On The Translation Of Imagery In Classical Chinese Poetry From The Perspective Of Translator's Subjectivity

The translator's role seemed to be neglected for a long time in traditional translation studies, because the priority was always given to the source text and the original writer. The translator's marginalized status has been improved greatly since the Cultural Turn in 1970s. Meanwhile the translator has moved from behind the curtain to the forefront and become a visible subject of translation. Accordingly, studies on the translator's subjectivity have attracted much attention in the field of translation. From a philosophical perspective, translator's subjectivity mainly consists of subjective initiative and passivity. Passivity refers to various subjective and objective elements restricting the translator before or in the process of translation. Subjective initiative shows the translator's initiative and creativity in choosing source text and translation strategies, understanding the source text, expressing in target language.As the soul of poetry, imagery plays an important role in displaying the culture of a nation. Classical Chinese poetry is famous for the rich and colorful images. Considered as typical representative of classical Chinese poetry, Li Bai's poems enjoy a good reputation around the world and have been translated into different languages by Chinese and western scholars. However, due to the existence of some subjective and objective elements, especially linguistic and cultural differences, there are mistranslations of imagery.This thesis aims to study the translation of imagery in classical Chinese poetry with analysis on English versions of Li Bai's poems, and probe into the impact exerted by various subjective and objective elements on the translator in the process of imagery translation from the perspective of translator's subjectivity. These elements influence the translator to adopt different translation strategies and may cause mistranslation. The thesis also analyzes causes of mistranslation with a view to better illustrating the important role translator's subjectivity plays in the process of translation. Moreover, based on cultural and linguistic differences between China and western countries, the thesis explores different translation strategies in different situations: semantic translation and communicative translation dealing with linguistic differences; domestication and foreignization dealing with cultural differences.