Aesthetic Pursuit-A Comparative Study On Ezra Pound's And Xu Yuanzhong's Thoughts On Translating Chinese Classical Poems Into English

The translators have always attached great importance to the translation of Chinese classical poems,because Chinese classical poems are precious heritage of a history of several thousand years and splendid culture and occupy a prominent position in the development of the history of literature. Poems are difficult to translate since poems are important ways to express one's feeling. Meanwhile, Chinese classical poems bear beauty in meaning, sound and form, which increase the difficulty in translation even more. However, Chinese and overseas translators do not shrink back from the difficulties, instead, they endeavor to translate Chinese classical poems. Ezra Pound and Xu Yuanzhong are representatives among them. Due to the differences in culture, they own similar and different translation theories, but they both emphasize the pursuit of beauty in translation.Aesthetics and translation theories have long been connected with each other, with the topic of truth and beauty under discussion. Translation theories can draw lessons from aesthetics. Chinese classical poems have high aesthetic values and artistic characteristics, whose translation can be analyzed and explored by the aesthetics. To apply aesthetics to the translation of Chinese classical poems can help us understand the translation activity better.This thesis chooses Ezra Pound and Xu Yuanzhong as objects under study and sets the translation aesthetics as frame, analyzing aesthetic subjects and aesthetic objects in detail. Meanwhile, based on skopos theory, the thesis analyzes translator's translation purpose and reader's expectation, aiming to show clearly the similarities and differences of Pound's and Xu Yuanzhong's thoughts of translating Chinese classical poems and the elements that affect their translation activities. Moreover, the thesis uses the basic elements of aesthetics—content and form to analyze their translated poems. Combined with the characteristics of Chinese classical poems, content and form are extended into meaning, sound and form from the level of poetry. Through the exploration of beauty in meaning, sound and form in Ezra Pound's and Xu Yuanzhong's versions, the thesis vividly presents that in order to reproduce the original beauty, they adopt similar or different translation methods in translation in accordance with their translation purpose. After the comparative study of Ezra Pound's and Xu Yuanzhong's thoughts of translating Chinese classical poems, the thesis puts forward some suggestions, which the author hopes can provide some help to the translators who translate Chinese classical poems.