A translation comparison of stray birds between Zheng Zhenduo’s version and Feng Tang’s version : from the perspective of manipulation theory

• Main Author: Zheng, Jiani
• Other Authors: Cui Feng
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Literature
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/72411
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper employed Lefevere’s Manipulation Theory to explain respectively how three main factors of Manipulation Theory, namely patronage, ideology and poetics controlled Zheng Zhenduo’s and Feng Tang’s translation activity of Tagore’s Stray Birds. And then the paper will analyze their translation strategies by comparing certain poems in Stray Birds. However, author of this paper did not aim to reconfirm Lefevere’s Manipulation Theory, but under his theoretical framework, tried to interpret translation phenomenon from an extra-linguistic perspective. Through analysis and comparison, the importance of three core elements was different in those two versions. For Zheng Zhenduo, three main elements shared equal impacts on his translation. His individual ideology and poetics conformed to prevailing ideology and poetics in those days, and his patronage also exerted a positive influence, therefore his Stray Birds received favorable reviews. In Feng Tang’s case, individual poetics played the most important role. Although his poetics reflected literary trends to some extent, but that is still not the mainstream in today’s literary market. The translator’s subjectivity in Feng’s version was clearly stronger than Zheng’s. For the purpose of literary innovation and commercial interests, patronage did not manipulate Feng’s translation too much. As a result, Feng Tang’s Stray Birds was forced to stop sales. Key words: Zheng Zhenduo; Feng Tang; Stray Birds; Manipulation Theory