A Corpus—based Research on Translation of Chinese Poetry

【Abstract】In the translation field， the translation of poems is regarded as the most difficult and complicated one. Based on corpus， this paper attempts to find out the language features of the English translations of Chinese poem—Luzhai written by Wang Wei， through comparing with the English versions in different aspects， such as lexicon and syntax. The results show that the translated poems tend to use more various vocabularies and be more explicit and normal in both lexical， syntactic and textual levels， which is not only relevant to the intralingual expansion of the translated language， but also related to the linguistic features of poetry. This paper tends to analyze how to maximize retaining original conception， rhyme and form of Chinese poems.

【Key words】corpus； Luzhai； poems translation

Poetry， featured with graceful rhythm and artistic conception， is the oldest literary genre all over the world. As Wen Yiduo once said： poetry is an beautiful integrity of music， drawing and construction， we can know poetry translation is most difficult for translators. There are different translation strategies used to translate the poem.

In recent years， corpus has made great contributions to the poetry translation study， with its rabid development. The appliance of corpus provide a new study angle for poems translation by analyzing qualitative， quantitative data and key words search. Based on corpus， the paper takes the three English versions of Luzhai as an example to investigate the language features of the English translations of Chinese poems.

Luzhai， written by Wang Wei， a famous poet in Tang dynasty， mainly describes the beautiful landscape of Luzhai， where Wang Wei settled at his old age. The poem is：

空山不見人，但闻人语响。返景入深林，复照青苔上。

In this poem， Wang Wei wants to let us hear passerby talking in the quiet and secluded valley by describing sunset glow to reflect the silent. Su Shi once remaked it： the poem is just as well as painting. Reading it， we may see a scene： the poet is seated on the mountain covered by dense forest， being peaceful and secluded. The scene is now and then broken by chatting of passerby， which more reflect the silence of the forest.

At present， this poem has been translated into over 14 versions. Here， the author will list three versions to contrast.

When a translator choose a text， he starts to read it， interpret it and express it in his own words. In the first， he should collect and master the background information and relative knowledge about the original， including the educational background， experience and writing style of the writer. In addition， he has to study information about linguistic situation of the original. After that， the translator can have a better understanding of the real meaning of the original and to express it more exactly.

When a translator read the source text， he should keep attach with the original to realize the real intention of the writer. As translators have different interpretation of the original， various translation versions come into being. Now， let we talk about three versions of Luzhai.

The first version is written by Kenneth Rexroth in 1970：

This version breaks down the original form， and express the artistic conception of the original. In the third line， use “once in a while” to describe 一两声in the sentence “但聞人语响” to reflect the silence of the forest. In the forth line， the translator use “something like” ， instead of voice. And “far—off” is more exact expressiveness. Use the verb “slip” to translate “入” in the original， which makes readers engaging in the peaceful forest. There is one point that need to put forward is that he translate “人不见” with “不见人”， avoiding using the subject.

The second version is translated by Chinese famous translator—Xu Yuanchong：

This version not only pay attention to the artistic conception， but also to the rhyme， like deep and peep， ravine and green， conforming to rhyme of English poetry. This version expresses the nature of thee original， and rhymes at the end of every line. The translator makes his best to represent the beauty in form， sound， and sense， keeping its good order， conciseness and lively rhyme and bringing readers artistic perception. From that， we can know there is no perfect translation for translating Chinese poems， but excellent translation that is worthy us to read and learn from it. As you see， Mr. Xu is an outstanding translator， who does better in many aspects， like the use of words and rhyme.

The third version is written by W.J.B.Fletcher：

In general， this version reached expressiveness and elegance criteria， but lacking of faithfulness.， because the last two lines are too concrete， like “pierce slanting”， which change the artistic beauty of the original. English poems have many styles， like metrical poetry， blank verse and free verse poetry. Some translators are worried which one to be chosen to translate this poem. In fact， it depends on translators interpretation of the original. Fletcher creatively uses the rhyme of “aaba” to beautify rhyme of the translation version. To achieve this， he employs literal translation and liberal translation， keeps four lines of the original. The “seem” in the first line is very excellent. The second line is translated into a question sentence to increase a sense of reality of the translation verse， making the equivalence of artistic conception.

Now， we have a basic understanding of the three versions of Luzhai， and then we can make an analysis on them by using corpus. There are three tables of analyzing the letters in a rhyme， length of sentence， lines and token

Table one： the three English versions of Luzhai and their foot

TT/foot the first sentence the second one the third one the last one

The first version -ss rhymeless rhymeless -ss

The second version -ip -in -ip -in

The third version -r -r rhymeless -r

From the table one， we can know the second version has foot—abab， and the fourth version also has foot—abba， both of which are very exact and conform to the feature of rhyme of the original. The rhyme of first version is -ss， and the third version is -r. However， the fifth version is rhymeless， which doesnt make it express the artistic conception of the original by listening to it. The result we can acquire is that TT with rhyme will display the beauty in sound of the original.

Table two： number of word of every sentence in Luzhai and its three English versions

ST/TT/Word in sentence the first one the second one the third one the fourth

ST 5 5 5 5

The first version 9 14 11 7

The second version 7 7 7 6

The third version 12 9 9 7

In the table two， the second version is 7，7，7，6， and the fifth is 6，6，6，6， both of which are very orderly， conforming to the beauty of construction. As for the first， third and fourth version have different numbers of words in every sentence， making the translation being no symmetry. Through contrasting， the change of the length of sentence should try to be line to the features of the source poems.

Table three： token， type and their portion of three English versions of Luzhai

TT token type proportion（100%）

The first version 41 34 82.92

The second version 27 24 88.89

The third version 37 29 78.37

In the table three， token refers to all the words in the translation version； type refers to not count repeated words， including singular and plural， tense and voice of a word， namely totally different words. The portion refers to that of different words/all the words. These data can be used to investigate the variety and range of appliance of words in the corpus. In general， the proportion is larger， which can demonstrate words of the texts in corpus more abundance.

4. Conclusion

Translating poems should pay attention to rhyme， keeping consistency with rhyme and artistic conception with the original. The length of sentences and number of words should be in line with the original. The use of words need to be various， avoiding repetition. To translate better texts， there are many things to be done by translators， continuing practice and research.

Translation， especially literature translation， is a kind of art. Eugene Nida once said： translation is not reproduction， but creation. Translating a poem may be influenced by objective factors， like language， history， and culture， and subjective factors， like translators. Translation is not just to copy from a language to another language， but translators re-express the original by their reading， interpreting and analyzing. In this period， translators is most important， and different translation results come into being. We cant find an ideal criterion to judge them， because these translation are results from translators who are faithful to their own status， purpose of translation and their interpretation of the original. We have to find out excellence of every translation version.

This paper attempts to find out linguistic features of English versions of Chinese poems， analyzing and contrasting their data of various respects. One of advantages of this paper is the use of reliable data from corpus. However， one point that needs to be improved is that this paper only takes English versions of Luzhai as an example to analyze， which cant fully reflect more features of translation versions.

References：

[1]Baker，M.Corpora in Translation Studies：An overview and Some suggestions for Future Research[J].Target，1995，（7）：223-243.

[2]Gentzler，E.Contemporary Translation Theories[M].Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press，2004.

[3]Kennedy G.English Corpus Linguistic：An Introduction[M].Harlow：Longman，1998.

作者簡介：曾国美（1992-），女，硕士，翻译专业。