A Study of Translation of Rhetorical Devices in Tang Poetry

Abstract: This paper attempts to analyze the translation of rhetorical devices in Tang Poetry from the perspective of Peter Newmark’s translation theory.

Key words: Translation；Rhetorical Devices；Tang Poetry

一、The Characteristics of Poetry Translation

Poetry translation is quite different from the translations of novels,dramas, proses and film scripts. This is determined by its own characteristics. Firstly, poetry emphasizes on the beauty of tempo and metre. Secondly, from a lingual perspective,the languages of poetry is quite succinct and the information in one unit structure. Finally,the poetry is the most senior form of literature, its metre,form and idea becoming integration. What’s more,the significance should be read between the lines, because the lines consist of many constituents of imagination when the author produces the poetry.

二、An Analysis of Translation of Tang Poetry at the Rhetorical Level

（一）Metaphor

Metaphor is a rhetorical device which uses concrete image to express meaning. It is well known that Chinese emphasizes reality and images, so Chinese abounds in expressing modes. It is widely known that there are many metaphors in Chinese, more than those in English; and their use may be more flexible than that in English. This phenomenon is more obvious in Tang poetries. As for the translation, I’ll cite some examples and venture to analyze them.

E.g.1 功名富贵若常在，汉水亦应西北流。（李白：《江上吟》）(Xu Yuanchong:1987:246)

Sun Dayu: If worldly glamour were to last forever,

The steam of Han South-eastwards in its flow

Should turn the course north-westerly to go.

Fletcher: But sooner could flow backward to its fountains

This stream, than wealth and honor can remain.

Sun Dayu gives a semantic translation of “西北流”, but meanwhile he indicates that the stream of Han actually runs south-eastwards. The subjunctive mood “if…were”strengthens the illustration. But just as Mr. Lu Shuxiang points out, allusions cannot be translated semantically. In semantic translation, poetic sentiment implied in the allusion will lose its essence.

On the contrary, Fletcher adapts the allusion. Based on the TL readers’point of view, he adopts the communicative translation and uses“flow backwards”to avoid the difference between the two cultures in terms of the flowing direction of the rivers, and thus perfectly embodies the implied meaning of impossibility of “西北流”.

（二）Rhyme

Rhyme is one of the poems’features. English is a kind of international language and its sound and metre are revealed by word stress, sentence stress and liasion,etc. Translation of rhymes in literary works complies with the same principals.Rhyme is one of the greatest or important features of poems, which is especially obvious in Tang Poems.

E.g.2 床前明月光，疑是地上霜。举头望明月，低头思故乡。（李白：《静夜思》）( Lv Shuxiang,1948:104-105)

Watson:Moonlight in front of my bed-

I took it for frost on the ground，

I lift my eyes to watch the mountain moon,

Lower them and dream of home.

Cranmer-Byng: Athwart the bed,

I watch the moonbeams cast a trail.

So bright, so cold, so frail,

That for a space it gleams.

Like hoar-frost on the margin of my dreams,

I raise my head.——

The splendid moon I see;

Then droop my head,

And sink to dreams of thee——

My fatherland, of thee!

After analyzing the versions, especially the rhyme in each line, I divide them into two groups. The first is in normal rhyme and the second is rhymeless or not so normal. In the first group, in order to be faithful to the original poem, or to show its beauty in sound, to convert the sound effect of the original poem, the translators adopt a semantic translation. On the other hand, the second group is intended to the communicative translation, especially the version of Cranmer-Byng. Thus the translated poems look like western poems which are certainly easy for the target language receptors to read and accept.

（三）Hyperbole

Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used to emphasize a point,to create humor, or to achieve some similar effect. Hyperbole is very common in daily conversation both in Chinese and in English, so it is easy for the translator to reproduce the same rhetorical effect through semantic translation. The followings are the example.

E.g.4 日照香炉生紫烟，遥看瀑布挂前川。飞流直下三千尺，疑是银河落九（李白：《望庐山瀑布》）

Xu Yuanchong：The sunlit Censer peak exhales a wreath of cloud;

Like an upended stream the cataract sounds loud.

Its torrent dashes down three thousand feet from high;

As if the Silver River fell from azure sky.②

In this version, Mr. Xu obviously use the semantic translation. The poet expresses the“银河”as Silver River, which is according to the literal meaning of the Chinese word.

WangShouyyi：purple smoke rises from the mountaintop

the peak looks like an incense burner in the sunlight

far away I see the valley stretching before me

The whole waterfall hangs there

the torrent dropping three thousand feet

straight down to the valley floor

I think it must be the milky way

spilling to the earth from the heavens ③

In this version , Mr. Wang obviously adops the communicative translation. The poet expresses the “银河”as Milk Way other than the Silver River which gives the reader a vivid picture.“银河”, which in our mind,is a white and long river. If it is translated as Silver River, we would have a little imagination of what it really is.Milk Way,on the other hand,gives us a vivid picture of the “银河”, white,long, splendid,all these is the characteristic of the“银河”.

2.4 Antithesis

Antithesis is a counter-proposition and denotes a direct contrast to the original proposition. In setting the opposite, and individual brings out a contrast in the meaning by an obvious contrast in the expression. In literary fiction, an antithesis can be used to describe a character who presents the exact opposite as to personality type or moral outlook to another character in a particular piece of literature.

E.g.5 空山新雨后，天气晚来秋。明月松间照，清泉石上流。竹喧归浣女，莲动下渔舟。随意春芳歇，王孙自可留。（王维：《山居秋暝》）

The blank hills pure as a recent rain refines,

As dusk is falling autumn is felt in the bones.

A silver moon is shining through the pines,

The limpid brooks are gurgling o’er the stones.

Bamboos laugh out as girls from washing whirl,

The lotus stirs where boats out fishing curl.

The scents of spring may go; that’s Nature’s will,

This season here attracts the noble-man still.

The middle of the two together is an antithesis. "Bamboos, clear mountains high." Every word is very neat too. Also reached on the mood implied the level of nature itself, quiet and tranquil. The poetry is expressing the poet's longing for the land of dreams. Simply translated literally means a lot, even if target audience can not understand the unique Chinese Zen, at least the chilly poem was intended to show empathy. The translator was using the dual format approach. . The approach not only to retain the content but also reflects the beauty of the structure.

三、Conclusion

From the above several examples, we may draw a conclusion that semantic translation is mainly adopted with word-to-word translation and used to transfer rehetoricall dvices in Tang Peotry. But no matter which method a translator adopts, he must render the original accurately so that the translation can reproduce the greatest possible amount of the meaning in the original.

References

1.Graham.A.C.Poems of The Late T’ang[M].Britain: Penguin Books Ltd,1965.

2.Newmark,Peter.Approaches to Translation[M].Shanghai:Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 2001.

3.丛滋杭.中国古典诗歌英译理论研究[M].北京:国防工业出版社.2007.

4.马红军.翻译批评散论[M].北京:中国对外翻译出版公司.2000.

5.许渊冲.翻译的艺术[M].北京:中国对外翻译出版公司.1984.

作者简介：

胡龙青（1972－），女，安徽桐城人，硕士，副教授，研究方向：英美文学评论与文学翻译。