Translating Imageries:What Cultural Exchange Means as Translation

DOI: 10.5176/2382-5650_CCS17.84

Authors: Chu Shiao Ying Sharon

Abstract:

This research study is on the nature of cultural exchange elaborated from the perspective of poetry translation. Through examples of the translation of poetic imageries, I argue that much as cultural differences are often highlighted legitimately in the discussion of cross-cultural communication in general and in translation, a translator should explore possibilities of manipulating features shared by the working languages (language being the embodiment of cultural information) as far as possible. I argue that while the presumption of cultural differences as reflected in languages leads to different views on how best the presentation of imageries might be transferred to the target text, considering the features of two languages in the light of their similarities where possible increases the chance of achieving effective cross-cultural communication without having to presume existence of a translation ‘problem’ in the first instance which needs to be tackled and which gives rise to disagreements and dichotomies with regard to how such problem should be handled.

Keywords: Chinese poetry; culture; translation; imagery; perception