Translator's Subjectivity And The Translation Of Classical Chinese Poetry From The Perspective Of Philosophical Hermeneutics

Classical Chinese poetry occupies an important place both in Chinese literary history and in the world literature. Ci poetry, regarded as one special category of classical Chinese poetry, has been appreciated by Chinese readers in all ages.Extant English translations of Chinese ci-poems differ in many ways. And this is greatly related to the influence of the translator's subjectivity in the process of translation. This thesis tries to discuss the translator's subjectivity from the perspective of philosophical hermeneutics, whose key concepts such as fore-understanding, prejudice and fusion of horizons have established a solid theoretical foundation for the analysis of the subjectivity of the translator embodied in translation. The English versions of ci poems by Li Yu, a representative lyric writer in Chinese literature, will be presented in this thesis as a case of study to demonstrate the author's arguments.This thesis aims at illustrating the unavoidability of the influence of the knowledge and personal experience of the translator on the translation process, in the hope of revealing the translators'subjectivity and pointing out their ingeniousness in rendering Chinese poetry into English and in promoting the inter-cultural communication between China and the West. Classical Chinese poetry occupies an important place both in Chinese literary history and in the world literature. Ci poetry, regarded as one special category of classical Chinese poetry, has been appreciated by Chinese readers in all ages.Extant English translations of Chinese ci-poems differ in many ways. And this is greatly related to the influence of the translator's subjectivity in the process of translation. This thesis tries to discuss the translator's subjectivity from the perspective of philosophical hermeneutics, whose key concepts such as fore-understanding, prejudice and fusion of horizons have established a solid theoretical foundation for the analysis of the subjectivity of the translator embodied in translation. The English versions of ci poems by Li Yu, a representative lyric writer in Chinese literature, will be presented in this thesis as a case of study to demonstrate the author's arguments.This thesis aims at illustrating the unavoidability of the influence of the knowledge and personal experience of the translator on the translation process, in the hope of revealing the translators'subjectivity and pointing out their ingeniousness in rendering Chinese poetry into English and in promoting the inter-cultural communication between China and the West.