Translation aesthetics is the combination of translation and aesthetics. The research objects of translation aesthetics mainly include aesthetic subject, aesthetic object and aesthetic reproduction means in translation. The aesthetic subject is the translator, the aesthetic object is the original text and the translation, and the means of aesthetic reproduction are diverse. According to Liu's point of view, in order to make the aesthetic reproduction of translation achieve satisfactory results, the following four requirements are put forward: "Within the limits of bilingual translatability, the concept of SL (source language) should be retained; Within the limit of bilingual translatability, the style of the source language is fully preserved; Within the limit of bilingual translatability, the description means of the original image are fully preserved; Within the limit of bilingual translatability, the style elements of SL "are fully preserved. [2] The research on the aesthetic representation of Li Ci in this paper is based on the above three requirements.
2. Aesthetic representation of Li Ci's English translation from the perspective of translation aesthetics.
2. 1 fully retains the conceptual content of aesthetic objects.
According to Liu's point of view, the concept of aesthetic object is completely retained in order to achieve "equivalent reproduction of meaning" [3], that is to say, the aesthetic subject (here only refers to the translator) can not "add branches and leaves" or "delete branches and leaves" to the original text under any aesthetic excuse, let alone misinterpret the original intention.
Phoenix Pavilion and Long Ta are even connected with Han Xiao, and Yushu Qiongzhi is a cigarette radish. How many times have you known each other? -"Broken Array"
My palace touches heaven,
My dense forest looks as deep as a leaf dream, (translated by Xu 82.83) [4] The design of my palace-Dragon Sculpture-Phoenix. Garden-park-carefully decorated according to my taste. (Xu translation 22)[5]
The use of the two images of "dragon" and "phoenix" in the original poem fully shows Li Yu's luxurious court life before his capture, which is in sharp contrast with the embarrassment after his capture in the next part, and shows the poet's pain of national subjugation. In Xu's translation, the word "palace" simply refers to "Long Ting Fengtai". For foreign readers who have no common sense of ancient China culture, it is really difficult to imagine the palace where Li Yu once lived. In Xu's translation, a dash was added after "My Palace" to explain the appearance of the palace. Compared with Xu's translation, it not only vividly shows Li Yu's luxurious life before he was captured, but also fully expresses the connotation of poetry: dragons and phoenixes are symbols of wealth and good luck. Li Yu once lived in a palace carved with your patterns, but why don't you wish me luck and nobility forever? Unfortunately, I am a prisoner today. All honors and luxuries have nothing to do with Li Yu. The image of "dragon and phoenix" reappears in Xu's translation, further expressing the poet's thoughts and pains of national subjugation.
2.2 fully retain the style of aesthetic objects.
Rhythm is the soul of poetry. If a good poem can grasp the rhythm when it is appreciated, it is to appreciate a beautiful song. If a good translator can feel and taste with his heart when interpreting, he is also writing another beautiful song.
Over the past 40 years, my motherland has been covered with mountains and rivers for three thousand miles. -"Broken Array"
Forty years of rule
Over land, hills and streams. (Xu translated 82.83)
I've been in control of this field for 40 years,
Vast space, mountains, rivers and plains. (Xu translation 22)
Through the adjustment of pitch, Chinese poetry has produced an aesthetic effect of alternating opposition and cadence. In English, rhythm is expressed by light and heavy sounds, while in Chinese poetry, the beauty of internal rhythm is reflected by "rice comes and goes". For example, every sentence above has two meals, that is, one for forty years and one for home and country. This rhythmic beauty in Chinese is difficult to reproduce in English, but the rhythmic beauty of the original words can be reproduced by using the light and heavy sounds in English. The original words have a strong sense of rhythm, but they cannot be translated accordingly. Because "3000 Li" is only an approximation of its ruling area. In this respect, the three-step iambic pentameter used in Xu Yuanchong's translation basically reproduces the rhythmic beauty of the source language. The first sentence of Xu's translation basically adopts iambic pentameter and the second sentence adopts iambic pentameter, which basically reproduces the rhythmic beauty of the source language, but compared with Xu's translation, the rhythm is obviously more neat and concise.
2.3 fully retain the means of image description in aesthetic objects.
When creating poems, poets pay special attention to the use of figures of speech, especially the use of figures of speech such as metaphor, metaphor, exaggeration, antithesis and allusions, which make the images in poems more vivid. There are also many rhetorical devices in Li Ci.
Ask how much sorrow you can have, just like a river flowing eastward. -"Yu Meiren"
If you ask me how my sadness has increased,
Just watch the overflowing river flow eastward! (Xu translation) [6]
Should I be asked how much pain I found?
Strange! It is like running water, flowing eastward. (translated by Xu)
In the original words, the poet's melancholy is compared to endless spring water flowing eastward. Looking at Xu's translation and Xu's translation, Xu's translation adopts the sentence pattern of "as if", which is a typical simile expression. This obvious simile is not used in Xu's translation, but more like a metaphor. This translation not only reproduces the rhetorical devices of the original words, vividly shows the scenes described by the original words, but also reproduces the beauty of the original words compared with Xu's translation.
3. Conclusion
Poetry is a bright pearl in the history of China literature, and its English translation has become an important part of promoting China culture. As a representative of China's poems, Li Yu's later poems are rich in content and profound in thought, which has important research value. The process of translation itself is a beautification process. Translators are like messengers of beauty, interpreting one kind of beauty as another, especially when translating poems. This paper compares and analyzes Li Ci's two English versions from the perspective of translation aesthetics, and holds that when translating China's ancient poems, translators should strive to realize the aesthetic representation of aesthetic objects in terms of content, form and image description.
References:
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[6] Selected translations by Xu Yuanchong. Hundreds of poems in Tang and Song Dynasties [M]. Beijing: Beijing Foreign Translation and Publishing Company. 2007。