Semiotics East and West: an aesthetic-semiotic approach to translating the iconicity of classical Chinese poetry
-
Guangxu Zhao
Abstract
For some Western translators before the twentieth century, domestication was their strategy to translate the classical Chinese poetry into English. But the consequence of this strategy was the sacrifice of the ideogrammatic nature of these poems. The translators in the twentieth century, especially the Imagist poets and translators in the 1930s, overcame the problems of their predecessors by developing their translation theory and practice in ways that are close to those of many contemporary semiotic translators. But both Imagist translators and contemporary semiotic translators have the problem of indifference to the feeling of the original in their translations.[1] This paper attempts to set up an aesthetic-semiotic approach to the translation of the iconicity of classical Chinese poetry on the basis of the examination of both Eastern and Western translation studies.
Acknowledgments
I would like to show my gratitude to Professor Luise von Flotow, my academic supervisor at the School of Translation and Interpretation of the University of Ottawa for her elaborate guidance during the course of this research. Gratitude is also given to The National Social Science Fund of China.
-
Research funding: This paper is one part of its research project “A Translation Study of the Iconicity of Classical Chinese Poetry in Reference to Digital Poetry” (19XYY015).
References
Aristotle. 1977. Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Barnouw, Jeffrey. 1989. The place of Peirce’s “esthetic” in his thought and in the tradition of aesthetics. In Herman Parret (ed.), Peirce and value theory: On Peircean ethics and aesthetics, 155–178. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/sc.6.18barSearch in Google Scholar
Brasovan, N. S. 2017. Neo-confucian ecological humanism: An interpretive engagement with Wang Fuzhi. New York: Suny Press.10.1515/9781438464558Search in Google Scholar
Chen, Xiying. 2004 [1929]. On translation. In Leo Tak-hung Chan (ed.), Twentieth-century Chinese translation theory: Modes, issues, and debates, 93–97. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/btl.51Search in Google Scholar
Cheng, François. 1977. Chinese poetic writing, Donald A. Riggs & Jerome P. Seaton (trans.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Cosculluela, Cécile. 2003. Semiotics and translation studies: An emerging interdisciplinarity. Semiotica 145(1/4). 105–137.10.1515/semi.2003.045Search in Google Scholar
Croce, Benedetto. 1921. The essence of aesthetic, Douglas Ainslie (trans.). London: William Heinemann.Search in Google Scholar
Dewey, J. 1958. Art as experience. New York: Capricorn.Search in Google Scholar
Fu, Lei. 2004 [1951]. Preface to the retranslation of Le Père Goriot. In Leo Tak-hung Chan (ed.), Twentieth-century Chinese translation theory: Modes, issues, and debates, 102–103. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Search in Google Scholar
Groos, Karl. 1898. The play of animals, Elizabeth L. Baldwin (trans.). New York: D. Appleton.10.5962/bhl.title.24456Search in Google Scholar
Gorlée, Dinda L. 2004. On translating signs: Exploring text and semio-translation. Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi.10.1163/9789004454774Search in Google Scholar
Hightower, James Robert. 1953. Topics in Chinese literature (Harvard-Yenching Institute Studies 3). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.10.4159/harvard.9780674288898Search in Google Scholar
Höchsmann, Hyun & Yang, Guorong (ed. & trans.). 2007. Zhuangzi. New York: Pearson Langman.Search in Google Scholar
Langer, S. K. 1953. Feeling and form: A theory of art developed from Philosophy in a New Key. New York: Charles Scribner’s.Search in Google Scholar
Li, Qing. 2005. A contrastive study on the translations of Tz’u poems by Li Qingzhao. East China Normal University PhD diss.Search in Google Scholar
Liang, Shiqiu. 2004 [1929]. On Mr. Lu Xun’s “stiff translation. In Leo Tak-hung Chan (ed.), Twentieth century Chinese translation theory, 181–183. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamin.Search in Google Scholar
Liu, James J. Y. 1962. The art of Chinese poetry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar
Liu, Jee Loo. 2015. In defense of Chinese Qi-naturalism. In Chenyang Li & Perkings Franklin (eds.), Chinese metaphysics and its problems, 33–53. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781316145180.003Search in Google Scholar
Liu, Xie. 1992. Spirit thought, dragon carvings of a literary mind: Readings in Chinese literary thought, Stephen, Owen (trans.). Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies Harvard University.Search in Google Scholar
Lu, Xun. 2004 [1930]. “Stiff translation” and the class nature of literature. In Leo Tak-hung Chan (ed.), Twentieth century Chinese translation theory, 184–187. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamin.Search in Google Scholar
Luo, Gang. 2006. One word, the whole state. Studies of Literature and Arts 3. 60–68.Search in Google Scholar
Minford, John & Joseph S. M. Lau. 2000. From antiquity to the Tang dynasty: Classical Chinese literature: An anthology of translations. New York: Columbia University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Parker, Kelly A. 2017. Foundations for semiotic aesthetics: Mimesis and iconicity. In Kathleen A. Hull & Richard Kenneth Atkins (eds.), Peirce on perception and reasoning: From icons to logic. New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781315444642-6Search in Google Scholar
Parret, Herman. 1984. Peircean fragments on the aesthetic experience. In Herman Parret (ed.), Peirce and value theory: On Peircean ethics and aesthetics, 179–190. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/sc.6.19parSearch in Google Scholar
Peirce, Charles S. 1931–1966. In C. Hartshorne, P. Weiss & A. W. Burks (eds.), The collected papers of Charles S. Peirce, vol. 8. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. [Reference to Peirce’s papers will be designated CP followed by volume and paragraph number.].Search in Google Scholar
Qian, Zhongshu. 2004 [1963]. The translation of Lin Shu. In Leo Tak-hung Chan (ed.), Twentieth century Chinese translation theory, 104–114. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamin.Search in Google Scholar
Reichling, Mary J. 2004. Intersections: Form, feeling, and isomorphism. Philosophy of Music Education Review 12(1). 17–29. https://doi.org/10.2979/pme.2004.12.1.17.Search in Google Scholar
Rickett, Adele Austin. 1967. Wang Kuo-Wei’s Jen-Chien Tz’u-Hua, A study in Chinese literary criticism. University of Pennsylvania PhD diss.Search in Google Scholar
Rudner, Richard. 1951. On semiotic aesthetics. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 10(1). 67–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540_6245.jaac10.1.0067.Search in Google Scholar
Salabert, Pere. 1989. Aesthetic experience in Charles S. Peirce: The threshold. In Herman Parret (ed.), Peirce and value theory: On Peircean ethics and aesthetics, 191–214. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/sc.6.20salSearch in Google Scholar
Wang, Guowei. 2001. Wang Guowei Wenxue Lunzhu Sanzhong. Beijing: Commercial Press [Three works of literary studies of Wang Guowei].Search in Google Scholar
Yip, Wai-lim. 1969. Ezra Pound’s Cathay. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400876532Search in Google Scholar
Yu, Yuan. 2006. Xinwu Ganying Yu Qingjing Jiaorong. Nanchang: Baihua Zhou Wenyi [Response of heart and object and fusion of feeling and scene].Search in Google Scholar
Zeng, Suying. 2007. Zhongguo Fojing Fanyi Zhong De Liangzhong Qingxiang Zhiyi He Yiyi [Literal translation and sense translation in translating Buddhist scripture]. Journal of Wuhan University of Science and Engineering 25. 556–558.Search in Google Scholar
Zhao, Guangxu & Luise von Flotow. 2018. Translating iconicity of classical Chinese poetry. Semiotica 224(1/4). 19–44. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2016-0206.Search in Google Scholar
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- The visual gamut and syntactic abstraction
- Significations et éléments centraux versus périphériques des représentations visuelles
- Text-image complementarity and genre in English as foreign language textbooks
- Crowning, rotating, and emanating hierophanies with elevatio aspect in wayside shrines
- La passion du café dans les publicités de Carte Noire : analyse sémiotique du goût et du désir
- Semiology: in the light of Saussure’ words
- A semiotic analysis of multiple systems of logic: using tagmemic theory to assess the usefulness and limitations of formal logics, and to produce a mathematical lattice model including multiple systems of logic
- Semiotics East and West: an aesthetic-semiotic approach to translating the iconicity of classical Chinese poetry
- The role of semiotics in the unification of langue and parole: an Agentive Cognitive Construction Grammar approach to English modals
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- The visual gamut and syntactic abstraction
- Significations et éléments centraux versus périphériques des représentations visuelles
- Text-image complementarity and genre in English as foreign language textbooks
- Crowning, rotating, and emanating hierophanies with elevatio aspect in wayside shrines
- La passion du café dans les publicités de Carte Noire : analyse sémiotique du goût et du désir
- Semiology: in the light of Saussure’ words
- A semiotic analysis of multiple systems of logic: using tagmemic theory to assess the usefulness and limitations of formal logics, and to produce a mathematical lattice model including multiple systems of logic
- Semiotics East and West: an aesthetic-semiotic approach to translating the iconicity of classical Chinese poetry
- The role of semiotics in the unification of langue and parole: an Agentive Cognitive Construction Grammar approach to English modals
