A Comparison on Xu Yuanchong’s and Erze Pound’s English Versions of Guan Ju from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

Versions of Kuan Chu

From the Perspective of Relevance Theory

By Gai Chunrui

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

May, 2016

A Comparison on Xu’s and Pound’s English

Versions of Kuan Chu

From the Perspective of Relevance Theory

Gai Chunrui

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

Abstract: The Book of Songs is the most glorious origin of Chinese realism literature. At the same time, Kuan Chu, as the introductory poem of the Book of Songs, is widely known around the world and has been translated into different versions. The controversy of translatability and untranslatability of poetry has confused many scholars and translators. Kuan Chu is no exception. However, the relevance theory by Sperber and Wilson (1995) provides a new perspective for the translation of poetry and can explain complicated phenomena in translation.

This thesis analyzes Xu Yuanchong’s and Erza Pound’s versions of Kuan Chu form the perspective of Relevance Theory. It consists of five chapters.The first chapter will introduce the background of this research and make a brief review on the translators. Chapter two will present relevance theory and the application in translation. Chapter three and four will concentrate on the analysis of Xu’s and Pound’s versions of Kuan Chu under relevance theory in different aspects, including musicality of poetry, expression of emotion, poetic images and cultural environment so as to point out the translatability of poetry. In the last chapter, it comes into the conclusion. Actually, both versions are faithful to the original text on the whole to convey to the target readers about value of marriage of ancient Chinese people. However, there are different faults in representing the images in poetry.

Key words: Kuan Chu; Relevance Theory; Optimal Relevance; Translatability

摘 要

《关雎》是《诗经》的首篇，翻开了诗经的第一页，开启了中国现实主义文学，广为传诵，被译成无数版本。一直以来，诗歌可译性与不可译性问题始终困扰着翻译界的学者们，《关雎》的翻译毫不例外也存在此问题。然而Sperber 和Wilson(1995）提出的关联理论，为诗歌翻译研究提供了一个新视角，对一些复杂的翻译现象有很强的解释力。

本文以关联理论为依据，对比分析许渊冲、庞德对《关雎》的两个译本，进而指出诗歌的可译性。首先，简要介绍文本的研究背景及两位译者；接着从关联理论角度为文本提供理论依据，再根据关联理论从词汇运用等，分析两个译本的音乐美、情感表达、诗歌意象及文化背景等多个方面。通过对比分析，得到诗歌的可译性。两者均忠于原文的交际意图--向广大读者传递古老中国人民的婚姻价值观。但与此同时，二者在诗歌意象效果的传达上，均存在不同程度的失误。

关键字：《关雎》；关联理论；最佳关联；可译性

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Literature Review 1

1.2 Brief Review on Xu Yuanchong and Erza Pound 2

2. Theoretical Framework 3

2.1 Relevance Theory 3

2.2 Relevance Theory and Translation 5

3. Comparison of Two Versions of Kuan Chu 6

3.1 About Kuan Chu 7

3.2 Translatability of Poetry 8

4. Translatability of Poetry under Relevance Theory 9

4.1 Musicality of Poetry 10

4.2 Expression of Emotion 11

4.3 Poetic Images 13

4.4 Cultural Environment 15

5. Conclusion 16

References 18

Acknowledgments 19

1. Introduction

This chapter will make a brief review on the background of this research, as well as the two celebrated translators---Xu Yuanchong and Pound.

1.1 Literature Review

The Book of Songs is the earliest poetry collection in the Chinese history as the classics of Chinese culture as well as the culture property all over the world, a dazzling pearl in the treasure-house of culture. Owing to the significant position in the history, The Book of Songs has been the focus since the beginning of the international communication between the Western and China and has been translated into almost all the important languages to the world. Works in the Book of Songs were composed during the period from the early West Zhou Period to the middle of Spring and Autumn Period, which has an essential and far-reaching effect on the later literature.

Kuan Chu, as the first poem and the most representative work in the Book of Songs, is highly regarded as a classical work and has become the exemplar of Confucian political teaching. In Poetry Preface, it goes: “《关雎》，后妃之德也，风之始也，所以风天下而正夫妇也。” Because of its peculiar political educational function with love theme, Kuan Chu has got great reputation in Chinese culture and has aroused great interest of scholars and translators at home and abroad. It shows a gentleman’s truly pure love and his persistence in pursuit of his ideal woman, reflecting the social criterion and requirement of the ideal woman---virtuous and modest apart from fairy to fit with the royal family. In essence, Kuan Chu depicts the etiquette of marriage at that time and represents the earliest social ideology. It is the distinctive carrier of the images of Chinese and is of great benefit to the study on Chinese culture. Therefore, a large number of scholars and translators have attached great importance to the study of Kuan Chu. They have studied Kuan Chu from different perspectives. Due to social-cultural discrepancy among different languages, there exist some debates in the interpretation and translation of Kuan Chu. However, Relevance Theory proposed by Sperber and Wilson (1995) has provided a new perspective for the translation study of Kuan Chu as well as the defusing of debates.

1.2 Brief Review on Xu Yuanchong and Erza Pound

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