Abstract:

As a renowned “foreign friend of China”, Rewi Alley lived in China for almost 60 years. Deeply interested in Chinese language and culture, he was also a passionate and prolific translator of Chinese poetry, translating many Chinese poems into English. His translation of Li Bai’s poems took place in an institutional setting, and has some unique features in terms of text selection and translation style. This study, adopting an institutional approach, examines Alley’s translation of Li Bai’s poems. Through historical context analysis, textual analysis, and para-textual analysis of his translation, it is found that Alley in his translation reconstructed Li Bai’s image from a romantic poet into a realistic one, but failed to convey the spirit of the original poems. The reasons for the distinctive features of his translation lie in the fact that Alley’s translation of Li Bai’s poems was influenced by both personal and institutional ideologies and poetics, and his translation was to serve the goal of the institution though it has revealed his own voices.

Keywords: institutional translation; Rewi Alley; Li Bai; poem translation; patronage; ideology

摘要：

新西兰籍社会活动家路易•艾黎是新中国成立后在华工作的知名国际友人,一生翻译、出版中国诗歌译著十余部。作为长期生活在中国并受中国政府外宣机关雇用的英语译者,艾黎的翻译活动有诸多独特之处。本文对国家机构赞助下的艾黎英译李白诗歌活动进行了研究,探讨了艾黎英译李白诗歌的选材特点、翻译策略及翻译风格,论述了艾黎对李白诗歌的英译是赞助人、个人诗学意识形态等多重因素合力作用下的产物。通过研究艾黎的翻译实践活动,本文发现国家机构翻译具有以下特点：（1）从翻译选材来看,国家机构赞助下的译者并不是出于个人兴趣从事翻译工作,而是取决于国家机构赞助翻译的目的;（2）译介活动受国家和个人的意识形态因素影响痕迹明显,译作中的李白形象被一定程度改写,李白诗歌中的现实主义成分被放大;（3）译者翻译时坚持了自己独特的译诗风格,译作突显了较强的个人色彩,一定程度上偏离了原诗的意义,背离了原诗的旨趣和精神。

关键词: 国家机构赞助, 艾黎, 李白, 诗歌英译, 赞助人, 意识形态