On English Translation Of Classic Chinese Poetic Images From The Cultural Perspective

As poets frequently employ cultural images to express their deep sentiments, the connotations carried in these images contribute a great deal to the barriers of poetry translation. In other words, it is the unique national features attached to the poetic images that make poetry translation a daunting task.Since the cultural communication is increasingly popular and important in the current globalization trend, translation studies has shifted from a linguistic approach to a cultural approach. Cultural relativism holds that no culture is intrinsically superior or inferior to another, and native culture should be exported while the outside culture is imported, so that real cultural communication can be achieved and cultural otherness can be noticed.On this basis, this paper follows the Schleiermacher Model, and adopts a comparative analytical method. An analysis of English translation of classic Chinese poetic images may help us to understand better how the cultural elements are embodied in the translation works. According to the different relations between cultures, the author classifies the relations between the culture in classic Chinese poetic image and the target culture into three: cultural overlap, cultural parallelism and cultural default. When cultural overlap is encountered, literal translation strategy should be used to preserve the poetic image; when cultural parallelism is encountered, substitution should be used in poetic image translation; when cultural default is encountered, the translation strategies of transplantation, compensation, addition and omission should be used in poetic image translation.