Transference Of Linguistic Beauty & Cultural Images: Studies On The Translation Of Shijing

As one of the Confucius classics, Shijing has occupied a special place in thedevelopment of classical Chinese poetry with its unique aesthetic and cultural values.Due to its special place in Chinese literature and culture, it has been one of the mosttranslated Chinese classics in the world. There are various English versions of Shijingwith different characteristics. This thesis intends to explore the translation principlesand strategies for rendering Shijing through comparative studies on some influentialEnglish versions, aimed at seeking new insights and common principles for thetranslation of Chinese classics.Translation is not only a transfer of two languages but also that of two cultures.Based on the translational aesthetics and relevance theory, this thesis compares andanalyses the loss and gains of some English versions of Shijing in the linguistic andcultural aspects. Linguistically speaking, Shijing is characterized by its beauty in soundand form. As a result, the translator should make full use of his creativity to reproducea new harmonious unity of sound, form and sense so as to keep aesthetical equivalenceof the original text in the target text. Culturally speaking, connotations implied innumerous images have been profoundly rich, which makes translators' transferenceespecially demanding. Therefore, in this thesis, five translation strategies are putforward in the light of relevance theory. Their respective advantages and disadvantagesare elaborated with the examples quoted from Shijing, including the case studies offour categories of cultural images in Shijing. It's pointed out that when translating thecultural images, the translator should make a correct contextual assumption of the TLreaders' cognitive context and pick up the most appropriate strategy in accordance withoptimal relevance so as to match the original writer's communicative intention withthe TL readers' expectation.