On The Translation Of Cultural Images In Chinese Classical Poetry

Image of Chinese classical poetry has risen as a hot issue in the field of translation (especially translation of Chinese classical poetry) as well as Chinese poetics, literature and the theory of literature. The rich Chinese culture has always been the difficulty and key point for translation.In 1999, Xie Tianzhen presented"cultural image"in his book Medio-translatology which stirred the circle of translation. The author of the present thesis has found that the current studies are focusing on its representing forms and translation strategies and no more translation strategies have been made than alienation and domestication. Cultural image which is embodied with image and which enriches image with abundant culture is a special literary phenomenon, evoking unique aesthetic feeling and bringing more effective literary impact. So it should be paid close attention to and studied in the frame of the Chinese theory to instruct translation practice and promote the cross-culture communication with the west.So on the basis of those studies this paper discusses the culture, image, and the relationship between cultural image and common image, analyzing elaborately three English versions of Chang Hen Ge by BaiJuYi and consulting Culture-Specific Items (CSI) and eleven translation strategies by Aixela to summarize relatively comprehensive translation strategies which are suitable for image translation in Chinese classical poetry.This paper contains four chapters:Chapter one introduces the studies on cultural image and literature reviewChapter two discusses the cultural image starting with image and culture and its definition, classification and character as well as its relationship with common images.Chapter Three introduces the Culture-Specific Items of Aixela and compares it with cultural images.Chapter Four analyzes on English versions of Chang Hen Ge from many aspects such as Ecological culture image, material culture image, social culture image, religious culture image and linguistic culture image.In the conclusion, the author stresses that,"cultural image", as an important literary phenomenon, for Chinese literature especially for Chinese classical poetry abounding in image, is no less significant, so the research on it should be deepened and widened. With the blossom of global economy, cultural communication among countries is getting much more frequent, and then literature, the carrier of culture, is regarded as the most important channel connecting different cultures. Hence there appeared cultural translation. But it happened that translation of"cultural image"brought translators many difficulties. The author holds that translation of"cultural image"should be viewed as an important part of cultural translation;"cultural image"should be separated from common image; there must be translation strategies more suitable for"cultural image". The author introduces the theory of"Culture-Specific Item"(CSI) by Aixela , a Spanish translator, and holds that there are many similarities between"cultural image"and"Culture-Specific Item"and the eleven translation strategies can also be transplanted to the process of translation of"cultural image". Though there may be more than one translation strategy suitable for"cultural image", the author believes that as a means of communication,"cultural image"appears more and more important, so in the process of translation translators should aim for the introduction of Chinese culture.