The literary critic as translator: a case study on translation and the translator’s literary poetics

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between literary poetics, translation poetics and translation. The translator discussed in this context, Liang Shiqiu, is also a literary critic, and this is thus a case study of the performability of his Chinese translation of Shakespeare. We will discuss two important issues: (1) What is the relationship between the translator’s literary poetics and his translation poetics? (2) To what extent can the translator’s literary poetics exert an influence upon his translation? The study demonstrates that when a translator is also a literary critic, his literary poetics as reflected in his indirect discourse on translation may have a significant influence upon his translation poetics (as reflected in his direct discourse on translation). Also, a translator’s translation poetics in turn can have a direct influence upon the translation (e.g. its performability). The translator’s literary poetics is something internal, which may determine his intention, and thus has a fundamental influence upon the translation.