A Study On Translating Classical Chinese Poetry Into English From Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Chinese classical poetry has been prosperous for a long period of time not only in Chinese history, but also in world literature field. It expresses emotion and thoughts to contact the readers with concise words, regular structures, and profound contents. They should be appreciated by all the human beings. However, the complexity of classical Chinese poetry results in the difficulties of its translation, and it is considered as untranslatable to some degree. With the globalization of the culture and society, Chinese classical poetry has become a big issue in modern society. A growing number of foreign readers have more interest in China and its culture. The English translation of Chinese classical poetry is a necessary and important research, but the past theories of the translation are only satisfactory for parts of classical Chinese poems. In the thesis, the author has explained the basic concept and rationality of relevance theory and its application to the classical Chinese poetry, which could offer some suggestions for the further research.Relevance theory is applied to translation as it is about communication and cognition, and it has great explanation effect in translation field. The relevance theory of translation provides a scientific method and theoretical foundation for the translation research which is actually a communication process. According to relevance theory, translation process is an inferential-ostensive process under the guidance of the cognitive and communicative principles for the optimal relevance in detail way. The translator should consider the differences between the original text writers and target text readers, arriving at the proper hypothesis and judgments, while the target text reader can achieve the same contextual effect as the original text readers under the optimal relevance context.Firstly, the author represents the research background as well as the importance of this study. Besides, brief theoretical foundation is discussed. Then a survey of classical Chinese poetry including definition, development and characteristics of Chinese classical poetry are introduced. In theoretical framework the author introduces relevance theory briefly, which includes the basic information and development of relevance theory both at home and abroad. Besides, the relevance translation theory is discussed in detail way. The key part of thesis is applying relevance theory to Chinese classical poetry translation. Several specific strategies used in Chinese classical poetry translation are provided through analyzing certain related cases under the guidance of relevance theory. The strategies proposed are including literal translation, annotation, paraphrase, substitution, omission. Transliteration and literal translation are used when words and expressions of the classical Chinese poems do not have important context function; when the words and expressions in classical Chinese poems are not familiar to the target text readers, the translator should give necessary supplements in the translation works in order to assist the target readers in establishing a proper context for the original poem. On account of some differences of history, culture and geography, the translator should find annotation and contextual amplification instead of translating it directly. Substitution is applied when the translator use a real-word referent from the receptor culture to substitute an unknown referent of the original, in order to leave referents to have the same function.The last chapter is a conclusion part which sums up the main content and limitations of the thesis.The significance of the study is: As for relevance theory, it has explanatory power in all sorts of translations, and it can surely be applied in the study of Chinese classical poetry translation. The author intends to apply the relevance theory to the classical Chinese poetry form the perspective of cognitive environment and the optimal relevance, while make certain suggestive strategies for this translation style, which could offer some help for the further research.