A Corpus-based Comparative Study of Translator’s Style: Focusing on Li Bai’s Poems Translated by Rewi Alley and Xu Yuanchong

Abstract

So far, there are many English translations of Li Bai's poems, but the quality of these translations varies. In the past, most translations were evaluated subjectively. However, the rise of corpus study allows that quantitative approach can be used in translation studies. Based on a self-constructed corpus, this paper conducts a comparative study of translators’ styles reflected in two different versions of Li Bai’s poems by Rewi Alley and Xu Yuanchong, which is examined at the levels of vocabulary, sentences, discourse. The findings indicate that the two translators have their unique styles. At the word level, Xu Yuanchong uses more flowery words, whereas Rewi Alley’s language is plain. At the sentence level, Rewi Alley’s version is more formal than Xu Yuanchong’s, and Xu Yuanchong’s version strictly corresponds with the original form, while Rewi Alley prefers to be free. At the discourse level, Xu Yuanchong prefers to translate poems with the metrical style, while Rewi Alley’s translations are in free verse and easier to understand than Xu’s version. A particular effort is further made to interpret the reasons for the different styles of the two translators in the different ideological context. It is hoped that the use of this corpus methodology will contribute to the field of literary translation studies.