关键词: 诗歌翻译; 非文本目的; 诗经; 理雅各译本; 许渊冲译本

Abstract:

Poetry, as a highly artistic genre of writing, is generally considered to be difficult to translate. To date, research on the translation of poetry has mainly focused on the textual level and not on the non-textual level. However, non-textual purposes can have a significant impact on poem translation as translators have to take conciseness and artistry of language into consideration in the process of translation. Based on the theory of non-textual purposes proposed by Professor Cao Minglun(2007), this paper discusses the impact of non-textual purposes on translation by analyzing and comparing the two English versions of Shi Jing produced by James Legge(2014) and Xu Yuanchong(1994), respectively. By observing translation purposes from the perspective of the translators’ identities and the channels or methods used to realize these translation purposes, it can be seen that translators will unavoidably be influenced by non-textual purposes, including those of politics, culture and religion in the process of interpreting the source text and producing the target text poems, and will integrate these factors into their translations. This can be seen in both James Legge’s and in Xu Yuanchong’s translations of Shi Jing, as the examples, annotations, prefaces, and analyses suggest. This paper offers a comparatively scientific definition of the term non-textual purposes, and aims to expand the scope of research on the translation of poetry from the non-textual perspective.

Keywords: poem translation; non-textual purposes; Shi Jing; Legge’s English version;; Xu Yuanchong’s English version;