Deng's poetry translation activities are mainly concentrated in three stages: the early 1920s, the 1930s-40s and the late 1960s.
Deng's poetry translation activities in the first stage were mainly influenced by Guo Moruo and others, and the translation materials tended to be the works of German poet Heine. At the same time, due to his good classical poetry cultivation and the enlightenment of the critical concept of poetry translation by the Creation Society, his poetry translation has a very obvious sense of form, and he is a pioneer who paid early attention to translation form in the history of modern poetry translation in China.
The second stage of Deng's poetry translation was in 1930s and 1940s. During this period, his focus on poetry translation shifted from Germany to Britain, while still maintaining a strong sense of poetic translation form. For example, Wordsworth, an English romantic poet translated by Deng, has a neat form and a strong sense of music. For example, the first section: "Lucy/lives at home/by the pigeon spring, with secluded paths/sparsely populated/overgrown with weeds." Loneliness/loneliness/who praises, kindness/love/cherish. "
The third stage of Deng's poetry translation was in the late 1960s, and his main achievements focused on the translation of four short poems by the ancient Persian poet Umar khayyam. Little is known about Deng's achievements in the third stage of poetry translation, and researchers usually think that it is difficult for translators to achieve literary achievements under the background of the Cultural Revolution. However, in the spring of 2005, Deng's son and Deng Liqun found 465,438+0 translated Lu Baiji's poems while consulting the suicide note left by his father Deng Wenge. During the Cultural Revolution, Deng suffered from physical and mental oppression. His calm thinking about life and unyielding inner resistance demands found a breakthrough in expressing his feelings in translation, and he translated 465,438+0 poems, expressing his inner anguish and indifferent experience of life. For example, one of his translations is: "Although' yes' and' no' have axiomatic standards,/'up' and' down' can also be logically stipulated,/these are all measured by people,/nothing fascinates me except wine." The poem shows that the translator can only silently endure all unfair treatment and seek spiritual comfort under the anesthesia of alcohol in the chaotic era of losing the standard of value judgment. Although he translated this poem, he better expressed the depressed mood of Deng and others. The translation of Rubaiya once again shows that Mr. Deng has a strong sense of form when translating foreign poems. Like Shakespeare's sonnets translated by Deng before, the original poem belongs to the metrical style, and he tries to retain the formal elements of the original poem when translating, so most of his translated poems are metrical. Personal emotion
Deng's poetry has a unique way. He truly expresses his thoughts and feelings about society and life in line with the "inherent requirements". Different from Guo Moruo and others, Deng's poems take life as the theme. Personal color is stronger than social color. Generally speaking, there is no grand vision, but there is a deepening of personal life. Paying attention to society is mainly achieved through personal introverted thinking. "Lost thoughts,/hope for the future,/are not all clouds in the water?" (Cloud Shadow) "In my sleep, ah! There are nightmares to find! /Only by fleeing to the' dead city'/can you get endless silence! " (The second night) "Life seems to be a last resort! ..... we are just a group of poor players! /When will the boring play be over? " ("I have to")' The market is as silent as a tomb,/as cold as ice and iron,/as sleepy as lying down. /Everything is gone! /The faint touch in the ear is clear,/It is a whisper of' sadness'. "(Late Night) Among the poets of the Creation Society, the emphasis on" self "is almost consistent with its reality, but among different poets, their expressions are different and their poetic styles are different. If Guo Moruo is extroverted, Deng Wu is introverted; Guo Moruo is good at bursting out his inner thoughts, while Deng is good at playing with personal feelings carefully. Deng Wujun mainly lingers in his personal emotional world.
Image construction
Deng paid attention to the construction of images and did not express his thoughts directly, which made his poems more implicit. For example, "Appreciation of Life": "The fragrance of violets,/sniffing for a second,/overflows in the nasal cavity forever. //the beauty of roses,/a second of condensation; //Far away. //Muse's charming voice,/a second's listening,/forever rippling in the dream soul. //Wonderful life,/I can't finish watching it,/Only one second/one second is enough for me! "
Musical form
Deng paid attention to the external form of poetry, especially the musicality. Poetry is closely related to music, including both the emotional musical state and the external musicality. The former can only be reflected in the text through the latter. On the whole, Deng's poems are short and systematic, and a considerable part of them can be called short poems. Poems are also short; All these are helpful to construct the musicality of poetry which is different from prose. In Deng's poems, this musicality is first manifested in the approximate rhythm of lines, and in most cases, it pays attention to the setting of rhyme.
Metrical Poetry
In the construction of metrical poems, Deng paid more attention to the correspondence and symmetry between metrical poems, and many of his works can be regarded as modern metrical poems. Poems such as Flowers and Appreciation of Life are obvious examples. Among the early new poets, Deng tried to overcome the disadvantages that people didn't realize at that time, which was his outstanding stylistic consciousness as a poet.