On "Faithfulness, Expressiveness, Elegance" In Rendering Classical Chinese Poetry

Since China's reform and opening, the constant influx of Western theories of literary studies, criticism and translation has exerted a tremendous influence and impact on translation studies and practice in China. Against such a general historical background, it is still of great practical significance for us to re-examine Yan Fu's "faithfulness", "expressiveness" and "elegance" (which, for the sake of convenience in discussion, will be abbreviated to "F-E-E") and approach the application of these criteria to rendering different literary genres.The present thesis aims at a tentative study on "F-E-E" in rendering classical Chinese poetry.In the past century, Yan's "F-E-E" theory has weathered many criticisms and attacks. It is widely maintained that even up to now, Yan's translation criteria have great vitality and are of great value, although they, due to the lack of a clear and systematic definition, are thought to be generalized and elastic. Theoretically, the universality of "F-E-E" as the translation guideline makes it possible to apply Yan's "F-E-E" theory to the rendition of poetic texts. However, "a concrete analysis should be made on concrete conditions." Yan's translation criteria, viewed from the dialectical epistemology, should be endowed with some specific contents in different periods of time as well as in different genres of writings. Then, Yan's translation theory may be better examined, absorbed, applied and further developed.Poetry translation is a special case within literary translation. Thus, "F-E-E" theory, when applied to poetry translation, should be re-evaluated and then clearly defined according to the essential qualities of poetic text...