On Beauty And Faithfulness In Poetry Translation

Poetry is a special literary genre, which has its own poetic theory and translation theory. Poetry, especially Chinese ancient poetry, cannot exist without beauty in sound and form. As it is an art of language, whether the translation is good or not will depend on the performance of the target language.There is an everlasting dilemma of beauty and faithfulness in poetry translation. Poetry translation must seek for beauty on the basis of faithfulness. Faithfulness is a necessary condition while beauty is a sufficient condition. If a translation can be both faithful and beautiful, that is an ideal situation. But if the conflict occurs, the translator must do some adjustment in translation to fulfill the function of the poem in the target language.The thesis aims to straighten out the everlasting disputes on beauty and faithfulness in poetry translation from the translation of Li Bai's poetry. The beauty of Li Bai's poetry is discussed, and the multilevel of equivalence is introduced 4o understand the difficulties in translating Li Bai's poetry. Through some case studies, the thesis proves that beauty and faithfulness in poetry translation can arrive in a harmonious unity. The thesis tries to provide re-creation space for the translators who do English translation of classical Chinese poetry, and for the healthy development of the study of poetry translation.