（英语语言文学专业论文）从许渊冲翻译理论和实践看中国古典诗歌的可译性.pdf

vi 从许渊冲翻译理论和实践看中国古典诗歌的可译性从许渊冲翻译理论和实践看中国古典诗歌的可译性 研究生：陈涵 年级：2006 级 学科专业：英语语言文学 指导老师：唐高元 研究方向：翻译理论与实践 中文摘要中文摘要 中国古典诗歌是中国传统文化的结晶，是中华悠久文明的缩影，滋养着勤劳勇敢的中 华儿女。然而，中国古典诗歌形式简约、声律悦耳、内容抽象，其可译性一直是个颇有争 议的话题。尽管如此，许多翻译家仍不畏困难勇敢挑战这个难以完成的艰巨任务并成功的 翻译出大量的优秀作品。这些译文的出版在某种程度上证明了诗歌的可译性，但他们的作 品是否完美的再现了原作的光辉却仍有巨大争议。不管怎样他们的努力仍给中国古典诗歌 的可译性问题带来了一抹亮色。 本文作者认为中国古典诗歌的翻译是可行的，但是相当的困难。论文将以五个部分来 论证这个观点。首先要介绍的是本文研究的意义。第二部分从音律、形式和表达三个角度 来探讨中诗和英诗的特点并简单的做了比较。 第三部分是本文理论基础 许渊冲的 “以 创补失论”和“三美论”等。第四部分作者分析了一些许渊冲的代表作，由此可以得知他 是如何把理论应用于实践的。通过对许渊冲的大量实践分析得出他的理论是否具有可行 性。众所周知，任何理论都不是完美的，因此这一部分会给出翻译界广泛的评论作为参考。 最后是本文的结论。作者认为许渊冲理论之不完美仿佛白璧微瑕，他的翻译理论和实践为 中国古典诗歌的可译性奠定了坚实的基础，他在翻译领域里的巨大成就将会对中华悠久文 化的传播产生深远影响。 关键字：关键字：中国古典诗歌；可译性；许渊冲 vii on the translatability of chinese classical poetry: from the perspective of xu yuanzhongs theories and practices postgraduate: chen han grade:2006 major field of study: english language translatability; xu yuanzhong 论文独创性声明论文独创性声明 本人郑重声明：所提交的学位论文是本人在导师的指导下进行的研究工作及取得的成 果。 除文中已经注明引用的内容外， 本论文不含其他个人或其他机构已经发表或撰写过 的研究成果。对本文的研究作出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。 本人承担本声明的法律责任。 研究生签名： 日期： 论文使用授权声明论文使用授权声明 本人完全了解广西师范大学有关保留、使用学位论文的规定。广西师范大学、中国科学 技术信息研究所、 清华大学论文合作部， 有权保留本人所送交学位论文的复印件和电子 文档，可以采用影印、缩印或其他复制手段保存论文。本人电子文档的内容和纸质论文 的内容相一致。除在保密期内的保密论文外，允许论文被查阅和借阅，可以公布（包括 刊登） 论文的全部或部分内容。 论文的公布 （包括刊登） 授权广西师范大学学位办办理。 研究生签名： 日期： 导 师签名： 日期： v acknowledgements i avail myself of this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to all those who have given me lots of help and support during my preparation of this thesis. my thanks first go to my advisor, professor tang gaoyuan , for his constant support and instructive guidance. i would sincerely give my respect to him for his teaching me what an outlook ill have. his strict style in study and his industrious working principles encourage me quite a lot. especially his optimistic attitude to life inspires me to work hard further on the translation. furthermore, i have benefited enormously from the lectures given by all the professors in the college of foreign studies in guangxi normal university during my three years of study. this thesis would have completed much worse in the dark but for their illumination. last but not least, i want to thank my parents for their confidence in me and continuous love and support on my studies. their encouragement has made this thesis a better one than it would otherwise have been. 1 chapter 1 introduction chinese civilization is the only civilization in the world that has been developing continuously for 5,000 years and is as dynamic as it has ever been. chinese classical poetry, which is the essence of chinese civilization and a gem of traditional chinese literature, is enormously influential throughout the history, and has received considerable attention from western readers. however, the translatability of chinese classical poetry (ccp) has long been concerned as a controversial topic by an army of scholars. there are many different opinions towards poetry translation. some people believe that poetry is untranslatable since “poetry is what gets lost in translation” as robert frost said, while susan bassnett declared that the remark of the above is “nonsense” and “immensely silly” (susan bassnett, 2001: 57), and susan continued, “poetry is not what is lost in translation, it is rather what we gain through translation and translators.”(susan bassnett, 2001: 74) mr. xu yuanzhong, the famous translator of ccp both home and abroad, believed that poetry is translatable but quite difficult to reproduce the original beauty of sense, sound and form, so he put forward the “compensate for loss” theory. as far as poetry translatability is concerned, among those who deem that translation is possible, there still exist different opinions. some think it is translatable despite its difficulties and others do not. thus its easy to conclude that poetry translation is full of the paradox of translatability and untranslatability. the author of this paper here ventures to say that the poetry is possible to render into different languages, but its difficult to do so successfully, let alone the chinese classical poetry which is famous for its condensed form, musical sound and poetic abstraction. in order to research on this subject, five chapters are spread out centering on chinese classical poetry translatability from the perspective of xu yuanzhongs theories and practice. chapter one introduces the significance of the research on the translatability of chinese classical poetry and demonstrates the structure of this thesis. in chapter two the characteristics of chinese classical poetry and english poetry in sound, form and expression are discussed in relation to the features of different languages and cultures as well as poetic tradition. chapter three presents the theoretical ground of the translatability from the 2 perspective of xu yuanzhongs theories, such as “create for loss” principle and “beauty in three aspects” principle. chapter four is examines some representative translations of xu, from which we can clearly know how his theories are applied into practical translation. and according to his theories, the author also would like to make a detailed analysis of his poetry translation practice to prove whether his theories are feasible or not. chapter five is the conclusion of the whole thesis. 3 chapter 2 the comparison between chinese classical poetry and english poetry 2.1 features of chinese classical poetry 2.1.1 music effect poetry is the song without melody. no wonder the chinese classical poetry could be sung as songs in the ancient time, perhaps thats where the name of “shi ge” (诗 歌)came from. “the book of songs” （诗经）is the earliest chinese poetic volume, which divided by three parts “feng (风)” “ya (雅)” “song (颂)” accounts for their different types of music. poetry and music are like twins since the day they were born. there are lots of factors which help to achieve the poetrys musical effects. a. rhythm rhythm is the most important feature to create the musical effect. according to the definition of tse yiu-man(谢耀文)，rhythm is “the consonant responding of sounds comprised the same final vowel”(tse yiu-man, 2006: 215). for example: 菊花 （唐）元稹 qi c ng r o sh s t o ji bi n r o l bi n r j an xi 秋 丛 绕 舍 似 陶 家， 遍 绕 篱 边 日 渐 斜。 b sh hu zh ng pi n i j c hu k i j n g ng w hu 不 是 花 中 偏 爱 菊， 此 花 开 尽 更 无 花。 the last character of the first, second and the fourth line has the same final vowel “a”, which creates a peaceful and carefree atmosphere. a chinese classical poem without rhythm is like an exquisite picture without color. b. tonality “tones are divided into two kinds: the flying (fei) and sinking (chen). and consonance consists of two varieties: alliterated words(shuang sheng 双声) and rhymed words(die yun 叠韵 ). the accompaniment to each other of different tones is called harmony (he)” (tse yiu-man, 2006: 215) to fit sounds into a definite rhyme scheme is a comparatively easy thing, while to achieve harmony among different tones is much more difficult due to the subtle gradation of their high and low. c. methodology methodology is the discipline and rhythmical design which is too great to be 4 enumerated in detail. in general, there are some popularized generic rules. for gu shi古诗（old-style verse） , the development of concept should not ramble into over-luxuriance, and the diction not to be dissolute, the twists and turns as well as neatness in construction should show no traces of too much artificiality and purposiveness for excellence. for jue ju 绝句(quatrains), undulation and circling are demanded along with truncation and concision. the continuity in concept is to be maintained despite the syntactical breaking-off. for l shi 律诗（regulated verse）: 1) the beginning line be lofty and far-reaching; 2) the closing line showing no traces of intellectual exertion; 3) the second couplet be well-balanced with structural firmness; 4) having a pleasant metallic sonority; 5) coherence and contextual mutual-agitation; 6) structural congruency; 7) gracious ease in effecting twists and turns; 8) securing an ample space for ones poetic vision. with l shi in the five-character line, the poetical progression is to be stately and leisurely, moving forward and backward in rhythm with ease. to appeal to the most universal of human emotions, the subtleties in mood and concept of individuals are to be invoked. with l shi in the sever-character line, there must be imposing fluctuations of opening and closing in narrations, as well as alternation of the normative with the unconventional. 2.1.2 allusion “allusion in poetry functions like metaphor: both devices are grounded on the same principle of equivalence, but the former is concerned with human events and the latter with imagistic qualities. allusion is a historical archetype that signifies the sense of timeless amidst the changes of human action in history. it is a device for viewing time in a time-free perspective. by using allusions the poet is able to place historical instances and his present situation side by side, as though they belong to a certain set category which is basically historical. such a way of viewing history has a long tradition in poetry. allusion performs a special function in emphasizing the essential quality of lyric poetry- namely, the power of the lyric self to see history and reality as timeless images. ” (tse yiu- man, 2006: 167-168) it has long been the common practice for chinese poets to introduce into their 5 works a certain quantity of allusions, anecdotes and other historical references. they likewise believe such introduction is a magnificent way to give weight and richness and emotional intensity to their works. yet on guard against going too far lest they should become pedantic, they are always alerting themselves with such mottos as: for one thing, shi ru ji chu 事如己出, which means to temper the historicity of an allusion with the poets individuality. to impart the allusion used with the color of personal emotions; that is, to blur the boundaries between narrative mode and lyric mode. narration comes hand in hand with lyricism. for another thing, hua er wu ji化而无迹. allusions or historical facts are to be dissolved so as to fit well into the present particularity of an individual experience that there is no trace left. here, creative experience is charged with interpretative experience to become a single process. for example: 古别离 孟郊 欲别牵郎衣， 郎今在何处？ 不恨归来迟， 莫向临邛去。 leave me not i hold your robe lest you should go. where are you, dear, going today? your late return brings me less woe than your heart being stolen away. (translated by xu yuanzhong) “临邛” was a borrowed historical allusion that implies the parted place of the lovers. the author adopted the allusion because of the euphemistic tone of the lady whose state of mind is too shy to utter a word. here, mr. xu yuanzhong didnt translate it literally, and the reason will be discussed afterwards. 2.1.3 yi (意意), xiang(象象) and jing(境境) the word “yi xiang” doesnt come from the english word “image”, on the contrary, it is a fixed term of chinese ancient literary theory. many chinese men of letters tried to explain and depict it, but none of them gave it a definition, and actually its hard to define it. generally speaking, yi is subjective and xiang is objective. xiang is the existing objects which yi relies on, such as animal, stone, flower, ornament, building, and human body, etc. when the poets brings xiang into his writing, xiang is 6 colored with the poets subjective feelings, or more directly speaking, is endowed with the aesthetic experience and personal interests of the poet. therefore, yixiang in a poem usually refers to some objects which poets resort their feelings to. for example, lonely cloud (孤云) implies the proud and aloofness of those hermits, warm cloud (暖云), indicates the warmth of spring and the full moon means reunion of friends or families. chinese ancient poetry makes full use of yixiang. without changes of gender, tense and number, the flexible grammar of chinese language provides the poets freedom in assembling yixiang. take these lines of 秋思 written by 马致远 for example: 枯藤老树昏鸦， 小桥流水人家， 古道西风瘦马， dry vine, old tree, crows at dusk, low bridge, stream running, cottages, ancient road, west wind, lean nag, six objects are used in creating lonely and sad atmosphere, like montage in film-making, brings the readers a group of pictures and thus leads the readers to feel what the poet sensed. another more important characteristic of chinese ancient poetry is yijing. it refers to the artistic state reached by the fusion of subjective feelings and objective world. yixiang is the fundamental units forming yijing. yijing can be only created by a few lines or even the whole poem. for instance, “大漠孤烟直，长河落日圆”:by depicting expand dessert, smoke without blowing wind, long river and lonely setting sun, the poet spread a spacious picture before the readers, which is soaked with loneliness and sorrow. thats a simple example of yijing, just like a chinese painting. surely chinese painting and poetry are closely related, as the ancient man of letters usually said “poetry is painting and painting is poetry”. chinese poetry creates its yijing by associations of poetic images, and it is just the yijing that chinese painting senses their resonance to poetry. 2.2 features of english poetry 2.2.1 meter in english poems written in metrical style every line is divided into a certain number of feet. a foot (i.e. a rhythmical unit) consists of either two or three syllables. 7 in a foot there is a fixed arrangement of accented and unaccented syllables, which is called meter, which provides the poet with form and a device to emphasize or intensify certain words and sounds in a poem.（戴桂玉, 2001: 223）let us take a representative textbook as an example: the old dog barks backward without getting up. i can remember when he was a pup. (“the span of life,” robert frost) the poem obviously describes the difference between a very old dog and what he once was as a lively, frisky puppy. to aid in relation that simple comparison frost has chosen to stress certain sounds and to lighten the intensiveness of others. these stresses and unstresses are called metrically accents and unaccented syllables in english language prosody (an inclusive term referring to metrical patterns, rhyme, stanza forms and other elements in english language literature, especially poetry). the usual way of examing meter is to mark it in this manner: th ld d g b rks b ckw rd w th ut g tt ng p. c n r m nb r wh n h w s p p. the first line, with its seven accents, accordingly must be read slowly, while the second line with more unaccented syllables moves quickly. the first line, like the old dog, is slow and heavy; the second suggests the friskiness of the puppy. what frost has achieved in only two lines is a good blending of meaning with sound, and sound patterns and variations are the stuff of all poetry. there are five kinds of basic accentual-syllabic feet in english poems: iamb, troche, anapest, dactyl and spondee. 2.2.2 rhyme rhyme is the identity of sound between words of verse lines. it is intended to add a musical effect and provide a unity which serves the meaning. a rhyme begins in an accented syllable. from the accented vowel of that syllable to the end, the words intended to rhyme must be identical in sound, but the letter or letters preceding the accreted vowel may be unlike in sound. there are several kinds of rhyme: 1) male rhymes are one-syllable rhymes, e.g., care, wear, save, grave; calm, balm; dear, fear, reaps, keeps. 2) females rhymes are rhymes with more than one syllable, e.g., savior, favor; starvation, condemnation; tenderly, slenderly. 3) alliteration 8 besides meter, there are other devices in english language poetry which help to give it a musical quality. one of those is alliteration, which is the repetition of initial consonant sounds, e.g., a. success is counted sweetest by those who neer succeed. (emily dickinson) b. a load of learning lumbering in his head. (pope) 4) assonance assonance, which can also give poetry a musical quality, is the repetition of similar vowel sounds in a line of poetry or sentences, e.g., a. and the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting. (edgar allan poe) b. a little learning is a dangerous thing. (pope) 5) consonance consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in a line of poetry or sentences, e.g.,. c. beat! beat! drums!blow! bugles! blow! (w. whitman) b. spirit, patience, gentleness, all that can adorn and bless. art thou,let deeds, not words express, thine exceeding loveliness. (shelley) 2.2.3 form there are three broad kinds of english poetry forms: continuous form, stanza form, and fixed from. 1) continuous form in continuous form, the element of formal design is slight. the lines follow each other without formal grouping, the only breaks are dictated by units of meaning. 2) stanza form stanza form is a division of a poem into units of the same number of lines, the same meter, and the same rhyme. there are many stanza patterns in english language poetry. one of the most frequent forms in english is the quatrain, in which the first and third lined rhyme, and the second and fourth; thus; abab. there are some other stanza patter