On The English Translation Of YUANREN XIAOLING

Tang Poems, Song Ci, Yuan Qu and Ode of Han Dynasty are regarded as the treasures of Chinese literature. Yuan Qu, which is the typical literary style of Yuan Dynasty, has never failed to fascinate Chinese people for hundreds of years and it also enjoys a significant position in the history of Chinese literature.Being a unique literature style, Yuan Qu contains within it a short form which is called Xiaoling, whereas the related studies on the translation of Yuan Qu or the translated versions are rarely seen.The author attempted to compare two English anthologies of Xiaoling for her case study. Through detailed comparisons between the different translated versions and translating theories obtained in these anthologies, the author aimed to find out the strategies employed in Xiaoling's translation. A questionnaire survey was also carried out as a necessary complement of the thesis, in which the methods that might be adopted in Xiaoling's translation were tested.Since Xiaoling is a unique style of Chinese literature, the author holds such kind of view that the translating theories set by Chinese translators are more applicable to the translation of Chinese classical poems than other translating theories which are also appropriate in translating in a certain aspect, for the native Chinese masters are more familiar with the source language and the source text. In this way, the author employed the theory of Beautification and The Theory of Pluralistic Translation Standards and Their Complementarity.The first chapter is a brief introduction to Yuan Qu.The second chapter focuses on the translatability of Xiaoling.The third chapter presents the current situation of Xiaoling's translation as well as the different anthologies based on different theories.The main part of this thesis lies in the fourth chapter. With detailed statistics and analyses of theories, the influence of different theories on the translated versions is illustrated.The analyses of a questionnaire survey which aims to find out the acceptable way for Xiaoling's translation form the fifth chapter.In the last part of this thesis, the author ventures to list her own translation of several pieces of Xiaoling. Since they could never come up to the translated versions of the masters', the author stands ready to accept criticism.