On the Cultural Translation of Chinese Poetry From the Perspective of Peter Newmark’s Theory(1)

【Abstract】As a type of classical Chinese literature with a long history, the ancient Chinese poetry has long attracted the attention of scholars at home and abroad and been translated by them. This paper attempts to make a tentative study on Peter Newmark’s theory in the culture translation of Chinese poetry. It proves that the theory plays a key role in the culture translation of Chinese poems.
【Key Words】Peter Newmark;communicative translation;semantic translation; poem translation

As a type of classical Chinese literature with a long history, the ancient Chinese poetry has long attracted the attention of scholars at home and abroad and been translated by them. For different translators, the translated versions and methods are quite different. Based on his own past research and some other transdisciplinary knowledge, Peter Newmark, the famous English translation theorist, has put forward the principles of “semantic translation” and “communicative translation”.

1. The Characteristics of Poem Translation

Poem translation is quite different from the translations of novels, dramas, proses and film scripts. This is determined by its own characteristics. Then what are its characteristics? Generally speaking, there are three prime aspects.

Firstly, poem emphasizes on the beauty of tempo and metre. A beautiful poem must have much attractiveness between the lines. When you hear some reading the charming poem, it seems that you are listening to a beautiful song.

Secondly, from a lingual perspective, the languages of poem is quite succinct and the information in one unit structure. Its structure is rather different from some common lingual structures, due to the requirement of its metre, rhythm and form.

Finally, a poem is the most senior form of literature, its metre, form and idea becoming integration. The lack of anyone of them will lead to the destruction of the whole poem. 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 poem. That is to say, we can always see the beauty of obscurity from poems. The understanding and feeling towards a poem depends on the appreciator, time and space.

2. About Peter Newmark’s Translation Theory
According to Peter Newmark, communicative translation attempts to produce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the original. Semantic translation attempts to render, as closely as the semantic and syntactic structures of the second language allow, the exact contextual meaning of the original. In theory, there are wide differences between the two methods.

Communicative translation must emphasize the effect rather than the content of the message, and semantic translation would be more informative but less effective. Semantic translation attempts to recreate the precise flavor and tone of the original and it relates to the “expressive” function of language, whereas communicative translation responds to the representational and vocative functions. Thus for “Wet Paint!”, the communicative translation “Don’t touch the wet paint” is mandatory; the semantic translation(‘paint is wet’) would be more informative but less effective.

3. A Study on the Cultural Transference of Chinese Poetry
3.1 Appellation Culture

Appellation culture is a dual-property semiotic system which concerns with appellation and involves both linguistics and culture. It is a semiotic system because it is marked by words or phrases in languages. The evolution of Chinese history and the continuous blending among nationalities in ancient China has given rise to a complex Han culture. Appellation culture is a good case in point. Appellation can be pided into relative appellation and association. A relative appellation is a cultural symbol produced by marriage system. After long-term cultural sediment, it has become well established. In ancient China, the complex marriage system finally led to a complicated relative appellation system, which inevitably causes troubles in translation.

E.g.2 未谙姑食性，先遣小姑尝。

Verginial: I decide that not my mother-in-law.

But my husband’s young sister shall have the first taste.

Xu Yuanchng: To meet my mother-in-law’s taste,

I send her daughter the first share.

Fletcher: But what kind of taste auntie likes, I don’t know,

So send to my sister-in-law the first share.

In ancient China, there was a traditional custom, which meant to turn cousinship into marriageship. In other words, a girl was supposed to marry the son of her mother’s brother, thus she would call her husband’s parents, i.e. her father-in-law and mother-in-law uncle and aunt or auntie. Fletcher, obviously, has been confused by the surface meaning of “姑”, hence, he translates this word semantically as “auntie”. Although the girl calls her husband’s mother aunt, she has to present as a daughter-in-law and look at the “aunt” as mother-in-law and serve her everyday after the marriage. This is determined by the feudal marriage system. Thus, Fletcher has made a semantic translation.

But here the “auntie” only acts as a “signifier”. A good way to deal with it is to uncover its veil and make the readers see clearly its face, to reveal the word in its true colours. After analyzing and consulting reference books, this is not a difficult task. The best way is to take a communicative translation. Both the first two translators have done in this way. “姑”is translated communicatively as “mother in law”. Under this condition, the TL readers will understand the poem in a full; otherwise, they must be confused about the relationship.

Now let’s take another example:

E.g.3 嫦娥应悔偷灵药，碧海青天夜夜心。

Zhang Tingchen & Wei Bosi: Chang E must regret having stolen the magic elixir——

In that blue ocean of a sky: endless thoughts, night after night.

Sun Dayu: Chang’e should now sorely regret

For stealing the herb of fay,

So she hath to face all alone the blue sky

And the sea immense night and day.

Bynner: Are you sorry for having stolen

The potion that has set you.

Over purple seas and blue skies,

To brood through the long nights?

Chang’e is a fairy lady in a Chinese legend who swallowed elixir stolen from her husband and flew to the moon. Here, in order to let the TL readers get to know the legendary figure in Chinese culture, both Chinese translators have taken the semantic translation and transcribed it into “Chang’e”, the alphabetic correspondence of “嫦娥”. Since the original verse is a narrative, in which “Chang’e” functions only as a sign of a person, it is hard for readers to fully understand the figure in the poem. So, this kind of transcription is quite all right.

Meanwhile, Bynner, starting from the western thinking mode, has communicatively translated the verse by using the second as if in a dialogue with God or someone else. This kind of tone may bring the TL readers kindness and make them feel as if they are participating. But this can’t yet explain who “嫦娥”is. This shows that sometimes when the differences between the two languages can’t be understood by TL readers, they should be eliminated by sensible translators.

3.2 Culture about Weights and Measures

Weights and measures were very complicated before the unity by the Qin Dynasty. Each country followed its own system of weights and measures. After the unity of the country, Qin also standardized them. Such a system is handed down from generation to generation. Nevertheless, they are unknown or unfamiliar to foreigners. Although the Tang Dynasty reached in a peak in cultural influence abroad, some of the cultural concepts are unknown to foreigners. Now let’s see the following instances:

E.g.4 桃花潭水深千尺，不及汪伦送我情。

Obata: The Peach Flower Lake is a thousand fathoms deep,

But it cannot compare, O Wang Lun,

With the depth of your love for me.