Translating Ancient Chinese Poetry from the Perspective of Eco-translatology—An Empirical Research on Irving Yucheng Lo's Translation

Xiaohua He

College of Foreign Languages,Minjiang University,Fuzhou,China

Email:1056780987@qq.com

[Abstract] By empirical research of the translations by the Chinese American scholar and translator Irving Yucheng Lo,this paper examines the English translation of ancient Chinese poetry from the perspective of eco-translatology,which holds "translation as textual transplants,eco-balance,adaptation and selection".According to the translation principle of "multi-dimensional adaptation" and the translation-evaluating criterion of "degree of holistic adaptation and selection",Irving has well realized three-dimensional selection and adaptation in the process of translating ancient Chinese poetry,both the translation and the original achieving a good balance and harmony in the ecosystems of language,culture and communication.

[Keywords] ancient Chinese poetry translation;eco-translatology;Irving Yucheng Lo;adaptive transformation;three dimensions

Introduction

Ancient Chinese poetry,as an invaluable treasure of Chinese culture,is widely known for its concise language,rich imagery and profound meaning,exerting a far-reaching and actually on-going influence on both the Oriental and Western worlds and attracting scholars and translators worldwide.Among them was the Chinese American scholar Irving Yucheng Lo(1922-2005)dedicated to the translation and transmission of classical Chinese culture,with a good harvest in the translation of Chinese classics,especially ancient Chinese poetry.His translations take into account linguistic,cultural and communicative ingredients of both STs and TTs,and achieve a good balance in the poetry translation eco-environment.Guided by Hu Gengshen's theory of Eco-translatology,the article intends to make an empirical research on Irving's translation,including the translating process,the translator's strategies,TT features and reader reception,and tries to figure out by what strategies the translator balances the translational environment in the translating process and to what degree his translations achieve holistic adaptation and selection,hoping to offer some valuable reference for the future practice of related translation activities.

Eco-translatology

As an emerging paradigm of translation theory featuring "ecological concepts and interdisciplinary orientation"(Hu,2008),Eco-translatology was first proposed in 2001,and further developed in 2003,2004,2006 and 2008 etc.by the Chinese scholar Hu Gengshen.This theory"probes the translational eco-environments,textual ecologies,and'translator community' ecologies as well as their interrelationships and interplay",with "Three translation-as" (Hu,2020,xv),i.e.,"translation as textual transplants","translation as eco-balance",and "translation as adaptation and selection",as its core ideas.(Hu,2020,xv;Tao&Hu,2016,p.95)It holds that SL and TL are two different"text ecosystems",each involving the "linguistic ecology,cultural ecology,communicative ecology",etc.of their respective language systems.(Song&Hu,2016,p.107),and accordingly translating should follow the principle of"multidimensional selective adaptation and adaptive selection",especially adapation and selection from linguistic,cultural and communicative dimensions.Instead of being source-oriented or target-oriented,it also emphasizes the translator's"existence" and "development" and hence adheres to the tripartite state of "STs — translator — TTs",where "the'translator'should be'symbiotic and coexistent'with the other'two poles'".(Hu,2020,p.14)

Rooted in Chinese culture and rich in the wisdom of eastern philosophy on the one hand,and related to three infuential Western schools,namely the principle of dynamic equivalence,the Skopos school,and Descriptive Translation Studies on the other hand,Eco-translatology is"in keeping with—and is superior for explaining—actual translation practices even in the West." (Dollerup,2011,p.34) Once proposed,this theory has aroused strong repercussion in the academic circle both at home and abroad,and been constantly applied to various translation activities.Focusing on translational holism,Eco-translatology also provides a macroscopic and innovative perspective for the translation of ancient Chinese poetry.The following sections offer an insight into the three dimensions of Eco-translatology and explore Irving's translation of ancient Chinese poetry from these dimensions.

Adaptive transformation from linguistic dimension

Translation is,first of all,a language activity,where verbal signs are interpreted by means of some other language.This calls for linguistic dimension transformation,that is,translators' "adaptation and selection of language forms"in the translating process,which occurs in different stages,levels and aspects of the process.In Irving's translation of ancient Chinese poetry,linguistic dimension transformation is mainly manifested at phonetic level,lexical level and syntactic level.The following provides a detailed discussion of Li Po's wine-related masterpieceDrinking Alone Beneath the Moon(II)（《月下独酌其二》）translated by Irving to show how the translator made in the translating process"adaptive selection"and"selective adaptation"from linguistic dimension and to what extent his translation achieves the effect"survival of the fittest."

ST:天若不爱酒，/酒星不在天。/地若不爱酒，/地应无酒泉。/天地既爱酒，/爱酒不愧天。/已闻清比圣，/复道浊如贤。/贤圣既已饮，/何必求神仙。/三杯通大道，/一斗合自然。/但得酒中趣，/勿为醒者传。(Liu&Lo,1976,p.49)

TT:If Heaven weren't fond of wine/Wine Star would not be found in Heaven./If Earth weren't fond of wine/There could be no Wine Spring on earth./Since Heaven and Earth are fond of wine,/In Heaven being fond of wine can't be judged wrong./Clear wine,I've heard,is compared to sages,/Also the unstrained wine spoken of as worthies./Since I've drunk both sages and worthies/Why must I seek out the immortals?/Three cups penetrate the Great Truth;/One gallon accords with Nature's laws./Simply find pleasure in wine:/Speak not of it to the sober ones.(Liu&Lo,1975,pp.109-110)

Li Po is known as,in Chinese history,"the Immortal of Poem"as well as"the Immortal of Wine"for the sake of both his deep love for wine and his numerous poems related with wine.In other words,wine and poems are two indispensables in Li Po's life.He uses in his poems wine imagery to express his ideal and ambition,excitement and happiness,frustration and loneliness,friendship and kinship,etc.According to incomplete statistics,Li Po's wine-related poems add up to nearly three hundred,among which approximately fifty pieces have wine "酒jiǔ" or wine-related characters such as "酌zhuó" "饮yǐn" "醉zuì" and the like in the titles and 240 or so have wine or wine-related characters in the lines.Of these wine-related poems,the above one is the most representative,arguing from "Heave and Earth both love wine"(lines 1-5)to"sages and worthies also fall for wine"(lines 7-9),concluding that it's reasonable for common people to drink wine as well(line 6,lines 10-14).Seemingly arguing for the reasonability of wine drinking,this poem is in effect conveying the poet's political frustration by reasoning.

The first four lines of ST"天若不爱酒(tiān ruò bù ài jiǔ),酒星不在天(jiǔ xīng bù zài tiān),地若不爱酒(dì ruò bù ài jiǔ),地应无酒泉(dì yīng wú jiǔ quán)"intend,by dint of the suppositive conjunction"若ruò"(if)and the optative verb "应yīng" (should/could) to express a "non-factual or hypothetical situation" that Heaven and Earth don't like wine.(Tavakolia et al.,2014,p.689) The word-for-word English equivalents of these Chinese sentences are"heaven if not love wine/wine star not in heaven/earth if not love wine/earth could no wine spring",while Irving's translations read"If Heaven weren't fond of wine/Wine Star would not be found in Heaven./If Earth weren't fond of wine/There could be no Wine Spring on earth."Belonging to two language families,Chinese and English differs in syntax,which is clearly manifested from the rigid word-for-word English equivalents and Irving's flexible translations,where weren't in the two if clauses is the past subjunctive of be not.By using the subjuntive mood,the translator accurately conveys to the target reader the very message "both Heaven and Earth love wine" intended by the source text,while reproducing the original supposition mood.In contrast to the two if clauses which make slight adjustment in word order,the two main sentences"Wine Star would not be found in Heaven"and"There could be no Wine Spring on earth"merely add,on the basis of fidelity to the source text,some essential English words to achieve both semantic completeness and syntactic completeness without changing word order.As to line 7 已闻清比圣(yǐ wén qīng bǐ shèng),line 9 贤圣既已饮(xián shèng jì yǐ yǐn)and line 10 何必求神仙(hé bì qiú shén xiān),the rough English equivalents can respectively be"already heard clear compare sage","worthy sage since already drink","why beg immortal".Obviously,these incomplete English sentences,unlike the word-for-word translation of the first four lines,are extremely ambiguous and confusing in both syntax and meaning,because in Chinese,especially ancient Chinese poetry,subjects like "I","conjunctions like 'and' and auxiliary verbs like 'is' are often implied but unexpressed,and Chinese lacks word-inflections so that the same word can serve either as a verb,adverb,adjective,or noun,depending on the context."(LaFargue&Pas,1998,p.293)To overcome syntactic ambiguity in the source text and convey the meaning to the target reader,Irving uses grammatical inflection (sages,worthies,immortals,heard),adjusts word order(line 7&9),and adds the subject I as well as the conjunction and in his translations"Clear wine,I've heard,is compared to sages"(line 7),"Since I've drunk both sages and worthies"(line 9),"Why must I seek out the immortals"(line 10).All these shed light on the translator's selective adaptation and adaptive selection at the syntactic level.Linguistic dimension transformation at the lexical level is shown in the translation of culture-loaded words Heaven(天),Earth(地),Wine Star(酒星)and Wine Spring(酒泉),where the translator,by combining literal translation,intials capitalization and annotation,conveys to the reader both the message contained in the source text and the culture loaded by these Chinese expressions.Likewise,the foreignizing translation of the other two expressions the Great Truth(大道)and Nature's laws(自然)also reflects the translator's selection and adaptation at the lexical level.

Adaptive transformation from cultural dimension

Since all languages are rooted in specific cultural contexts,mirroring specific cultural backgrounds and national emotions,transformation merely from the linguistic dimension cannot reflect all the messages conveyed by the SL.This necessitates cultural dimension transformation,which means that translators,in the translating process,centers on transmitting and interpreting cultural connotations of both the SL and the TL.In other words,cultural dimension transformation focuses on the differences in nature and content between the source culture and the target culture,requiring translators to take full consideration of both the cultural connotation delivered by the source language and the adaptive condition of the target culture and avoid misinterpreting the source text from the perspective of the target language culture.In Irving's translation of ancient Chinese poetry,cultural dimension transformation is primarily embodied in how the translator deals with those culture-loaded words and expressions.

In general,Irving's translating strategies can be classified into seven types:literal translation,literal translation+annotation,transliteration,transliteration+annotation,free translation+annotation,literal translation+amplification,transliteration+amplification.In the above discussed poemDrinking Alone Beneath the Moon (II),for example,Irving adopts the strategy of "literal translation+annotation" by respectively rendering 酒星(jiǔ xīng) and 酒泉(jiǔ quán) asWine StarandWine Springand adding related annotations at the end of the page.By doing this,the foreign features of the original text are well maintained in the translated text and the differences of the source language and culture are highlighted.In the translation of the other two culture-loaded words 圣(shèng)and 贤(xián),however,Irving uses the strategy of "free translation+annotation" and renders them respectively as "sages" and "worthies" with the annotation "'Sages' and 'worthies' were slang expressions referring respectively to strained and unstrained wine used in a time of prohibition in T'ang times."(Liu&Lo,1975,p.110) 圣and 贤are not only two important concepts in ancient Chinese culture but also carry specific contextual meanings in the poem.Their English equivalents"sages"and "worthies" without further explanations,however,merely transfer the literal meaning of the source text,which will inevitably result in the loss of the cultural and contextual connotations of the source text.In this case,Irving's translation reflects the translator's adaptation to the cultural context of the original text and can reveal to the target reader both similarities and differences of Chinese language and culture and their English counterparts.In other words,Irving's translation achieves an ecological balance between language and culture.

Another typical example is Li Po's long poem The Road to Shu Is Hard(《蜀道难》)which abounds with cultureloaded words and expressions such as 蜀(shǔ),蚕丛(cán cóng),鱼凫(yú fú),太白(tài bái),峨眉(é méi),六龙(liù lónɡ),青泥(qīng ní),剑阁(jiàn gé),锦城(jǐn chéng),and the like.Among them,蜀is the ancient name of Sichuan province while 蚕丛and 鱼凫are the names of two ancient Shu rulers.In order to deliver these cultural connotations to the target reader,Irving combines transliteration and annotation,rendering them respectively as Shu,Ts'an-ts'ung and Yü-fu and moreover adding to the end of the page such an annotation"Shu,the ancient name for Szechwan,was said to be ruled at one time by five brothers,the eldest being Ts'an-ts'ung and the third being Yü-fu.Having no language,the people lived in peace and had no contact with Ch'in until 311 B.C." (Liu &Lo,1975,pp.104-105) Also annotated is the poem line 地崩山摧壮士死(dì bēng shān cuī zhuàng shì sǐ),which is translated literally as"Earth tottered,mountain crumbled,brave men perished",with a detailed explanation about the related historical allusion at the end of the page"According to legend,a king of Ch'in promised five young women in marriage to the ruler of Shu,who sent five brave men to meet and escort the young women.On the way,they encountered a huge snake;and while they were fighting off the snake,mountains crumbled and all the party met death.The five women were transformed into five mountain peaks." (Liu &Lo,1975,p.105) Such annotations adapt to the cultural eco-environment of the source language,which is selective,aiming to preserve the foreignness and strangeness of the source text,and,furthermore,promote Sino-Western cultural communication.

In many cases,Chinese place-names are closely related with specific geographical conditions,historical backgrounds or social lives,and,therefore,have unusual origins and meanings.As the ancient name of Chengdu,锦城was China's cotton-weaving center in the period of Shu Han(221-263),with beautiful Shu brocade selling throughout ancient China,which was one of the most important geld sources for the royal court.In this sense,Irving's literal translation "the Brocade City" conveys to the target reader the lexical meaning as well as the historical background.In other words,transformation from both linguistic and cultural dimensions is realized.

Adaptive transformation from communicative dimension

Translation,as a purposeful social activity,has communicative function,that is,TT should realize its communicative function in the target context and culture just as ST does in the source context and culture.In this sense,translators,in the translating process,should keep an eye on the adaptation and selection of bilingual communicative intention.In addition to transforming linguistic information and conveying cultural connotations,translators should also focus on the communicative aspect of the translation and pay close attention to whether the communicative intention of the source text can be realized in the target text.In this respect,Irving's translation is successful,which is shown in the above two poems.

When translating geographical terms,translators should"consider giving classifiers to any town,mountain or river likely to be unknown to the readership." (Newmark,2001,p.35) The above mentioned 太 白,六龙,青泥,剑 阁and 峨眉from The Road to Shu Is Hard(《蜀道难》),for example,are typical Chinese mountain names reflecting the link between the physical space and human perception,which is unfamiliar to western readers who are lacking in the characteristics of Chinese landscape toponyms.In translating these landscape toponyms,therefore,the translator should specify the lexical concept and category,otherwise,the target reader may feel confused and the communicative function cannot be realized.Irving's translations the Great White Peak(太白),the Six-Dragon Peak(六龙),the Mud Mountain(青泥),the Dagger Peak(剑阁)and Mount Omei(峨眉)adopt the hybrid strategy of"literal translation/transliteration + amplification",adding the classifiers "峰peak" and "山mount" omitted in the original.This mirrors the translator takes into account audience demand and cultural acceptance,which are essential parties of the eco-translational environment,especially the TL eco-environment,for only in this way can the lexical concept and category become clear to the target reader and the communicative intention of the source text be realized in the target text.

The above translation strategies apply to the situation when the two language ecosystems are alike.If the SL ecosystem differs a lot from the TL ecosystem,what the translator has to do is find a way to create an ecological environment similar to that of the source language.Only in this way can the translation realize the adaptive transformation from communicative dimension and survive in the TL ecological environment.(Song &Hu,2016,p.108) A typical example is line 12 of the above discussedDrinking Alone Beneath the Moon(II)（《月下独酌其二》）"One gallon accords with Nature's laws" (一斗合自然) ,where the Chinese character "斗dǒu" is originally a container for grain and later used as a capacity unit formerly used in ancient China and usually for the measurement of grain,equal to about 8 kilos when used to measure grain.Used as a capacity unit,"一斗yī dǒu" in the source context,however,is only a concept in the general sense which implies"large amount".As an out-dated ancient Chinese capacity unit,"斗" is not likely to be accessible to some modern Chinese,not to mention people from other cultures.Instead of using his usual strategy of foreignization in dealing with culture-loaded terms,Irving simply replaces this ancient Chinese capacity unit with its English counterpart gallon which has varying value in Britain and US.When used to measure liquid,English gallon equals about 5 kilos while American gallon about 4 kilos.Likely,"one gallon" in English also has the implication of"large amount"in some context,which makes it possible to create equivalent effect in the target text.By introducing the target audience to their familiar capacity unit "gallon" rather than to the foreign one "斗"with which they may not identify,the target text becomes meaningful in its very communicative context.

Conclusion

As Eugene Nida put it,"A translator must engage in thousands of decisions involving both selection and arrangement to fit another culture,a different language,diverse editors and publishers,and finally a reading audience"(Nida,2000,p.7) .In the process of translating ancient Chinese poetry,its cultural uniqueness should be preserved on the one hand,and on the other hand good compatibility with the TL ecosphere should be achieved as well.Eco-translatology provides a manipulable paradigm in the realization of this goal.Translation involves multi-dimension,multilevel,and multi-aspect adaptation and selection,and moreover,each dimension,level and aspect has many different kinds of interwoven and interactive content.(Hu,2013,p.239)To survive in the translational eco-environment which is "dynamic and changeable over time",the translator's selection of translation strategies will rest with "all the constant shifts and changes"in it.(Hu,2003,p.286)According to the translation principle of"multi-dimensional adaptation" and the translation-evaluating criterion of "degree of holistic adaptation and selection",Irving has well realized three-dimensional selection and adaptation in the process of translating ancient Chinese poetry,both the translation and the original achieving a good balance and harmony in the ecosystems of language,culture and communication.As a significant translation of ancient Chinese poetry compiled by Irving and Wu-chi,Sunflower Splendor—Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetrywas once used as a textbook for Chinese literature in many American colleges and universities,which reflects its good adaptation to the TL eco-environment."The translator-as-receiver is(ideally) bi-cultural,which means she has a perfect command of both the source and the target culture (including language),and possesses a transfer competence,which comprises the skills of text reception,text production,and the use of translation tools,as well as the ability to 'synchronize' ST reception and TT production." (Nord,2012,p.12) As a well-educated Chinese American dedicated to the comparative study of Chinese literature and its western counterpart,Irving possessed superb "bilingual competence" and "bicultural competence" (Nida,1993,p.110),which endowed him with multi-dimensional adaptability in the translating process and the ability to synchronize the ST reception and the TT production.Therefore,Irving,in the process of translating ancient Chinese poetry,had an accurate grasp of the source text and a suitable expression of the target text.Accordingly,his translations of ancient Chinese poetry enjoy high degree of holistic adaptation and selection.