The Influence Of Chinese Classical Poetry On Pound’s Imagist Ideology

As the main figure of leading “Poetry Movement” at the beginning of the twentieth century in America, Ezra Pound was not only a distinguished poet, but also a marvelous translator. Ezra Pound was very interested in Chinese culture when he was young. In his opinion, China is to “Poetry Movement” what Greece is to the Renaissance. Pound’s connection with Chinese classical poetry started from Fenollosa, an expert of Orientalism. He got Fenollosa’s posthumous notes by chance, from which he chose 19 pieces of poems and translated them to his utmost. Then Pound gathered them into a book-Cathay. The publish of Cathay led to ‘China Craze’ in the west, which greatly promoted the development of imagist poetry.The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the influence of Chinese classical poetry on Pound’s imagist ideology. Firstly, Pound tried to avoid using words that do not contribute to the presentation. Secondly, Pound applied the major technique of combining images and invented superposition. Thirdly, Pound composed the poetry by using the musical phrase. Chinese classical poetry influenced Pound’s translation and his later creation deeply.In the process of translation and creation, Pound’s knowledge of the east and that of the west integrated and helped each other. Pound opened the window for the west to know the east and also enriched western civilization. Therefore, Ezra Pound’s literary career was praised as ‘the Era of Pound’ for that reason.