从女性主义视角看《白居易诗集》中女性角色的翻译

 2022-04-07 20:37:37

论文总字数:42065字

摘 要

中国古诗文作为中华文化的瑰宝,代表了中国古代文学成就的巅峰。古诗文的英译促进了中国文化走出国门,使世界上其他国家的人们了解和熟悉中国文化。但由于汉语音、形、意方面的特色,中国古诗文的英译一向是翻译中的难点。特别是中国文化喜含蓄, 其中诸多女性形象带有其隐喻含义, 给翻译更平添了一份难处。许渊冲老先生毕生致力于中西文化互译工作,已经在国内外出版中、英、法文著作一百二十多部, 其中中国古代诗词几乎占到了一半, 被赞誉是“书销中外百余本,诗译英法唯一人。”他的译作对研究中国古诗文英译具有重要指导意义。

本文首先对白居易诗和女权主义翻译理论研究进行了综述,介绍了张伯伦提出的女性主义翻译中“雌雄同体”的观点。再介绍本文的理论框架,用解释学的概念,将翻译作品拆分出作者的视域、翻译者的视域和二者视域的融合。二者视域的融合又可以分成有界的融合和无界的融合。本文同过分析许渊冲翻译白居易诗过程中有界和无界的视域融合,探究译本中女性角色的翻译。

研究发现,许渊冲翻译过程中通过主语的改变和用词的转换,实现了与白居易视域的无界的融合;通过保留诗歌的形式韵律、用词和意境,实现了与白居易视域的无界合。两种融合都更好地传达了白居易诗中女性角色的生存状态和内心情感,让外国读者更切身体会当时女性的处境,实现了张伯伦所说的“雌雄同体”,也为中国文化走向世界推波助澜。

关键词:女性主义翻译;古诗文翻译;解释学

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments i

Abstract ii

摘要 iv

Table of Contents v

Chapter One Introduction 1

1.1 Research Objective and Significance 1

1.2 Research Methods 2

1.3 Thesis Structure 2

Chapter Two Literature Review 3

2.1 Studies on Feminist Translation Theory 3

2.2 Studies on Translation of Bai Juyi’s poems. 5

2.3 Comments 6

Chapter Three Theoretic Framework 8

3.1 The Concept of Hermeneutics 8

3.1.1 Text’s Horizon 9

3.1.2 Interpreter’s Horizon 9

3.1.3 Fusion of Two Horizons 9

Chapter Four Translation Principles and Strategies of Poetry and Essays in Selected Poems of Bai Juyi Translated by Xu Yuanchong Viewed from Feminist Translation Theory 11

4.1 “Unbonded” Fusion 11

4.1.1 Unbonded Fusion Realized by The Change of Subjects 11

4.1.2 Unbonded Fusion Realized by The Change of Words 13

4.2 Bonded Fusion 13

4.2.1 Bonded Fusion with The Tame Forms and Rhythms 14

4.2.2 Bonded Fusion of The Same Words Used 14

4.2.3 Bonded Fusion of Artistic Concepts 15

Chapter Five Conclusion 17

5.1 Major Findings and Limitations 17

5.2 Suggestions for Further Studies 18

References 19

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Research Objective and Significance

Chinese poetry is a precious heritage from our ancestors. Ancient poets use poems to document their lives and to express their feelings. However, in such a patriarchy centralized feudal society, women seldom have chance to study and less written materials are written by women. Their voices have been ignored.

Bai Juyi was a great poet who had great influence in the middle Tang Dynasty. His poetry proposition and poetry creation played an important role in the history of Chinese poetry with his emphasis on universality and realism. He enjoyed writing poems for others and was good at describing characters in the most expressive language. He wrote a lot of poems for women, which represents women’s situations and emotions at that time.

When translating those women characters, how does Xu, a male interpreter, empathize women characters’ feelings and deliver women’s sights and feelings to readers becomes a vital question. Chamberlain mentioned in her book that interpreters should reach a status called “Androgyny”, which requires male translators to pass women’s emotions and thoughts to readers. Through carefully analysis, this thesis believes that Xu has reached this status through the bonded and unbonded fusion of horizons of texts and those of the interpreter.

This thesis aims to find ways to interpret female characters under the feminist translation theory. How can we speak for ancient Chinese women? How can foreigners understand ancient Chinese women’s situations and emotions? Solving of those questions will help foreigners have a better understanding of Chinese culture and help promote our cultural treasure to be known by the world.

1.2 Research Methods

This thesis conducts the study through comprehensive review and textual analysis. Thesis and books about Xu Yuanchong’s translation, feminist translation theory, and English translation of classic Chinese poetry and essays come from CNKI and Nanjing Library. Textual analysis means the analysis of poems under the structure of hermeneutics theory. All examples of Chinese poems and their translations come from Selectd Poems of Bai Juyi Translated by Xu Yuanchong.

1.3 Thesis Structure

This thesis is composed of five chapters.

Chapter One is an introduction of this thesis. In this Chapter, the author claims the research objective and significance, research methods and the structure of the thesis.

Chapter Two is the literature review on feminist translation theory and previous studies on Bai Juyi’s poems. It briefly presents the history of English translation of Bai Juyi’s poems and essays, as well as the typical thesis and books about it at home and abroad.

Chapter Three is mainly about hermeneutics theory, the theoretic framework of the whole thesis. Firstly, this Chapter introduces hermeneutics theory. Then, it deals with the text’s horizon and the interpreter’s horizon. The last part introduces the fusion of two horizons, including the “bonded” and “unbounded” horizon.

Chapter Four explains how Xu reaches “Androgyny” through his translation. This Chapter begins with discussing the “unbounded fusion” that Xu uses when translating the female characters in the poems by subjects changing and words changing. Then, it analyzes the bonded fusion in Xu’s translation from the view of forms, meaning and artistic concepts.

Chapter Five is the conclusion part of the thesis, in which the author summarizes the thesis’s main findings and limitations, and puts forward some suggestions for further studies on English translation of Chinese poetry and essays under the view of feminist translation theory.

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Studies on Feminist Translation Theory

The “cultural turn” in the 1980s induced Western scholars' interest in the discussion of rights, ideology, and translation. The genres that had a strong influence in this field of study were feminist translation theories, Brazilian translators, translation theorists and “cannibalism”, postcolonial translation studies and deconstruction schools. These genres have made some progress in translation studies in the 1990s and are still developing.

Feminist translation theory was popular in Canada, with representatives Barbara Godard, Sherry Simon, Suzanne de Lotbiniere-Harwood and Lori Chamberlain and so on. Feminists believed that the traditional view of translation regarded translation as a woman, and translation relied on the original, which not only devalued the translator and the translation, but also discriminates against women. They demanded that the relationship between the translation and the original text should be redefined, and that the translation should enjoy the same status as the original text; translation should not only be a matter of specific language skills, but should also include a broader field of ideology. The feminist translation perspective revealed the fact that social ideology affected translator translation (Chamberlain, 1992:67).

Sherry Simon, the famous feminist translation theorist pointed out that in traditional translation theory, translators and translators were often associated with women and were regarded as low and weak. (Simon, 1996:114) In the mid-16th century, the English translator of the French writer Montaigne, Jone Florio, used a concise formula to summarize the low status of both translation and women in tradition: all translations, because they are inevitable Defective, were "generally considered to be a woman". Translators and women had historically been in a weak position in their respective subordinate hierarchical order: the translator was the author's maid, and the woman was lower than the man. Simon believed that the original authority on the reproduction of the reproduction was linked to positive and negative images, the original text was considered a strong and productive male, and the translation was a weak derivative (Simon, 1996: 59). The words which described translations was dominated by low-stakes, loyal and unfaithful images, and vocabulary that used gender discrimination at random. One of the most stubborn and lasting expressions was the phrase “les belles infideles”. This metaphor with discriminatory factors was a very popular view of translation at the time. The reason why this statement prevailed was that it opposed loyalty and beauty, rules and elegance, making the tediousness of moral obligations and the beauty of styles incompatible with each other. The goal of feminist translation was to identify and criticize concepts in which both female and translation were at the bottom of society and literature. To do so, it must explore the process of “feminization” of translation and attempt to shake the power structure that sustained this connection. The feminist translation reinterpreted an old problem that ran through the history of translation, "faithfulness." The feminist translation believed that loyalty was neither the author’s nor the reader’s, but the scheme of the writing project’s. Feminist translations believed that people should re-understand "faithfulness." Our understanding of faithful tradition was poor, because we were overly dependent on the rigid, mutually reinforcing binary opposition. Translation was seen as a reproduction behavior in which the meaning of the text was transformed from one language to another. We had made an absolute interpretation of the two poles involved in the translation process, implicit between the two languages, between the original and the translation. The opposition between men and women cannot be absolutely fixed; These binary ratios should be placed in a continuum where each element could be considered relative. As Basnett pointed out, what contemporary translation studies were trying to break was to treat the original text and the translation as two old-fashioned binary translations, and at the same time try to treat translation as a complete and cultural system. Combined dynamic activities (Susan, 1990: 94). Only by destroying the absolute nature of the two poles could we re-understand the relationship between society and literature.

In the article "The Metaphorical Meaning of Gender and Translation," Laurie Chamberlain also analyzed the metaphor of "unfaithful beauty." (Chamberlain, 1992:68) She pointed out that the reason why this maxim spread widely and lasted for a long time was not only the beauty of the original French language, but also its cultural connotation. The faithfulness of translation shared a common characteristic with the faithfulness of marriage. This faithfulness was seen as an implicit contract between the translation (as a woman) and the original (as a husband, father or author). However, in traditional marriages, a “double standard” was actually implemented—the wife (translation) openly tried for “unfaithfulness”, while the husband (original) did not constitute a crime for legal reasons. Chamberlain also proposed that female translators and male translators should be gender-interchangeable or "Androgyny" in the process of translation, so that the author's horizon and the current horizons can be fused.

2.2 Studies on Translation of Bai Juyi’s poems.

Xu Yuanchong (1984:49) and its English translation" was an earlier article on the English translation of the poem. The article compared the different translations of British scholars, Fletcher, and American scholars. It proposed a good translation should convey the beauty, sound and form of the original poem, and re-translate the whole poem. This translation had also become a model for the study of English translation of The Song of Everlasting Sorrow.

Dai Yuqun (2004:69), in "On Cultural Communication in Poetry Translation: Comment on Two Versions of Changyou Song" ,analyzed two translations by Xu Yuanchong and Fletcher, focusing on cultural exchange. The author divided the culture into three levels: surface culture, middle culture and deep culture. In order to achieve communication and communication at each cultural level, the author put forward corresponding translation strategies and techniques, and had a good reference in translation theory.

Zhou Zilun (2007:16) compared the English translations of Li Shi with Fletcher’s in The Comparison of English Translation of Chang Huisong. The author did not judge the pros and cons of the translation, but compares the rhythm, rhetoric and rhetoric of poetry.

Dang Zhengsheng (2010:99) analyzed “长恨歌”(Xu Yuanchong’s version) using "three beauties". The article makes a large-scale analysis of Mr. Xu's essays, from the lexical level and highly praises the accuracy of Xu's translation of the text and the background of the original text and the characteristics of the characters.

Bai Jing (2009:22), in "The Problem of Translating Ancient English Poems from the Perspective of Chinese and English Differences" compared the translation of Yang Xianyi and that of Xu Yuanchong from the perspective of linguistics. By comparing the two translations, the author proposes the modification techniques used in translation from the aspects of subject, tense, sentence and rhyme, so as to overcome the obstacles caused by differences in language and culture, and strive to achieve the realm of meaning, sound and shape.

Li Suhui (2012:12) "On the Cultural Transmission of Special Words in the Translation of Chang Hui Song" and "The Cultural Deficiency in the English Translation of Ancient Poetry Cultural Qualities": A Case Study of English Translation of "Hate Songs" Cultural transmission and lack of in-depth discussion. The author started with the names of places, names, women's makeup costumes and Taoist nouns, and analyzed the difficulties and main reasons of the sentence construction in the process of translation of cultural traits. It aimed to analyze the importance of the source text in the process of translation.

2.3 Comments

In summary, the theoretical framework for the definition and research of the cultural semantics of words is relatively mature. The comparative study of Chinese and English vocabulary also involved various aspects, and there were many related literatures. The research on the various versions of the English translation of The Song of Everlasting Sorrow was also various, each has its own merits, mainly focusing on translation strategy research, literary image research, cultural background research, translation appreciation research, etc. Among them, Xu Yuanchong's translation theory "three beauty" and "three transformations" are the basis for the study of the English translation of the poem. Some of these articles focused on the summary of translation skills, some analyzed the subtleties of translators' translations, and some discussed the misunderstanding of Chinese traditional culture in the translation process. Relevant research had achieved certain results. However, from the overall point of view, most of the articles focused on the author's appreciation or superiority and inferiority from the perspective of translation studies. The angle of investigation was limited. Less researches have been done from the perspective of feminist translation theory. Bai Juyi was good at writing poems for various people. The lyric poems from the perspective of women were too numerous to study. From the perspective of feminist translation theory, it is helpful to convey the moods behind poetry through translation.

Previous feminist translation studies focused mainly on the theory itself or on texts which were mainly novels written after the 19th century. Moreover, most Chinese poem studies analyzed the text from the view of Skopos theory or Xu’s “three beauty” theory. Seldom studies the Chinese poems from the view of feminist translation theory.

However, China had been a patriarchy centralized feudal society for over 4000 years. Power has long been held by seldom male aristocracy. Women’s right to speak had been deprived. Thus, poems written in that period, which reflect people’s value at that time, is a good sample text for feminist research. Just as Sun Kangyi (Zhang, 2002:104) has mentioned: In ancient China, poets had the habit of employ women character or love story as the image of Asylum. Poets often used sad love poems to cover for their disappointments in politic careers. In this way, what did the women characters in those poems really mean and how to translate those asylums become important tasks when talking about poem translation. This thesis is going to analyze the translation of women characters in this book from the view of feminist translation theory.

Chapter Three Theoretic Framework

3.1 The Concept of Hermeneutics

The fusion of horizons is Gadamer's interpretation theory from the perspective of philosophical hermeneutics. He believes that the horizon is the “viewing area, which encompasses and embraces everything that can be seen from a foothold” (Gadamer, 2016:428). Translation is interpretation. Interpretation is the process of fusion of horizons. It is the process of interpreting the translator's words to him first (Gadamer, 2016:540). In his book Truth and Method, Gadamer uses translation as an example to discuss the basic principles of horizon fusion, which provides a theoretical soil for translation studies. Hong Handing translated this theory and made a profound interpretation (Hong, 2001:500). Zhu Jianping argued that Gadamer's "translation is interpretation, interpretation is the process of fusion of horizons". He emphasized that the original works have the same visual field as the target language that used to construct the translation. Translation is the process of integrating these two horizons (Hong, 2001:72). The process of translation is firstly the translator's field of vision actively approaching the original text field. Then the two constantly get integrated, and finally the original text information and artistic conception are transfered to the reader as accurately as possible is realized.

According to A General History of Western Translation Theory, we can use the concept of Androgyny to explain the Zhang's feminist translate theory. Sometimes, interpretations of the single text can be various. For example, in Bai, Li's poem"玉阶怨": "却下水晶帘"(literal means "go back to room and put down the pearl curtain"), we don't know who the subject of this poem is. It can be "she" (the maid in an imperial palace) or "I"(may be the one who is talking). When it's a "she", the poem is writing from the third person perspective; "I" is from the first person perspective. (Liu, 2009:489) Thus, "hermeneutics" divide the interpretation of the text into two layers: the first refers to the author's view of the history and translator's interpretation from his/her own view, and the second refers to the combination of two views.

3.1.1 Text’s Horizon

Text's version refers to the content, intentions, opinions and altitudes contained in the original text itself, representing the typical historical horizons and cognitive levels of the author. (Liu, 2009:488)

3.1.2 Interpreter’s Horizon

Translator's version refers to translator's interpretation of the text. Due to different backgrounds, values and experiences, different translators can come up with different interpretations of the text. Translator may interpret the text in a different way from the author. (Liu, 2009:488)

3.1.3 Fusion of Two Horizons

When translators combine their versions with the auther's, the final translation shows the fusion of two version. This is just what Chanmberlain, Lori(1992:67) called "Androgyny": A woman translator combines her version (from a woman's side) with the author's version (from a male's view). For example, when Bing Xin translates Tagore's poems, she perfectly combines her sensitivity of love with Tagore's peruse for perfection and his love for hometown and children.

When a translator tries to interpret as close as to the author's intention, this fusion is "bounded". When a translator brings things from his/her horizon to the text, the fusion is "unbounded".

The concepts of “bounded” and “unbounded” were first applied to the field of cognitive linguistics by Langacker (1987:60). Shen Jiaxuan borrowed this concept from the field of cognitive linguistics into the field of Chinese linguistics (Shen, 1995:367), followed by Lu Jianming (2014:360) and other domestic scholars further applying the theory of "bounded" and "unbounded" to grammar research. Shen Jiaxuan believes that there are contradictions between "bounded" and "unbounded" in terms of space, movement in time, and degree of traits (Shen, 1995:369), and reiterates that human beings also have "bounded" and "unbounded" in cognition. "This basic opposite relationship is the opposition in a certain cognitive domain (Shen, 2004:50). People recognize things according to the opposition between "bounded" and "unbounded", and the translation process is a process of continuous integration of views. Translation is the "bounded" or "unbounded" fusion of the translator's horizon and the original text’s horizon. Here, the "bounded" fusion means that the translator's vision approaches to the text’s; and the "unbounded" fusion refers to the influence of different translators on individual texts because of their historical times, life experiences, knowledge structures, cognitive realms, etc. The "bounded" view of the original text refers to the content, intention, viewpoint, and attitude contained in the original text itself. It represents the typical historical horizon and cognitive level of the original author. This is the translator’s understanding of the original text. "Boundary" area (Li, 2012:94); "Unbounded" in the original text field means that the text is open after the creation of the text, such as different readers will have different interpretations of the same work. “Bounded” and “Unbounded” are two aspects of the horizon, which are antagonistic in the cognitive process.

Chapter Four Translation Principles and Strategies of Poetry and Essays in Selected Poems of Bai Juyi Translated by Xu Yuanchong Viewed from Feminist Translation Theory

4.1 “Unbonded” Fusion

Unbounded fusion is usually realized by the change of subject and words’ meaning. The "unbounded" fusion refers to the influence of different translators on individual texts such as historical times, life experiences, knowledge structures, cognitive realms, etc., and their interpretations of the original text are different and uncertain.

4.1.1 Unbonded Fusion Realized by The Change of Subjects

Take Bai’s “长相思” (Everlasting Sorrow)as an example. In Bai's version, this poem's subject was himself. He was feeling sorrow for the leaving of his concubine, Fan Su, who had stayed with him for years and asked to leave for unknown reason. Ancient poems always used flowing water to convey their sadness. Fan's hometown was Hangzhou. If she returned to Hangzhou, she must pass the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal of which Southern river and Western river were important parts. Thus, it is reasonable that Southern river and Western river could flow to Malon Islet. (Ma, 2017:306) Bai also used "Wu Mountain" where Hangzhou (Fan's hometown) located to represent his lovesick news for Fan. However, in Xu's translation, the subject changed. This poem became one that a wife used to express her lovesickness for her husband, who was faraway working (as we can see from the book's notes) (Xu, 2014: 126).

We can also find clues in the sentence ”恨到归时方始休”,"My deep sorrow will last till you I have met". In the translation, we can feel a sense of hope -- though they are apart and suffer a lot, but all the sorrows were preparations for their reunion. They would be together again. However, in the original context, "恨到归时方始休" was an exaggeration of the poet's sadness, just like the sentence in another poem"春蚕到死丝方尽". The poet knew that they would never meet each other. Poet's concubine leaving the poets for her hometown meant that she will never come back. It was a fairware. That's why the poet's sorrow was so deep. Xu's translation showed the hope that they will meet again, which gave clue that the subject was not the poet in Xu's translation. (Xu, 2014:126) In Xu's interpretation, such deep and everlasting sorrow must come from a woman. This was what his value and experience bring to him. Yuanchong, Xu combined his version with the original text and came up with a new vision. It's an unbounded fusion. Actually, if we don’t know the background of this poem, it’s easy for us to have the same interpretation as Xu’s. It’s our horizon that influence our interpretation. Our history lessons let us know the love-sadness of ancient women. Their voice should be heard. Xu, in this way, changes the poem into the women’s angle, which will help foreigners know ancient Chinese women’s situation and mood.

Many Chinese sentences do not have subjects. When translating these sentences, Xu added the subjects for the poem. This can be found in the second part of the poem. The original text is “思悠悠”“恨悠悠”, which does not have a subject. It can be the third person looking at this sad woman or the woman who self is signing. When Xu translated it as “how can I forget”, this sentence had a subject “I”. He added his own interpretation to the translation. It became the women signing for what she suffers and for the injustice of the fate.

The same example can be found in Xu’s translation of Bai’s another poem, “花非花”“A Flower in the Haze”. In the whole passage, there was no human as a subject. However, Xu speculated that this poem moaned for a death of a woman from the time when the poem was written. (Xu, 2014:54). Thus, he chose “she” as the subject and showed how eager the poet was to see “she” everywhere but ended up finding “she” had gone. An untouchable traditional Chinese woman’s image is now clear.

4.1.2 Unbonded Fusion Realized by The Change of Words

In this chapter, the interpreter makes some aggression to the original text and uses different words in the target language.

In the original text of “Everlasting Sorrow”, “泗水”and “汴水”are names of rivers. However, foreigners do not know the river’s names. Xu changed the name into “southern river”and “northern river”, which changed the words, but kept the concepts and even made the concepts more obvious. Readers would pay more attention to “flowing river”, which represented everlasting sadness and understand how ancient Chinese women’s sadness was through this translation.

In the second part of this poem, Bai used “恨” twice. The word here meant a strong sadness combined with helplessness. (Ma, 2017:307). Xu used “regret” for “恨”, which makes readers wonder what was she regretting. It could be greater sorrow or complex stories behind “regret”. The adding of Xu’s vision left readers more space to imagine.

At the beginning of the second part, Xu also added a word, “O”. “O” sounds like signing. The poet here didn’t mention any sign in the original poem. “O” attributed to Xu’s own horizon. He believed that the woman must be signing when suffering from lovesickness. “O” not only enhanced the beauty of sound and rhythm of this poem, but also conveyed deep sadness of women at that time.

4.2 Bonded Fusion

Bounded fusion refers to the translation that translators use what they can to show what the original text means. Bai enjoyed writing poems from the view of women of all walks of life. His poems could combine women's tenderness, sensitivity and sadness in the history. When we talk about women characters in his poems, we are talking about women's situations and feelings in history. Bounded fusion in "Androgyny" requires male translators to express the feelings and thoughts of female characters. Literature translation must be close to the text in meaning and style (Nida, 2004: 123). “bounded fusion” can be realized from three aspects: form, meaning and artistic concepts.

4.2.1 Bonded Fusion with the Same Forms and Rhythms

“A Wife’s Grief in Autumn” is a seven-character quatrain. Interpreter also usesd four lines to translate it. Almost all Xu’s poems were close to the original text’s form. In Xu’s “three beauties” theory, he emphasized form beauty, Xu believed that the main point was that the length of the verse and the aspect of the work should be as similar as possible. He said: "On the beauty of poetry, there are two aspects of length and symmetry. It is best to be similar, at least to be neat." (Xu, 2010:75)

In our analysis, the same form is often set to express the same meaning. For example, in “Everlasting Longing”,Xu used the original text’s structure and rhythm, repeating the water “low”, which brought a sound of unstoppable flowing water. Women in the history could be apart from their husbands for more than one year. Their love sadness and worries for their husbands are just like those water, flowing and flowing without stop. (Ma,2017: 307) The rhythm vividly depicted this kind of sadness and brought women’s moods to readers.

4.2.2 Bonded Fusion of the Same Words Used

“A Wife’s Grief in Autumn” tells a story of a wife who was sewing clothes for her husband far away in the army. In the original text, the whole atmosphere is cold. From words like “moon” and “autumn frost”, we know the time. By using: “outside pearly screen”, “by lamplight” , ”cut clothes” and “scissors”, Xu translated the exact meaning of the words in the poem and depicted an image of lonely women sewing clothes in late autumn in her room. In this way, women’s situation at that time could finally be seen by people. Moreover, women’s mood could also be found in this exact same word translation. In China, “moon” has long been a symbol of miss and “Autumn” is born with a sense of sadness. "寒月","秋霜" and "剪刀" are all cold stuffs. The wife was preparing clothes for her husband, which meant that he was suffering from cold. (Xu, 2014:96) All the cold images brought a sense of sadness and lovesickness. When translating this poem, Xu used "The moon", "the forest", "Autumn" and "the scissors", the same cold images in English, which expressed the sense of sadness and loneliness to foreign readers. By using the words with the same meaning in target language, Xu let ancient Chinese women’s words been heard. He sensed the women’s mood and expresses it, which was what Chamberlain called “Androgyny”.

In “Song of A Pipa Player”, the interpreter used exact words to translate the story of the pipa player “I won my master’s admiration for my skill” and “My beauty was envied by songstresses ever still” exactly showed how talented and beautiful she was. “Day passed, nights came, and my beauty began to fade” and “Fewer and fewer were cabs and steeds at my door” showed how desolate her life becomes. (2014:69) Xu didn’t change a word. Women’s desperate fate was shown. No matter how talented a woman was in the past, she could not escape the fate of marrying a man and had the normal boring life since then. Xu expressed women’s depression, helplessness and loneliness.

4.2.3 Bonded Fusion of Artistic Concepts

The artistic concept of this poem is sadness and missing, which is showed through the whole atmosphere -- “cold”. Xu tried to translate as close as possible to the original atmosphere and the central idea. He focused on "cold". By using words like "chill" and "cold" for three times, Xu successfully depicted a cold dark lonely Autumn night and expressed the wife's feelings to the readers. Though he changed some words of the original text, like “梧桐”,“沉沉”,words like “shiver”( by using a personification) and “cold” brought an even more cold atmosphere and enhanced the woman’s sad feeling. Xu employed his knowledge of language and poems, and his empathy, felt the woman's feeling and successfully presented the original atmosphere and meaning of the text to foreigners, which is a bounded fusion of the translator's horizon and the author's. In this way, he helped the women's word be heard by the world and realized the "Androgyny".

Chapter Five Conclusion

5.1 Major Findings and Limitations

Juyi, Bai, a famous Chinese poet of Tang Dynasty, was good at depicting women’s life and speaking for them. When translating these poems, Xu, as a male interpreter, precisely translates women’s helpless, sadness and lovesickness in ancient China, by using bonded fusion of horizons and unbounded fusion of horizons. When using unbounded horizons, he changes some of the subjects of the poem and some words used. However, all the changes only make the emotions of the poems stronger and helps readers focus more on the artistic concepts of the poem-women’s conditions and emotions. As for bonded fusion, Xu starts from form, meaning and artistic concepts. The reappear of the original text’s rhythm and form helps the poem’s emotions be perfectly got. The counter words of original text in the translation keep the images and brings the picture of the poem to readers. The keep and enhancement of artistic concepts helps readers feel the poems’ central emotion.

No matter Xu did or did not change any words when translating, he perfectly brings women’s lives at that time to us, expresses their emotions and speaks for them. In this way, a male interpreter reaches what Chamberlain called “Androgyny” and build a bridge between readers and the text.

It also has to admit that this research has several limitations. First, the sample is limited. This paper analyzed only Xu’s translation. However, a number of interpreters have translated Bai’s poem. It would be better if more versions are compared with Xu’s. Second, more poems of Bai’s can be analyzed. Due to the limitation of paper’s number of words. We only put several examples in the paper. If more examples can be put in the paper, the paper will be more convincing.

5.2 Suggestions for Further Studies

Feminist translation theory has many branches. This paper focuses only on Chambelain’s “Androgyny”. Future studies can explore Simon’s or Louise Von Flotow’s view of feminist translation theory in Chinese poems. Moreover, different Chinese poets have different styles, future studies can also focus on other poets, like Li Bai and Li Shangyin.

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