On Translating the Poetic Images from Chinese into English

Mingquan Zhang,Weiqiang Mao

doi:10.5539/ass.v5n6p40

Abstract

Despite the concern over the loss of poetic images in the translation process, the translation practice of poetry never ceases. As the result of different approaches to the poetic imagery, the poetic images might be preserved, lost or replaced by others. The hermeneutic approach, with a view to preserving the alterity of an alien culture, would like the original image to be preserved as much as possible. The comparative literature approach is concerned with the misreading unavoidable in the translation process and cultural interaction. And the cognitive linguistics approach both admits the linguistic relativism and tries to offer a solution to the disparity in cultural connotations of the poetic imagery. Nevertheless, with the duel between domestication and foreignizaiton pacified by the cultural interaction, more poetic images would be preserved in translating Chinese poems into English.

Highlights

Loss or GainAccording to Croft & Cruse (2006:19), “the profile-frame/domain distinction is useful in understanding the nature of semantic differences between words and their apparent translation equivalents in different languages
Despite the concern over the loss of poetic images in the translation process, the translation practice of poetry never ceases
Just as the rules and forms of classical Chinese poetry are rigid, so is the choice of images to appear in these poems, for the beauty just lies in the images contained in them to describe and depict scenes and show the poets’ feelings

Summary

Loss or Gain

According to Croft & Cruse (2006:19), “the profile-frame/domain distinction is useful in understanding the nature of semantic differences between words and their apparent translation equivalents in different languages. Comes the problem of translating the classical Chinese poetic images When these images are plucked out of the Chinese cultural context and translated into English, how can they be correctly understood by the target language readers?. Turner’s chrysanthemums, they conclude that Xu has not conveyed the exact meaning of the allusion in Li’s poem by translating it word for word into English as “yellow flower. They appreciate Rexroth’s version of “gold chrysanthemums” by saying that it goes back etymologically to the Greek source of this English word. The translation loss more often than not inspires the readers to explore the original

Possibility of image preservation

Conclusion