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1、Chapter 3 Three Beauties Make Fine Works3.1 Xus Successful Translation of the Tang PoetryThe Tang poetry is a gem of Chinese literary and enjoys a high position in worldliterature.Many famous Tang poems have been translated into foreign languages byChinese and foreign scholars.Guided by his ownthree
2、 beautiesprinciple on poetrytranslation,Professor Xu has translated many Tang poems into French and Englishand achieved great success.In the preface to his book English Version of Tang poetry Professor XuYuanzhong said:“The first thing of my translation of Tang poetry is to convey beautyin meaning o
3、f the original poem,the second is to convey beauty in sound of theoriginal poem and the third is beauty in form of the original.”According to him,weshould exert ourselves to convey the beauty in sound of the original work under theprovision of faithful reproduction of the original beauty in sense;fu
4、rthermore,weshould try our utmost to convey the beauty in form of the source text under theprovision of both the reproduction of the original beauty in sense and in sound.In aword,we should make the great endeavor to reproduce the original beauty in sense,in sound and in form comprehensively.(1984:5
5、2)Xu holds that a successfultranslation can“preserve to a high degree the original beauty in sense,in sound andin form.(1999:23);He tries his best to put Chinese classical verse into Englishrhythm so that the target language reader can also enjoy the musicality like thesource language reader does.3.
6、1.1 Reproduction of Beauty in MeaningIn Professor Xu Yuanzhongs opinion,beauty in meaning is of first importancein the translation of Tang poems.He said:“The first thing is to conveybeauty inmeaningof the original.”(1984:64)Chinese classical poems abound with images and are full of allusions whichco
7、me from its own historical and cultural background.What is more,English poetrydiffer from Chinese poetry in syntax,consequently faithfulness of poetry translationdoes not mean equivalence of linguistic features,which is the surface structure of theoriginal,but the deep structure meaning-its spirit.I
8、n many cases it is almostimpossible to preserve all the beauties of original poem in the translated one.But ifthe translator has a thorough comprehension of the original content and sees throughthe surface structure to grasp the essence in the deep structure before starting totranslate he/she can pr
9、oduce the artistic mood or the poets temperament and interestin the translated poem.Let us make a comparison between Xus rendition and that of others of thefamous poem鸟鸣涧by the great Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei to see howsuccessfully he keeps beauties,especially beauty in meaning,of the original poem
10、s.鸟鸣涧人闲桂花落，夜静春山空。月出惊山鸟，时鸣春涧中。Version 1 Birds Call ValleyMan at leisure,cassia flowers fall.The night still,spring mountain empty.The moon emerges,startling mountain birds:At times they call within the spring valley.Pauling Yu(Xu Yuanzhong,2003:82)Version 2 Stillness AudibleFree and at peace.Let the
11、sweet asmanthus shed its bloom.Night falls andthe very mountains dissolve into the void.When the moon rises and the birds arearoused,their desultory chirping only accents the deep hush of the dales.Weng Xianliang(1985:16)Version 3 The Dale of Spring BirdsI hear osmanthus blooms fall unenjoyed;In sti
12、ll night hills dissolve into the void.The rising moon arouses birds to sing;Their fitful twitters fill the dale with spring.Xu Yuanzhong(2003:82)Wang Wei believed in Buddhism,so many of his poems show his carefreementality and his enjoyment of natural beauty.The poem鸟鸣涧is regarded as oneof Wang Weis
13、 masterpieces.In this quatrain,he describes a tranquil and peacefulrealm which contains both dynamic and static pictures by using the five imagesmountain,person,asmanthus bloom,the moonandbirds.Showing mansleisure and asmanthus blooms at ease,Wang Wei praises the natural beauty and hisundisturbed in
14、ner world in this poem.In Version 1,“人闲”is translated intoman at leisurewhich seems literallyfaithful to the original but is not so in the deep sense.In version 2,the translator usesfree and peaceto render“闲”which is a little far fromfaithfulnessin form butcloser to the original in artistic mood.The
15、 translator of the third version did nottranslate“闲”,but added the wordunenjoyedinstead.Now that the picture ofwatching falling flowers shows a person is in a leisurely and carefree mood,osmanthus blooms unenjoyedagrees with the spirit of the original which tells thiskind of sense exactly.The first
16、line of the original in Version 1 was rendered asman at leisure,cassia flowers fall,which makesman at leisurean adverbial in grammar.Version 2addsletwhich tells that the poet does not disturb the peacefulflowersfor hehimself isfree and at peace.Version 3 addshear,forun-enjoyedhas depictedthe poets u
17、ndisturbed and calm innermost world,and if he hears the sound of fallingosmanthus blooms,it is evident that the night must be quiet!The wordheartells theextreme quietness of“夜静”.In Version 1“静”is translated asstill,which is a general word for“静”.InVersion 2 the meaning of quietness is merged intovoi
18、d:mountains dissolve intothe voidwhennight falls.This gives the reader a visual image that there is apicture with poem and poem with picture.It can be said that the translation techniqueis excellent.The translator of version 3 adopts the translation of Version 2,but heuses his inventive power for ma
19、kingvoidandun-enjoyedrhymed,which makesthe reader not only feel the beauty but enjoy the poem audio-visually as well.In Version 1“惊”isstartlingwhich also meansa surprise;in Versions 2and 3 it is rendered asarouse.Becausestartlealso means sudden changing,andarousecan not only tell the moon is rising
20、but a picture that the moon is emergingfrom clouds,therefore the wordarouseis more reasonable.The rendition of“时鸣春涧中”in Version 1 is too literal which seems morefaithful to the original,though;in Version 2desultoryfor时is too refined,but thewhole meaning is very beautiful and full of poetic beauty,fo
21、r it tells thattheirdesultory chirping only accents the deep hush of the dale.The translator of Version3 adopts an original approach in sayingtheir fitful twitters fills the dale with springto give the reader more room for imagination.Moreover,fitfulnot only shows“惊”of birds but forms alliteration w
22、ithfillas well,thus achievingbeauty insound.In a word,Version 1 emphasizessimilarity in form,Version 2similarity inmeaningand Version 3beauty in meaning,in sound and in form.3.1.2 Reproduction of Beauty in SoundTalking about beauty in sound,Professor Xu quoted Yuan Xingpeis words thatthe poet“should
23、 not only affect the reader by meaning contained in language butmove the reader by sound of the language.He should give the poem musicaleffect.”(袁行霈，1996：95)According to Yuan,“rhythm can give delight andbeautiful feeling to people,and can meet the demand of people both in their life andpsychology.Wh
24、enever a rhythm recycles,people will have the feeling that they haveknown it already.This feeling is just like meeting an old friend which makes thempleasant and warm.(1996：96).As far asbeauty in formis concerned,Professor XuYuanzhong tries in his practice to keep the musical effect of the original.
25、Let us takethe translation of the poem春怨written by the Tang poet Jin Changxu as anexample to see how to retain beauty in sound of the original春怨打起黄莺儿，莫叫枝上啼。啼时惊妾梦，不得到辽西。Version 1 A Ladys ComplaintThat golden oriole,do chase her way.With her Warbling in the tree,my dreamswould be ruined:Id never get t
26、o the far frontier.Version 2 Spring LamentShoo that oriole away!Dont let him sing!If from these dreams I wakeIll never reach Liaoning.Zhang Tingshen（1991：245）Version 3 A Lovers DreamDrive orioles off the tree!Their songs awake poor meFrom dreaming of my dearFar off on the frontier.Xu Yuanzhong(2000:
27、207)Jing Changxu was a Tang Dynasty poet.In this poem,he tells that a wife ismissing her husband who is fighting far away from hometown indirectly by sayingthat she wants to stop the oriole singing.And by saying that the wifes husband is infar northern border outpost“辽西”，where wars constantly broke
28、out,the poetindirectly implies his attitude toward the war.The theme of this poem is complicated.The original poem consists of four lines with five characters in each line.Thesecond and the fourth lines in the poem are rhymed which makes it read pleasant tothe ear.The renditions listed above are car
29、efully chosen.The first represents thetranslation of verse in prose(to be introduced in Chapter 4);the second representsthe free translation(to be introduced in Chapter 4);the third represents thethreebeautiesadvocated by Xu Yuanzhong.Professor Weng Xianliang translated the poem in prose.It is true
30、that histranslation has preserved the spirit of the poem to a great extent,yet the structure ofthe rendition is loose,and this makes it lose the musical effect of the original and inturn lose the poetic beauty to some extent.Zhang Tingchens translation is not faithful to the original to a great exte
31、nt.Heuses an onomatopoeic word“shoo”to express the meaning of“打起”.This reducesthe hidden bitterness of the wife.An obvious mistake he made is his translation of“辽西”as“Liaoning”which is a different place from the place written in the originaland conveys different meaning as well.Just as above-analyze
32、d,“辽西”refers to thewar front,not a specific place.Zhangs mistake in the translation of“辽西”weakensthe effect of the original.Professor Xus translation reproduces the spirit of the original relativelysuccessfully.He did not translate“辽西”literally but asfrontierin its deepstructure meaning.What is more
33、,his rendition is rhymed as the original.Forexample,in the original“啼”in the second line rhymes with“西”in the fourth line;in the renditiontreein the first line rhymed withmein the second line anddearin the third line rhymed withfrontierin the last line.The rhyme scheme of therendition is aabb.The mu
34、sical effect is kept for the most part.What is more,eachline of the original poem contains five characters with five syllables,and in thetranslated poem each line has five words with six syllables.Therefore,theconciseness of the original is also kept.Seen from as a whole,Xus translation isbeautyin s
35、oundbesidesbeauty in meaningandin form.3.1.3 Reproduction ofThree BeautiesThree beautiesprinciple is an organic whole.However,in practice of poetrytranslation,owing to the fact that there are more differences than similarities betweenthe Chinese and English languages and cultures,poetic elements of
36、one languagemay be not be the same in another and there is often no corresponding form inanother language.So when translated in another language,the outer facets of poetry,that is,rhythm,rhyme scheme,tonal pattern,syntactic structure can not be alwaystotally kept.The translator can keep，however,the
37、original artistic mood and style.To see how thethree beautiescan be reproduced in rendition,let us see followingtranslation of a poem written by Li Po:独坐敬亭山众鸟高飞尽，孤云独去闲。相看两不厌，只有敬亭山。Version 1.Sitting Alone at Ching-ting MountainThe flocks of birds up high have flown away,One single cloud moves leisure
38、ly along.For looking at each other without getting tiredThere is only Ching-ting Mountain.Hans H.Frankel(Xu Yuanzhong,1992:216)Version 2 Alone on The Chin-ting HillsThe birds have flown away on pinions high,A cloud in heedless mood goes floating by.The two that never change their fixed regard,Are ye
39、,fair Ching-ting hills,and I,your bard.Tsai Ting-kan(Xu Yuanzhong,1992:216)Version 3 The Mountain and IHigh into the sky they have flown,those warblers and pipers,every last of them.And the cloud sails on,silent,stately,and superior.What of it?We find peace in communication with each other,the mount
40、ain andI.WengXianliang(1985:19-20)Version 4 Sitting Alone Facing Peak JingtingAll birds have flow away,so high;A lonely cloud drifts on,so free.We are not tired,the Peak and I,Nor I of him,nor he of me.Xu Yuanzhong(1992:216)The poem was written by Li Po after his alienation from the imperial court.O
41、n the surface the poet is describing the beauty of nature,but actually he isexpressing his feeling of solitude.By first presenting and then removing the birdsand the cloud,the poet intensifies the atmosphere of solitude.Let us make a comparative analysis on the four versions.In Version 1,there isonl
42、y one lone figure in the translators literal rendering“The flocks of birds up highhave flown away”.Then,how can this figure“looking at each other without gettingtired?”The rhymed version of Tsai Ting-gan is better than Version 1 in keeping theoriginal meaning.But it fails to represent the atmosphere
43、 of solitude.In Version 3,the beauty in meaning is kept to a great extent,but the musical beauty of the originalis lost as it is only an interpretation of the original.Professor Axs rendition is verysuccessful in retaining beauty in form,sound and meaning.Firstly it retains themeaning and artistic m
44、ood of the original byall birdsfor“众鸟”,a lonely cloudfor“孤云,etc.Secondly its rhythm is natural and scheme rhyme similar:it iswritten in the iambic tetrameter and the scheme rhyme is a b a b,i.e.highin thefirst line rhymes withIin the third line,freein the second line rhymes withmein the fourth line.
45、Thirdly it bears a form corresponding to that of the original.As wecan see,the original is a five-syllabic quatrain consisting of four lines with fivecharacters in each line.The rendition is also made up of four lines with eightsyllables in each line.As to the rendition of antithesis,the translator
46、has succeeded inreproducing it.In the first two lines,the sentence pattern is SVA(subject+predicate+adverbial),i.e.All birds/A lonely cloud+have flow/drifts+away/on,so high/free.By means of the carefully-chosen diction and juxtaposition,the translator hassucceeded in reproducing not only the origina
47、l meaning but also the original beautyin form,that is,the spirit of the original poem.3.2.Xus Translation of the Song LyricsSong lyric was originally composed for beautiful songstresses to sing in wineshop or at farewell banquet,so it is full of musicality which makes it different fromthe Tang poetry both in form and rhyme scheme.On translation of Song Lyrics,Professor Xu Yuanzhong says in the preface of 300 Song Lyrics:“When I translate aSong Lyric,I tried my best to keepbeauty in meaning,in sound and in formof theoriginal,just as the way I translate The Book
