The Translation Of Coherence In Classical Chinese Poetry

Coherence is an important element in classical Chinese poetry and can't be overlooked in English translation of classical Chinese poetry. However, the discussion on coherence translation is inadequate. No effective theory is taken to guide the coherence translation in classical Chinese poetry.This paper seeks to account for the coherence translation in classical poetry from a perspective of aesthetic image-G actualization. The theory of image-G actualization is proposed by Jiang Qiuxia in her book Aesthetic Progression in Literary Translation: Image-G Actualization in 2002. In the theory, image-gestalt is an image in the gestalt sense which is a universal property existing in all literary texts, and literary translation involves a process of aesthetic image-G actualization. Therefore the translation process can be divided into two parts: to transfer the source text into mental image-G; to transfer the mental image-G into target text.The paper first introduces the theory of image-G actualization, and then points out the classical Chinese poetry possess coherence. After the analysis of the possibility to apply the theory to English translation of coherence, for example, coherence is an image-G and coherence transfer is image actualization, the paper studies the untranslatability and translatability of coherence and then points out the strategy of coherence translation. First, coherence is translated at the macro level. Secondly, coherence is translated at the micro level, for example, sound, grammatical cohesion, conjunction and lexical cohesion.In conclusion, this paper points out that the theory of image-G actualization can provide a new sight in coherence translation of classical Chinese poetry and help resolve a lot of difficult problems, however it has inevitably limitations and needs further study.