A Study on the English Translation of The First Visit of the Red Cliff from the Perspective of Translation Aesthetics

JI Jian-wei

【Abstract】This paper is a case study of translation of The First Visit to the Red Cliff translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Margaret Tayler from the perspective of translation aesthetics to demonstrate the aesthetic elements in translation activity， and plans to explore the effect and influence of translation aesthetics in the translation process.

【Key words】The First Visit to the Red Cliff； translation aesthetics； English translation

【作者简介】姬建伟（1993- ），男，汉族，河北保定人，硕士在读，中国矿业大学（北京）文法学院，研究方向：英语笔译。

The translation aesthetics is interdisciplinary between translation and aesthetic principles with unique Chinese characteristics. With its specific embodiment and distinguished aesthetic characteristics， literature translation can be evaluated by aesthetics that explores a new point of view to study the translation activity. This paper plans to research the translation of The First Visit to the Red Cliff from the translation aesthetics.

1. Phonetic beauty

Musicality is one of the features of sound satisfaction and the rhyme is one of the key points in a text. Authors try their best to choose harmonious musical words so that the harmonious sounds are able to express meanings beyond language. In Chinese traditional literature， the sound harmony is put into the important position， especially in literary composition in rhyme. Each language owns its unique method to achieve the harmonious sound. Because vowels， the musical sounds in Chinese system， are more sonorous than consonants， Chinese sounds more fluent and sweet than English pronunciation.

Example 1： 少焉，月出于東山之上，徘徊于斗牛之间。白露横江，水光接天。

Translation： Soon the moon rose above the eastern mountain， hovering between the Dipper and Cowherd. The river stretched white， sparking as if with dew， its glimmering water merging the sky.

The source text applies no phonetic devices except the rhymes， such as “焉（Yan）”， “间（Jian）” and “天（Tian）”. However， the translation omits the rhymes in the transformation process， instead of translating the source text on the base of literal meanings. It cannot be denied that translators abandon the sound harmony for faithfulness， which is the loss of aesthetic information in the translation activity. Therefore， from this example it can be concluded that aesthetic translation is extremely difficult and in translation practice， aesthetic subject has to choose to remain or abandon some aesthetic information. How to make the decision depends on the translators skills and experiences， so that each piece of translation works has the unique characteristic of each translator.

Example 2： 桂棹兮兰桨，击空明兮溯流光，渺渺兮愁予，望美人兮天一方。

Translation： Our rudder and oars， redolent of cassia and orchids；

Strikes the moons reflection， cleaving the glimmering water；

But my heart is far away，

Longing for my dear one under a different sky.

The verse in the source text imitated the Poetry of the South as the insert part in the whole prose. Besides the application of “兮” as rhythmic marks strengthening the musicality to enhance the musicality and readability， the characters， “槳”， “光”and “方”， have the sound harmony with the same rhyme “ang” to express plaintive and gloomy emotions. For rhythmic movements， translators try to represent the phonetic beauty of the original prose. Some phonetic rhetorical devices are used-rhymes， such as “rudder and oars”， “water”， “dear” and “under”； assonance： “cleaving” and “ glimmering”. Though Chinese and English belong two different language systems with the unique phonetic rhetorical device， translators represent the phonetic beauty with compensation which is the success in translation.

In translation process， some phonetic rhetorical devices have equivalent ones， such as the second example： thee end rhyme “ang” is replaced by “away” and “sky”. However， some other phonetic devices are hard to have equivalent ones in the target language. Therefore， it is necessary for translators to apply another phonetic device as substitution to remedy the loss in translation. If both methods are impossible， translators have to represent the literal meanings of the source text.

2. Syntactic Beauty

The syntactic beauty focuses on the use of long sentences and short sentences， simple sentences and compound sentences， loose sentences and periodic sentences. The long sentences and compound sentences with advanced words and complex grammar structures always express formal and complicated meanings， while the short sentences and simple sentences with fewer words and simple grammar patterns always express powerful tone and emotional feelings. The loose sentences is optional without strict rules， while the periodic sentences frequently in the public speech enhance the power of the tone. Various sentences patterns can be chosen to express exact and colorful emotions.

Example 3： 纵一苇之所如，凌万顷之茫然。浩浩乎如冯虚御风而不知其所止；飘飘乎如遗世独立，羽化而登仙。

Translation： We let our craft drift over the boundless expanse of water， feeling as free as if we were driving the wind bound for some unknown destination， as light as if we had left the world of men and become winged immoral.

The source text combines long sentences and short sentences together， displaying the quiet and comfortable night landscape and expressing the authors calmness and pleasure. The phrases， “浩浩乎” and “飄飘乎”， embody the natural and unrestricted situation of spiritual freedom. Both sentences with parallelism and antithesis have unique characteristics of Chinese traditional literature， whose similar patterns and well-balanced rhythms cause syntactic beauty to readers. Translators represent the structure of the source text with the help of parallelism-“as free as” and “as light as”-to reflect the authors emotions. What is more， Yang translated the source sentence into a terse and tight one to fully represent the profound aftertastes.

Example 4： 哀吾生之须臾，羡长江之无穷，携飞仙以遨游，抱明月而长终。

Translation： I am grieved because our life is so transient， and envy the mighty river which flows on forever. I long to clasp winged fairies and roam freely， or to embrace the bright moon for all eternity.

This is the guests life attitude lamenting for the shortness of life compared to the long history of the Yangtze River， sighing for the momentary life and envying the immoral moon. Faced with setbacks and frustrations， Su Shi became a little pessimistic in the boundless university so he wanted to escape from the mortal world and become immoral like the moon. The implicit information needs to be translated into the target language， which often refers to cultural background， rhetorical devices and so on. This example illustrates some aesthetic information is difficult to be represented into the target language. At this moment， compensation is necessary for the translation activity. The translators rewrite the prose according to the literal meaning.

Chinese is distinguished for conciseness while English has unique logic with accurate grammatical structure. Therefore， to correctly understand the source target is the premise of translation. Parallelism and antithesis are common rhetorical devices in Chinese to achieve balance beauty， while parallelism and antithesis in English is used to stress. The parallel beauty in Chinese is hard to be totally equal into English. If it is impossible to find equivalent rhetorical devices or comprehensive structures， translators remain the imagery is acceptable.

3. Stylistic Beauty

Every kind of art is bound to be exhibited in the certain from. The basic elements of the style are words， sentences and paragraphs. Translators should pay attention to the accurate and concise transformation of aesthetic meaning. Because Chinese four-character idioms and English idioms are commonly used in real composition， and the transformation process is complicated， the translation principles attach importance to resemblance in potential spirit rather than the form similarity. If the aesthetic information has no equivalence in the target language， recreation or compensation is acceptable.

Example 5： 方其破荆州，下江陵，顺流而东也，舳舻千里，旌旗蔽空，酾酒临江，横槊赋诗，固一世之雄也。

Translation： When Ca Ca took Hangzhou by storm and conquered Anglia， then advanced eastward along the river， his battleships stretched for a thousand Li， his armies pennons and banners filled the sky. When he offered a libation of a wine on the river and lance in hand chanted his poem， he was the hero of his times.

The source text utilizes a series of four-character idioms causing the short and strong rhythms to express strong and powerful momentum. These idioms carry regular rhythms and great aesthetic values. However， there exists no similar idiom corresponding the Chinese four-character idioms so that the translation combines them into a coherent sentence. The translation is the ideal model of aesthetic creation according to the source text. Translator uses a series of verbs， such as “take”， “conquer”， “advance”， “stretch”， “fill”， “offer” and “chant”， to represent the momentum vividly and incisively. The exclamatory sentence directly expresses the emotional contrast between glorious history and gloomy present.

Example 6： 其声呜呜然，如怨如慕，如泣如诉，余音裊袅，不绝如缕。

Translation： The notes rang out nostalgic， mournful and plaintive， trailing on and on like a thread of gossamer.

This original sentence shows the bamboo flute players excellent talents leading listeners to be upset or to be gloomy. The Chinese characters “如” that can be understood as “as if”， repeat for five times which not only stresses the phonetic aesthetics but also emphasizes the mournful emotion. However， translators do not represent the similar structure in the target text， but he utilized three adjectives， “nostalgic”， “mournful” and “plaintive”， to show the sorrow feeling. The reason why he chooses this method in translation is that his version is reader-oriented so that in the translation process， some aesthetic information has to lose and aesthetic compensation will be used to represent the language beauty.

When it comes to the translation of four verbs， “怨”， “慕”， “泣” and “诉”， translators apply three adjectives. Though the form beauty is damaged in some aspects， the translation fits for the style in the content. Seen from several examples， it is tough to totally represent the constitutes that include structure， form， words， rhymes and layout， because they are inter-independent mutually. Even a slight change in translation， other elements are bound to be changed at the same time

Chinese is distinguished for four-character idioms which increase the conciseness and musicality， whereas no equivalent structure exists in English. To represent Chinese beauty， translator has to remedy the loss of aesthetic information in the translation process with recreation or compensation. In other words， the Chinese four-character idioms can be expressed in English with proper structure.

4. Imagery Beauty

Image also known as artistic conception can be one object， a metaphor or a symbol that can indicate the emotional response and psychological imagination. The translator should accurately gasp the potential meanings of images in the source text. It is not enough to have psychological resonance with well-selected images， but the appropriate combination. In literature translation， it utilizes another language to decode the aesthetic information hidden in the images so that readers will get aesthetic inspiration and satisfaction from the translation as they do from the source language.

Different images have different connotative meanings. Three most frequent images are breeze （3 times）， moon （5 times） and water （river or ocean， 8 times）. In Chinese traditional culture， moon stands for purity and beauty， but in most instances， it is the symbol of loneliness. The gentle breeze always brings comfortableness implying the pleasure and free and unfettered feeling.

Example 7： 逝者如斯，而未嘗往也；盈虚者如彼，而卒莫消长也。

Translation： Water flows away but is never lost； the moon waxes and wanes， but neither increases or diminished.

The calm water suggests the author keeps inner-peace； the flowing water stands for the authors sigh for the missing time. Su Shi compares life to water and moon-though they will change， but they never lose or change. Therefore， it is unnecessary to envy the immoral university because seen from the changing aspect， human and university are both eternal， which is his positive attitude.

Chinese literature always combines images and emotions together. The translation activity needs translator first to decode the potential meanings of aesthetic images. To understand the reason why author chose these images in the source text is the first step to represent the imagery beauty. The second step is to select the equivalent images in the target language. Even though there exists the equivalent ones， the same images in different cultures have different meanings. That translators carefully selected equivalent images to represent the imagery beauty becomes important.

5. Conclusions

This paper adopting the knowledge of translation aesthetics studies translation of The First Visit to the Red Cliff. Through studying the implication of translation aesthetics， it can be concluded that translation from Chinese to English is a loss process where some aesthetic information is bound to be damaged. To represent the aesthetic information， translators can make use of recreation and compensation. The transformation process can be divided into comprehension， transformation， improvement and representation， depending on translators experience， knowledge and skills.

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