Recreating the Image of a “Chaste Wife”: Transitivity in Two Translations of Chinese Ancient Poem Jie Fu Yin

Abstract

This article is a comparison on the recreating of the image of a “chaste wife” in two English translations of Chinese ancient poem Jie Fu Yin from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics (SFL). The linguistic choices of the poet and translators are measured from transitivity under experiential meaning of ideational metafunction. It has found that Hart tends to follow a creative and imaginative translation, thus creating a more enthusiastic even passionate image of a young “chaste wife” in a direct and explicit way, while Fletcher presents a clam and tender image of a mature “chaste wife” in a relatively implicit way. Besides, both translations reproduce the theme about love, but losing the political theme. It is argued that in translation, the lexico-grammatical choices will lead to variation in meanings and recreate different images of a same character, and the seemingly unconscious choices can be better understood based on the context of translation.