ABSTRACT

Translating Tagore’s ‘Stray Birds’ into Chinese explores the choices in poetry translation in light of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and illustrates the ways in which readers can achieve a deeper understanding of translated works in English and Chinese.

Focusing on Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Stray Birds’, a collection of elegant and philosophical poems, as a source text, Ma and Wang analyse four Chinese target texts by Zheng Zhenduo, Yao Hua, Lu Jinde and Feng Tang and consider their linguistic complexities through SFL. This book analyses the source text and the target texts from the perspectives of the four strata of language, including graphology, phonology, lexicogrammar and context.

Ideal for researchers and academics of SFL, Translation Studies, Linguistics, and Discourse Analysis, Translating Tagore’s ‘Stray Birds’ into Chinese provides an in-depth exploration of SFL and its emerging prominence in the field of Translation Studies.

chapter 3|16 pages

Translating on the expression plane of language

Graphological and phonological choices

chapter 4|87 pages

Translating on the content plane of language

Lexicogrammatical choices

chapter 5|20 pages

Contextual considerations in translation

Analyzing field, tenor, and mode

chapter 6|4 pages

Conclusion

Exploring poetry translation with Systemic Functional Linguistics