A Study on the Translation Strategies of The Nine Songs from the Perspective of Cognitive Construal: A Comparative Analysis of the Yangs’ and Waley’s Versions

The process of forming translations is closely related to the translators’ embodied cognition and experience. The translators’ different mechanisms of construal contribute to the formation of a variety of translation versions. Based on the theory of Cognitive Construal, this paper discusses in detail the differences and translation strategies between the Yangs and Arthur Waley’s English versions of The Nine Songs, Elegies of the South . The analysis shows that the Yangs’ version has a high degree of specificity, follows the figure-ground relation of the original, highlights the original metrical pattern, and adopts the translation strategy of foreignization by translating the poem from the perspective of the original author. However, Waley’s version has more expressions of lesser specificity, does not follow the figure-ground relation of the original text completely, and changes the metrical pattern of the original poem. He interprets the poem from the perspective of the target language reader and adopts the translation strategy of domestication. The study shows the different translation poetics between Chinese translators and sinologists, hoping to provide references for the translation of Chinese classics.

and analyze the academic thoughts and cultural attitudes of different translators. Previous studies on the English translation of Elegies of the South rarely focus on the translators' cognitive psychological process. Translation activities are human cognitive activities. Cognitive Translatology explores the formation process of the translation from a cognitive perspective, which is a new research paradigm produced by the combination of cognitive linguistics and translation and can explain the translators' cognitive construal mechanisms in translation. At present, domestic scholars have combined translation with cognitive construal to reveal the translators' translation strategies and methods by analyzing their cognitive translation process (e.g., Wang, 2013;Xiao, 2013; Zhang & Guo, 2019; Wu & Yang, 2020). Therefore, taking the English versions by the Yangs and Waley as examples, this study makes a comparative analysis and investigates the cognitive differences in construal between Chinese translators and Western sinologists in the process of English translation from the perspective of construal theory so as to provide a new research perspective and method for the translation studies of Elegies of the South.

Theoretical Basis: Cognitive Construal
Cognitive linguistics holds that "construal" is a kind of human cognitive ability. People's construal ability correlates closely with their language ability. The semantic difference comes from the different construal mechanisms adopted by speakers or authors. Cognitive construal theory was first introduced into the field of linguistics by Langacker R.W., who defined "construal" as our manifest ability to conceive and portray the same situation in alternate ways (Langacker, 2008:43). Cognitive linguists Evans and Green (2006) believe that construal can be equivalent to "conceptualization," which refers to the speaker's "way of presenting conceptual representation ." In other words, the mapping of situational components to language does not form a one-to-one coding relationship. The same situation can be construed in different ways, which contributes to different conceptualization or grammatical constructions. What we actually see in a scene depends on how closely we observe it, what we choose to observe, which elements we mainly concentrate on, and where we look at it from. Given the above construal phenomena, Langacker (2008) proposed four dimensions: specificity, focusing, prominence, and perspective, which are significant mechanisms to explain the causes of language structure and the differences in language expression. Each of the four dimensions has its emphasis. Specificity describes the accuracy of semantics, which is mainly reflected in the hierarchical relationship between superordinate and hyponyms; focusing focuses on the area of attention in the conceptual world; prominence emphasizes the distribution of cognitive subjects' attention; perspective focuses on the different observation perspectives of cognitive subjects.
In translation activities, the multiple versions stem from the fact that translators construct translations in different construing ways. In the process of exploring the construing ways of the original author, the translators imaginatively construct or restore the scene construed by the original author and then process and express the scene in the translators' own construing ways. This process involves two interactions between the translators and the original text and between the translators and the translations. Based on the four dimensions of cognitive construal, this study constructs a figure to explain the translation production process from the perspective of cognitive construal (see Figure 1). Firstly, the translators interpret the original text. With different knowledge and cultural backgrounds, their understandings of the original text are inconsistent. In this interactive stage, different mappings of the same original text in the minds of different translators will be formed, and the mapping results such as "the original1" and "the original2" will be constructed. However, in order to ensure the faithfulness of the translations to the original, the translators need to deeply excavate the original author's background and write an intention to fully reproduce the text world constructed by the original author. This stage is the first interaction between the translators and the original text, which can be regarded as the "1 st stage of construal". "2 nd stage of construal" is the stage in which the translators actually translate. The translators translate the information they understand into the target language according to different dimensions of construal. Different translators adopt different construal mechanisms for the same original text, which also leads to inconsistent translations, forming translation results such as "the version1" and "the version2".

Analysis and discussion
This study explores the cognitive differences between the Yangs and Waley in their constructions of the English translations of The Nine Songs, Elegies of the South from the four dimensions of cognitive construal-specificity, focusing, prominence and perspective. Since the two translations both maintain faithfulness to the original text, there is no significant difference in construal at the "1 st stage of construal". The difference is mainly reflected in the "2 nd stage of construal". The following is a detailed comparative analysis of the Yangs' translation (hereinafter referred to as "the Yangs") and Waley's translation (hereinafter referred to as "Waley") in combination with the four dimensions.

A comparative analysis of cognitive construal between the two versions
3.1.1 Analysis of specificity Specificity refers to the attribute that the speaker describes the same scene with different accuracy and detail (Wen, 2012: 6). The level of precision and detail at which a situation is characterized depends on people's different interactive experiences with the objective world. For example, we can describe a flower by saying that it is a flower, but also-with progressively greater specificityby saying that it is a white flower or a white lily. Similarly, the father is more specific than a parent. In translation, specificity is mainly reflected in the change of word quantity and sentence level, which means"详略度" in Chinese."详" refers to specifying the original text, such as adding words or annotations, while"略" refers to simplifying the original text, such as deleting words or sentences. The source language and the target language show differences under the influence of regional culture, which makes it difficult to achieve complete equivalence between the specificities of the original text and the translation. Therefore, specificity is the concrete embodiment of the translator's cognitive subjectivity and objectivity and can judge the fidelity of the translation to the original text. If the specificity of the translation is almost the same as that of the original, then the translation is highly faithful to the original. This source-text-oriented translation method is called literal translation, while the translation method that lessens the specificity in order to conform to the expression habits of the target language can be called free translation. Here are some typical examples of specificity:

Example 1：浴兰汤兮沐芳，华采衣兮若英。《云中君》 The Yangs： Bathed in sweet Flow'rs and Orchid-scented Dews, In Robers of Crocus Petals' varied Hues. (The Lady of the Clouds) Waley： I have washed in brew of orchid, bathed in sweet scents, Many-colored are my garments; I am like a flower. (The Lord Amid the Clouds)
Influenced by the high context culture and the philosophical ideology of "the unity of heaven and man," the ellipses of subjects mostly appear in Chinese classical poetry. It is the refinement of the Chinese poetic language which can highlight new information and make poetry vivid. In the original text, the author omits the subject "I" in "浴兰汤兮沐芳，华采衣兮若英", while in translation, the Yangs and Waley adopt different translation methods for the subject of the sentence. Waley specifies the original and makes the narrative perspective clearer by adding the subject "I," and the sentence becomes slightly lengthy, weakening the poetic flavor to a certain extent. However, the Yangs has retained the implicitness of the original poetry; he describes "the lady of the clouds" in the form of nonfinite words such as "bathed in" and "in." The translation form without a subject is consistent with the specificity of the original text and also conforms to the grammatical characteristics of frequent subject omission in Chinese poetry.

Example 2：灵衣兮被被，玉佩兮陆离。《大司命》 The Yangs：With sacred Garments trailing long displayed, Of varied Hues, my Pendents wrought in Jade. (The Great Fate) Waley： He trails his spirit-garment, Dangles his girdle-gems. (The Big Lord of Lives)
"灵衣" in the stanza refers to the divine and splendid garment worn by "the great fate". The phrase "被被" highlights the length and floating shape of the garment, and the phrase "陆离" depicts the glittering appearance of the girdle-gems. The Yangs translates "被被" into "trailing long displayed", conveying the light and elegant shape of the garment. Waley uses "trails" to describe the shape of the garment. "Trail" means "to pull something behind somebody/something, usually along the ground", which can show the length of it but fail to depict the lightness of clothing. In terms of the translation of "陆离", "hues" in the Yangs' translation means "color and tone". The phrase "varied Hues" preserves the meaning of the original text, and the translation is faithful to the original at the very highest level; Waley translates it as "Dangles", which means that "something hangs or swings loosely". Compared with Yang's translation, Waley fails to fully express the meaning of "陆离", ignoring the colorful features of jade ornaments, thus weakening the original intention of trying to show the great fate's gorgeous garment and mighty divine power.
From the perspective of the specificity of cognitive construal, both the Yangs' and Waley's translations effectively convey the meaning of the original text, but the specificities of the two translators are different. With expressions of lesser specificity, Waley's translation is more in line with the expression style of the target language. The Yangs' translation is relatively concise, which conveys information smoothly and effectively, and maintains a high level of specificity compared with the original.

Analysis of focusing
Focusing includes the selection of conceptual content for linguistic presentation, as well as its arrangement into what can broadly be described(metaphorically) as foreground (being highly susceptible to activation) and background (being only weakly activated) (Langacker, 2008:57), which are expressed through the cognitive phenomenon known as figure vs. ground. "夫" in the original text is a kind of function word in classical Chinese writings."荪" means Iris sanguinea Donn ex Horn, which is a kind of herb. The ancients used it as a metaphor for kings and other dignitaries, and in this poem, it refers to "the little lord of lives". Therefore, the focus of attention (a strong kind of foregrounding) in the first half of the example is "人", and the background involves "美子". With the continuous development of the discourse space, "荪" has become the part of the new foreground, while "愁苦" belongs to the element in the background. The information focus of the first half of the Yangs' version is "each mortal", which corresponds to "人" in the original, while "loved one" is in the background and corresponds to "美子". And then, the discourse space of the first half of the line can be refreshed through the conjunction "then" and turn into the background, and the line led by "then" becomes a new discourse space in the interrogative sentence led by "why", "she, the Goddess" becomes the focus of information, which is consistent with the logical relationship of the original text. In Waley's translation, "people" (representing the foregrounding in the original) has been moved to the background in the prepositional phrase guided by "among," and "love young ones" becomes the information focus. As the discourse space moves forward, "you" (荪) has been the new focus of attention.

Example
Therefore, it appears that the Yangs' translation is more in line with the figure/background mode of the original than Waley's translation.

Example 4：石濑兮浅浅，飞龙兮翩翩。《湘君》 The Yangs： The rocky Stream with shallow Water flows, The winged Dragon-bark light skimming goes. (The Goddess of the Xiang River) Waley：These rocky shallows are hard to pass, Those flying dragons sweep her far away. (The Princess of the Hsiang)
Example 4 is not just describing the scenery. The complete sentence in the original poem is "心不同兮媒劳，恩不甚兮轻绝。石濑 兮浅浅，飞龙兮翩翩。交不忠兮怨长，期不信兮告余以不闲。" "心不同", "恩不甚", "交不忠" and "期不信" are the hard words spoken by the princess of the Hsiang when she was extremely disappointed. The description of the environment set off her resentment as she couldn't wait for Mr. Xiang. "石濑" means the torrent on the stone. The original poem places "石濑" and "飞龙" in the figure (foreground), which should be focused on in translation. Waley's translation put"石濑" into the background and "these rocky shallows" into the foreground. By highlighting the blocking effect of rocks in the water, it shows the princess of the Hsiang's indignation when she failed to meet Mr. Xiang. Compared with Waley's translation, the Yangs completely follows the focusing pattern of the original poem; that is, the figure elements such as "the rocky Stream" and "the winged Dragon" correspond to the original information focus "石濑" and "飞龙" respectively.
The translation faithful to the original text includes the construal process of focusing on the figure of the original. The diversity of translators' choices of focus leads to the diversification of translation methods. In the poem, the Yangs follow the cognitive structure of the figure vs. the background of the original text, and although Waley breaks this cognitive structure in some cases, it does not affect the semantic coherence.

Analysis of prominence
Prominence refers to numerous kinds of asymmetries displayed by language structure, which is often reflected through trajector/landmark alignment. The most prominent participant, called the trajectory(tr), is the entity construed as being located, evaluated, or described. It can be characterized as the primary focus of the profiled relationship. Often some other participant is made prominent as a second focus, which is called a landmark(lm) (Langacker, 2008:70 "望" rhymes with "张" , "中" and "上" in the original poem, forming a harmonious, smooth and cadenced rhythm. The Yangs adopt heroic couplets with AABB rhyme. Although "white", "Sight", "among," and "hung" do not completely copy the metrical pattern of the original text, they are still translated in rhyme, which highlights its beauty in sound and makes readers enjoy the rhyme beauty of ancient Chinese poetry. Waley's translation does not rhyme, but the light tone and stress of each sentence are properly matched. For example, "Over the white nut-grass, my eyes roam; I made a tryst with this fair one at curtain-time." Stress and light tones are used interchangeably in the translation. "Rhyme in translation is only regarded as an interpretation and illusory form" (Waley, 1956:9). It can be seen that Waley prefers to use the unrhymed form to maintain the beauty of poetry. Although Waley's translation is not more in line with the prominence of the original text for poetry rhyme than Yang's translation, it jumps out of the rigid metrical and rhythmic framework with strong autonomy and meets with the aesthetic tendency of most English readers.

Analysis of perspective
Perspective refers to the spatiotemporal position angle, attitude, and position of people's observation and understanding of things (Wen & Xiao, 2019:139). The choice of perspective affects the psychological path people adopt when describing the scene and determines the way of language expression. Therefore, the translators' interpretations of the text from different perspectives will produce different cognitive results.

Example 6：君不行兮夷犹，蹇谁留兮中洲。《湘君》
The Yangs：Departing not, ling'ring the Maids delay. What makes you in the River Islet stay? (The Goddess of the Xiang River) Waley：The Princess does not come; she bides her time.
Chien! she is waiting for someone on that big island. (The Princess of the Hsiang) "君" refers to the princess of the Hsiang. The Princess of the Hsiang is a companion to The Lady of the Hsiang. The image of "two Hsiangs" has experienced many changes from folklore and local spirits to Yao's daughter and Shun's wife in Chinese history. The academic circles have doubted their actual identities for a long while. At present, it is generally said in China that the princess of the Hsiang is the male god of Xiang River, and the lady of the Hsiang is the daughter of the emperor of Heaven (Zhao & Yang, 2015:161). Waley believes that the princess of the Hsiang is Shun's wife, so he translates "君" into "the Princess", and then uses the third person pronoun "she" to refer to the princess of the Hsiang, which objectively describes the event that the princess of the Hsiang failed to attend the appointment as scheduled. The Yangs use "you" to refer to the princess of the Hsiang, express the strong feelings of the character from the perspective of the second person, blur the gender of the character, and hold a reservation about controversial issues, maintaining the preciseness of the translation. The original text is narrated from the perspective of "余", that is, "I" arrived late because of the high mountain and dangerous road. In Waley's translation, the starting point of perspective changes from "I" to "the way" and then to "I" again. The switching back and forth of perspective and the addition of logical cohesion components such as "that is" are not conducive to reflecting the poetic and refining of Chinese poetry. The passive voice is often used in English, while the character "被" is not common in Chinese. Waley takes "the way" as the subject and uses the passive voice to organize the meaning of the text, which is more in line with the expression habit of English. When construing the Chinese character "余", the Yangs restore the starting point of view to the first person "I" according to Chinese expression habits. The writing is smooth, and the sentence is concise, which is in line with the perspective of the original text.
In short, Waley's translation is more in line with the English style, while the Yangs' mainly translate from the perspective of the original text, which is the embodiment of highlighting the expression of the original poetry.

A comparative analysis of translation strategies between the two versions from the perspective of cognitive construal
Translation strategy is a macro principle and scheme, which can be divided into "domestication" and "foreignization" according to the translator's tendency in choosing whether to approach the original author or the target reader. "Domestication" means that the translator tries to move closer to the target receiver in translation, that is, tries to replace the language, literature, and cultural elements of the source language with those favored by the target language readers and adhere to and return to the language, literature and cultural norms of the target language. "foreignization" means that the translator tries to keep close to the original author in translation, that is, tries to reproduce the language, literature and cultural characteristics of the original and keep the original flavor (Xiong, 2014:84). In terms of the English translation of the Nine Songs, Elegies of the South, the translation strategies adopted by the translators are influenced by the poetic characteristics of the classics, personal factors, and social culture. Analyzing the English versions of the two translators from the four dimensions of cognitive construal, we can find that: In terms of specificity, Waley's version is not very complete in reproducing the meaning of the original text, and its specificity is lower than the Yangs' version; in terms of focusing and prominence, the Yangs chooses the same focusing and prominence mode as the original text; in terms of perspective, the Yangs translates poetry from the perspective of the original author, and the translation results correspond to the original form. Waley's translation is oriented by the target language culture and often presents the poetry in a form familiar to domestic readers. For another example, for the translation of "神灵", there is "灵偃蹇兮姣服" in The Great Unique and "帝子降兮北渚" in The Lady of the Hsiang. Waley translates "灵" and "帝子" into "the Spirit" and "God's child," respectively. The capitalized words such as "Spirit" and "God" mean the beings or spirits that are worshipped and are believed to have created the universe, belonging to the theological terms in the western Christianity culture. "灵" refers to the Great Unique, who is the sun god in ancient China, and "帝 " in The Lady of the Hsiang refers to Emperor Yao. They are both very different from the "God" and "Spirit" in western culture, reflecting the translator's construal mode of interpreting Elegies of the South with Western religious and cultural thinking. However, the use of the domestication strategy does not mean that Waley has completely ignored the literary connotation of the original poetry. Taking《河伯》(the ninth song in The Nine Songs), for example, he translates it into "The River God" and marks it with Wade-Giles spelling "Ho-po" below the title, which not only meets the reading needs of western readers but also respects Chinese culture. The Yangs' translation of Chinese classics contains Chinese traditional poetic elements, which is a practice of accurate interpretation after fully understanding the essence of Chinese culture. Their translation is very faithful to the original. Although the sentence structure is simple, the translation has a highly specific expression, follows the figure-ground relation of the original, highlights the original metrical pattern, and is translated from the perspective of the source language readers, which is highly consistent with the original text and adopts the translation strategy of "foreignization".

Conclusion
Translation is a cognitive activity, including deep cognitive operation and surface translation results. Therefore, translation research should pay attention to the cognitive operation process of translation output. This paper analyzes the translation strategies of