Ezra Pound: Translation, Theory and Language

Paper Summary:

Everybody has problems in translation. This paper attempts to clarify concepts and theories in translation theory - from Walter Benjamin to Ezra Pound - and focuses on Ezra Pound's translation of Chinese poetry and how Pound became a successful translator in modern poetry. It looks at how Pound's attention to detail and foreignizing technique made him a very vivid and innovative translator of the 20th century. The paper discusses some of Pound's translation strategies as well as explaining them by giving specific examples from his best known work "Cathay".

From the Paper:

"First of all, it is worthwhile to define 'translation'. In dictionary, to translate has several meanings. To translate is "to express or be capable of being expressed in another language or dialect", or "to express or explain in simple or less technical language", or "to interpret or infer the significance of (gestures, symbols, etc.)", or "to transform or convert", or "to move or carry from one place or position to another". Within the limits of these definitions, one can easily understand that the practice of translation is not simple as it seems. Rather, it is a sophisticated matter since it involves number of things, when translating something to something else-this can be a word, a gesture, a movement, or something else. Interestingly, translation can be seen as an "interpretation"; generally, the word interpretation is used in literary circles for an attempt to clarify and explain literary works. "

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