A Tentative Study On Imagery Of Chinese Poetry And Its Translation

Poetry, beautiful and miraculous, is the wine brewed from poet's sentiment. The writer has been interested in poetry for quite a long time. From the poetry aesthetics, imagery is the key component of a poem. As the basic part of a poem, imagery is the lowest rank of poetic unit. While the poetry imagery is made up of literal imagery and reserved imagery, the latter bears its specific glamour, attracting the readers tightly. A successful imagery translation will affect our society deeply, so we can not ignore the importance of imagery translation. The author found a picture of ancient Chinese beauty on some website of American institution by chance: her hair is cut straight before her forehead, which remain him of the translation of the noted imagist poet Ezra Pound (1885-1973), namely, Li Bai's The River Merchant's Wife: A letter, what he translated impresses upon the American deeply. The hair style is the same as the picture in the website. That reveals his translation casts a tremendous shadow on the American literature and society. His translation is so successfully that it opens the door of American modern poetry in 20th century. Almost one hundred years, his influence lasts. Pound's successful imagery translation impressed the author deeply, too. A successful translation of imagery will promote the American to know China better. The reason why the author composed this paper was the very interest in imagery, which guided him to complete this paper from the beginning to the end. Furthermore, it will go on for the near and far future.In the first chapter, the write firstly expounds the definition of imagery, and list the definition on the imagery by different Chinese critics. Then he explains the correlativity further between the poetry imagery and the culture which is cultivating the corresponding poet. Afterwards the writer elaborates how to understand the imagery in Chinese poetry correctly. Imagery holds a stable position in Chinese poetry aesthetics. The writer still elucidates the inter-influence between the imagery and poet's creation style, which also proves the importance of poetry imagery.In the next chapter, the write analyses the literal imagery briefly, thereafter, enumerates the definition of imagery of Chinese poetry critics. From the sensuous response, the writer categories them with some: visual imageries, auditory imageries, olfactory imageries, tactile imageries, gustatory imageries, abstract imageries. The writer explains the interrelation between the poet's intent and his way of using literal imagery In the third chapter, the writer explicates the definitions and causes of reserved imagery thereafter, the writer accounts on the poet's intent and his way of using reserved imagery: customs, politics and poet's subjection.In the following chapter, the writer compares reserved imagery with literal imagery carefully, then sum up the similarities and differences between reserved imagery and literal imagery in detail, subsequently, the writer discusses about the interrelation between reserved imagery and literal imageryIn the last chapter, the writer construes translatability of Chinese Poetry. Subsequently, the writer talks over the difficulties in translating imagery in Chinese poetry in the end, the writer will list the methods to translate the poetry imagery.Imagery is the main pigment of a poem. With the developing of cultural communication among different countries, the different poetic imagery that are formed in different cultures will be accepted, understood and appreciated by people who belong to other race. It is practical to translate the poetry, essence of one country's culture. Only by this herculean effort, because every poet has his own physiognomy and his own gait, the radiance of poetry will keep on shining brightly.