Starting from the thesis that translation always takes place in a certain social and cultural context and is therefore conditioned by certain contextual factors, this paper examines the particular role that poetics pl...Starting from the thesis that translation always takes place in a certain social and cultural context and is therefore conditioned by certain contextual factors, this paper examines the particular role that poetics played in Buddhist scripture translation that happened in ancient China. Buddhist poetics, in its associations with China＇s native poetics, did not work its way peacefully into the latter＇s embrace, to begin with. Instead, its appearance was first met with severe criticism and resistance. Aware of this problem, Buddhist translators in ancient China made continuous efforts in adapting Buddhist translations to the reading habits of the local people, which helped to ensure an easier acceptance of Buddhist philosophy by the Chinese people. With the growth and advancement of Buddhism in China, Buddhist poetics was no longer regarded as an enemy by its Chinese counterpart, and the style of Buddhist scripture translation was therefore able to stick closer to that of the original texts. The conclusion is that the poetics of one foreign literary system, when it comes to a new cultural environment, instead of remaining unaltered, usually goes through a complicated process of clashing and confl cfing with the native poetics before they two become reconciled and compatible with each other.展开更多
文摘Starting from the thesis that translation always takes place in a certain social and cultural context and is therefore conditioned by certain contextual factors, this paper examines the particular role that poetics played in Buddhist scripture translation that happened in ancient China. Buddhist poetics, in its associations with China＇s native poetics, did not work its way peacefully into the latter＇s embrace, to begin with. Instead, its appearance was first met with severe criticism and resistance. Aware of this problem, Buddhist translators in ancient China made continuous efforts in adapting Buddhist translations to the reading habits of the local people, which helped to ensure an easier acceptance of Buddhist philosophy by the Chinese people. With the growth and advancement of Buddhism in China, Buddhist poetics was no longer regarded as an enemy by its Chinese counterpart, and the style of Buddhist scripture translation was therefore able to stick closer to that of the original texts. The conclusion is that the poetics of one foreign literary system, when it comes to a new cultural environment, instead of remaining unaltered, usually goes through a complicated process of clashing and confl cfing with the native poetics before they two become reconciled and compatible with each other.
