A Hermeneutic Reading Of Li Qingzhao's Ci-poetry Translated Into English

Li Qingzhao was a famous poet in Chinese history, and she was called the most outstanding Ci poet in the Song Dynasty. As a woman Ci poet whose brilliance is never eclipsed by her contemporary male Ci poets, Li Qingzhao fascinates the reader with the genuine and subtle emotions in her Ci-poetry, the delicate images she creates to echo to such emotions, and the everyday words which tell her feelings in an exact and original way. Overall, in her Ci-poetry Li Qingzhao artistically uses the woman's words to tell a woman's emotional ups and downs, and thus makes her works characterized with strong feminine flavor. As a significant part of Chinese literary studies, translations on Li Qingzhao's Ci-poetry began early both in China and overseas. However, translation studies on how to translate the Ci-poetry have not been progressed equally. The absence of a set of systematic translation theories poses great impediments in the translation process.Hermeneutics applied here is a kind of theory or philosophy of understanding or interpretation. It has close relationship with translation. As the translation process is carried out on the basis of the explanation of the text, different explanations can cause different versions to the text. Therefore, in this sense, no one can say a version is wrong or correct. There are only the differences of the translator's understanding and explanation.According to Schley Mach'viewpoint of the relation between the author, the reader, the translator , the fact of different versions on Li Qingzhao's Ci in China and the West and the main features of the versions, we approximately divide Li Qingzhao's version into three kinds: First, version by Yang Xianyi ,who represent the style of Free verse rendering. This kind of translation stressed that translation is faithful to the original text; Second, who adopts use the rhyme to translate the poem, and the representative personage is XuYuanchong, on the basis of the emphasis on the faithfulness to the content of the original works, is in the pursuit of the Rhymed rendering; and the last, Weng Xianliang, advocates Prosaic rendering, which, on the basis of the original works, emphasize the importance of the images and rhythm.Translation of Ci- poetry is a complex and difficult process. Even if some creation is made by translators, a successful translation can still tell the readers clearly that they are reading Li Qingzhao.