Page 258 - 旷野诗选

旷野诗选
Wilderness Anthology

operation mechanism of translation, looking for the most appropriate balanced point in
the tension.” (A Reductionist Approach to Translatology. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign
Language Education Press. 2005) Hence, translating poetry could abide by the original
form to maintain authentic style; or surpass the usual art of composition for convenient
expression. The classic poetry translation is slightly complex, which means the tension
of form and sense is remarkable. It shall not only consider the neatness of form, but

also match both sound and sense in two poetic lines. Especially, sonnet is in high
requirements of rhymes, which should be preserved in uniform contextual thoughts in
diversified changes and give consideration to diction fitting for the rhythmic rules on
the basis of satisfying the expression needs of content. It all refers to form translation
of words and phrases as well as texts in the whole translation process. Modern poetry
translation shall not consider too much on form in exquisite way for the tension
between form and sense is inappreciable.
The content of poetry translation could be the elucidation of poetry or the
reflection of poetry in another language. The explanation to poetry is not necessary

as what it shows in superficial meaning in Chinese so that translator could only adopt
literal translation way, but it shall go through the inner expression and thoughts origins
so that liberal translation way could also be used. Taking “Shou Zhen” as a translation
example, anyone who reads it would initially think “Keeping Truth” is better, but the
creative inspiration of the poem is from “One Thousand Words”, which says “Calm
heart, tranquil mind, anxiety is disease blind. Truth purifies human will; Avarice
renders souls ill. Foster an elegant taste; Fortunes won’t fall abased.” What professor

Zhao Yanchun explains to the sentence of “Shou Zhen” is “Truth seeking may purify
the human will, so if you seek truth, your needs can be satisfied. Avarice can make
souls ill. If you are greedy for pleasures, you will go astray from the right way.” (One
Thousand Words in English Rhyme. Beijing: Higher Education Press. 2018) Therefore,
it’s preferable to translate as “Seeking Truth”. The reflection of poetry translation could
be observed in “Thoughts and Language” another example, which is inspired from
language features concluded by Ye Feisheng and Xu Tongqiang. It says there are some
natural differences between human language and animals’ communicative approaches
on clarity of unit, arbitrariness, structural duality, openness, imparting and not being

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