Characteristics of Chinese Translation of Emily Dickinson's Poetry: A Big-Data Analysis Based on Nine Translations

Abstract

Using a program written in python language to conduct a big-data statistical analysis of poetic form and vocabulary use of nine Chinese translations of Emily Dickinson's poetry, it is found that the current Chinese translations deviate significantly from the original in terms of poetic form in which deviation of punctuation is greater than that of stanzas and lines, and no translation completely retains formal characteristics of the original. Different characteristics in the use of vocabulary can be found in different translations. Some translations have too many additions and deletions, which makes language content deviate from the original too much. In translating Dickinson's poetry, the form and content of the original text should be faithfully translated. In particular, dashes of the original text should be kept completely, reduce the manifestation of the translator in the translation and avoid addition and deletion in translating.