International Journal of Language & Literature

“Chinoiserie” in Pound’s Cathay and Chinese Poetry Translation
Grace Po-ting Fang

Abstract
In this paper, I would like to explore the concept of “Chinoiserie”, by examining the case of Pound‟s Chinese poetry translation: Cathy, and then give examples to indicate how the idea of “Chinoiserie” can be applied to Chinese poetry translation.Through experimental translation, Ezra Pound was led to promote a rather prejudiced view of the ideogram (based on Fenollosa‟s scripts) which he was to incorporate into his translations from the Chinese, Cathay, but, as we shall see, even his misapprehension proved fruitful, both for translation and for literary language more generally. About “Chinoiserie” and Chineseness, therefore, we need to keep fairly open minds: these are not to treated as two terms as a collision course with each other, but rather as two terms locked together in a protracted process of negotiation, which will never in fact come to an end. The task of the translator is to make the negotiation as mutually beneficial as possible. Instead of being condemned, misinterpretation and misunderstanding play an important role in literary developments. This thought encourages some translators who do not know Chinese to translate Chinese texts. Hence, rather than the criteria of cultural, intertextual, semantic and poetic adequacy, we need to apply other criteria, involving the translator‟s personal writing style, the translational purpose, and the effect of ideogrammic method.

Full Text: PDF      DOI: 10.15640/ijll.v9n2a4