浙江农林大学本科生毕业论文
including: 蕙，薜荔，荪，杜若，白芷，香兰，辛夷，石兰，杜衡，秋兰，蘼芜，女萝，灵芝，仙草，秋菊. Because of the difference in geography, climate and other natural conditions, the plants between the east and the west vary enormously to each other, let alone those plants in the ancient China have various symbolic meaning. One example is the translation of “荪壁兮紫坛，播芳椒兮成堂” in Xiangfuren which means “香荪饰墙紫贝铺庭院，花椒香味浓郁充满厅堂” in Chinese. Sun’s translation: “Walls hung with sweet-flag, courtyard paved with murex; I strew scented pepper-plant to dress my hall.” While Sun’s translation: “Walls, laid with sweet-flags; the courtyard growth purple grass; the hall is plastered with limed, ground Sun pepper.” One difference is the translation of “紫贝”. “紫贝” in Jiu Ge has no equivalence in English, actually, it is kind of a herb, while murex in Arthur’s translation refers to a kind of snails, apparently, it’s mistranslated, while the purple grass in Sun’s translation is more proper to some extent. Another example is the translation of “桂栋兮兰橑，辛夷楣兮药房.” in Xiangfuren , which means “桂木做正梁，木兰做椽子，辛夷做门楣，白芷饰卧房.” in Chinese. Sun’s translation: “with cassia beams and rafters of magnolia, lintal of aloes and angelica flank.” while Arthur’s translation: “beams of cassia, rafters of tree-orchid; door-lintals of magnolia, above of white angelica.” I’d like to mention the translation of “辛夷” and “木兰”. Arthur translates them into “magnolia” and “tree-orchid”, while Sun Dayu prefers to “aloes” and “magnolia”. In my opinion, I believe that two translations have their own merits and demerits. “辛夷” is the flower bud of magnolia, while aloe refers to“芦荟”in Chinese, which is obviously two kind of plants. And the translation of “木兰”can be “magnolia or orchid”, but “tree-orchid” is not appropriate, it seems to the phrase composed of “tree”(木) and “orchid”(兰), which is meaningless.
4.2.2 Translation of Mythological Image
Jiu Ge abound in culture-loaded mythological images, such as various Gods, Man of Gods, places in the Heaven, places on the Earth, and other mythological images which are totally different from those in western mythology and difficult to translate. And Arthur Waley and Sun Dayu adopt different strategies when translating those images. Let’s talk about the translation of the gods and man of gods in Chinese. The gods in Jiu Ge are presented in the flowing chart.
诸神 Waley’s translation Sun’s translation 10
浙江农林大学本科生毕业论文
东皇太一 云神（云中君） 湘夫人 湘君 大司命 少司命 日神（东君） 黄河之神（河伯） 山神（山鬼） Monarch of the East the Lord amid the Clouds the Princess of the Hsiang the Lady of the Hsiang the big Lord of lives the little Lord of lives the Lord of the East the River god the mountain spirit Emperor Tai-ih King of Clouds the Lady of Hsiang the King of Hsiang the Major God of Life-ruling the Minor God of Life-ruling East King the Count of Ho the Mountain Spirite We may find that some translations differ from each other in the chart. In a word, Arthur inclines to literal translation because of the little knowledge of Chinese gods, while Sun Dayu tends to free translation that emphasize the true meaning of the gods. For example, “湘君” in Chinese culture refers to King Shun, while “湘夫人” are his wives, the daughters of King Yao. Another example are “大司命” and “少司命”. “大司命” in ancient minds is the god determining the life or death of a person, and “少司命” is the god in charge of the offspring. Personally, I tend to recon that Sun’s translation is more concrete than Arthur’s. Sun Dayu also adds some information in the footnotes in his translation in case of western incomprehension of the Chinese culture.
Except the gods in Jiu Ge are distinct, other mythological images are also worthy of mentioning, like the places on the Heaven and Earth. the places on the Heaven and Earth 云间殿堂 九州 沅水 湘水 长江 洞庭 涔阳 Abode of Life the province of Chi(N.E. China or Central China) the Yuan the Hsiang the Great River Tung-t’ing Ts’en-yang the streams of Yuan the streams of Hsiang Waters Doong-ding Jin-yang water margin the altar the Middle Empire Waley’s translation Sun Dayu’s translation 11
浙江农林大学本科生毕业论文
北洲 澧水之滨 江北小州 九河 northern shore the shores of the Li the northern shore Nine Rivers north bank of the water the Lih River the stream’s north bank Nine Streams Generally speaking, when they translate those places in the Heaven and Earth, they incline to transliteration, which is mostly adopted in translating places. Words in Arthur’s translation are more formal and correct like Abode of Life, the province of Chi(N.E. China or Central China), while Sun’s translation uses some informal and casual words like the alter, Middle Empire, waters. However, both Arthur and Sun Dayu create some new words like Tung-t’ing and Ts’en-yang. It would be hard for the western readers to understand without specific explanation.
4.3Translation Style
When we translate some works, we not only should pay attention to its meaning, the form, but also the style of the original text, especially for those proses. In fact, each translator has his or her own style through their words and phase, which reflects their subjectivity to some extent. Sometimes, it’s an easy task to represent the meaning of the original text, while it’s difficult to imitate its style, if so, it may do harm to the beauty of the original text.
4.3.1 Translation Styles in Two English Versions
Compared to other translations, poetry translation is much more complicated to deal with, because sometimes, we can translate the meaning of the poems, we cannot, however, find the equivalent of the original rhyme. That’s the emotion or author’s feelings behind the poems. Especially for those traditional Chinese poems, emotion is of vital importance, sometimes, it has been regarded as a standard to judge whether it’s a good or bad one. Yet foreign scholars cannot have a completely correct understanding, even worse, they translate those poems under their own way, which lead to the misunderstanding of the original culture. And all these problems, to some extent, have been related to the translator’s subjectivity. According to Lin Huangtian(林煌天,2001:99), the classical Chinese poetry translators are divided into three major schools, classical school, free school, and creative school. The classical school translators strictly conform to the original rhymes and meters, which results in the meaningless translation works. However, the scholars supporting free translation object to the ideas of the classical school, for they believe that two different
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浙江农林大学本科生毕业论文
cultures are not equal to each other all the time. They emphasize meaning and emotion of the original text, even though; it may accomplish the beauty in form and sound at the expense of sense.
Two versions of Jiu Ge have something different; Arthur Waley prefers that translation should stick to the principles aiming at easy understanding of the original text, therefore, he belongs to the free school, while Sun Dayu puts more emphasis on the beauty of the form except its emotion behind the poems, to a certain extent, he is a supporter of classical school. For instance, the translation of “浴兰汤兮沐芳，华采衣兮若英” in Yunzhongjun is quite typical. Waley’s translation is “I have washed in brew of orchid, bathed in sweet scents, many-coloured are my garments; I am like a flower.” While Sun’s translation is “In eupatory-soused sweet water bathed, with florid raiments blushing like fresh-blown flowers.” When we read these two translations, it’s acknowledged that the former one is simple and easily understood, while the latter one is more academic and beautiful as well because of the words like eupatory-soused, raiments. While another example is the translation of “若有人兮山之阿，被薜荔兮带女萝” in Shangui. Waley’s translation is “It seems there is someone over there, in that fold of the hill, clad in creepers, with a belt of mistletoe.” While Sun’s translation is “The manito from a retired mountain nook, robed in pomelo-figs vine, girdled with usnea.” Although there are some new words (names of plants) in two translations, the first translation is prone to be understood, not only for its words, but also for its sentence structure. And the second is prosaic and academic due to the background of author. Therefore, he chooses those elegant terms like manito and rhetoric such as the retired mountain. 4.3.2 The Choice of Words
The words of some culture-loaded items differ from each other. Arthur Waley prefers those normal and contemporary words, while Su Dayu inclines to those academic words that are not familiar to the common people, mainly because they aim at different target readers.
Words 吉日 浴兰汤 采衣 安流 Waley’s translation lucky day Orchid many-coloured garments Quietly Sun’s translation auspicious day Eupatory florid raiments tranquillizingly 13
浙江农林大学本科生毕业论文
秋风 天门 余马 autumn wind the gates of Heaven Amlber Zephyr Heaven’s azure gates Horse From the above translation, we may find that their translation style varies from each other tremendously. The first reason is that the target readers are different; Waley translates for those ordinary people, while Sun Dayu for those educated people. The common people may know the words like “horse” “autumn wind” “quietly” and eat, while they may not know those elegant words such as “amlber, zephyr, tranquillizingly”. The second reason, in my opinion, is the difference of the aesthetic inclination. The man of letters in China tend to recon that a successful translation word must be elegant and beautiful, while the western scholars have own arguments in this aspect, some believe form and rhyme are of great importance, while others hold the view that meaning is central in translation.
4.4 Translation Strategies
Comparing two translations, we may find that two translators adopt different strategies to deal with them. From above analysis, we may know that Arthur chooses foreignization, free translation. For instance, the translation of “神” and “皇帝” are worth paying attention to, we may find that Arthur adopts the word “God”, and “Monarc” in translation, which is part of western culture. Another example is the translation of “玉宫” in Hebo. Arthur translates it into “red palace” instead of “jade palace”, and actually, red palace（Alhambra）is a great palace in Spanish, enjoying great prestige in the word. As for Sun’s translation, from above analysis, we know that it’s a typical translation in favor of the classical school through its elegant and academic words, and its sentence structure. No matter what kind of strategies they use, it all depends on their subjectivity like their background, culture attitude, aesthetic inclination and so on.
5 Conclusion
From the above discussion we can know that translation is difficult, poetry translation is more difficult and the translation of ancient poems is the most difficult (刘重德, 1991:26). Just as it’s almost impossible to have a perfect and complete translation work that is equal to the original text because of the disparities from other aspects, not alone the translation of the ancient poems. The translation of classical Chinese poetry requires translators to have a penetrating and deep understanding of the original text as well as its
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