Comparative Study of Four English Versions of Ye Yu Ji Bei from Perspective of Eco-Translatology

Wenyao Li

College of Foreign Languages,Bohai University,Jinzhou,China

Email:1658027596@qq.com

Dan Wang

College of Foreign Languages,Bohai University,Jinzhou,China

Email:1601698716@qq.com

[Abstract] Ye Yu Ji Bei is a famous Chinese poem composed by Li Shangyin.To test whether the translations achieve three-dimension transformations,four English versions of this poem are analyzed and compared from the perspective of Eco-Translatology.As a result,Xu's English version achieves the optimal adaption and selection in linguistic and cultural dimensional transformations.And Bynner made the best decisions in the communication-dimension transformation.To provide a new perspective for the study of poetry translation,the analysis and comparisons in this paper would enable readers at home and abroad to recapture and enjoy the charm of Chinese culture.

[Keywords] Ye Yu Ji Bei;Eco-Translatology;three-dimension transformations;comparative study

Introduction

The classical Chinese poetry occupies a dominant position in the collection of Chinese literary works.Especially,Tang Dynasty witnessed the prime of the classical Chinese poetry.Previously,scholars preferred to study the translations of the poems written by Li Bai and Du Fu,who were among the top eminent poets in Tang Dynasty.However,this paper compares different English versions of the classical Chinese poemYe Yu Ji Beiwritten by Li Shangyin.Though this poem is not as famous as Li Bai's and Du Fu's poems,it has been translated into some ten English versions and thus deserves to be studied so as to further spread our traditional culture and promote cross-cultural communications.In the previous studies onYe Yu Ji Bei,the scholars employed the Deconstruction Approach,Gestalt Image Theory,"Three-beauty Theory"and so on.But this paper applies Eco-Translatology to study this poem,which is an ecological study on translation.The ecological balance of translation advocated by Eco-Translatology conforms to the sustainable development of translation ecological context under the globalization(Jiao,2011).Under the global ecological wave,the study from the perspective of Eco-Translatology caters for the present times.

Introduction of the Chinese Poem Ye Yu Ji Bei

Ye Yu Ji Beiwas composed by Li Shangyin in Tang Dynasty.It consists four lines with seven Chinese characters in each line.As to this poem,it was controversial whether the poet wrote to his wife or friend.Some scholars believed that Li wrote this poem to his friend while other scholars held that this poem was written to his wife.With the help of the previous authoritative researches,Wang (2014) proved that Ye Yu Ji Bei was actually written to the poet's friend by analyzing the images in the poem convincingly.

This Chinese poem is as follows:

夜雨寄北

李商隐

君问归期未有期，

巴山夜雨涨秋池。

何当共剪西窗烛，

却话巴山夜雨时。

When the poet wrote this poem,he lived in Sichuan Province which is distant from his hometown.On a rainy night,he received a letter from his friend who asked him the date of returning.Then he wrote this poem to express his strong longing for this friend and sorrow deep in his heart.

Introduction of the Four Translators and their English Versions

There are about 10 English versions ofYe Yu Ji Bei.The paper selected four popular versions translated by famous translators including Herbert Allen Giles,Witter Bynner,Xu Yuanchong and Lin Yutang.To some extent,a good translation is dependent on the ability of the translator,which is exactly proved by translator-centeredness in Eco-Translatology.The concept of translator-centeredness emphasizes that the quality of translations relies on the ability of the translator and his/her creative work(Hu,2013).

Herbert Allen Giles and His English Version

Giles is a British diplomat,sinologist,and professor of Chinese language.He modified a Mandarin Chinese Romanization system earlier established by Thomas Wade,resulting in the widely known Wade-Giles Chinese Romanization system.His published works cover Chinese language and literature,history and philosophy.From his education background and academic accomplishment above,it is suggested that he can adapt to the translational eco-environment with the competence and the knowledge.The English version ofYe Yu Ji Beitranslated by him is as follows:

Souvenirs

You ask when I'm coming:alas not just yet...

How the rain filled the pools on that night when we met!

Ah,when shall we ever snuff candles again,

And recall the glad hours of that evening of rain?(lü,1980)

Witter Bynner and His English Version

Bynner is an American poet who graduated from Harvard University in 1902 with an outstanding performance.His collections of poetry includeAn Ode to Harvard,The Beloved Stranger,Pins for Wings,Indian Earth,andNew Poems.In addition,he is an enthusiast of Eastern culture and philosophy.His identity as a famous poet and familiarity with Eastern culture ought to give him the qualification to adapt to the translational eco-environment.Here is his English version ofYe Yu Ji Bei.

A Note on a Rainy Night to a Friend in the North

You ask me when I am coming.I do not know.

I dream of our mountains and autumn pools brimming all night with the rain.

Oh,when shall we be trimming wicks again,together in your western window?

When shall I be hearing your voice again,all night in the rain?(Guo,1994)

Xu Yuanchong and His English Version

Xu is a professor in Peking University as well as a famous translator.He not only translated the classical Chinese poetry into the foreign languages,but also many famous literary works in English and French into Chinese versions.In 1999,he was nominated the candidate of the Nobel Prize in literature.Moreover,Xu put forward the"Threebeauty Theory",that is,beauty in sense,beauty in sound and beauty in form,which offered a new perspective of translation criterion in the translation studies.In a word,his solid theoretical foundation and outstanding accomplishments make Xu act as a master in the translation studies,which enables him to adapt to the translational eco-environment.His English version ofYe Yu Ji Beiis as follows:

Written on a Rainy Night to a Friend in the North

You ask me when I can come back but I don't know.

The pools in Western Hills with Autumn rain overflow.

When by our window can we trim the wicks again

And talk about this endless dreary night of rain?(Xu,2015)

Lin Yutang and His English Version

With the degree of Master of Arts of Harvard University,Lin,a writer and translator,wrote more than 35 books in English and Chinese,and brought the classics of Chinese literature to western readers.His Chinese background and academic achievements endow him with a flexible transformation between Chinese and English to adapt to the translational eco-environment.Here is the English version ofYe Yu Ji Beitranslated by him.

Night Rains:to My Wife up North

You ask how long before I come.Still no date is set.

The night rains on Mount Pa swell the autumn pool.

When shall we,side by side,trim a candle at the west window,

And talk to the time of the night rains on Mount Pa?

Eco-Translatology

Adaptation and Selection in the Process of Translating

Eco-Tranlatology highlights adaptation and selection as two aspects of translational activities.Hu (2013) proposed"translation as adaptation and selection."There are two stages in the process of translating.And these two stages can be illustrated in Figure 1.In the first stage,the source text occupies a leading position in selecting the translator.And this is also the translator's adaption.In the second stage,the translator plays a central role in selecting the form of the final text.

Figure 1 (Hu,2004)

Translator-centeredness

As Nida (1964) pointed out,"the real problems of translation are not technical,they are human." In the Eco-Translatology,the translator plays a central role in the process of translation.The target text is the outcome of the translator's decision-making at different levels and from different dimensions.And the decisions that the translator makes should adapt to the translational eco-environment.Though "translator-centeredness" has been criticized by many scholars for its extreme feature,the subjectivity of translators can't be neglected(Leng,2011).

Three-dimension Transformations

Three-dimension transformations are the translation methods of Eco-Translatology,including linguistic,cultural and communicative dimensional transformations.As for the linguistic dimensional transformation,the translator should make transformations of adaptive selection on different linguistic levels like lexicon,syntax,semantics.Adaptive selection transformation of the cultural dimension emphasizes the transmission of cultural connotation between the source text and the target text.Translators should take the whole cultural system into consideration in the process of translation.The communicative dimensional transformation aims to achieve the effects of communication.If the translator can achieve three-dimension transformations,the translation will be preserved for long time.

Comparative Study of the Four English Versions of Ye Yu Ji Bei

Linguistics-dimension Transformation

Poetry emphasizes the beauty in rhyme.The Chinese poemYe Yu Ji Beiachieves the aesthetic feeling of poetry by the use of the rhyme.In the first,second and fourth lines of the original poem,there is an identical ending rhyme-"i".Thus,this Chinese poem is catchy.The translators should choose the appropriate translation method in the translation process,and realize the adaptable choices and transformations of language form as much as possible.Giles,Bynner and Xu managed to achieve poetic beauty in rhyme.In Giles'English version,the first and second lines have the same final consonant/t/;the third and the last lines end with the identical final sounds/en/.So the rhyme scheme of this English version is aabb.In Bynner's English version,there is the same final vowel/o/in the first and the third line;there are identical final sounds/en/in the second and final lines.Thus,the rhyme scheme of this English version is abab.In Xu's English version,the first and second lines have the same final vowel/o/;the third and last lines end with the same sounds/en/.Therefore,the rhyme scheme of this English version is aabb.Lin's version doesn't realize the aesthetic rhyme because the final sounds of each line are totally different.But,it can't be denied that his prose style flourishes the forms of poetry.

In terms of the translation of the title,four translators have their own understandings.Giles translated the title into "Souvenirs",which neither contained the important images in the original poem nor conveyed the emotions of the poet.Bynner translated the title into"A Note on a Rainy Night to a Friend".In the title,the translator didn't omit any important image.And he made clear the identity of the person for whom the poet composed this poem.But"note"was definitely inaccurate,which devalued this outstanding poem.The translator Xu translated the title into"Written on a Rainy Night to a Friend in the North".That was the most accurate one in these four titles.The important images were all translated and"a friend"was added in the title.Lin translated it into"Night rains:to My Wife up North".Though the images were all present,"wife"is not the right person to whom Li wrote this poem.

In addition,there are differences in the translation of"Zhang"(涨)and"Zhu"(烛)."Zhang"is not only used to describe that the heavy rain made the water level higher but also to express the strong longing for the friend in the poet's inner heart."Fill" translated by Giles is not adequate to exactly express the strong emotions in the poet's heart while"brim","overflow",and"swell"translated by other translators are more appropriate expressions."Zhu"in Chinese originally refers to candles in English.However,we can find that in this poem,it actually refers to the wicks of candles according to the action of"Jian"(剪)that means cut in English.Thus,only Bynner and Xu dealt with it correctly.

By comparison from the transformation of linguistic dimension above,Xu's English version achieves the optimal adaptation and selection.Though Giles and Bynner noticed the rhyme of the poem,their decisions on the lexicon didn't adapt to the translational eco-environment.And Lin's English version also didn't realize the optimal adaptation and selection on the lexical level.

Culture-dimension Transformation

There are three main images in the second line including "Ba Shan" (巴山),"Yu" (雨) and "Qiu" (秋)."Ba Shan"refers to the areas of Sichuan Province where the poet stayed."Yu"and"Qiu"refer to two images of"rain"and"autumn" in English,which often renders the emotions of loneliness,sorrow and longings for home in both Chinese and Western cultures.As to these three key images,only "Yu" caught Giles' attention with the rest images ignored.Bynner recognized all of three images.But he translated "Ba Shan" into "our mountains",which distorted the poet's original intention.These mountains lie in Sichuan Province instead of in Shaanxi Province where his friend lived.Thus,the expression "our" is improper.Xu also took three images into consideration.Especially,he translated "Ba Shan"into"Western Hills"by the translation strategy of domestication,which made the meaning clearer and made it easier for readers to understand the poem.His flexible translation reflects that translator plays a center role in reproducing the source text into the target text.Lin translated all of three images but his understanding of "Ba Shan" was wrong.As mentioned,it didn't refer to a concrete mountain.

In conclusion,the translator Xu did well in culture-dimensional transformation,especially in the translation of"Ba Shan".Others English versions are in lower degree of translational adaptation and selection.

Communication-dimensional Transformation

As to the first line ofYe Yu Ji Bei,Lin dealt it with "how long" while other translators employed "when".By the comparison,Lin's translation is more powerful than other three,which manages to express the poet's strong longing for his friend.Besides,the use of"still"reinforces the sentiments of the poet further.For the third line,two foreign translators who played their center roles in translation,added interjections "Ah" and "Oh" respectively.These additional translations intensified the emotions of helplessness which the poet wanted to express.In addition,Bynner and Lin translated "Gong" (共) into "together" and "side by side" respectively,which laid stress on the intimate friendship between the poet and his friend.However,Giles and Xu didn't emphasize this point in their translations.As to"Hua"(话)in the last line,it was very vivid that Giles translated it into"recall",which expressed the poet's longings for reunion with his friend.Bynner translated it into"hearing your voice".The translator changed the point of view flexibly,which could arouse the active imagination of readers.Compared with the former translators,both Xu and Lin translated"Hua"into"talk"in a straight way.Though it retained the original action,the implicit style of the poem was damaged.Therefore,the translator must play his/her center role in the process of translation.Otherwise,the artistic style of poetry would be damaged after translation.In a word,Bynner made the best decisions in the communication-dimensional transformation among these four translators.

Conclusion

Hu's Eco-Translatology could be seen as a process of translation in which the translator makes three dimensional transformations adapted to the translational eco-environment and makes proper adaptive selection to the target text.Though this theory is still under development,it's constructive for translational studies.This paper analyzed four English versions of the Chinese poemYe Yu Ji Beifrom the perspective of three-dimension transformations of Eco-Translatology.In different translational eco-environments,their translated works absolutely present different outcomes.Through analysis and comparisons,Xu's English version achieved the optimal adaption and selection in linguistic and cultural dimensional transformations.And Bynner made the best decisions in the communication-dimension transformation.In the process of translation,the translator should attempt to achieve the optimal three-dimension transformations under the translational eco-environment in order to produce the proper translation.