Universal Poetry-On Faithful Image Representation In The English Translation Of Ancient Chinese Poetry

Image, as highly symbolic, is often the final touch that distills and strengthens the meaning of a literary work. In ancient Chinese poetry which boasts the construction of a profound meaning with very succinct language, image is especially central to its artistic value among the various composing elements.If language is to be defined as having the function of transmitting messages, as being communicative, an image is in itself an intuitive language that transcends the barriers between different semiotic languages, and can be sensed across those different nations. Due to such intuitiveness of image in communication, which is closer to the rich sensitivity of poetry than other factors affecting the reader's reception of a poem such as the linguistic arrangement, the faithful translation of image in a poem is the key to the translation of poetry.In this article the author attempts to offer some suggestions by comparing the different treatments adopted by different translators in representing poetic image on the basis of observing four parameters, namely, the sequence of image representation, the fragmentality, evaluativeness, and concreteness of language in the translation.In conclusion, it is important for the translator to follow the original sequence of image presentation in translating poetry, and meanwhile the linguistic features of syntactical incompleteness and low evaluativeness of ancient Chinese poetry should be retained (as is manifest in the translator's choice of subject and the treatment of coherence), so as to achieve faithfulness in regard to image representation and the estrangement of the original poetic language so as to convey the spirit of the original poem to a maximal extent.