The Narrative Significance of Poems in <i>Er Pai </i>and Their Translations

Abstract

The incorporation of verse in prose narrative is a distinctive generic feature of Chinese classical vernacular fictions. Many scholars have regarded poems in fictions as a type of narrative redundancy or a sign of orality and little attention has been paid to the narrative significance of them. The poems remain insignificant because of the potential inconsistency they bring to the narration, but in fact, they perform import narrative functions in the text. This article examines the narrative functions of the poems in <i>Er Pai</i>, and explores the translations of them from a narratological perspective. After an examination of the narrative significance of the poems in <i>Er Pai</i>, we have observed that under the influence of historiography narration, the poems in<i> Er Pai </i>perform structuring function, commenting function and edifying function. Through a detailed analysis of the translations of the poems in <i>Er Pai </i>from a narratological perspective, it reveals that the omission of the poems in translation will lead to the disruption of the narrative structure, weakening of the narrative power and the alteration of the narrator’s image. Since the poems in <i>Er Pai </i>assume important narrative functions, the omission of them in translation is not suggested for the sake of narrative coherence and narrative strength in the target text.