Translation of visual poetic spatiality
Spatiality in literature has been explored in depth in recent years, but there are still few applications in literary
translation studies. With space cognitively defined and the trichotomy of iconic signs adopted, we argue that the written text of a poem has
its visual poetic spaces – the scene properties of linguistic signs (letters, character parts, words, lineation etc.) and relational
reference of linguistic signs (distance, sequence etc.) – and that these poetic spaces are imagically and diagrammatically iconic. Our
analysis of the English-Chinese and Chinese-English translation of poems’ iconic letters, lineation, distance, and sequence reveals that
some translators have successfully reproduced the source text’s visual spatiality in the target text, but some have simply ignored or
neglected the rendering; visual poetic spaces are semantically important and translatable, and the translation techniques involve direct
reproduction and complementary renderings. We argue that, in addition to portraying the linguistic and cultural information found in poems,
translators should pay more attention to visual poetic spatiality in their work in order to ensure an accurate portrayal of the original
author’s work.
Article outline
- 1.Definition of visual poetic space
- 2.Translation of iconic scene properties
- 3.Translation of iconic letters
- 4.Translation of iconic lineation
- 5.Translation of iconic reference
- 6.Translation of iconic distance
- 7.Translation of iconic sequence
- 8.Conclusion
-
References
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Cited by (2)
Cited by 2 other publications
Wang, Yinping
2023.
Poetics of the Medial State of Emily Dickinson’s Persona.
Journal of Literary Studies 39
Masiola, Rosanna
2022.
Sacred Spaces in Southern African Literature: From Mhudi to Mutemwa.
English Academy Review 39:2
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