A Brief Analysis of Cultural Differences in Poetry Translation--Taking The Lute as An Example

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摘 要

诗歌是一个民族文化的结晶，是一个民族传统与精神的体现，同时，也是世界各个民族、各个国家进行沟通和交流的重要桥梁。不同民族由于生活环境、心理因素、社会习俗等的不同,形成了中西方文化的差异。文化差异对诗歌翻译形成了文化上的阻碍,通常情况下，诗歌的译文无法准确地表达出原版诗歌的精髓，无法使外国读者真正明白原版诗歌所要表达的情感。本文通过对比研究白居易的《琵琶行》及其译文，从物质对象和历史文化两个方面大致分析了其中所体现出的诗歌翻译中的一些文化差异。同时提出了一些解决这一问题的方法,以此来促进世界各国的更加密切的交流和更进一步的发展。

关键词：诗歌；翻译；文化差异

Contents

1. Introduction １

2. Literature Review ２

3. The Application of The Lute ２

4. The Cultural Differences in Poetry Translation ３

4. 1The differences of material objects in poetry translation ３

4. 2 The differences of historical culture in poetry translation ５

5. The Solutions of Handling the Differences in Poetry Translation ６

5.1 Understanding different countries’ cultures comprehensively. ６

5.2 Choosing proper translation strategies and methods. ８

6. Conclusion １１

Works Cited １２

统一使用1, 1.1, 1.1.1模式。采用自动生成方式制作。Times New Roman字体，四号 1.5倍行距，段前段后0磅。目录中的内容一般列出“章”、“条”二级标题即可。大小章节均顶格，大章节标题用粗体、采用标题式大写；小章节标题不用粗体，采用句子式大写。

1. Introduction

In today"s society, translation is not only a simple conversion of linguistic signs, but also an inter lingual behavior. With the integration of the global economy, politics and technology, culture has become very important in the exchange of nations. The exchange and infiltration of cultures in different countries are closely related to translation.(Cao 132)

Poetry plays an indispensable role in the Chinese cultural history, and it is a treasure of Chinese splendid cultural heritage. It shows Chinese civilization from many aspects. It not only lets the Chinese know more about Chinese culture, but also lets foreign people feel great charm of Chinese culture, which is good for Chinese civilization spreading all over the world and stepping onto the international stage. In poetry translation, culture is an important element in translating poetry. Poetry is a highly condensed language, which expresses the author"s rich thoughts and feelings, and has certain rhythm. It requires a high degree of generalization and reflection of social life, full of author"s rich thoughts and feelings and imagination and its language is refined and its image is strong.

As one of the most important poets in Chinese history, Bai Juyi"s contribution to Chinese poetry is indelible. Of Bai Juyi"s quite a few works, my favorite is The Lute. The Lute is a Yuefu poem made by Bai Juyi who was demoted innocently. The poem, describing the excellent playing skills and unfortunate experience of the girl who lives on playing the lute, exposed the phenomenon of bureaucratic corruption, popular destitution and the suppression of talents. The poet expressed sympathy for the girl’s suffering and the anger to his innocent demotion. The Lute is so famous that there are a lot of refined scholars who translate it into other language with integrating their own unique views into it. However because of the economic, political and geographical differences between China and the West, the Chinese and Western cultures also have great differences. With the development of economic globalization, the countries from all over the world have become increasingly close. Understanding the differences between countries is conducive to better exchanges and cooperation among all countries in the world and to promote more rapid development of all countries in the world. Therefore, both China and other countries are contributing their own strength to understand and overcome the cultural differences of other countries. One of the most important things is poetry translation. However, due to cultural differences, the translations of poetry are more or less different from the original version, which is unable to fully express the essence of the original poetry. In this paper, I am going to take the Chinese poetry The Lute and its different translations as an example to simply analyze the cultural differences between China and the West. And then, I want to propose some views on handling this phenomenon to promote the whole world’s common development.

2. Literature Review

It is universally acknowledged that The Lute is a very famous work in Chinese literature. In fact, it also plays an extremely important role in the history of world literature. There were a large number of scholars at home and abroad specializing in The Lute, such as Liu Qijun, Zhang Jiaying, Lin Fufangying and Iritani Sensuke, act on. In 2012, Zhang Jiaying who wrote Probing into Its Musical Aesthetic Thought from Bai Juyi"s The Lute, explored the aesthetic ideas of The Lute. This article mainly summarizes its musical aesthetic thoughts through analyzing and studying Bai Juyi"s poems related to music.In the same year,Liu Qijun wrote A Brief Analysis of the Scene Rendering Art of The Lute.He mainly studied the rendering art of scene in The Lute. Besides, there were some foreigners paying attention to The Lute. As early as 1992, Iritani Sensuke, a famous Chinese literary scholar in Japan, published an article entitled On the Creation of The Lute -- Focusing on the Relationship with Du Fu. In 2013, Lin Fufangying, a Vietnamese student, wrote an article named The Dissemination and Influence of "The Lute" in Modern Vietnam. In the essay,she studied the dissemination and influence of The Lute in Vietnam.She said: “The Lute is ubiquitous in Vietnamese poetry, which fully reflects the influence of works on Vietnamese literature.”（Lin 203）As far as I know, so far there have been rare scholars studied the cultural difference in The Lute. In this paper, I will make a rough study of this aspect. I think it very creative and meaningful for the improvement of human and civilization.

3. The Application of The Lute

The Lute, as one of the most well-known literary works in ancient China, has a profound impact on Chinese culture. By writing the lute girl’s unfortunate life and thinking of his own failure in the official circles, the author sang "reduced the same person, strangers when we meet." Social unrest, inconstancy of human relationships, sympathy to the unfortunate persons and the sigh with emotion to the poet own frustration, which was all expressed in the poem. Its artistic success lies in using the beautiful and distinctive musical language and using visual images to show the auditory feeling. The autumn wind and the sad feeling at parting make the work more moving. When readers appreciate this poetry, they can have a rough understanding of the social status, folk customs and people"s living standards at that time. In addition, we can feel the author’s boredom and dissatisfaction.

4. The Cultural Differences in Poetry Translation

There are many cultural differences in poetry translation. Cultural differences have created great obstacles for translators in translating foreign poetry. To understand these cultural differences is not only conducive to cultural exchanges among countries, but also to promote economic, political and cultural development of all countries. Next, I will analyze this phenomenon from two aspects: material objects difference and historical cultural difference.

4. 1The differences of material objects in poetry translation

Different ethnic groups have different habits of life and different cultures, and the resulting associations are different. The same thing exists in one culture and may not exist in another culture, and the association of the same thing in different cultures is not the same. So that the translation of these material objects cannot consist with the objects in original version. I will analyze this phenomenon in The Lute in both Chinese and English.

4. 1. 1 The inexistence of material object in the translator’s mind.

Some of the objects exist only in parts of the region, and in other parts of the region, people do not have the concept of these things within their cognitive range. It has brought inconvenience to the translator"s translation work. Let’s see the following cases:

浔阳江头夜送客，枫叶荻花秋瑟瑟。

Translation 1:

The flower-like maple leaves that bloom alone

In autumn’s silent rivers of decay,

We said farewell.

(Translated by C. Gaunt. ）(Lu 257)

Translation 2:

By night, beside the river, underneath

When darkness on the river fell

Beneath the grove we said farewell,

Where maple leaves o’erhead glowed fair

Like blossoms in the autumn air

(Translated by L. Cranmer-Byng. )(Lu 264)

We can see that reed flowers, which is an important image in the poem, didn’t appear in the above two translations. Reed grass widely distributed in temperate regions, China is the distribution center of reed grass, also distributed in Japan, Korea, Siberia and Ussuri. Obviously, the west didn’t know what the reed is, so they couldn’t translate it.

4. 1. 2 The lack of real meaning of the material object.

Some objects may have different meanings in different countries" cultures. There are even things you know what they mean, but maybe some other meanings they express in certain poems were ignored. Therefore, when translators translate poetry, it is easy to overlook their true meanings.

五陵年少争缠头，一曲红绡不知数。

How noble youths of Wu-ling had lavishly competed

And numberless red rolls of silk been given for one song

(Translated by Witter Bynner）(Lv 271)

In fact, Hongxiao refers to the reward that the lute girl gets from the clients in the original poetry. However, the translator didn’t understand the meaning, translating it with literal translation. So that the readers may feel confused when they read this sentence.

4. 2 The differences of historical cultures in poetry translation

Historical culture refers to the culture formed by the specific process of social development and the deposition of social heritage. The historical development of each country is different, so there is also a gap in the cultural background which it precipitates in the historical change. Poetry is the embodiment of culture. To translate these poems properly, we must understand their rich historical and cultural connotations and apply appropriate translation methods, otherwise they will not be able to convey the meaning of poetry well.

4. 2. 1 The different cultural style of the poetry translation

Chinese poetry is full of author"s thoughts and feelings and rich imagination. The language is concise and vivid, with distinct rhythm, harmonious rhyme and musical beauty. Sentences are arranged in general and pay attention to the beauty of structural form.

There is an excerpt of Bynner’s translation:

银瓶乍破水浆迸，铁骑突出刀枪鸣

东船西舫悄无言，唯见江心秋月白

A silver vase abruptly broke with a gush of water,

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