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3 邱婷婷(On Xu Yuanchong’s poetry translation from “Three-Beauty” Theory -- Taking Three Hundred Tang Poems as an example) Machine_Trans_EN_1

Abstract

Chinese classical poetry has a long history and is full of romance. Its language is concise, its content is rich and diverse, its form is harmonious and unified, and its rhythm is beautiful, which makes it interesting to read. Poetry, as the highest form of expression in literature, has always been the best way for the literati to express their feelings, so the translation of poetry also puts forward higher requirements for the translator. Xu Yuanchong's theory of three principles provides a new direction and new thinking for the translation of poetry, which has a great guiding role in the practice of poetry translation.The Tang Dynasty was the most prosperous period of Chinese culture, and its poets created a large number of masterpieces with different styles and rich emotions. Three Hundred Tang Poems translated into English by Xu Yuanchong expressed the content and emotion of the poem vividly. This paper will analyze the “beauty” in Xu’s poetry translation from the three perspectives of “beauty of meaning”, “beauty of sound” and “beauty of form”.

Key words

“three-beauty”theory; beauty in sense; beauty in sound; beauty in form

题目

从“三美论”浅析许渊冲的诗歌翻译—以《唐诗三百首》为例

摘要

中国古典诗歌历史悠久且颇具浪漫气息，其语言凝练，内容丰富多样，形式和谐统一，韵律优美，阅读中耐人寻味。诗歌，文学的最高表达形式之一，长久以来一直是文人抒发情感的最佳方式，因此对于诗歌的翻译,对翻译者也提出了更高的要求。许渊冲的三原则理论给诗歌的翻译提供了新的方向，新的思维，对于诗歌的翻译实践活动有很大的指导作用。唐朝是中国文化最为繁荣昌盛的时期，唐代诗人创作了大量风格迥异，情感丰富的名篇佳作。许渊冲英译的《唐诗三百首》，将诗中的内容、情感传神地表达了出来。本文将从许渊冲提出的“三美论”，即“意美”、“音美”、“形美”这三个角度来赏析其诗歌翻译中的“美”。

关键词

“三美”理论；意美；音美；形美

1. Introduction

Xu Yuanchong (April 18, 1921 -- June 17, 2021), was born in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. He graduated from the Department of Foreign Languages of Southwest Associated University in his early years. He has been engaged in literary translation for more than 60 years, covering Chinese, English, French and other languages, focusing on the translation of ancient Chinese poetry into English, forming the method and theory of rhyming style translation of poetry, known as “the only person to translate poetry into English and French”. As an outstanding translator in contemporary China, he plays an important role in promoting Chinese cultural works and letting them be known by so many foreigners. In 2010, Xu won the “Lifetime Achievement Award of Chinese Translation Culture”. On August 2, 2014, Xu Yuanchong was awarded the “Northern Lights” Outstanding Literary Translation Award, one of the highest awards in the international translation field, and was the first Asian translator to receive this award (Zhou Rongrong,2020:129). Mr.Xu Yuanchong plays an important role in Chinese translation circle, not only for his numerous translation masterpieces but also for his translation theory, which has a great influence in latter translators. Most current translations, versions , and imitations of poetry have two main features in common:they both expand and compress the source text. Compression is mainly achieved through the use of compound-words or paraphrase and frequently camouflaged as “explanation,” “interpretation,” or even “improvement.” Expansion is achieved through the use of exaggeration, explicitness, and padding, and camouflaged in much the same way(André, 1975:384). And to some extent, the original beauty would be decreased by such methods without an orderly theory. The translation theory of “three-beauty” determines that Xu Yuanchong be consistent with the principle of “pursuing beauty” over “expressing faithfully” in his translation practice, attaches importance to the “beauty”of poetry and gives full play to his creativity. Xu once said that “The main purpose of poetry translation is not to make reputation of the poet letting him being remembered by the people of future generations, but to enable people to share the poet’s graceful feelings”; “I think translating poems should be ingenious and creative, he added.(He Xiaoli, 2019:117)

Three Hundred Tang Poems is a very popular anthology of Tang poetry. The Period of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) was the golden age of Chinese poetry, with a large number of famous poets and more than 50,000 poems. Three Hundred Tang Poems (in both Chinese and English) completed by Xu Yuanchong is a book published by China International Translation Press in 2007. And the theory of “three- beauty” was well used in the translation of Three Hundred Tang Poems. Therefore, the study of Xu Yuanchong’s translation of Three Hundred Tang Poems, form the perspective of his translation theory “three-beauty” has high practical valve. This paper studies and appreciates the translation of Three Hundred Tang Poems under the “three-beauty” principles, and it is mainly divided into four parts: some explanation of the “three-beauty” theory, appreciation from the scope of the beauty of meaning, appreciation from the scope of the beauty of sound, appreciation from the scope of the beauty of form.

2.“Three-Beauty” Theory

The theory of “three-beauty” was first put forward by Xu Yuanchong in his letter to the aesthetician Zhu Guangqian(a famous Chinese Modern and contemporary aesthetician, literary theorist, educator, translator) in 1979, and has been continuously applied in subsequent translation practices. Xu Yuanchong once said:“Western translation stresses equivalence, advocating word for word translation, almost 90% of their written vocabulary is equivalent. Chinese is different from other languages in that only 50% of words are equivalent to words. Although equivalence does not violate objective regularity, it does not give play to subjective initiative. Without distorting the author's meaning, translation must reflect the connotation, essence and soul of a national culture”(Zhou Rongrong,2020:131). It is known to all that Xu won his national reputation mainly from his poetry translation practice and his initiation of the principle of “ three-beauty”(which refers to beauty in sense, sound and form). It’s of great significance to the practice of poetry translation, and might be assumed as a milestone in the field of poetry translation(Guo Zhuzhang,1997).

Actually the principle of “ three-beauty” was initially put forward in the essay “From Language to Artical”by Lu Xun( the great writer, thinker and revolutionary in China). He stated “in learning a Chinese character, three aspects should be taken into consideration, namely, ‘the sense, the sound and the form’,as to article writing, beauty in three aspects should likewise be taken into account: for one thing, to achieve beauty in sense to move reader’s heart; the second, to achieve beauty in sound to suffice reader’s ears; finally, to achieve beauty in form to appeal to reader’s eyes(Guo Zhuzhang,1997). As the principles were only applied in language and character, Xu employed it to poetry translation after having a comprehend understanding and analysis of the original principles. What’s more, Xu published a series of articles to further expound the principle of “three-beauty”.

“with regard to ‘three-beauty’, beauty in sense is of the greatest significance, therefore should be put in the first position; beauty in sound is of less important and hence is placed in the second place; whereas beauty in form is of the least magnitude and ought to laid in the third place.” “We should exert ourselves to convey the beauty in sound of the original work under the provision of faithful reproduction of the original beauty in sense; furthermore, we should try our utmost to convey the beauty in form of the source text under the provision of both the reproduction of the original beauty in sense and in sound; in a word, we should ake the greatest endeavor to reproduce the original beauty in sense, in sound and in form comprehensively”(Xu Yuanchong, 1997).

This is the situation that you can handle the three aspects simultaneously, however there are a host of texts that are very complicated and you can not make it work. So under this circumstance, Xu further sates that:“If ‘three-beauty’ cannot be achieved simultaneously, the resemblance in form can be ignored, so is the resemblance in sound; nevertheless, the conveyance of original beauty in sense and in sound should be retained in whatever circumstance (Xu Yuanchong,1997).

According to his statement, we can draw a conclusion that when we are translating something especially poetry, we should pay attention to the three aspects: sense, sound and form. And the beauty of sense occupies the first place, sound the second, form the third. In other words, the meaning of the poetry is the most important thing that we can not violate it in order to achieve other effects. On the condition that we do not affect the meaning, we can take the sound into consideration. As very different from other genres of articles, poetry pays much attention to the rhythm which can be read in a catchy and graceful way, making people easy to experience the feeling of the poets. And the form, after considering the sense and sound, the form is also important.

As we know, poetry translation is a creative translation. Only the translator have grasped the content and the spirit of the original works and find the most appropriate reflection in his own mind, can it be possible for him to have a good translation. Therefore, in Xu’s opinion, literary translation, especially poetry translation is to use the best words to achieve aesthetic effect. Due to the linguistic differences, there must be some loss in various aspects, but by using the best words, the original beauty can be recreated, so the loss can be compensated.(Xu Xiufeng, 2006)

3.Beauty in Sense

Mr. Xu Yuanchong believes that beauty in sense is the most important task in poetry translation and it is also the core of the “three-beauty” theory. As mentioned before, when we are doing poetry translation, we have to pay our attention to the sense of the poem at first, because it is the most fundamental aspect. In sense translation, it is not only a simple and direct translation of the meaning of the poem, but also the deep meaning that the poet wants to express while conveying the surface meaning. And for the deep meaning, the deep meaning of a poetry is much difficult to express succinctly, since there are many images in a poetry. As poetry is a literary form that conveys the poet’s thoughts and feelings, its content is mostly abstract, so in this case, translation will encounter great difficulties. Beauty in sense, in short, means that the translated poem should be faithful in content, smooth in language expression, and deeply convey the beauty of the artistic conception of the original poem, so that the readers of the translated poem can have the same spiritual shock and touching as the readers of the original poem (He Xiaoli, 2019:116) . Therefore, it is very important for the translator to retain the artistic conception of the original poem. Take professor Xu’s English translation of tang dynasty poem “Out of the Great Wall”, written by Wang Zhihuan as an example:

黄河远上白云间，一片孤城万仞山。

羌笛何须怨杨柳，春风不度玉门关。（Xu Yuanchong, 2011:438）

The Yellow River rises to the white cloud;

The lonely town is lost amid the mountains proud.

Why should the Mongol flute complain no willows grow?

Beyond the Gate of Jade no vernal wind will blow. (Xu Yuanchong, 2011:64)

This poem was written at the time when the poet first arrived in Liang Zhou( ancient northwest capital of China), facing the Yellow River and the vast scenery of the border city, at the same time, hearing the song “Snapping Willows” and was inspired to write this poem, which expresses the feeling of missing home of those soldiers who guard the frontier of their country. The first two lines of the poem describe the vast scenery in the northwest. Mr. Xu used “rise” to present the “远上”, although it describes the Yellow River flowing away into the distance, as if towards the sky, the word “rise” can also describe the magnificent sight of the Yellow River surging forward. Then he described “the lonely town ‘is lost amid’ the mountains ‘proud’ ”. Actually in the original poem, the poet only listed the lonely town and the high mountains. Actually, “仞” is an unit of length in ancient Chinese, and “万仞” shows the amazing height of the mountains.In Xu Yuanchong’s translation, both the lonely town and the high mountains are personified. The lonely town is lost in the proud and high mountains like human being. On the basis of accurately conveying the surface meaning of the original poem, the translator also vividly expresses the poet’s emotion by means of personifying the image. To some extent, this translated sentence is even better than the original poem. Since the “lonely town” in this poem is the image of those soldiers, they were like the lonely town, lost in the high mountains in the northwest China.

As for the third sentence, “羌笛何须怨杨柳” shows the meaning that against the backdrop of this desolate environment, the Qiang Flute, in the meantime, played to the tune of “Picking up a Willow Branch”, made soldiers on the border feel homesick(Huang Bingxiang, 1991:65). In this sentence, “羌笛” refers to a musical instrument, a kind of flute popular in the frontier in ancient times and being called Qiang Flute because it rooted in the Qiang ethnic minority. And “怨” translated into “complain” is very appropriate and it can exactly express the feeling of the poet. Because the Chinese word for “willow” (柳) sounds similar to the word for “stay” (留) in Chinese, ancient Chinese people often gave a gift of willow as a token of remembrance when parting. While hearing the plaintive song with melancholy, those solders were so upset and the poet did not know how to comfort them, instead he can only complain that why the Qiang Flute always play sorrowful musics.

In the last sentence, “春风不度玉门关” shows that vernal wind will never reach the Gate of Jade. And in Mr.Xu’ translation, he completely conveys the meaning of the original poem. And “vernal wind” is an image of the emperor at that time, because the emperor’s care could not reach there, outside the Gate of Jade in such a dangerous and terrible environment. The poet expressed his complaints that the emperor did not care about the life and death of the frontier soldiers guarding the Gate of Jade and couldn’t sympathize with them(Sheng Dalin, 2020:52). In this translation, the translator have conveyed not only the surface meaning, but also the deep feeling of the poet by using some methods, such as personification. With this, those foreigners can have a better understanding about this poem, about the hard life of those frontier soldiers. Through this translation, we can see the terrible environment of the frontier, soldiers’ longing for home, and the poet’s helpless and complaints about the emperor.