The Translation of Cultural Images in Poetry论文

The Translation of Cultural Images in Poetry

摘 要：poetry is always considered as an unconquerable fortress in translation. the romantic charm and artistic conception, all of these things, which just make poetry to be poetry, can not be interpreted in another language. to be brief, poetry is untranslatable because of the great difficulties in conveying the image, especially the images under special cultural background.

关键词：translation ；cultural；in poetry

中图分类号：i046 文献标识码：a 文章编号：1009-0118（2012）-02-0-02

1.the definition of image and its importance in poetry image is a mental picture of something that the sense organ of the writer felt, and underwent some kind of fabrication and creation, and then distills from the life reality to art reality.

2.a general survey of image translation

we may say that whether we can recur the images of the original poem directly matters the conveying of the sense beauty of the poem. languages in our daily life only need to be able to express our ideas, but this is not enough in poetry.

poetic words need to describe the circumstances, while express the poet’s feelings, and initiate the reader’s imagination. then, how the artistic conception of a poem is produced? the answer would include its rhyme, form, and what’s more, its images. it’s no doubt that image is the basic element of artistic conception. but different cultural background would endow different perception on the same thing.

3.cultural images and the techniques of their translation cultural images are images which contain profound national cultural color, only with which, readers can understand the spirit and artistic conception the poem conveyed by relating them with their own culture.

in the process of translating, we can always find some expressions in the source language which are equivalent to that of the target language, and we often use literal translation in these cases, so literal translation becomes the commonest method in translation.

offering direct annotation is the most common way of managing cultural images. in a sense, annotations meet the need for the unification of form and content. meanwhile, it fulfills the purpose of conveying the cultural information.

and this means fits for those images with deep cultural color and important for the understanding of the poem. seeing from the view of cultural exchange, the way to give annotation is a means without other means. although we advocate that annotation should be short, we should also accept some length explanatory notes, because our ultimate purpose is to convey the meaning of the original poem thoroughly and clearly. we should try our best to keep the cultural images of the source language when translating to fulfill the purpose of cultural exchange. then in the process of translating poems, should the replacement of cultural images be admitted? the answer should be affirmative. if we do it well, we can certainly keep the briefness of the original poem, and effectively convey the artistic conception and emotion of it. in fact, even the native readers are not familiar with some of the cultural images. so comparing with the transmission of the content, the conveying of emotions and connation is more important.

some of the cultural images are not the key words for the understanding of the poem. on the other hand, they were just used to refer some extensive meaning. so we needn’t state

them very clearly in translation. sometimes, if we do so, it would lead misunderstanding in the minds of readers on the contrary. also, too much explanation would break the form beauty of poems. so it is unnecessary to translate those images with weak cultural tinges. 4.conclusion

generally speaking, translators should recur the images of the original poem faithfully, instead of changing, augmenting or deleting them on our own will. however, under some particular situation, because of different ways of idea expressing different cultural customs, and habits of appreciating, it’s very difficult to retain the image of the original work immutably. also, it’s unnecessary.

in the practice of translation, we always need to adopt the image of the original poem flexibly, or replace the original images that did exist originally, or delete the original image that the readers of translation may not understand. image translation doesn’t merely mean translating images. beside images, we should have a comprehensive, correct understanding and control over the whole poem. sometimes, we even need to have a clear inquiry for a particular poet or a certain type of poems. we need to

know the epochal backgrounds under which the poem was created; also we should have a deep understanding for the aesthetic appreciation and writing style of the poet. translators must possess at least two qualities: bilingual abilities and bil-cultural abilities. besides, translators also need to be able to synthesize those factors, which devoted to the artistic conception of the poems, such as rhythm, form…things like that, because these factors are are complementary to each other.

when translating, interpreters must give consideration to the intentions of the original work, its writer, and the translation as well as its creator. then translators should try to use all the techniques comprehensively, and recur the images appropriately. keep the image when it is necessary, and change it when it disturbs the whole effect of the translation. in a word, poetic translation requires translators should have powerful interactional competence. poetry is one of the three major types, or genres, of literature, the others being prose and drama.no matter it employs regular rhythmical patterns or is in free verse, no matter it is metrical romance or sonnet; poem should be concise, musical, and emotionally charged. what’s more, there

must be imagery to make poetry beautiful and meaningful. then the standard for good poetic translation should be the excellence in conveying both the connotation in its structure and its aesthetic value. stature stems from extra-image. so the translation for images becomes the key part in poetic translation.