4.3.2 Gestalt characteristic of good continuity
For translators，to perceive good continuity cue of poetic images in poetry is to recognize its image-G.In appropriate conditions，it is the sum of continuous contour to some degree with adjacent fellows that facilitates translators in fulfilling image-G and its enrichment will gradually help recognize image-G.Take an example from the translation of Qin Guan's poem“Courtyard Full of Fragrance”（秦观《满庭芳》）：[5]
山抹微云，天连衰草，画角声断谯门。
Shan mo weiyun,tian lian shuaicao,huajiaosheng duan qiaomen.
暂停征棹，聊共引离尊。
Zanting zhengzhao,liao gong yin lizun.
多少蓬莱旧事，空回首、烟霭纷纷。
Duoshao penglai jiushi,kong huishou,yan'ai fenfen.
斜阳外，寒鸦万点，流水绕孤村。
Xieyang wai,hanya wandian,liushui rao gucun.
消魂当此际，香囊暗解，罗带轻分。
Xiaohun dang ciji,xiangnang anjie,luodai qingfen.
谩赢得青楼薄幸名存，此去何时见也？
Man yingde qinglou boxing mingcun,ciqu heshi jian ye?
襟袖上，空惹啼痕。
Jinxiu shang,kong re tihen.
伤情处，高城望断，灯火已黄昏。
Shangqing chu,gaocheng wangduan,denghuo yi huanghun.
A belt of clouds grids mountains high
And withered grass spreads to the sky,
The painted horn at the watchtower blows.
Before my boat sails up,(https://www.daowen.com)
Let's drink a farewell cup.
How many things do I recall in bygone days?
All lost in mist and haze!
Beyond the setting sun I see but dots of crows
And that around a lonely village water flows.
I'd call to mind the soul-consuming hour
When I took off your perfume purse unseen
And loosened your silk girdle in your bower.
All this has merely won me in the Mansion Green
The name of fickle lover.
Now I'm a rover,
Oh,when can I see you again?
My tears are shed in vain;
In vain they wet my sleeves.
It grieves
My heart to find your bower out of sight;
It's lost in dusk in city light
(Translated by Xu Yuanchong)
The images in the poem can be spatially categorized to draw three smooth contours of good continuity,namely,the upper-space contour,the intermediate-space contour and the lower-space contour.The upper-space contour involves four segmental images of weiyun(a belt of clouds),shan(mountains),tian(sky)and xieyang(setting sun),which sets off the distance and broadness of the scene and presents similar Gestalt qualities of the artistic conception as placid mood.The intermediate-space contour also includes four segmental images of zhengzhao(sails up boat),yan'ai(mist and haze),hanya(dots of crows)and gucun(a lonely village),which present a sense of great wistfulness and disorientation of poet's abundant and complicated inner world.The lower-space contour consists of four segmental images of shuaicao(withered grass),liushui(water flows),gaocheng(bower out of sight)and denghuo(city light),which are conducted to express the poet's grief of separation and his parting sorrows.
It seems clear that most often his translation is allied with aesthetic network of these three contours,which take on pictorial connotation and visual representation,strengthen the expressive forces and deepen its implication of the original artistic conception.These three contours of good continuity is a progressive relationship at the spatial level,so the translator's perception is a comprehensive grasp from aesthetic network to coherent collective image-G.It is the Gestalt interaction of these three contours of good continuity that makes the poem other than a mere reflection of these depicted images as perceived by the senses and enables the translator to go beyond his representation of aesthetic qualities,for Gestalt significance of the thematic artistic conception is also conveyed.From this,we can see that the translator's keen insight into three smooth contours of good continuity sets off the accurate conveyance of thematic artistic conception of image-G in his translation,namely,the poet's distracted and listless mood because of his frustrated literati career.