An Analysis Of Cultural Images And Contexts In English Translation Of Chinese Classical Poetry

Chinese classical poetry, the very essence of Chinese literature, is cherished as our unique heritage with its mysterious glamour. Translation is a complicated process of intercultural communication and quite different translations are often produced because translators have different ideas about translating and different interpretations of one and the same poem. No longer confined to language equivalence, poetry translation assumes the important responsibility of conveying the cultural connotation. Images abound in Chinese poems and play an important role in poetic creation. The charm of poetry is attributed to the adoption of rich images. Cultural images, cultural signs resulted from the related cultural environments, are context dependent.This thesis is the author's attempt at studying from the aspects of imagery and context in Chinese classical poetry translation. It begins with an overall review of the history and development of Chinese classical poetry, followed by a detailed introduction to cultural images. Simply speaking, image refers to the"pictures"formed in the mind created by poetic language. Images appearing in poetry differ due to the different cultural backgrounds. Concrete principles and strategies are presented and it is also pointed out that the unique artistic nature of poetry translation determines that aesthetics is an important approach in assessing its values for both theoretical probe and translation practice.After introduction to imagery, the analysis of the context is followed. Translators work on the interpretation and the transfer of various texts. Texts are therefore the direct object in translating. But as textlinguistics shows that any text is produced in a specific context and thus context has become an essential factor in the understanding of texts. Some scholars both at home and abroad have noticed the importance of context centuries ago. But it was not until Malinowski put forward his conception of context of situation in 1923 did linguists begin to show increasing interest in the study of context and they now are attaching more and more importance to it. Adopting the Nida's translation principle as criterion, this thesis summarizes the studies of context at home and abroad and its definitions, features, classifications and functions. Through the translation practice, the author holds that context plays a vital role in the equivalents of the content and form of translation. In this thesis, however, the author suggests that the findings of linguists on context studies should apply to the translation of Chinese classical poetry into English, making a thorough and...