| The unique artistic nature of verse translation determines that aesthetics is an important approach in assessing its values for both theoretical probe and translation practice. This paper therefore explores the aesthetic nature of verse translation by addressing the aesthetic principle of "harmony", and analyzing the aesthetic objects (the poetic text and the translated text) and aesthetic subjects (the translator and the TL reader) from perspectives of aesthetics.Chapter One will introduce the theoretical basis & application,methodology and subject of the study. Based on the aesthetic recognition of verse translation, certain aesthetic theories will be applied in the study of both aesthetic objects and subjects. The aesthetic objects will be analyzed in terms of form (phonetic & syntactic features) in Chapter Two and in terms of content (semantic features & figures of speech) in Chapter Three. The translator will be examined in terms of aesthetic experience and the TL reader in terms of reception aesthetics in Chapter Four. The descriptive-explanatory method of Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) and some translational concepts are applied in case study for developing criteria for translation assessment.The aesthetic principle of "harmony" will be introduced in order to bring out the aesthetic nature of verse translation. First, harmony is the aesthetic pursuit of translators in seeking unification of opposing elements like phonetic, syntactic and semantic differences between SL and TL, and different aesthetic value systems between SL and TL cultures. Second, the original poetic text itself is a harmonious complex, and so the vital unity of aesthetic properties is what a translator strives to reproduce in translation.According to Hegel, art must be understood as a unity of form and content, and analyzed in terms of them. Verse translation as an art operates simultaneously at two aesthetic levels of form and content, both of which should be addressed so as to establish the aesthetic identity of verse translation. Poetic form is understood as the embodiment of phonetic features (form in sound) and syntactic features (form in syntax). A poetic text is semantically saturated and its rich content is usually expressed in a rhetorical way in order to make impression. Generallyspeaking, the more aesthetic properties of the original (phonetic, syntactic, semantic features) are fashioned into a new unified whole in compliance with the aesthetic principle of "harmony", the better the translation is.The translator and the TL reader as the aesthetic subjects are actively involved in the aesthetic act of poetry translation. The translator is the aesthetic subject of the original poetic text and the TL reader of the translated text. The aesthetic perspectives of translator determine in what aspects he will bring out the aesthetic value of the original and his aesthetic competence determines to what extent he can blend the artistic properties at different levels into a well-organized unity. Translators are required to go through three aesthetic stages in order to produce good translations: 1) Aesthetic Reception stage in which a translator's artistic interests are aroused by poems where he gets a ready response and finds an easy access to understanding, and hence addresses his aesthetic competence to grasp the original beauty as much as possible 2) Aesthetic Reproduction stage in which the translator strives for conveying the original beauty in terms of linguistic objectivity and artistic concepts; 3) Aesthetic Re-creation stage in which the translator brings poems across, with its flavor, spirit and verve all intact.The aesthetic values of translated texts can only be concretized in the reading of TL readers. Therefore, the aesthetic reception of TL readers in the materialization of translated text also accounts a lot in the production of translated texts. A translator must always take TL readers into serious consideration, without whose acceptance a translated text will become of no practical valu...
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