Han Shan is a mysterious monk poet in the Tang dynasty. Riddled with colloquial language and unfettered form, a far cry from conventional classical poems, his poems were overshadowed by prestigious poets with exuberant rhetoric in native land while greeted with outpouring of attentions across the sea, which can mainly be accredited to Gary Snyder’s translation. Han Shan is also hailed as the spiritual idol of the Beat Generation. Probing into Gary Snyder’s absorption and creation of Han Shan’s poems and fathoming profound thoughts under the veil of slovenly expressions contribute to pinpoint reasons for the “Han Shan fever”, present Gary Snyder’s consummate translation skills, also pave the way for our culture export.

In theory, reception theory shrugs off unremitting pursuits for faithfulness, puts spotlights on the subjective role of receptors, which makes great breakthrough and provides a new theoretical perspective for translation studies. Pivoting on fusion of horizon, the analysis on Gary Snyder’s absorption and creation of Han Shan’s poems reveals how such a resounding textual travel transpire through hundreds of years, through thousands of miles, through inveterate also distinct Chinese and American culture.

Domestic research on Han Shan’s poems remained unobtrusive until Hu Shi exalted him as one of three vernacular poets of Tang dynasty in his book History of the Vernacular Literature. Then it got stuck in a rut again until Han Shan fever, which pervaded the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, refluxed to China and garnered waves of attentions. Researches on the translation of Han Shan’s poems mainly focus on analyzing translation techniques the translators leveraged and appreciating translation versions from different perspectives. Hu Anjiang (2005) applies the theory of textual travel to conclude that Gary Snyder’s creative misreading of cold mountain poems bestows legal identity on Han Shan. Geng Jiyong (2007) elaborates on Gary Synder’s assimilation of Han Shan’s poetic views from perspective of ecological poetics. Centering on reception theory, Huang Jiayan (2012) revolves around the creative treason in Snyder’s translation and argues that treason is intended to cater to the readers’ horizon of expectations.

Different from domestic gloom, in Japan, America and France, Han Shan’s poems struck their fancy at the very beginning. Not only hype the ethereal and unworldly image of Han Shan, some scholars hastened to polish and took up the gauntlet to translate. Apart from Gary Snyder, British sinologist Arthur Waley and American scholar Burton Watson also contribute their distinctive translation versions. The studies abroad also involve the comparison between different translation versions in the angle of aesthetic taste and rhetoric. Herbert Fackler compared the three versions stated above in terms of diction, structure and image representation respectively and illustrates that Snyder’s translation is at the forefront of all versions with sublime diction, organized form and harmonious translation field. Robert Kern lays bare Snyder’s superiority lies in his rewrite the image of Han Shan based on American indigenous cultural environment, which is pertinent to spiritual needs the Beat Generation craves for.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

This paper mainly focuses on Gary Snyder’s absorption and creation embodied in his translation of Han Shan’s twenty-four poems from perspective of fusion of horizon. Firstly, this paper will expound on how such a reclusive image tally with Snyder’s spiritual pursuits in terms of character, ideology and profound thoughts lurked between the lines,how a gnarled monk break through time, place and concept differences bring boon to spiritual-starving American people, how Han Shan’s fusion as a writer and Snyder’s fusion as a reader integrate and interact, which lay a foundation for Snyder’s later assimilation. Secondly, this paper will reveal Snyder’s fusion transforming from reader to translator and highlight the necessity of creation in the process of translation, so as to mesh with Snyder’s certain purposes and American objective cultural environment at that time. Then, several specific examples will be given to show poetic theories and intended rewrite Snyder adopted in his translation. Equipped with vorutteile, fusion of horizon, horizon of expectation these crucial concepts in reception aesthetics, this paper will refresh the glamour of Han Shan’s poems and reflect on this communication between east and west more dynamically, directly and clearly.

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[4]Feeley J. More than Just Embracing Han Shan: Cultural Transfer in Translating Xi Xi’s “Written on the Flyleaf of a Gary Snyder Poetry Collection”[J]. Translation Review, 2015, 93(1):68-80.

[5]Lewis C L. Genesis, Structure, and Meaning in Gary Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End[J]. Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature amp; Environment, 2016, 12(2):291-291.