On Manipulation Of Cultural Imagery In Classical Chinese Poetry From The Perspective Of Xu Yuanchong's Translation Principles

As"literature in literature", poetry is always condensed in form but profound in sense, which is the peculiar feature of classical Chinese poetry. In order to express deep feelings in such a few lines, poets frequently apply cultural images in their poetry creation. However, cultural imagery, which constitutes the core to the creation and serves as a key to the appreciation of the classical Chinese poetry, also poses great obstacles to its translation.With the development of China, more and more scholars begin to study Chinese culture, especially the classical Chinese poetry. When these scholars do poetry translation, they find that the cultural imagery, the soul of classical Chinese poetry, is very complex to manipulate. Therefore, in recent years, many scholars begin to study the translation of cultural imagery in classical Chinese poetry translation. Among them, Professor Xu Yuanchong is a very great poetry translator. He translates many classical Chinese poems into English and puts forward his own translation principles in poetry translation.Because of the deep cultural background and wide range of cultural imagery, different scholars have different views about the manipulation of cultural imagery. Some scholars think that cultural imagery should be manipulated in literal translation. Some other scholars think that cultural imagery should be done in free translation. Even someone puts forward that the translators can sometimes omit some unimportant cultural imagery in poetry translation to show the sense of original.Professor Xu Yuanchong's translation principles, especially the principles of"three beauty"and"three transformation", give the translators a new view of the manipulation of cultural imagery in poetry translation.The principle of"three beauty", which means"the beauty in sense, the beauty in sound and the beauty in form", can be regarded as a new approach to the manipulation of cultural imagery in the translation of classical Chinese poetry. In translation process, the most important thing is to show the beauty in sense of the original, of which the manipulation of cultural imagery is a crucial aspect, and the"beauty in sound and the beauty in form"are the necessary aspects in showing the"beauty in sense"and are also the important aspects in expressing the cultural images.To manipulate the cultural imagery, translators can employ the principle of"three transformation", which means"the principle of generalization, equalization and particularization". Generalization is a way of turning the specific things into general ones to display the beauty of cultural imagery. It includes the abstraction, reduction in words and combination of words and so on. When the surface meaning and deep meaning are identical and there are proper expressions between the source language and the target language, we can use equalization. It includes transformation of the part of speech, the transformation between active voice and passive voice and so on. Particularization means to use some detailed sentences, phrases or words to show the connotation which is expressed in the original through different kinds of rhetorical words and cultural imagery. It includes the specification, addition of words and separation of words and so on.In the paper, author of this thesis will discuss the manipulation of cultural imagery in poetry translation from the perspective of Professor Xu Yuanchong's translation principles. In this writer's view, Professor Xu's principles of"three beauty"and"three transformation"are the comprehensive approaches based on different approaches of cultural imagery translation nowadays. Therefore, it can be considered as a general approach to the manipulation of the cultural imagery in the translation of classical Chinese poetry.