6.2.2　A case study

What we have just described are methodological assumptions.In applying the preservation strategy of image-G actualization,translators need to be more skillful to make sure that the method itself does not either determine the outcome in advance of the empirical translation practice or artificially skew it.A common method for achieving this,especially in the case studies we will be discussing,is to seek converging evidence using the broadest available range of differing corresponding relations in translators'practical translation of classical Chinese poetry.Ideally,the skewing effects of any one method will be canceled out by this operation,and,more crucially,cases study are provided to try to account for how the image-G preservation strategy operates and how it takes effect on image-G actualization of specific corresponding relations in translators'practical translation of classical Chinese poetry.As for the inclusive correspondence presented in Section 5.3,which has been explored in Xu's translation of“The Beautiful Lady Yu”,what we are about to propose does has convincing body of convergent evidence to support that image-G preservation strategy is applicable for the type of inclusive correspondence.

According to the cognitive motivation of image-G preservation strategy,it is essential for translators to seek out the analogous substitution of equivalent prototype categories represented in ST.In a way,this type of approach would be regarded as natural,or even necessary,to approach image-G preservation from a usage-based perspective that is so crucial for image-G actualization in TT.As Langacker(1991)pointed out,there is no fixed limit on how far something can depart from the prototype and still be assimilated to the class,if the categorizer is perceptive or clever enough to find some point of resemblance to typical instances.Most views on the nature of prototype categories have had in common a belief in a constant underlying mental representation for each prototype category.In a sense,translators readily form new and Gestalt coherent prototype categories that show the same mental representation as established categories,including graded centrality and characteristic features.(https://www.daowen.com)

To begin with,there are some of pertinent prototype category that can be related to Gestalt attributes embodied in certain images of schematic Gestalt mode in the poem.For instance,the image of xiaolou(little tower)belongs to schematic Gestalt model where its Gestalt attributes of the poet's gloomy mood within the base domain can be mapped.It is by means of pertinent prototype category in possessing chief Gestalt attributes of loneliness and desolation.Moreover,because translators identify its Gestalt attributes in various recognition ways and have often formulated specific Gestalt contours of certain attributes,many of them only concern certain subgroups of nonrepresentational prototype category.If they deal with the whole groups of prototype category,it may appear somewhat random as regards the criteria it is based on.For instance,“my garden”adopted by Xu actually manifests a random case,in which its Gestalt attributes are deviated from nonrepresentational prototype category represented in ST.As a result,there is clear indication on low Gestalt clarity but a high degree of pragmatic and linguistic relatedness to the original image in TT.So does his translation of the image of guguo(lost land)as“bowers and palaces”.

To be specific,if translators typically view the image of xiaolou(little tower)and guguo(lost land)as prototypical mental representations of the author's Gestalt contour,the topicality of their Gestalt attributes can itself be understood as a prototype structure in a similar way.To acquire high-degree analogous items,translators must decide what prototype categories are relevant and how they should be preserved in TT to fit the situation at hand.As for a typical one assimilated to prominent prototype categories of xiaolou(a cramped room where the poet was detained),the adoption of tiny pavilion would be suggested to provide an equivalent prototype feature due to the fact that its category highlights richer prototypical representations in the Gestalt contour of the poet's wretchedness.Another example of fuzzy and blurred prototype category at the edges is manifested in Xu's adoption of“bowers and palaces”.As a matter of fact,by the adoption of lost kingdom,the original schematic Gestalt mode can be illustrated more fully in TT as specified by prototypical conceptual representations in its usage referring to Gestalt effects of the poet's deep sorrow and grief.