A Study On Chinese Classical Poetic Image And Its Translation

Chinese classical poetry, as a special kind of literary form, embodies rich cultural information and is an integral part of Chinese culture. Image is the basic component and aesthetic unit of Chinese classical poetry. It is frequently adopted by ancient Chinese poets to express their feelings or emotions in their poetic composition. It is the soul of Chinese classical poetry.Image and the culture, in which it exists, are closely related. Image is deeply rooted in its culture, influenced and shaped by its culture. No image can be separated from its culture. To understand an image in a certain culture, one must understand its cultural background. Poetic images embody rich cultural information. The translation of poetic images should not only realize the linguistic equivalence between the source and the target texts, but also convey faithfully the cultural information of the source text.Culture has attached more and more importance in translation, and intercultural translation has become a new task in translation studies. Generally speaking, Chinese culture is a weak culture which has been unavoidably suffering from the threat and invasion from the strong cultures. In order to maintain the cultural identity and independence in the process of globalization and multiculturism, each Chinese should shoulder the responsibility of protecting and promoting Chinese culture while resisting cultural imperialism or cultural hegemony. This is also one of the reasons why the author chooses this topic.People with different cultural backgrounds will inevitably encounter cultural shock or cultural conflicts in carrying out intercultural communication. Cultural discrepancies pose great obstacles to the translation of Chinese classical poetic image and make intercultural communication a difficult task. In order to achieve the purpose of intercultural communication, those cultural discrepancies should be handled properly. The thesis tries to discuss the transmission of Chinese classical poetic image from the perspective of domestication and foreignization. With careful examination, the author claims that foreignization can more efficiently convey the rich cultural information embodied in Chinese classical poetic image and effectively promote intercultural communication. Foreignization is more desirable than domestication in translating Chinese classical poetic image which is also the tendency of translating Chinese literary works to the outside world.The thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter One makes a brief survey of the subject image including its definition, origin, classifications and its relationship with culture. Chapter Two explores the reason why image is the soul of Chinese classical poetry. It takes the following topics one by one: the features and functions of image in Chinese classical poetry. Chapter Three is the focus of the thesis. It presents discussions about intercultural communication and cultural hegemony; the limits in translating Chinese poetic image; domestication and foreignization, the two strategies dealing with cultural elements in translation. The author claims that foreignization is more desirable in translating Chinese poetic image for it is more faithful to the original and can reveal the true merits of Chinese culture to the target readers. It also serves as an effective way for weak cultures to resist cultural hegemony or cultural imperialism of strong cultures when the former are introduced to the latter. The value and importance of foreignization can never be ignored in translation. In addition, the author also presents some useful translation methods under the guidance of foreignization. The last part of the thesis is the conclusion.