Imagery Expression of Ancient

Chinese Poems and its Translation

--A Case Study of Xu Yuanchong's Ancient Poems Translation

By Li Yijie

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement

For the B.A. Degree

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

May, 2017

Imagery Expression of Ancient

 Chinese Poems and its Translation

—a Case Study of Xu Yuanchong's Ancient Poems Translation

Li Yijie

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

Abstract: Imagery is the soul of ancient poetry, and it is the key to translate ancient poetry. In order to make the original poems and the translated poems achieve the same or similar aesthetic effects, the translators must do some analysis for images. In the process of translating ancient poetry, the original images should be retained as much as possible. So how to keep the beauty in meaning by preserving the images in ancient poetry on the process of translation is the main problem of this paper. This paper summarizes the research status of ancient poems translation, especially the status of imagery translation of ancient Chinese poetry. The paper analyzes the theoretical achievements of the predecessors and draws on some information from them. At present, there are not many researches on images translation which are from the perspective of translation studies. The paper combined them with Xu Yuanchong’s theory, to explore the translation skills and methods of ancient Chinese poetry which can convey the original beauty of ancient poets as best as we can.

Key words: imagery, ancient Chinese poetry, beauty in meaning, Xu Yuanchong

摘要:意象是古诗词的灵魂,是赏析和翻译古诗词的关键。为了使原文和译文达到一样或类似的审美效果,译者要对意象做适当的处理。在做诗歌翻译的时候,意象一般来说是不能删去或者省略的。所以如何在译文中完美保留古诗词的意象，使译诗达到意美，是本篇论文笔者的重点问题。本文综述国内外翻译界对古诗词翻译特别是诗歌中意象表达的翻译的研究现状，并分析借鉴前人的理论成果。目前从翻译学角度研究意象的还不是很多，本文将通过研究诗歌中各类意象表达的翻译，与许渊冲先生的译论相结合，来探索研究诗歌中意象表达的翻译技巧与方法，最大程度的还原古诗词原有的美。

关键词：意象；中国古诗词；意美；许渊冲

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 The purpose and significance of this paper 1

1.2 Research methods of this paper 1

1.2.1 Document analysis 2

1.2.2 Comparative study 2

1.2.3 Illustration method 2

2 Literature review 3

2.1 Research abroad 3

2.2 Domestic research 3

3 Imagery phenomena in ancient poems 4

3.1 The connotation of imagery in ancient poems 4

3.2 Image classification 5

3.2.1 Ordinary images 5

3.2.2 Special images. 5

4 The translation of ancient poem images 6

4.1 The translation principle of “beauty in meaning” 7

4.2 The strategies of realizing “beauty in meaning” 7

4.2.1 The supplement of backgrounds 8

4.2.2 The interpretation of culture 9

4.2.3 The simplification of languages 10

4.3 Appreciation of images translation from a whole poem 12

5 Conclusion 14

References 15

Acknowledgements 16

1 Introduction

Ancient Chinese culture is broad and profound. And the content of ancient culture is colorful. Poetry as one of the treasures of Chinese culture, is an important carrier of Chinese culture. From the "Book of Songs", "Songs of the South" to the Tang poetry, works in different periods are blooming their glamour. The translation of ancient poetry cannot be confined to simple language equivalence. The translation shoulders an important task of conveying cultural connotations. When we do ancient poetry translation, imagery should be considered a prominent phenomenon.

1.1 The purpose and significance of this paper

Imagery analysis is the key to ancient poetry translation. So, on this basis, combined with my learning, this article paid more attention to research images in Chinese ancient poems. And on the basis of comprehensive understanding, I study and research images translation techniques. “Three beauties” theory of Xu Yuanchong is the fundamental theory of this article, and “beauty in meaning” is the focus. Comparing with others’ theory, in this article, I refined more detailed ways for achieving “beauty in meaning” in translation of Chinese ancient poems images.

As translators, we shoulder a task of spreading Chinese culture. So making Chinese culture known to the outside world is our common responsibility. In fact, the process of poetic creation is the one in which poets express their feelings in imagery language, so that their subjective feelings can be vividly expressed. Therefore, for us, in order to convey the original beauty and artistic conception to foreigners perfectly, it is necessary to analyze and study the translation of images in ancient poems. We can see that imagery analysis is the life and soul of ancient poetry translation.

1.2 Research methods of this paper

In the process of writing articles, it is significant to choose a suitable and correct research method. So, according to the research direction of my article, I choose the following three research methods.

1.2.1 Document analysis

There is a Chinese proverb: “gain new insight through reviewing old material.” In my heart, it not only draws a conclusion of people’s knowledge of the world, but also has the significance of methodology. Accordingly, I choose the method of document analysis, on the basis of reading the theory about ancient poem images and the related work on ancient poetry translation theory. This paper combines the problems of ancient poems and their translations in recent years, using the translation theory, especially Xu Yuanchong’s translation theory of poetry translation. And then, it is related to the status quo in order to find a new breakthrough for translation of the ‘image”.

1.2.2 Comparative study

Different translators have different translation methods when translating the same poem. Because of this, different translations will bring different effects. In comparison, the discrepancies, advantages and disadvantages among different translations will be more distinct. So, in the course of the image translation study, this paper compares the different translation methods and translations, in order to the foundation for further research.

1.2.3 Illustration method

If we want to illustrate something, the best way is to use a related example. In this paper, a large number of examples of image translation are listed. On the basis of case analysis, the persuasion and specificity of the paper are provided.

2 Literature review

2.1 Research abroad

In the West, Chinese poetry translation is a new research field. The earliest English translation was in 1888. It is very late (Wen, 2009:151). Pound is the representative one among the poets of the imagism; he made outstanding contributions to the mutual references of Eastern and Western poems. Pound’s translation works cover parts of the ancient Chinese poems. His Cathay received a lot of praise. Even though many mistakes can be found in his translation, his translation of ancient Chinese poems brought the Chinese poem culture into western literature.

Then, from the Helben.Zhaier’s English translation “Chinese poems”, Western scholars began to translate Chinese ancient poems. In the late 1920s, Witt.Bayern's “Chinese poetry” was the earliest English translation of “Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty.” The American poet Pound translated the “Ode to Autumn Wind” written by Emperor Wu in Han and Li Bai's “Chnaggexing” and a lot of other Tang poetry. In 1973, the Yale University Press in United States published Aseai.White's Tang Poetry Appreciation.

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