Linguistic Explorations in Translation Studies - Analyses of English Translations of Ancient Chinese Poems and Lyrics - Guowen Huang

Linguistic Explorations in Translation Studies - Analyses of English Translations of Ancient Chinese Poems and Lyrics - Guowen Huang

Formal equivalence in translation

Linguistic Explorations in Translation Studies - Analyses of English Translations of Ancient Chinese Poems and Lyrics - Guowen Huang

Guowen Huang [+-]
City University of Macau
HUANG Guowen is Chair Professor of the Changjiang Programme selected by the Ministry of Education of P.R. China. He has been a professor of Functional Linguistics since 1996 at Sun Yat-sen University, P.R. China. He is now at City University of Macau. He was educated in Britain and received two PhD degrees from two British universities (1992: Applied Linguistics, Edinburgh; 1996, Functional Linguistics, Cardiff). He was a Fulbright Scholar in 2004-2005 at Stanford University. He serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal Foreign Languages in China (bimonthly) published by the Higher Education Press, China. He is also co-editor of the journal of Functional Linguistics (Springer) and co-editor of Journal of World Languages (Routledge). He publishes extensively both in China and abroad and serves/served as an editorial/advisory committee member for several journals, including Linguistics and the Human Sciences (Equinox), Language Sciences (Elsevier), Journal of Applied Linguistics (Equinox), and Social Semiotics (Carfax). He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Monograph Series Discussions in Functional Approaches to Language (Equinox). His research interests include Systemic Functional Linguistics, Ecolinguistics, Discourse Analysis, Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies.

Description

Written by MA Zhiyuan (马致远), Tian Jing Sha Qiu Si (天净沙·秋思) is a masterpiece of short lyrics in Yuan Dynasty as well as a popular and widely-chanted work throughout history. In this chapter, we begin with a linguistic analysis of this poem and its three English translations. Then we compare our analysis, with a purpose of exploring the significance of formal equivalence in poetry and lyric translation. According to our analysis, in terms of formal equivalence, Schlepp’s translation, compared with the other two translations, is more faithful to the original and is better at rendering the artistic conception of the original, thereby leaving readers more space for imagination and allowing for more interpretations.

Notify A Colleague

Citation

Huang, Guowen. Formal equivalence in translation. Linguistic Explorations in Translation Studies - Analyses of English Translations of Ancient Chinese Poems and Lyrics. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 100-109 Oct 2024. ISBN 9781800504189. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=44764. Date accessed: 05 Oct 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.44764. Oct 2024

Dublin Core Metadata