ese poetry. she furthermore expects that the research will evoke the interest and enthusiasm of english readers in chinese tang poetry. key words: tang poems/ english translation/ proper names/ geographic name/ persons names / cultural termstable of contentspages1. introduction .1.1 research backgro

14、und1.2 research objective1.3 project design.11.111222. rationale .32.1 definition of proper name32.2 the three categories of proper names2.2.1 persons name2.2.2 geographic name.2.2.3 cultural term34442.3 translation principles adopted in the research 2.3.1 strategies on proper names translation prop

15、osed by newmark 2.3.2 translation methods summed up by huang guo-wen 2.4 the connotative meaning of proper names and cultural terms45553. data description . 3.1 data sources3.2 data types4454. data analysis54.1 persons names4.1.1 elaboration of chinese persons names in st4.1.2 translating the person

16、s names 4.2 translating geographic names in tp 4.2.1 elaboration of geographic names in st4.2.2 transforming the geographic names 4.3 translating cultural terms in tp 4.3.1 elaboration of geographic names in st4.3.2 translating the cultural terms55799101212135. conclusions 5.1 result 5.2 suggestion

17、5.3 conclusions16161616bibliography18appendix19strategies in translating tang poems from chinese to english -concerned with proper names and cultural terms1. introductiontang poems are the most glittering gems in ancient chinese literature. they are a scallop of ancient chinese poetry that derived f

18、rom漢魏樂府(han-wei folk-song-styled-verse) (賀研，2007:45), and touched the top level in the tang dynasty (618-907ad). tang poems are famous not only for its highly extracted chinese language but also for its strict rules on rhymes and vivid presentations of styles. the classical verses are so beloved by

19、people that even a little chinese kid of 3 or 4 year-old could recite a few lines of them. in recent decades, with the development of international communication and cultural exchanges, more and more excellent classic works are being translated, shared and appreciated by people all around the world.

20、 however, according to the authors research, the first publication of english translations of tp can be traced back to the days as early as the 19th century. the first english version of tang poems is chinese poetry in english verse (1898) translated by giles (1845-1935), a british diplomat dispatch

21、ed to china in 1867. (/wiki/herbert_giles) lately, other english collections of tp made by the british and american translators had been published in the 19th and the early of 20th centuries. from then on, a wide range of studies on english translations of tp have been going on

22、 for centuries. however， the discussions on the transmission of proper names and cultural terms in tp are rarely happened. 1.1 research background proper name and cultural terms covers a wide range of specific nouns involving in person, place, object, and national culture. it is a language phenomeno

23、n which highly likely happens in tp used to express the authors feelings or emotions about persons or objects. according to the authors statistic to the 34 selections of li bais poems in 300 tang poems translated by xu yuanchong, the number of titles which involves in proper names is 19. the high fr

24、equency of proper name that happens in tp also proves the necessity of studying the language phenomenon. meanwhile, due to the special effects of the two categories of proper names and cultural terms on most ancient chinese poems, the analysis is not only necessary but also has substantial meanings

25、for the translation of other ancient chinese poems. 1.2 project objective the practice of proper name translation seems to be an easy task but actually quite demanding, especially the english translation of proper names appeared in ancient chinese poetry. due to the highly extracted language charact

26、ers of tp and the cultural differences between chinese and english, the tp translators will inevitably face great challenges in transforming the proper names which carry cultural connotations. the author here attempts to analyze and compare the distinct strategies and techniques employed by differen

27、t translators and the elements that affected them on the decision-making. 1.3 project design the thesis is to be divided into four parts. in part one, the author will introduce the definition of proper names and the translation theories related to the research. in part two, the author will introduce

28、 the data that to be analyzed in the research and demonstrate the relevance of the data to the research. the third part is data analysis. the author will discuss the strategies in translating the proper names involving persons names, geographic names and cultural terms from chinese to english. in th

29、e final part, the author will approach to a conclusion based on the data analysis. in addition, the significance of doing the research will also be summarized in this part. 2. rational2.1 definition of proper name and cultural termsaccording to newmarks definition, proper names and cultural terms ar

30、e “both referring to persons, objects or processes peculiar to a single ethnic community” and the distinction between them is that “the former have singular references, while the latter refer to classes of entities.”(newmark, 1982:70) huang guowen, a chinese linguist on chinese-english translation o

31、f ancient chinese poems defines proper names as specific references of person, object, time and place. (黃國文，2006:109) “the reasons why so many proper names are included in ancient chinese poems ” he continued to explain, “is that person, object, time and place are usually the subjects to be describe

32、d in the poems.” (黃國文，2006:110)2.2 the importance of discussing the strategies of translating proper names and cultural terms in tpin ancient chinese poems, especially in tp, proper names and cultural terms are popular language phenomena. a person, a place or an object is always the focus to be desc

33、ribed or depicted as the theme of a poem. due to the long history of chinese civilization, proper names and cultural terms in tp always carry special connotative meanings. just as e. nida said, “words only have meaning in terms of the cultures in which they function.”(nida, 1993:110) so, what transl

34、ation strategies should be employed to reveal the connotations and how to reach a successful translation of the proper names and cultural terms in tp will be the focus we are going to discussed in the paper.2.3 translation principles related to the researchsince the difference between chinese and en

35、glish (they are divided to distinct language families), the translation principles suited to analyze the translation between different language families is actually rare to find, especially between chinese and english. so the author adopts some of theories which are partly related to the subject to

36、discuss the problems occurred in translating the proper names in tp. in the following parts, two theories will be introduced that are individually given by british linguist peter newmark and chinese linguist and translator xu yuanchong.2.3.1 principles of translating proper names by newmarkon the is

37、sue of translating peoples names, british linguist peter newmark, pointed out: “normally, peoples first and surnames are transferred, thus preserving their nationality, and assuming that their names have no connotation in the text.” (newmark, 1982:214) the passage can be explained that if no connota

38、tion contained in the peoples name, both the family name and given name shall be transliterate. on the issue of the translating proper names, newmark proposed that “a possible method of translating literary proper names that have connotations in the sl is first to translate the word that underlies t

39、he proper name into the tl, and then to naturalize it back into a new sl proper name.”(newmark, 1982:71) the passage may be explained that newmark firstly gives a general principle on reaching an eloquence of peoples name in translation, and secondly provides a useful method of testing the practice

40、of translation. besides newmark, xu yuanchong, a chinese linguist and outstanding translator, from another view, gives his perspective on the issue of translating chinese poetry.2.3.2 translation theory proposed by xu yuanchong“if the formula for the principle of science school is 1+1=2，then that fo

41、r the theory of art school is 1+12. for in science, the word goes as for as the sense, while in art, the sense goes beyond the word. therefore, i think literary translation, and verse translation in particular, is not science but art. ”(許淵沖，2003：preface 12) through the paragraph, we may have a brief

42、 but clear understanding of xus criteria for verse translation. furthermore, xu proposes the theory of beautifulization, he said the target verses should be as “beautiful as the original in sense, in sound and in form.” xus views about translation may be concentrated on two points: one of them is “b

43、eing faithful”, and the other one is “beauty”. (許淵沖，2003：preface 15) 3. data description3.1 the sources of datathe data to be analyzed in the research are comprised of twelve pieces of tang poems written by poets of tang dynasty (618-906). all of the poems selected here are closely related to the su

44、bject, so that the analysis will not be inclined from the research. the data are consisted of 12 tp in sl and several versions of translation in tl. and all of the data in sl are selected from 300 tang poems by xu yuan-chong, and their different versions of english translation are seperately excerpt

45、ed from 300 tang poems by xu yuan-chong, an anthology of the tang dynasty poetry by sun dayu, 300 tang poems by wu juntao and best-known tang and song four-line poems by wen shu, and the jade mountain by witter bynner.3.2 data typesthe types of data selected here are consisted of short poems and reg

46、ular poems (five-character-ancient-verse and seven-character-ancient-verses). the original chinese tp and their english translations will be listed at the end of the thesis in the appendix.4. data analysisin this part, the data will be analyzed from the following three aspects consisting of persons

47、names, geographic names and cultural terms. all of the proper names and cultural terms selected from the st will be firstly explained and then, several versions of its translation will be discussed in a comparative way. 4.1 persons namespersons names generally happened in the titles of tp. the autho

48、r takes ten titles of poem as examples that are written by li bai(李白), han yu(韓愈),jia zhi(賈至), gao shi(高適) and luo yin(羅隱). since the cultural specification of chinese nation, persons names in the titles of tp are usually presented in a form of either the official name add a surname such as 水部張(shui

49、 bu zhang)，or the bearing order in a family add a family name such as 李十二(li shi er). so the persons names will be treated as a whole section and being explicitly dissected and explained in the following forms.4.1.1 elaboration of chinese persons names in stform 1.number of ordertitles of poem in sl

50、author of the poemelaboration of the section of persons name 1黃鶴樓送孟浩然之廣陵li bai（李白）in this section,孟浩然(meng haoran) is made of two parts. the first part 孟is a surname, 浩然 is a given name. the two parts form a regular chinese name.2戲贈杜甫li bai（李白）in this section, 杜甫（du fu）is made of two parts. the firs

51、t part 杜 is a surname, and the second part 甫is agiven name.3宣州謝眺樓餞別校書叔云li bai（李白）in this section,校書叔云(jiao shu shu yun) will be divided into three parts: the first part is 校書 which meanslibrarian; the second part is 叔which means uncle explaining the relations between the poet and the hero; and the f

52、inal part 云is a given name meaning cloud.4與夏十二登岳陽樓li bai（李白）in this section,夏十二(xia shi er) is comprised of two parts. the first part is 夏,a surname; the second is 十二,an ordinal number which means the twelfth referring to the persons birth order in his family. 5哭宣城善釀紀叟li bai（李白）in this section,善釀紀叟(

53、shan niang ji sou)is comprised of four parts. the first one is 宣城, name of a town referring to the town where the hero lives, the second part is 善釀 which means a good brewer; the third part is 紀, a surname; and the final part is 叟meaning an old man.6左遷至藍關(guān)示侄孫湘han yu（韓愈）in this section, 侄孫湘(zhi sun xi

54、ang) can be divided into two parts. the first part is 侄孫 which means grandnephew explaining the relations between the poet and the hero. the second part is 湘, a given name, referring to han xiang(韓湘). 7早春呈水部張十八員外han yu（韓愈）in this section, 水部張十八員外(shui bu zhang shi ba yuan wai )is consisted of four p

55、arts. the first one is 水部 ，an official name; the second part is 張 , a surname; the third is 十八means eighteenth, an ordinal number, referring to the persons bearing order in his family; the final part is 員外, an official range.8初至巴陵與李十二白裴九同泛洞庭湖jia zhi（賈至）this section 李十二白裴九(shi er bai peijiu)is consisted of two names. the first one is 李，a surname; the second is 十二, an ordinal number; the third part is 白. the