Translation Of Images In Mao Zedong's Poems

Mao Zedong's poems are cherished as a gleaming gem in Chinese contemporary literature. They are also an inspiring part of world civilization. His poems not only inherit merits of Chinese classical poetry, but also greatly develop it in the poet's own way. Mao Zedong's poems were generated in a special historic period against a special social background. His literary productions portray and embody Chinese revolution from a literary perspective. Up till now, Mao's poems have been translated into many kinds of foreign languages in many versions,and read and appreciated all over the world.Image constitutes the core of Mao Zedong's poems. Through inheritance and creation of images in ancient Chinese poetry, Mao Zedong has formed his own unique system of images. The translation of image is the key to understand the beauty of Mao's poems and it is often hard to do so.Generally speaking, this thesis focuses on a comparative study on the transference of images in five English versions of Mao's poems. It makes use for reference of the theories of poetic images and the theories of foreignization and domestication as the main theoretical bases, Xu Yuanchong's"three beauties"principle as the standard for comparison. First the author presents several decisive factors affecting translation strategies of images in Mao Zedong's poems, and then introduces the status and the different English versions of Mao's poems. After making a detailed analysis on the images of Mao's poems, four characteristics of images in Mao's poems: dynamic images, juxtaposed images, allusion images and grand and imposing images are given. The main part of the thesis focuses on a comparative study on the transference of images in five English versions of Mao's poems. The five versions adopted were completed by some well-known scholars and translators both home and abroad. Based on"three beauties"principle, the author discusses translation strategies of domestication and foreignization taken by different versions of Mao's poems and then summarizes whether the specific translating methods corresponding to the two general strategies are suitable for the images in Mao's poems. At the end of the thesis, the author points out foreignization and domestication both have their value for the translation of images in Mao's poems. Although the specific techniques corresponding to these two strategies are helpful, yet due to the aim of retaining cultural flavor and color and fulfilling cultural communication as well as preserving the English readers'freedom of imagination, foreignization should take precedence over the domestication to some extent. This benefits the communication of cultural connotation of the images, and it enables the better appreciation of the ideology and life of Chinese people in special period, at the same time, helps target readers know Chinese revolutionary history and culture. All in all, the translators should bear two points in mind: the awareness and responsibility to promote cross-culture communication, which requires their best effort to convey both the form and cultural connotation of images in Mao's poems; secondly, their trust in their intended readers, giving them the dynamic participation and freedom in the appreciation of classical poetry.