A Study on Feng Tang’s Translation of Stray Birds from Manipulation Theory

Tagore is a distinguished Indian writer and poet, and his works have never lost popularity around the world. Published in 1916, Stray Birds is one of the earliest translated poetry collections in China, of which the version translated by Zheng Zhenduo is highly regarded. However, Chinese poet Feng Tang translated Stray Birds in 2015 and his version soon became the subject of heated discussions among translation field and academic world due to his unique style and bold diction. Based on Lefevere’s manipulation theory, this essay offers an analysis of Feng Tang’s translation of Stray Birds, analyzing the influence of the manipulative factors, namely ideology, poetics and patronage on Feng’s translation methods and strategies. At present, most criticisms of Feng Tang’s translation focus mainly on translation theories and linguistic factors. From the perspective of manipulation theory, the study on Feng’s translation will not only provide new methods and ideas for the appreciation and translation of poetry, but also add more radiance on Stray Birds.

On Not Knowing

It is common knowledge that translation and translated literature played an important role in Chinese literature in the first decades of the twentieth century. The lack of resources needed to train individuals in languages such as Russian or even English and French, however, meant that many translations were made by translators who did not know the original language in which a source was written. Two important methods emerged for producing this type of translation: “tandem translation” (duiyi) and relay translation or retranslation (zhuanyi). Through a survey of the translation practices of Lin Shu (1852–1924) and his later rivals, including Zheng Zhenduo (1898–1958) and Mao Dun (1896–1981), this chapter suggests that these practices offer an opportunity to think through not only some of the fundamental questions of translation in modern world literature but also the place of translation in academic scholarship on comparative literature.