Source: Proz.cn Published: 2002- 12-29.

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The incense burner in Rizhao produces purple smoke, and the waterfall hangs in front of the river.

On the high cliff, it seems to be thousands of feet high, which makes people think that the Milky Way has fallen from heaven to earth.

Xu Yuanchong translated:

Lushan Waterfall

li po

Sunlit incense burner peak spits out a circle of clouds;

Like an upside-down stream, the waterfall sounds loud.

Its torrent rushed down from 3,000 feet;

Like a silver river falling from the blue sky. ②

Translate Wang Shouyi and John Noval;

Look at Lushan Waterfall

li po

Purple smoke rises from the top of the mountain.

In the sun, this mountain peak looks like a censer.

I saw the distant valley stretching before me.

The whole waterfall hangs there.

The rapids dropped 3,000 feet.

Go straight down to the bottom

I think it must be the Milky Way.

Sprinkle from the sky to the earth

Mr. Xu Yuanchong is experienced in translating China's ancient poems into English. Xu's English translation of the poem is characterized by accurate grasp of the original meaning and flexible translation; Pay attention to "similarity in spirit", give consideration to "similarity in form" and convey "beauty in sound".

The "spirit likeness" in Xu's translation is mainly reflected in the kung fu of expressing feelings with words. It is really remarkable that he can accurately grasp the essence of the original poem and reproduce the artistic conception and momentum of the original with flexible artistic means. What did the author follow in the original poem? The fifth sentence of the quot seven-character poem should echo the principle of ④, and skillfully use the words of "life", "hanging" and "falling" to give the waterfall a dynamic and ups and downs momentum, so that it can change in the dynamic and static, the virtual and the real. According to the original text, the translator gives full play to the advantages of the target language: skillfully using the tense, voice and modality of English verbs to vividly reproduce the artistic conception of the original poem.

The first sentence of the original poem is about the background of the waterfall. In the poet's pen, the incense burner peak stands tall, surrounded by a sea of clouds, ethereal between the green mountains and the blue sky, and purple smoke is born under the bright sun. The word "sheng" in this sentence makes the still incense burner peak come alive. Xu Yi used the English verb "exhale" ("exhale" or "exhale") to personify the object (incense burner peak). The simple present tense of this verb not only makes readers feel that the scene is in front of them, but also faithfully translates that the incense burner peak will last forever between heaven and earth. The author translated "purple smoke" with "garland of clouds". Although "garland" is a noun, it has a vivid image of "lingering" and "colorful". This line of translation is carefully chosen, which creates a broad imagination space, is poetic, reproduces the beautiful scenery in the original, and is very romantic.

In the second sentence of the original poem, the first four words "overlooking the waterfall" are the theme, and the last three words "hanging in front of the river" are what the poet sees. The waterfall falls down, and the poet prefers to use the word "hanging" to turn it into stillness, echoing it from a distance, so that the waterfall with white waves rolling and river-like potential hangs straight from the towering peak to the water surface. Translators and authors are connected with each other and creatively use their imaginations. The English verb "upside down" ("inverted"), a passive past participle, is used to describe the waterfall in the distance as an upside-down torrent, which makes people feel that nature has magical power and can compete to hang the giant high between mountains and rivers. The word is translated between the lines. Undoubtedly, the target language advantage here makes the translated poem have the same artistic charm as the original poem, which not only reflects the translator's unique understanding of the original text, but also reflects the translator's ability to control the translation.

In the third sentence of the poem, the waterfall is more imposing. The word "fly" vividly describes the momentum of waterfalls flying out of the air and into the distance. "Straight Down" is about the wonders of waterfalls. The mountains are high and steep, splitting down the air and rushing thousands of miles. Taking the "dash downward" as the predicate in the translation not only conforms to the trend of the subject "hanging upside down" (flying down), but also expresses the majestic momentum of the waterfall falling in the air, which can be said to be right.

In the last sentence, the poet, starting from real life, imagines the waterfall splashed with pearls and jade as the Milky Way falling from nine days and the sky. The poet's galloping imagination can see through Wan Li, but he sees nature in exaggeration and truth in novelty. The translator uses the fictional "fall" of the English verb "fall" to naturally connect the waterfall in reality with the imaginary Milky Way. Without axe marks, the translator is ingenious and conveys the ups and downs and huge flows vividly depicted by the word "falling". Giving consideration to "similarity" and conveying "beauty in sound" are the specialties of Xu Yuanchong's English translation of Chinese poems. The quatrains are four lines. Quatrains in English poetry, especially those in a narrow sense, seem to be quatrains recently. There are many rhymes in quatrains, so the translator chooses aabb rhymes according to the poetic rhythm of the original poem. In order to rhyme, the translator made necessary adjustments to the word order of this poem. For example, in the second line, the sentence pattern ("Like an upside-down stream, cataract sounds loud") is used to rhyme the word "Loud" at the end of this sentence with the word "cloud" at the end of the previous sentence. In addition, many words with consonants [s] or [] are used in the poem (see sunlit, incense burner, exhalation and garland in the first line) and alliteration (see dash and down, three and terrible in the third line).

In terms of rhythm, poetry translation adopts iambic, and the number of steps in each line can be the same, including six steps. Take the first behavior as an example:

- - - - - -

The sun lit Zensel Peak and exhaled a circle of clouds.

It can be seen that the translator has made great efforts to preserve the "formal beauty" and "sound beauty" of the original poem, so that the basic form and natural rhythm of the translated poem are roughly similar to those of the original poem.

Compared with Xu's translation, the translation co-translated with John Noval is also a kind of poetry translation in form; But the difference is that Xu translated metrical style, while Wang Nuo translated free verse. Wang Nuo's translation is not limited by syllables, lines and rhymes, and long and short sentences are interlaced. Although the whole poem has no rhyme, it is catchy to read. The reason is that the translator takes the meaning group as the sound group, and each group has food to eat; In addition, although the poem is not limited by verse, it flows naturally according to the language rhythm of the original poem, which better reproduces the artistic charm of Li Bai's "clear water produces hibiscus and is naturally carved". On the other hand, the translated poem has the characteristics of conforming to the original poem style in language form, with clear and authentic expression, natural fluency and natural rhythm. The two translators' choice of this translation method is closely related to their translation ideas. Wang Shouyi once said: Translating China's ancient poems with metrical method "can only achieve similar results, but can't truly reflect the poetic style and language form of the original poem". Objectively speaking, the form of poetry serves its content. No matter which form is adopted, as long as the translated poem conveys the artistic conception, charm and aesthetic feeling of the original poem, it is a good translated poem.

Wang Nuohe's translation of Wang Lushan Waterfall is close to the elegant and chic style of the original with natural and fluent poems, but because the words only highlight the superficial meaning of the original translation, it is "slightly less literary" than Xu's translation in shaping the image and describing the momentum of the waterfall. For example, when Mr. Wang Nuo painted "life", "hanging" and "falling" in the original translation, he used "rising", "hanging" and "sprinkling", giving people the impression that the image is not vivid enough, the momentum is not enough and the meaning is hard to find. In addition, the translation of Purple Smoke Rising makes people feel that there is something missing, because although the translation of Smoke is alive, Incense Burner is still life, which does not match the image of the original poem.

The word "Gua" faithfully describes the static landscape of the waterfall, but when this word is written in contrast with the word "Di" in the next sentence, the effect is contrary to the original intention: it seems to be "hanging under the giant between the green mountains and the blue sky", and the "Di" disappears. In addition, although the word "overflow" can better reproduce the beauty of the waterfall, it is slightly inferior to "fall" in momentum. Therefore, poetry is an imaginative work of art. Due to the different surface forms between English and Chinese, how to accurately reproduce the image of the original poem in translation has become a challenging problem. When translating a word, we should consider the overall artistic conception, make the local beauty and the overall beauty harmonious and unified, and reproduce the content and aesthetic feeling of the original poem as faithfully and perfectly as possible.

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