A Study Of English Translation Of Parallel Sentences In Wenxin Diaolong

Wenxin Diaolong is a comprehensive classic in classical Chinese literary criticism. Conveying extensive subjects with a deep insight, the unique prestigious book withstands challenges throughout the history. There are three complete versions of English translations for the book, however, the translated parallel sentences need to be improved. Thus, with the linguistic features of parallel sentences as the starting point and analysis of difficulties in translation caused by differences between Chinese and English, this thesis discusses the representation of features of parallel sentences in English translation in view of couplet, diction, and sentence patterns. Through the comparison between three translations, the thesis will sum up difficulties, gains and losses of different translation strategies.This thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter One mainly discusses the features of couplets in parallel sentences with respect to symmetry in number of Chinese characters, sentence structure and parts of speech. According to the differences between Chinese and English, difficulties in translation are summed up. Performance and reasons for unfavorable factors on representation of symmetry in translation are discussed by sampling statistics with proper suggestions on translation strategies. Chapter Two deals with the features of diction in view of refinement, richness and antithesis. With the example of polysemy, the diction with complicated connotation is discussed. Then, two kinds of semantic pair in parallel sentences, i.e. antithesis and using synonym to avoid repetition, are discussed. The thesis discusses points for attention in translation of the above-mentioned features. Chapter Three copes with three sentence patterns: four-and-six-character sentence, mutual complementary sentence and interlaced sentence. Different sentence patterns present changes of thought, content as well as different aesthetic features, thus their features in form should be well represented in English translation. In this chapter, linguistic features of those sentences are analyzed and points for attention in translation are mentioned.The general translation strategy for parallel sentences is to attach importance to the significant form of original text and to adopt the strategy of reservation, change or selection according to different features of form. With the precondition of meaning the first, translators should also fully consider aesthetic performance of such a characteristic genre as parallel prose in its English version so as to improve translation quality.