Studies On English Translation Of Classical Chinese Poetry From Aesthetic Perspective

Classical Chinese poetry is the gem of our cultural heritage. Our task is to translate them across literary and cultural borders so that the broad masses of English readers may gain access to this resplendent portion of Chinese culture and achieve satisfactory translation where the poetic artistry and aesthetic effect of the original poem can be appreciated by the target language readers. Poetry translation is characterized by not only its linguistic feature, but also its high aesthetic value and artistic feature. This thesis is an attempt to study poetry translation, especially the English translation of classical Chinese poetry from an aesthetic perspective and to reveal the artistic and aesthetic feature of poetry translation through the systematical study of aesthetic constituents including aesthetic objects and principles.The translator and the TL reader as the aesthetic subjects are actively involved in the aesthetic act of poetry translation. The translator is the aesthetic subject of the original poetic text and the TL reader of the translated text.The aesthetic perspectives of translator determine in what aspects he will bring out the aesthetic value of the original and his aesthetic competence determines to what extent he can blend the artistic properties at different levels into a well-organized unity. Translators are required to go through three aesthetic stages in order to produce good translations: 1) Aesthetic Reception stage in which a translator's artistic interests are aroused by poems where he gets a ready response and finds an easy access to understanding, and hence addresses his aesthetic competence to grasp the original beauty as much as possible 2) Aesthetic Reproduction stage in which the translator strives for conveying the original beauty in terms of linguistic objectivity and artistic concepts; 3) Aesthetic Re-creation stage in which the translator brings poems across, with its flavor, spirit and verve all intact.The aesthetic values of translated texts can only be concretized in the reading of TL readers. Therefore, the aesthetic reception of TL readers in the materialization of translated text also accounts a lot in the production of translated texts. A translator must always take TL readers into serious consideration, without whose acceptance a translated text will become of no practical value at all.It is sincerely hoped that the aesthetic study of poetry translation in terms of aesthetic objects and subjects will be of some value for translators and researchers in this field.