An Application of the "Harmony-Guided Criteria" to the English translation of Song ci: A Case Study of "Immortals at the Magpie Bridge" by Qin Guan
Keywords:
Harmony-Guided Criteria, poetry translation, Song ci, rhyme, free verse
Abstract
Ezra Pound's Cathay set the stage for a translation of free verse and influenced many translators such as Arthur Waley and Kenneth Rexroth. However, before Pound, rhymed Chinese poems were mainly translated into rhymed English poems by Herbert Giles, W. J. B. Fletcher, etc. Is it necessary to challenge the dominant translation poetics of free verse and insist that rhymed Chinese poems are best translated into rhymed English poems? Six English versions of a Song ci poem "Immortals at the Magpie Bridge" on the Chinese Valentine's Day were analyzed in details based on the newly proposed "Harmony-Guided Criteria" for poetry translation, which takes "Harmony" as the translation standard at the macro level, "resemblance in style, sense and poetic realm" at the middle level, and the "eight beauties of poetry translation" at the micro level. It shows that the criteria can be applied to the translation of rhymed Chinese ci poems into rhymed English poems, though with limitations.
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References
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Zhuo, Zhenyin (2003). The style of Chinese poetry translation is flexible. Foreign Language and Foreign Language Teaching, (10), 31-36.
Barnstone, Willis. (1993). The Poetics of Translation. History, Theory, Practice. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Dahlgren, M. (2000). A relevance‐based approach to poetry in translation, Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 8(2), 97-108. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2000.9961377
Dong, H. (2004). Making translation one of the fine arts -- appreciation of Lin Yutang's English translation of classical Chinese poetry. Journal of Xi'an International Studies University, (1), 52-54.
Eliot, T. S. (1928). Introduction to Selected Poems of Ezra Pound, London: Faber & Gwyer.
Facchi, F. (2018). Telling the story of translation. writers who translate, The Translator. https://doi.org/10.1080/13556509.2018.1463485
Forrester, S. (2018). Whose foreign is foreign? form and norms of translation of contemporary Russian poetry into English, Translation Studies, 11(2), 185. https://doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2018.1472632
Fried, D. (2014). personal conversation. qtd. in Sibelan Forrester, Whose foreign is foreign? form and norms of translation of contemporary Russian poetry into English.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. (1992). Truth and Method. Trans. Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall. 2nd rev. ed. New York: Crossroad.
Gu, Mingdong (2008). Is Pound a translator of Chinese poetry? Translation Review, 75(1), 47-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/07374836.2008.10523973
Gu, Zhengkun (1998). China and West: Comparative Poetics and Translatology. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press.
Gu, Zhengyang. (1994). My view on English translation of Tang poetry and Song ci. Journal of Shanghai University (Social Science Edition), (6): 73-77.
Hanson, H. (1992). The translation of poetry, Translation Review, 28-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/07374836.1992.10523529
He, Sha (2015). Comment on two English versions of Qin Guan's 'Immortals at the Magpie Bridge'. Journal of Chifeng University (Chinese Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 36 (5): 191-193.
Kates, J. (2008). Translation editor's note. In Contemporary Russian Poetry: An Anthology, edited by J. Kates, and Evgeny Bunimovich, Champaign, IL: Dalkey Archive Press.
Kwong, C. (2009). Translating classical Chinese poetry into rhymed English: a linguistic-aesthetic view, TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Redaction, XXII(1), 189-220. https://doi.org/10.7202/044787ar
Legge, J. T. (2017). Doctrine of the Mean, Musaicum Books, p. 1.
Levý, J. (1969). Die literarische Übersetzung: Theorie einer Kunstgattung. Frankfurt: Athenāum.
Li, Qing (2005). On the method of the English translation of Li Qingzhao's ci. National Forum, (4): 49-53.
Mateo, J. (2009). Contrasting relevance in poetry translation, Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 17(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.1080/09076760902940104
Muchnick, S. C. (2009). Salt Crystals on an Axe: Twentieth-Century Russian Poetry in Congruent Translation: A Bilingual Mini-Anthology. Translated by A. Shafarenko. Godalming: Ancient Purple.
Newmark, P. (2001). Approaches to Translation. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Languages Education Press.
Owen, S. (1996). A note on translation, An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Earlier Times to 1911, New York: W. W. Norton.
Pound, E. (1915). Affirmations: As for Imagism, The New Age, January.
Schulte, R. (2008). Editorial: How Should a Translator Walk Through a Text?, Translation Review, 75(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.1080/07374836.2008.10523965
Shupala, A. (2000). Translating classical Chinese poetry without a literal translation. Translation Review, 60(1), 14-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/07374836.2000.10523776
Sullivan, C. (2008). On translating badly: sacrificing authenticity of language in the interest of story and character, Translation Review, 75(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.1080/07374836.2008.10523968
Swinburne, A. C. (1875). Essays and Studies. London: Chatto & Windus.
Turner, J. T. (1976). A Golden Treasury of Chinese Poetry. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, xxv.
Venuti, L. (2011). The Poet's Version; Or, An Ethics of Translation. Translation Studies, 4(2), 246. https://doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2011.560021
Waley, A. T. (1918/1962). One Hundred & Seventy Chinese Poems. London: Constable & Co.
Walters, G. (2018). Translating the poetry of Salvador Espriu: a review with recommendations, Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 5. https://doi.org/10.1080/14753820.2018.1436231
Wang, Feng (2015). A Comprehensive Study on the English Translation of Classical Tang Poetry. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press.
Wu, J. (2011). Preface. In Wang Feng and Ma Yan, eds. A Critical Anthology of Tang Poems and their English Translations. Xi'an: Shaanxi People's House.
Xie, M. (2011). Contexts in poetic translation: iterability, event, openness, Perspectives: Studies in Translatology. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2010.514349
Xu, Yuanchong (1987). On Tang poetry and English poetry. In Xu, Y. Loh B. and Wu J., eds., 300 Tang Poems: A New Translation, Hong Kong, The Commercial Press.
Xu, Yuanchong (2006). The Art of Translation. Beijing: Wuzhou Communication Press.
Zhang, Y. (2014). Strategies for the translation of Song ci - centered on Li Qingzhao's Slow Slow Sound. Chinese Culture Research, 140-146.
Zheng, Hailing (2000). Literary Translation. Zhengzhou: Wenxin Press.
Zhuo, Zhenyin (2003). The style of Chinese poetry translation is flexible. Foreign Language and Foreign Language Teaching, (10), 31-36.
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2020-09-01
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