On Translation Of Li Bai's Poetry: A Perspective Of Bassnett's Cultural Translation Theory

During dozens of years, more and more researchers place their emphasis on the relationship between culture and translation, that is, how cultural factors affect the process of translation. Thus there starts cultural turn in translation studies which means the study of translation at the interface with culture and is looking at translation from the cultural studies angle, taking translation studies away from purely linguistic analysis, and bringing it into contact with other disciplines. At last, there forms cultural translation theory. Among those scholars the most outstanding one is Susan Bassnett. Bassnett(1990) holds that translation is the cultural functional equivalence between the source text(ST) and the target text (TT). Therefore, translation is not a pure behavior of language. It roots deeply in the culture of the language. The establishment of Bassnett's cultural translation theory has pushed translation studies a step forward and has a profound influence in the field of translation studies.Li Bai is regarded as one of the greatest poets of the Tang Dynasty. Chinese Tang poems boast abundant cultural connotations and symbolize Chinese ancient civilization, while Li Bai's poetry studies can be regarded as the epitome in Tang poems studies. Unusual experiences in Li Bai's life: his good education, short imperial service, bitter pursuit of the ideal, extensive travels which enabled him to meet friends, appreciate natural landscapes, learn from varied local ballads and ancient yuefu poems, brought unusual poems. Although a large number of his poems have been lost during the long history since they were written, there are still more than nine hundred remaining, most of which were produced in the rise and fall period of Tang Dynasty. These poems not only reflect the poet's life experiences, but also touch upon all aspects of society at the turn of the Tang Dynasty from its golden age to decline. Being bold and unrestrained in style, fantastic and splendid in imagination, and plain and natural in language, his poetry is one of the most important classics in the treasure house of Chinese and the world's literature, worth studying from all aspects. For the last one thousand years or more, Li Bai's poetry has been translated into many languages including French, English, German, Italian, Japanese and Russian. For the English translation alone, there are a galaxy of famous translators and versions. Furthermore, some scholars have made some research on English translation of Li Bai's poetry from various aspects, such as Functional Equivalence, Discourse Analysis, Artistic Conception, etc. However, the number of the articles is very small and they have not formed the apparent schools. They are unable to get rid of traditional translation studies which treat translation as the transformation of linguistic signs and take insufficient notice of the interference of cultural factors in the translating process.Culture is continuous, permanent and omnipresent. It is"the deposit of knowledge, experiences, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religious, timing, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a large group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving."(Samovar, 1976:24) Li Bai's poetry boasts abundant cultural connotations. This thesis is based on Susan Bassnett's cultural translation theory. On the basis of existing research, this thesis reviews the English translation of Li Bai's poetry. Through the analysis of Li Bai's poetry and its English versions from cultural level, it seeks to find out the cultural strategies in poetry translation and provides something beneficial for poetry translation and other translation activities. This thesis consists of three chapters besides the introduction and the conclusion. The introduction presents the theme and the basic structure of the thesis in a general manner. Chapter One mainly discusses Susan Bassnett's cultural translation theory. Chapter Two briefly introduces Li Bai and his poetry and reviews the English translation study of his poetry. Chapter Three analyzes the cultural translation in Li Bai's poetry from the perspective of Susan Bassnett's cultural translation theory. The conclusion sums up the thesis and enlightens its theme.