English Translation Of Yuan Sanqu

Classical Chinese poetry is the treasure of Chinese culture and the valuable legacy of world culture. As an important part of this treasure and legacy, Yuan Sanqu has been passed down till today and appreciated by many people. Many works of Yuan Sanqu have been translated into foreign languages and appreciated by foreign readers and scholars. Although there have been fruitful studies on translations of classical Chinese poetry in China, few studies have focused on the translations of Yuan Sanqu. There are several reasons accounting for this phenomenon: firstly, the translation world has not attached great importance to this kind of study, and secondly, the special form of Yuan Sanqu made it difficult for scholars to evaluate its translation. However, with the development of translation studies, translation critics can do research on literary translation from a wider variety of perspectives, one of which is translation aesthetics that has been applied to poetry translation. Since poetry translation can be studied from such an angle, Yuan Sanqu as an important part of classical Chinese poetry, its translation can also be studied and evaluated from this angle.On the basis of the above understanding, the present thesis chooses part of the translations of Yuan Sanqu done by famous translators Prof. Xu Yuanzhong and Prof. Gu Zhengkun and attempts to make a comparative study of English translations of Yuan Sanqu from the perspective of translation aesthetics. Firstly, based on a systematic exploration into the literature review of the researches on Yuan Sanqu and its translations both at home and abroad, the paper points out that great attention should be paid to the studies of translations of Yuan Sanqu. Secondly, through summarization of the relationship between the traditional Chinese translation studies and aesthetics, and elucidation about two important concepts of translation aesthetics, that is, aesthetic subject and aesthetic object, the paper argues that translation aesthetics makes it possible for us not only to grasp the important features of poetry translation, but also make objective comments on it. And then, the thesis analyses the aesthetic elements of Yuan Sanqu from the following aspects: linguistic features, rhyming scheme, verse forms and imagery. Finally, the paper makes a comparative study of two translators' English versions in terms of the names of the tune, the transference of rhyming scheme and imagery. Through comparison, the author concludes that Professor Xu Yuanzhong's versions are better in reproduction of the original's artistic conception, sound effect and rich cultural information, whereas Professor Gu Zhengkun's versions are close to the original in language, verse forms but not satisfactory in conveying the artistic conception and cultural-loaded information. This study has not only clarified the fundamental aesthetic constituents in the transference of Yuan Sanqu, but also provided some effective and workable methods and techniques for the transference of Yuan Sanqu. Hopefully, this thesis will serve as the brick to introduce the jade to come out in terms of more research of the translations of Yuan Sanqu from the perspective of translation aesthetics.